F. Dean Toste
University of California, Berkeley
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Primary Section: 14, Chemistry Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2020)
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Biosketch
F. Dean Toste is a chemist recognized for his work developing and studying catalysts and catalytic reactions. He is known particularly for his pioneering works in homogeneous gold catalysis and chiral anion catalysis, and more generally, for his mechanistically guided approach to reaction discovery. Toste was born in Azores, Portugal and grew up in Toronto, Canada. He graduated from University of Toronto with a degree in chemistry and biochemistry and from Stanford University in 2000 with a Ph.D. in chemistry. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology he joined the faculty of at University of California, Berkeley, in 2002, where he is currently he is currently the Gerald E. K. Branch Distinguished Professor. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Research Interests
Research in the F. Dean Toste's laboratories is primarily aimed toward the development of catalysts, catalytic creactions, reagents and methods for chemical synthesis. Prof. Toste and his coworkers were instrumental in the advancement in the field of homogeneous catalysis with gold and it's application to organic synthesis. As part of these studies, the Toste group has investigated the use of chiral counterions, including with cationic gold complexes, as a paradigm for asymmetric catalysis. They have applied these discoveries to the development of chiral anion phase transfer catalysis, including for enantioselective fluorination reactions. In addition, Prof. Toste and his collaborators have explored supramolecular catalysts for organic reaction, developed novel methods for merging homogeneous/heterogeneous catalysis and tools for their in situ study, described processes for the conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals and, most recently, reported a method for selective functionalization of biomolecules.
