In celebration of the 80^th birthday of Professor Ei-ichi Negishi

Dr Ei-ichi Negishi, H. C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Purdue University, is internationally recognized for his life-long investigations into transition metal-catalyzed organometallic reactions for organic synthesis, especially palladium-catalysed cross-coupling reactions for the efficient formation of C–C bonds and zirconium-catalyzed asymmetric carbo-alumination (ZACA) reactions.

In July 2015, he will be celebrating his 80^th birthday. On this historic occasion, Organic Chemistry Frontiers, where he serves as an Advisory Board member, is very pleased to bring out a special issue of contributions from his current and former colleagues and students. This collection represents the current and future generation leaders in organic chemistry and is evidence of Prof. Negishi's influence on the field of organic chemistry. We thank all of the scientists who have contributed to this special issue.

Ei-ichi Negishi grew up in Japan and received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Tokyo in 1958. He then joined as a Research Chemist at Teijin Ltd, Japan. While working there, he spent 3 years (1960–1963) as a Fulbright–Smith–Mund Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania and obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry. In 1966, he joined Professor Herbert C. Brown's laboratories at Purdue University as a Postdoctoral Associate and was appointed Assistant to Professor Brown in 1968. Negishi joined the faculty of Syracuse University as an Assistant Professor in 1972 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1976. He was invited back to Purdue as Full Professor in 1979, where he continues as the Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Chemistry.

He has received various awards, with the most representative being the J. S. Guggenheim Fellowship (1987), the Chemical Society of Japan Award (1996), the American Chemical Society Award in Organometallic Chemistry (1998), the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Researcher Award, Germany (1998–2001), the Royal Society of Chemistry Sir Edward Frankland Prize (2000), the Yamada–Koga Prize, Japan (2007), the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2010), the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2010), and the Japanese Order of Culture (2010). He became Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2010, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011, and he was elected as a Foreign Associate into the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2014.

He has received over twenty honorary doctorates from Universities around the world, including his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. Syracuse University, Purdue University, Hokkaido University (Japan), Okayama University (Japan), the University of Tokyo (Japan), Kogakuin University (Japan), Wuhan University (China), Hunan University (China), National Taipei University (Taiwan), and the University of Calcutta (India) are only some of the other Universities that have honoured him with a doctorate. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of several journals, including Organic Chemistry Frontiers. He has authored over 400 original research publications as well as many book chapters and reviews. He has supervised nearly 100 graduate students and postdoctoral associates from different parts of the world, who continue to contribute significantly to organic chemistry.

We wish Professor Negishi a very happy eightieth birthday and many more years of good health and productive chemistry.

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