Special issue festschrift norma sbarbati nudelman

JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ORGANIC CHEMISTRY J. Phys. Org. Chem. 2007; 20: 439 Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/poc.1220

Editorial

Issue No.12 of theJournal of Physical Organic Chemistry, Volume 12, was a special issue of 12 papers dedicated as a festschrift in honor of Professor Norma Sbarbati Nudelman. Norma has been a major figure in chemicalresearch, in science education, and in environmental issues. Norma Nudelman has established an outstanding record of research in a broad area of physical organic chemistry. She began by studyingmechanisms of nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SNAr) reactions, for which she received a Ph.D. from Universidad de Buenos Aires. She then undertook post-doctoral research in organometallic chemistry withGeorge Whitesides, who was then at MIT, and then in nucleophilic aromatic substitutions with Joseph F. Bunnett at University of California-Santa Cruz. Then she embarked on her independent career atUniversidad de Buenos Aires. She is well-known for her studies of the mechanisms of reactions between organolithium reagents and various carbonyl species. A major accomplishment has been her pioneeringstudies in opening up the field of acyl lithium species. She further utilized her understanding of mechanisms to develop new synthetic methods for nitrosamines, aldehydes, furans, and thiophenes.Consequently she was chosen to present a plenary lecture on organometallic reaction mechanisms at the 1998 IUPAC Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry. She continues to be active in research, with currentstudies on the stability of benzodiazepines, towards a better understanding of the formulation, storage, and analysis of drugs. She is extending her studies of organometallics to trialkyltin species,as well as to kinetic studies aimed at the mechanisms of reaction of organolithium aggregates. Professor Nudelman has been an internationally recognized leader in chemical education and public...