World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Stephen L. Buchwald

Stephen L. Buchwald

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Best Scientists
2025
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Chemistry
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Best Scientists

D-Index
203
Citations
131533
World Ranking
264
National Ranking
174

Chemistry

D-Index
205
Citations
134980
World Ranking
10
National Ranking
5

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Chemistry in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Best Scientists Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Chemistry in United States Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Chemistry in United States Leader Award
  • 2019 - Wolf Prize in Chemistry, Wolf Foundation for pioneering the development of transition metal catalyzed procedures that are broadly applicable and allow carbon-heteroatom bonds of all sorts to be formed with previously unknown efficiency and precision.
  • 2018 - Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry or Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, Elsevier
  • 2016 - William H. Nichols Medal, American Chemical Society (ACS)
  • 2014 - BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award
  • 2014 - Linus Pauling Award, American Chemical Society (ACS)
  • 2013 - Arthur C. Cope Award, American Chemical Society (ACS)
  • 2008 - Member of the National Academy of Sciences
  • 2000 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 1997 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
  • 1988 - Fellow of Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Overview

Stephen L. Buchwald is affiliated with MIT in the United States and has an extensive publication record primarily in the field of chemistry. Their work focuses mainly on organic chemistry, with additional contributions to inorganic chemistry, molecular biology, materials chemistry, and radiology, nuclear medicine, and imaging.

The scientist's research spans several main topics, including catalytic C-H functionalization methods, asymmetric hydrogenation and catalysis, catalytic cross-coupling reactions, click chemistry and applications, chemical synthesis and analysis, radical photochemical reactions, and synthesis and catalytic reactions.

Frequent co-authors of Stephen L. Buchwald include Bradley L. Pentelute, Heemal H. Dhanjee, Seoung-Tae Kim, Peng Liu, and Yuyang Dong.

The primary venues where this researcher has published work are:

  • Journal of the American Chemical Society
  • Angewandte Chemie International Edition
  • Organic Letters
  • Angewandte Chemie
  • The Cambridge Structural Database

Notable recent papers include:

  • CuH-Catalyzed Olefin Functionalization: From Hydroamination to Carbonyl Addition, 2020, Accounts of Chemical Research
  • Microfluidic electrochemistry for single-electron transfer redox-neutral reactions, 2020, Science
  • The Quest for the Ideal Base: Rational Design of a Nickel Precatalyst Enables Mild, Homogeneous C-N Cross-Coupling, 2020, Journal of the American Chemical Society
  • Synthesis of Pyrroles through the CuH-Catalyzed Coupling of Enynes and Nitriles, 2020, Journal of the American Chemical Society
  • Room-Temperature Cu-Catalyzed Amination of Aryl Bromides Enabled by DFT-Guided Ligand Design, 2023, Journal of the American Chemical Society

Awards and honors received by Stephen L. Buchwald include the Wolf Prize in Chemistry from the Wolf Foundation in 2019 for pioneering development of transition metal catalyzed procedures that form carbon-heteroatom bonds with efficiency and precision. Other recognitions include the Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry or Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry (2018), William H. Nichols Medal from the American Chemical Society (ACS) (2016), Linus Pauling Award from the ACS (2014), BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2014), Arthur C. Cope Award from the ACS (2013), membership in the National Academy of Sciences since 2008, fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2000, fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) since 1997, and fellowship of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded in 1988.

Best Publications

  • Palladium-Catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-coupling Reactions Employing Dialkylbiaryl Phosphine Ligands

    Ruben Martin;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • Applications of Palladium-Catalyzed C–N Cross-Coupling Reactions

    Paula Ruiz-Castillo;Stephen Leffler Buchwald

  • Rational Development of Practical Catalysts for Aromatic Carbon−Nitrogen Bond Formation

    John P. Wolfe;Seble Wagaw;§ and Jean-François Marcoux;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • Biaryl Phosphane Ligands in Palladium‐Catalyzed Amination

    David S. Surry;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • Catalysts for Suzuki−Miyaura Coupling Processes: Scope and Studies of the Effect of Ligand Structure

    Timothy E Barder;Shawn D Walker;Joseph R Martinelli;Stephen L Buchwald

  • Dialkylbiaryl Phosphines in Pd-Catalyzed Amination: A User's Guide.

    David S. Surry;Stephen Leffler Buchwald

  • Practical Palladium Catalysts for C-N and C-O Bond Formation

    Alex R. Muci;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • Highly Active Palladium Catalysts for Suzuki Coupling Reactions

    John P. Wolfe;Robert A. Singer;Bryant H. Yang;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • A Simple Catalytic Method for the Conversion of Aryl Bromides to Arylamines

    Anil S. Guram;Roger A. Rennels;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • A General and Efficient Copper Catalyst for the Amidation of Aryl Halides and the N-Arylation of Nitrogen Heterocycles

    Artis Klapars;Jon C. Antilla;Xiaohua Huang;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • A Highly Active Catalyst for Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions: Room-Temperature Suzuki Couplings and Amination of Unactivated Aryl Chlorides

    David W. Old;John P. Wolfe;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • Palladium-catalyzed amination of aryl halides and sulfonates

    Bryant H Yang;Stephen L Buchwald

  • A general and efficient copper catalyst for the amidation of aryl halides.

    Artis Klapars;Xiaohua Huang;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • A rationally designed universal catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura coupling processes

    Shawn D. Walker;Timothy E. Barder;Joseph R. Martinelli;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • Simple, Efficient Catalyst System for the Palladium-Catalyzed Amination of Aryl Chlorides, Bromides, and Triflates

    John P. Wolfe;Hiroshi Tomori;Joseph P. Sadighi;Jingjun Yin

  • Palladium-Catalyzed Aromatic Aminations with in situ Generated Aminostannanes

    Anil S. Guram;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • The Palladium-Catalyzed Trifluoromethylation of Aryl Chlorides

    Eun Jin Cho;Todd D. Senecal;Tom Kinzel;Yong Zhang

  • An Improved Catalyst System for Aromatic Carbon−Nitrogen Bond Formation: The Possible Involvement of Bis(Phosphine) Palladium Complexes as Key Intermediates

    John P. Wolfe;Seble Wagaw;Stephen L. Buchwald

  • Expanding Pd-catalyzed C-N bond-forming processes: the first amidation of aryl sulfonates, aqueous amination, and complementarity with Cu-catalyzed reactions.

    Xiaohua Huang;Kevin W. Anderson;Danilo Zim;Lei Jiang

  • A Highly Active Catalyst for the Room-Temperature Amination and Suzuki Coupling of Aryl Chlorides.

    John P. Wolfe;Stephen L. Buchwald

Frequent Co-Authors

John P. Wolfe
John P. Wolfe University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Jon C. Antilla
Jon C. Antilla Tianjin University
Yong Zhang
Yong Zhang University of Science and Technology Beijing
Ruben Martin
Ruben Martin Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats
Peng Liu
Peng Liu University of Pittsburgh

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