Erik J. Sorensen, Ph. D.
Arthur Allan Patchett Professor in Organic Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
office: 67 Frick Laboratory
Princeton University
phone (609) 258-8135
FAX (609) 258-1980



Professor Sorensen was born and raised in upstate New York and received his B. A. degree in Chemistry from Syracuse University, where he performed undergraduate research with Professor Roger Hahn. In 1989, he began his graduate studies in chemical synthesis at The University of California, San Diego. Under the direction of Professor K. C. Nicolaou, he synthesized a novel family of DNA cleaving, 10-membered ring enediynes, contributed to a laboratory synthesis of the cancer drug Taxol? co-authored a book titled Classics in Total Synthesis, and obtained his Ph. D. degree in 1995. From 1995-1997, he was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Samuel Danishefsky at The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he contributed to total syntheses of the epothilone class of antitumor agents. In 1997, he started his independent career at The Scripps Research Institute and became an Associate Professor with tenure in 2001. In 2003, he moved his research group to Princeton University where he is the Arthur Allan Patchett Professor in Organic Chemistry.

The Sorensen laboratory is interested in the field of complex chemical synthesis, questions about the structural origins of architecturally unique natural products, and evaluating hypotheses about the chemical basis of the biological activities of natural products and non-natural molecules. His research aims to increase the capabilities of organic synthesis through the development of powerful reactions and strategies.

For his achievements in chemical research and education, Professor Sorensen received a Beckman Young Investigator Award, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the AstraZeneca Award for Excellence in Chemistry, the Lilly Grantee Award, the Pfizer Global Research Award for Excellence in Organic Chemistry, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grant in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. In 2001, Professor Sorensen was a Woodward Scholar at Harvard University.

Comments:
He is a very smart and capable chemist as clearly demonstrated by his recent synthesis of Abyssomicin C by transanular Diels-Alde reaction. However, if you look at the size of his group (14 graduate and postdoc plus several under) and his recent publication record (3-4 original article per year), you will come to the conclusion that he is not the best choice if you want to choose him as your mentor. Another weakness of him is his lack of involvement in the arena of methodology development. AS everyone knows total synthesis alone does not create a lot of publications. Overall, if I have a better choice, I would not choose him

Sorensen 拍马屁的功夫很强。
他给 Seminar speaker 简介一般都很长。
他自己做Seminar 一般都大套牛人们，
被这牛人inspired, 被那牛人inspired的。

没见过他，见过snyder，很严肃，工作很漂亮