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Faces of Penn State: Steven M. Weinreb
Russell and Mildred Marker Professor of Natural Products Chemistry

Surrounded by the carefully structured serenity of his orderly office, Steve Weinreb radiates energy, intensity, and enthusiasm. “The creative challenge of the science I do is incredibly stimulating,” he says. “It lures me here pretty much seven days a week. Organic chemistry in the United States is the best organic chemistry in the world by far. The chemistry department at Penn State is among the top 10 to 15 percent, and is very well run. The University also is well run, as I found out when I was acting dean for a month,” he adds, wryly recalling his brief conscripted service to the college in 1998. “I learned quickly that I definitely did not like being a full-time administrator.”

What Weinreb definitely does like is being a full-time synthetic organic chemist, which involves building complex molecular structures whose atoms are arranged as precisely as he arranges the objects in his office.

In recent years, new natural molecular structures have been discovered in the ocean, many of which are new classes of compounds never before imagined. “Many of these marine molecules are potentially very important because they are spectacular enough in their biological activity to have real potential as anti-cancer drugs,” Weinreb says. “But marine organisms generally make very small amounts of some of these compounds, so it is important that synthetic organic chemists get involved. The only way to have enough of these molecules for drug development is to make them rather than, for example, wiping out a whole species of sponges in order to collect sufficient material.”

For Weinreb, synthetic organic chemistry is more of an art form than a science. “There is no step-wise rigor to making a big and complicated molecule. I look at the structure of a molecule and try to think of a creative way to construct it, the same way that an artist would think about doing a sculpture.” It is this artistic aspect that enticed Weinreb to the field. “Organic chemistry is not mathematical at all and neither am I. I enjoy the visual, structural part of organic chemistry, and I don’t have to do any number crunching,” he says. “I don’t even have a calculator.”

Ironically, the discoveries that Weinreb thinks are his best creative contributions are not his claim to fame. “The reactions I have invented that people actually use in industry and other academic laboratories are considered to be the important ones.  Probably the thing I am known for the best is a type of functional-group array that we discovered by accident and I thought was a throwaway.” To Weinreb’s surprise, this functional group has become so widely used that it is now known worldwide as the “Weinreb amide.”

Although he has made many discoveries, Weinreb has no interest in patenting them. “If you patent something, people are less likely to use it because they don’t want to pay the royalties. I would much rather have the satisfaction of having somebody use my methods than worry about making a few bucks on it,” he says. What Weinreb would prefer to do is to invent reactions and methods that are interesting enough to be a creative challenge for himself and his students while also being simple and practical enough to be used by people trying to solve some of the world’s tough problems.

Barbara K. Kennedy