Organic Syntheses, Volume 65

Edwin Vedejs was born in 1941 in Riga, Latvia. After completion of his BS and PhD, he spent a postdoctoral year with E. J. Corey at Harvard. Prof. Vedejs then joined the chemistry faculty at the University of Wisconsin. In 1999, he returned to the University of Michigan as the Moses Gomberg Professor of Chemistry. Work in the Vedejs group combines topics at the interface of methodology, total synthesis, heterocycle chemistry, stereochemistry, and related mechanistic studies. Prof. Vedejs has won several awards: Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, 1984; Professore a Contratto, University of Bologna, Italy, 1988; Helfaer Professor, 1991-1996; Pharmacia&Upjohn Teaching Award, 1996. Robert M. Bock Professor, 1997-98; Paul Walden Medal, Riga Technical University; H. C. Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods, 2004. Grand Medal of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, 2005. Order of the Three Stars, Latvia, 2006. Honorary Doctorate, Riga Technical University 2010.