Professor David A. Evans of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University has been selected as winner of the Ryoji Noyori Prize, sponsored by Takasago International Corporation.

Takasago International entrusted the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (SSOCJ), with establishing the international prize to commemorate the winning of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry by Professor Ryoji Noyori (currently the president of RIKEN). Numerous qualified candidates, both Japanese and non-Japanese, have applied or been recommended to receive the prize. Several individuals with eminent international reputations in asymmetrical chemistry have been awarded the prize over the last few years.

Professor Evans has made significant advances in the design of stereoselective reactions and the applications of these reactions to natural products synthesis. Especially enantioselective Diels-Alder, Michael, and aldol reactions are three of the important families of processes developed in his group.

In the area of synthetic design, he has achieved synthesis of complex natural products through the exclusive use of chiral auxiliaries to control stereochemical relationships. Evans' chiral auxiliaries and chiral catalysts for enantioselective bond formation are widely used in both industrial and academic laboratories throughout the world.

The Noyori Prize will be awarded to Professor Evans at the annual general meeting of the SSOCJ on February 22, 2007.