CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scott E. Denmark, a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Denmark is one of 228 new members, including national and international scholars, artists, philanthropists and business leaders. The newly elected members will be formally inducted at a ceremony Oct. 7 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Denmark’s research is centered primarily on the invention, stereochemical study and mechanistic understanding of new synthetic reactions, as well as their application to the synthesis of complex molecular structures. He is currently the editor-in-chief and president of the series Organic Reactions, created at Illinois in 1942.
Denmark earned a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975 and a doctorate of technical sciences in chemistry from the ETH Zurich in 1980. He joined the Illinois faculty in 1980, and was named the Reynold C. Fuson Professor of Chemistry in 1991.
“This honor is a wonderful acknowledgement of the scores of graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and undergraduates whose dedicated efforts are being recognized and to whom I am eternally grateful,” Denmark said.