David Crich was born and raised in Chesterfield, England.He graduated from the University of Surrey with a B.Sc. in Chemistry with French in 1981 before joining the group of Sir Derek Barton at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (ICSN) in Gif sur Yvette, France.Under Barton he learned the rudiments of free radical chemistry and was responsible for the development of the Barton decarboxylation reaction, for which he was awarded the degree of Docteur ès Sciences by the Université de Paris XI (Orsay) in 1984.After a further year at the ICSN as postdoc with Barton and Potier he took up a “new blood” lectureship in chemistry in the Christopher Ingold Laboratories of University College London.

After five years at UCL working in the areas of diastereoselective free radical chemistry, acyl radical chemistry, enantioselective synthesis of α-disubstituted amino acids, and carbohydrate chemistry, Crich moved to UIC where he is currently Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Organic Chemistry.

Work at UIC is focused on the development of new sterocontrolled methods for glycosidic bond formation and their application in oligosaccharide synthesis. The chemistry of free radicals and of alkene radical cations, and the development of environmentally benign reagents for organic synthesis are also ongoing themes in the Crich laboratory.

The underlying theme of much of Crich’s work is the symbiosis of mechanism and methodology/synthesis with careful physical organic studies underpinning much of the synthetic work to appear from his laboratory. His more than 220 published papers cover areas as diverse as the total synthesis of alkaloids, the development of new glycosylation methods, catalysis of radical reactions, and time resolved laser flash photolysis of radical reactions (with Newcomb). His work has been recognized by the award of the first Franco-British prize of the Academie des Sciences in 1989, the Corday Morgan medal in 1990, the RSC Tate and Lyle Carbohydrate Chemistry prize in 1994 and the Fellowship of the A. P. Sloan Foundation in 1994.

To Contact David Crich
Office: 3220C SEL
Office telephone: 312-996-5189
Laboratory telephone: 312-996-4439
Fax: 312-996-0431