Professor David Harrowven BSc, PhD
Professor of Organic Chemistry, Head of Organic Chemistry: Synthesis, Catalysis and Flow
Professor David C Harrowven is Professor of Organic Chemistry, Head of Organic Chemistry: Synthesis, Catalysis and Flow within Chemistry at the University of Southampton.
David Harrowven was born in Norwich and educated at Sprowston High School and the University of Southampton. He completed his B.Sc. in 1985 then entered the graduate school, pursuing the total synthesis of forskolin under the guidance of Professor Kocienski, FRS (Ph.D., Southampton 1988). A postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Pattenden, FRS at Nottingham was followed by a two-year teaching fellowship at Nottingham. In 1992 David joined the faculty at the University of Wales, Bangor, before returning to Southampton in 1994 as a Lecturer. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2000, Reader in 2002 and Professor of Organic Chemistry in 2005. In January 2008 he became Head of the Synthesis Group before being elected Deputy Head of School for Research (from August 2008 to June 2011). He currently serves as Head of the Organic Chemistry: Synthesis, Catalysis and Flow Group.
David is the Project Lead for two major EU grants, LabFact (www.labfact.eu) and SmartT (Interreg-SmartT.org), supported by the ERDF through their Interreg programme. Previously he was the UK lead for two further ERDF project, ISCE:Chem and AI:Chem. He has served as a consultant for PZ Cussons and Aventis and served on the Executive Committee of the EPSRC Grand Challenge Network 'Dial-a-Molecule'. He is on the Organising Committee of ANORCQ and has been a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Toronto, Rouen and Caen.
The Harrowven group seeks to develop new methodologies and strategies to facilitate the rapid synthesis of high-value organic molecules, especially those with unusual molecular architectures. Interests extend to reagent free transformations using synthetic photochemistry, thermal rearrangements, cascade reactions and daisy-chain processes. Notable recent achievements in the field of natural products total syntheses include the first synthesis of the potent antimicrobial marine natural product chrysophaentin F, and the first synthesis of the macrocyclic bisbibenzyl polymorphatin A with two boat configured aromatic rings in its core structure. These successes build on past achievements that include syntheses of (–)-colombiasin A, (–)-elisapterosin B, riccardin C, pseudopterosin and cavicularin.
Recent highlights in method development include new procedures to efficiently prepare medium-sized rings through ring expansion; a thermally induced C-H activation for the synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles; and a body of research on the thermal and photochemical rearrangement chemistry of cyclobutenones giving access to a host of fused and spirocyclic ring systems. The latter includes a curious example of diradical intermediate where a carbon-centred radical can also act as a base or an electrophile via orbital isomers.
BSc, Chemistry with Computer Science, University of Southampton,1985
PhD, University of Southampton, 1989
Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Nottingham, 1988-1990
Teaching Fellow, University of Nottingham, 1990-1992
Lecturer, University of Wales, Bangor, 1992-1994
Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton, 1994-2000
Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton, 2000-2002
Reader, University of Southampton, 2002-2005
Professor of Organic Chemistry, University of Southampton, 2005 onwards