[reflux]

Hey I thought it would be fun to get an idea of which profs. we think of as being "big names" in the field of organic chemistry.  You always here discussions among organic grads about who is a "big name" and who is not.  Obviously there is no clear definition, but I generally think of profs who always publish top of the line research (i.e. brand new methodologies, elegant total syntheses, etc.) and who we tend to call "famous" (or maybe "infamous") in our field.  Some names that come to mind immediately are:

Total synth/methodology:  Corey, Nicolau, Overman, Baran, MacMillan, Danishefsky, Ley, I could list alot more here...
Methodology:  MacMillan
Bioorganic/biochem (not my expertise):  Walsh

Here is a good link for a list of org. chem. profs.:

http://www.organiclinks.net/

That should get the ball rolling.

[macman104]

What about stoddart, he's done a lot of work with molecular machines, and in my mind a pretty "big" name.

[Yggdrasil]

For things more on the bio side, Liu, Schultz, Bertozzi, and Schreiber come to mind.  I'm probably leaving a few out as well.

[Mitch]

Bergman for physical organic, but I guess he is way more organometallic these days.

[kiwi]

For things more on the bio side, Liu, Schultz, Bertozzi, and Schreiber come to mind.  I'm probably leaving a few out as well.

like Chi-Huey Wong?