In a special ceremony on Nov. 16, 2024, the ETH Zurich, Switzerland, one of the premier research institutions in the world, awarded Professor Scott E. Denmark an honorary doctorate in recognition of outstanding achievements throughout his scientific career.

The honorary doctorate certificate mentions his specific work developing new catalytic concepts and useful synthetic methods, as well as detailed mechanistic and stereochemical studies of preparatively important reactions.

Prof. Dr. Christophe Copéret, Head of the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, presented the honorary degree to Denmark, Reynold C. Fuson Professor of Chemistry.

In presenting the award, Copéret made the following remarks.

“After a Bachelor of Sciences at MIT, Professor Scott Eric Denmark decided to cross the Atlantic and come to Switzerland to carry out his PhD at ETH Zurich in 1975, motivated by the late Professor Eschenmoser, a pioneer in organic synthesis.

Soon after, he started his independent academic career at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he is now the Reynold C. Fuson Professor of Chemistry. Professor Denmark has a very broad research portfolio, with a specific interest in developing efficient synthetic methodologies and apply them to the synthesis of natural products. While classified as an “organic” chemist, he has always been keen to explore the Periodic Table and to learn concepts from other disciplines. The breadth of his knowledge across the sciences has enabled him to be a pioneer in “chemo-informatics”. This abstruse word describes a chemistry, anchored on algebra and statistical analysis, a part of today’s machine learning and AI portfolio, driving both chemical discovery and understanding of chemical principles; what a visionary mind.

His ties to Switzerland last to this day and runs deep; with regular visits to infuse new science in our local chemical companies. He has in fact already received numerous accolades from Switzerland, a country of adoption:  the Prelog medal from ETH Zurich (2007) or the Paracelsus Award (2017), the most prestigious award of the Swiss Chemical Society.

One may wonder: why then an honorary doctorate from ETH Zurich? It’s simple: Prof. Scott Denmark is a true ambassador of our school and Switzerland, by being a scholar, by embracing craftmanship, excellence across the sciences, by being an inspiration for all of us, in particular our students and the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences. It is indeed a pleasure and an honor to have you with us today.”

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