Lew Mander

Lewis Norman Mander, AC, FAA, FRS (b. 8 September 1939) is a New Zealand-born Australian organic chemist. He has widely explored the synthesis and chemistry of the gibberellin class of diterpenes over a 20-year period.^[1][2][3]

Mander completed a BSc degree at the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 1960, followed by an MSc degree in 1961 from the same institution. He then moved to Australia in 1962 to undertake a PhD degree at the University of Sydney before committing to an initial postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan with Bob Ireland. Mander then moved with Ireland to Caltech in 1965 (after his PhD had been conferred) for an additional two years. Mander then returned to Australia in 1966 to join the academic fraternity as a lecturer in organic chemistry at the University of Adelaide. Mander was promoted to senior lecturer in organic chemistry in 1970, where he remained until 1975, when he relocated to the Australian National University Research School of Chemistry as a Senior Fellow where he has risen through the ranks to become one of Australia's leading Organic Chemistry professors. In 2004 the Australian Journal of Chemistry published a special issue for the occasion of Mander's 65th Birthday.^[4] Amongst his many scholarly activities, Mander contributed a chapter on 'Stereoselective Synthesis' to the classic text 'Stereochemistry of Organic Compounds' by Professors Ernest L. Eliel and Samuel H. Wilen.

Research interests

• Synthesis and preparation of semi-synthetic derivatives of gibberellins.
• Molecular basis of plant growth regulation with gibberellins.
• Synthesis of diterpenoid natural products with high bioactivity.
• Dissolving metal-mediated reductive alkylation of bezenoid synthons.
• C-selective acylation of enolates using methyl cyanoformate (Mander's reagent).

Fellowships and awards

• Nuffield Commonwealth Fellow 1971–1972 (Cambridge)^[5]
• Fulbright Senior Scholar (California Institute of Technology, 1977, and Harvard University, 1986)
• H.G. Smith Memorial Medal 1981 (RACI)
• Member of the Australian Academy of Science 1983
• Flintoff Medal and Prize (RSC)
• Hon. Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1991 (FRSNZ Hon)
• Made a Companion of the Order of Australia "for eminent service to science through pioneering contributions to organic chemistry in the field of plant growth hormones, to higher education as an academic, researcher and author, and to national and international scientific societies"^[6].

Representative Publications

• King G.R., Mander L.N., Monck N.J.T., Morris J.C. and Zhang H. A New and Efficient Strategy for the Total Synthesis of Polycyclic Diterpenoids: The Preparation of Gibberellins (±)-GA103 and (±)-GA73. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1997, 119, 3828-3829.
• Frey, B., Wells, A. P., Rogers, D. R. and Mander, L. N. Synthesis of the Unusual Diterpenoid Tropones, Hainanolidol and Harringtonolide. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 1914–1915.
• Mander, L. N. Twenty years of gibberellin research. Natural Product Reports, 2003, 20, 49-69.
• Mander, L. N. and McLachlan, M. M. Total synthesis of the Galbulimima alkaloid GB 13. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2003, 125, 2400–2401.
• Mander, L. N. and Thomson, R. J. Total synthesis of Sordaricin. Org. Lett., 2003, 5, 1321–1324.

References