Lew Mander

Professor Lewis N. Mander FAA, FRS (b. September 8, 1939) is a New Zealand organic chemist. He has widely explored the synthesis and chemistry of the gibberellin class of alkaloids over a 20 year period.

Lew Mander completed a BSc at the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 1960, followed by an MSc in 1961 from the same institution. He then moved to Australia in 1962 to undertake a PhD at the University of Sydney before committing to an initial Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan. Mander then moved to the Caltech in 1965 (after his PhD had been conferred) for two year postdoctoral fellowship. Mander then returned to Australia in 1966 to join the academic fraternity as a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry at the University of Adelaide. It did not take long till Mander was promoted to Senior Lecturer in Organic Chemistry in 1970 where he remained until 1975 when he relocated to the 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.^[1]

Additional recommended knowledge

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Essential Laboratory Skills Guide

Daily Sensitivity Test

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.

Fellowships and Awards

• Nuttfield Commonwealth Fellow 1971-1972 (Cambridge)
• 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)

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

Information sourced from the RSC home page [1]