About

William S. Johnson Symposium

In a career spanning more than five decades, Professor William S. Johnson, was the Jackson-Wood Professor of Chemistry and widely regarded as one of the leading practitioners of synthetic organic chemistry. He devised highly efficient ways for making a broad variety of biologically important chemical compounds including steroids, vitamins and hormones.

In recognition of his contributions, he received the National Medal of Science in 1987 followed by the Arthur C. Cope Award in 1989 and the Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry & BioMedicinal Chemistry in 1991.

Furthermore, as Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University from 1960 to 1969, Johnson was the principal architect of an expansion that elevated the department to one of the top-ranked chemistry programs in the world.

Since its inception in 1985, the Johnson Symposium in Organic Chemistry has been held annually at Stanford University to honor the contributions of William S. Johnson and to also recognize current and future top scientists in Organic Chemistry.

This annual conference is organized by the Johnson Symposium Organizing Committee and faculty members in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University including Professors Chaitan Khosla, Barry Trost, Robert Waymouth and Paul Wender.

Please contact the chemistry-externalrelations [at] stanford.edu (Office of External Relations at the Department of Chemistry )with all questions about this annual symposium.