Eric Block

Eric Block (born January 25, 1942) is an American chemist whose research has focused on the chemistry of organosulfur and organoselenium compounds, Allium chemistry (the chemistry of garlic, onion, and other alliums), and the chemistry of olfaction. As of 2018, he is Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at the University at Albany, SUNY.

Eric Block
Eric Block
Born (1942-01-25) January 25, 1942
New York, New York, United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma materQueens College of the City University of New York (B.S.), Harvard University (M.S., Ph.D.)
Known forOrganosulfur chemistry
Allium chemistry
Olfaction chemistry
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship
Ernest Guenther Award
Kenneth A. Spencer Award
Sterling B. Hendricks Memorial Lectureship Award
Fellow of the American Chemical Society
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry
InstitutionsUniversity at Albany, SUNY
University of Missouri-Saint Louis
Doctoral advisorElias James Corey
Notes
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Biography

Eric Block was born in New York City in 1942. He received his B.S. (1962) degree from Queens College of the City University of New York, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After a research assistant position at Brookhaven National Laboratories he attended Harvard University, where he received his M.S. (1964), and Ph.D. (1967) degrees as both a National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Fellow, working with E. J. Corey as a graduate student in the area of organic synthesis using organosulfur compounds. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard with E. J. Corey, Block joined the faculty at the University of Missouri–St. Louis in 1967, becoming Professor in 1979. In 1981, he moved to the University at Albany, SUNY, where he was Chair of Chemistry from 1985–1991. He was named Distinguished Professor in 2002 and Carla Rizzo Delray Professor in 2006. In 2018 he became Emeritus Professor at Albany and Visiting Professor in the Chemistry Department at University of California, Irvine.

Block has also held visiting positions at the Harvard University (1974), University of Bologna (1984), Weizmann Institute (2000), Wolfson College, University of Cambridge (2006), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2013).

Research areas

Block is known for his research on organosulfur and organoselenium chemistry, particularly that of genus Allium plants, such as garlic and onion. This work is summarized in two monographs, two review articles, and is the subject of a 2014 American Chemical Society Webinar.[1] Block's monograph on alliums[2] has been published in a Chinese edition. Since 2005, another major area of collaborative research with neurobiology and computational chemistry colleagues has been the study of the molecular basis for olfaction, particularly the role of metals such as copper in olfaction and molecular mechanisms for sensing thiols[3] as well as musk, such as muscone. With his collaborators Block has also examined the plausibility of the controversial vibration theory of olfaction, reaching the conclusion that it is implausible.[4][5]

Service

Since 1994, Block has been an editorial board member of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.[6] Block also served as associate editor (1984–1988) and editorial board member (1984–2000), for Phosphorus, Sulfur, Silicon and the Related Elements, as editorial board member and founding member of Heteroatom Chemistry, 1990–1995,[7] and as associate editor for Organic Reactions, Volume 30.[8] Block was a founding member and international advisory board member of the International Conference on Heteroatom Chemistry (ICHAC) series of meetings,[9] and Chair of ICHAC-2, held in Albany, NY in 1989.[10][11] He was also Chair of the Symposium on New Organosulfur Chemistry, Pacifichem 2015 in Honolulu, HI.

Honors and awards

Selected publications

Block has published five books and more than 255 articles; his books and several of his most cited papers are listed below.

Books
  • Block, E. (1978). Reactions of Organosulfur Compounds. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-107050-2.
  • Block, E. [editor] (1990). Heteroatom Chemistry. VCH. ISBN 978-3527278589.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  • Block, E. [editor] (1994). Advances in Sulfur Chemistry. JAI Press. ISBN 0-89232-868-1.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  • Block, E. (2010). Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore and the Science. Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN 978-0-85404-190-9.
  • Block, E. (2017). Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore and the Science, Chinese Edition [神奇的葱蒜—传说与科学]. Chemistry Industry Press. ISBN 978-7-122-28930-8.
Reviews
Research papers

References
  1. "Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore and the Science - American Chemical Society". American Chemical Society.
  2. McGee, Harold (2010-06-08). "The Chemical Weapons of Onions and Garlic". The New York Times.
  3. "Copper key to our sensitivity to rotten eggs' foul smell". chemistryworld.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  4. Everts, S. (2015). "Receptor research reignites a smelly debate". Chem. Eng. News. 93 (18): 29–30.
  5. Vosshall, L. B. (2015). "Laying a controversial smell theory to rest". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 112 (21): 6525–6526. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112.6525V. doi:10.1073/pnas.1507103112. PMC 4450429. PMID 26015552.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  6. "Editorial Board". pubs.acs.org.
  7. "Masthead". Heteroatom Chemistry. 1 (6): fmi. 1 December 1990. doi:10.1002/hc.520010601.
  8. "Olefin Synthesis via Deoxygenation of Vicinal Diols - Organic Reactions Wiki". organicreactions.org.
  9. "ICHAC 2017". groups.chem.ubc.ca.
  10. Ohno, Atsuyoshi (3 June 2018). "In memory of the late Professor Shigeru Oae". Heteroatom Chemistry. 13 (5): 388–389. doi:10.1002/hc.10071.
  11. "ICHAC". www.unioviedo.es.
  12. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Eric Block". Gf.org. 2014-06-20. Retrieved 2018-06-03.
  13. "Awards" (PDF). agfd.sites.acs.org.
  14. "Spencer Award History". Kansas City Local Section.
  15. "2012 Sterling B. Hendricks Memorial Lectureship - AGRO Division". www.agrodiv.org.
  16. "Block, Eric". 1 August 2016.
  17. "2014 ACS Fellows - American Chemical Society". American Chemical Society.
  18. "Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products - American Chemical Society". American Chemical Society.
  19. "2018 Christopher S. Foote Lecture - UCLA Chemistry and Biochemistry". www.chemistry.ucla.edu.
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