WEST LAFAYETTE – Purdue University professor Ei-ichi Negishi has won a Nobel Prize for chemistry.

            Negishi, the Herbert Brown Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, received the award with Richard Heck, professor emeritus at the University of Delaware, and Akira Suzuki, a professor at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.

            “Today, we celebrate a new hero for science, for Purdue, for Indiana, and for the world,” said France Córdova, Purdue president. “… Dr. Negishi’s work is in the area of organic chemistry, specifically linking carbon atoms together to form complex molecules that have become essential tools in creating new drugs and polymers.”

            Negishi developed a method of easily creating complex molecules. Called palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling, which is a metal-based reaction, Negishi related the function of the reactions to LEGO bricks. The organic compounds can bond easily in a wide variety of forms, which allows scientists to make potential cancer drugs and other medicines, as well as LED screens. The method also helps with DNA sequencing.