Sarah E. Reisman
Sarah Elizabeth Reisman is a Chemistry Professor at the California Institute of Technology. She received the (2013) Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award and the (2014) Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award for Organic Synthesis. Her research focuses on the total synthesis of complex natural products. Early career and education. Undergraduate Studies. Reisman received a B.A. in Chemistry from Connecticut College in 2001, conducting research in the lab of Prof. Timo V. Ovaska on the synthesis of tetracyclic terpenoid natural products, including phorbol. Graduate Studies. Reisman obtained her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2006, working with John L. Wood on  the total synthesis of (±)-welwitindolinone A isonitrile. Reisman's work included methodological developments towards a generalized skeleton, using nitrone cyclization and oxindole formation as linchpin transforms. Postdoctoral Studies. Reisman was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Eric N. Jacobsen at Harvard University and worked with then-graduate student Abigail Doyle to develop an enantioselective substitution of silyl ketenes onto an alkoxy chloride via an oxocarbenium ion, using a novel thiourea organocatalyst. Research. Reisman began her independent career as an assistant professor at Caltech in 2008 and was promoted to full Professor in 2014. The Reisman lab focuses on  the synthesis of complex natural products and development of new chemical reactions, and the interplay between those two fields. The group completed the first enantioselective total syntheses of (–)-acetylaranotin (40 years after its isolation), (–)-maoecrystal Z, (–)-8-demethoxyrunanine, and (–)-cepharatines A, C and D. Their total synthesis of (+)-ryanodol was completed in 15 synthetic steps, a significant improvement on the previous shortest synthetic route of 35 steps developed by Masayuki Inoue of the University of Tokyo. In 2019, Reisman and coworkers published the first total synthesis of isoryanoid diterpene (+)-perseanol in "Nature". Other completed total syntheses include natural  products (+)-naseseazines A and B, (+)-salvileucalin B, (+)-psiguadial B and (+)-pleuromutilin. The group's reaction methodology work has focused primarily on nickel catalysis, cycloadditions, and opening of strained-ring precursors. Selected Awards and Honors. Reisman was awarded the Boehringer Ingelheim New Faculty Grant, the Alfred P Sloan Foundation Fellowship and a 5-year NSF CAREER Award in 2011.