Professor John Hartwig of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois was recently chosen to receive the 2008 Paul N. Rylander Award from the Organic Reactions Catalysis Society.

Hartwig was recognized for developing a series of catalytic reactions for organic syn-thesis, including palladium-catalyzed aminations of haloarenes, palladium-catalyzed α-arylation of carbonyl compounds, hydroaminations of vinylarenes and dienes, iridium-catalyzed enantioselective allylations of amines and alcohols, and the terminal function-alizations of alkanes. In addition, his group has uncovered new elementary organometallic reactions, such as reductive eliminations of amines, ethers and sulfides, insertions of olefins into transition metal amides and alkoxides, and the oxidative addition of ammonia.