Donna Blackmond

Donna Blackmond, Ph.D., (born April 19, 1958) is an American chemical engineer whose work focuses on prebiotic chemistry, specifically, the origin of enantiopurity (homochirality) and kinetics of asymmetric catalytic reactions. Notable works include the development of Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis (RPKA), analysis of non-linear effects of catalyst enantiopurity, biological homochirality and amino acid behavior.[1] She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2013. In 2020 she was elected to the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Donna Blackmond
Born	April 19, 1958 Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Nationality	United States
Education	B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 1980 M.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 1981 Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 1984
Scientific career
Fields	Chemical Engineering Chemistry
Institutions	The Scripps Research Institute Imperial College London University of Hull Max Plank Institute University of Pittsburgh University of Essen

Biography

Blackmond was born on April 19, 1958 in Pittsburgh, PA, where she attended University of Pittsburgh and received her undergraduate and master's degree in Chemical Engineering. She received the Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1984. She became a professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh shortly after graduating and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1989. Blackmond remained in academia for 8 years before moving on to the Associate Director position at Merck & Co., Inc. Her main responsibility at the company was to set up a laboratory for research and development in the kinetics and catalysis of organic reactions. Blackmond is now a Professor of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Her most current research applies the quantitative aspects of her chemical engineering background to the synthesis of complex organic molecules by catalytic routes, particularly asymmetric catalysis.[1]

She has one son, Daniel "Danny" Trevor Blackmond Bradley, who is a musician, comedian, actor and postman.

Areas of research

Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis

Blackmond has pioneered the methodology of Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis (RPKA), which is used for rapid determination of concentration dependences of reactants.[1] RPKA allows for in situ measurements to produce a number of rate equations that enable analysis of a reaction using a minimal number of experiments. The purpose for this type of analysis is to help understand what the driving force of a reaction might be and describe possible mechanistic pathways.[2] This technique distinguishes rate processes occurring on the catalytic cycle from those occurring off the cycle. Notable applications of RPKA include asymmetric hydrogenation, asymmetric organocatalytic reactions, palladium catalyzed carbon-carbon and carbon-nitrogen bond forming reactions, and transition-metal catalyzed competitive reactions.[1]

Nonlinear effects of catalyst enantiopurity

Nonlinear effects describe the non-ideal relationship between enantiomeric excess (ee) of products of a reaction and the ee of the catalyst, a phenomenon first observed by Henri Kagan. Kagan developed mathematical models to describe this non-ideal behavior, ML_n models.[3] Blackmond has performed studies that have led to an understanding of reaction rate and its relationship to catalyst ee. Many proposed mathematical models have been tested in the Blackmond lab, which have helped determine possible mechanistic features of reactions, including the Soai reaction.[4] The Soai reaction is of abiotic synthetic interest because it is an autocatalytic reaction, which rapidly produces a large amount of enantiopure products.[5] Blackmond was the first to use Kagan's ML₂ model to study the non-linear effects of this reaction. She was the first to conclude that a homochiral dimer was the active catalyst in promoting homochirality for the Soai reaction.[4]

Biological homochirality and amino acid phase behavior

More recently, Blackmond has extended kinetic models to describe the origin of biological homochirality. She has shown solutions of mostly enantiopure amino acids can be produced from nearly racemic mixtures via solution-solid partitioning of the enantiomers. The discovery that eutectic mixtures could be manipulated, depending on the components of the mixture, allows for changes to the crystal structure and solubility of substances. Amino acids can solidify in two ways, as a mixture of D and L enantiomers or as a single enantiomers.[6] Partitioning of molecules occurs between the liquid and solid phases, such that enantiopure amino acids will get "stuck" in either phase.

Achievements and awards

• American Institute of Chemists Chemical Pioneer Award, 2016
• Gabor Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis, American Chemical Society, 2016
• Elected member, National Academy of Engineering, 2013
• Royal Society of Chemistry Award in Physical Organic Chemistry, 2009
• Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, 2007
• Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, 2005
• Miller Institute Research Fellow at University of California, Berkeley, 2003
• The Royal Society of Chemistry’s Award in Process Technology, 2003
• Organic Reactions Catalysis Society’s Raul Rylander Award, 2003
• Woodward Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, 2002–2003
• North American Catalysis Society’s Paul H. Emmett Award, 2001
• NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, 1986–91

References

1. "Donna Blackmond". The Scripps Research Institute. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
2. Blackmond, Donna (4 July 2005). "Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis: A Powerful Methodology for Mechanistic Studies of Complex Catalytic Reactions". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 44 (28): 4302–4320. doi:10.1002/anie.200462544. PMID 15997457.
3. Girard, Christian; Kagan, Henri (1998). "Nonlinear Effects in Asymmetric Synthesis and Stereoselective Reactions: Ten Years of Investigation". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 37 (21): 2922–2959. doi:10.1002/(sici)1521-3773(19981116)37:21<2922::aid-anie2922>3.0.co;2-1. PMID 29711141.
4. Blackmond, Donna (23 June 2010). "Kinetic aspects of non-linear effects in asymmetric synthesis, catalysis, and autocatalysis". Tetrahedron: Asymmetry. 21 (11–12): 1630–1634. doi:10.1016/j.tetasy.2010.03.034.
5. Soai, Kenso (28 December 1995). "Asymmetric autocatalysis and amplification of enantiomeric excess of a chiral molecule". Nature. 378 (6559): 767–768. Bibcode:1995Natur.378..767S. doi:10.1038/378767a0. S2CID 4258847.
6. Klussmann, Martin; Mathew, Suju; Iwamura, Hiroshi; Wells, David; Armstrong, Alan; Blackmond, Donna (24 October 2006). "Kinetic Rationalization of Nonlinear Effects in Asymmetric Catalysis Based on Phase Behavior". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 45 (47): 7989–7992. doi:10.1002/anie.200602521. PMID 17061299.