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Staff Profiles

David Black

 

David St Clair Black

M.Sc. Syd., Ph.D. Camb., AMusA, CChem, FRACI
Professor of Organic Chemistry
E-mail: d.black@unsw.edu.au

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

Born 1938. Research Associate at Columbia University 1963 - 1964. Appointed Lecturer at Monash University 1965, promoted to Senior Lecturer 1971, Reader 1975. Appointed to Chair of Organic Chemistry UNSW in 1983.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Synthetic organic chemistry including methods of synthesis, heterocyclic chemistry (especially indole chemistry), photochemistry. Organic aspects of coordination chemistry including ligand design and synthesis, macrocycles, organometallic chemistry. Natural products chemistry - constituents of Endiandra and Beilschmiedia species, indole alkaloids. Polymer chemistry - new polyamides, polyesters and modified peptides. Self-assembly studies involving hydrogen bonding.

AWARDS, LECTURES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES OF INTEREST

Awarded RACI Rennie Medal 1970, H. G. Smith Medal 1993 and Birch Medal 2003. Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, 1974 (Würzburg) and 1994 (Göttingen). Visiting Scholar, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 1980. Liversidge Lecturer of Royal Society of New South Wales, 1989. Royal Society of Chemistry Lecturer, 1990.

Visiting Professorships at Science University of Tokyo 1988, University of Auckland 1992, University of Innsbruck 1999, Kobe Pharmaceutical University 2000. President, RACI 1998. Secretary General IUPAC, 2004-2007.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  • Modified Vilsmeier reactions of activated benzofurans with indolines: synthesis of benzofuran-fused benzocarbazoles, Tetrahedron Letters, 40, 4251-4254 (1999).
  • Mechanism-controlled regioselective synthesis of indolyl benzo[b]carbazoles,Tetrahedron Letters, 40, 6653-6656 (1999).
  • Formation of C-amido-calix[3]indoles from 2'- and 7'-indolylglyoxylamides, Tetrahedron, 56, 8513-8524 (2000).
  • Indole-based mono- and poly-nuclear acyclic chelating systems: syntheses and selected transition metal complexes, J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans., 1948-1958 (2001).
  • Synthesis of pyrroloquinolines as indole analogs of flavonols, J. Org. Chem., 67, 2464-2473, (2002).
  • Synthesis of mixed heterocalixarenes from benzofuranyl methanols and activated indoles, Chem. Comm., 810-811 (2002).