Photo: Kuebi = Armin Kübelbeck / CC BY 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Barry Trost is the sort of figure who reshapes a field without much fanfare. Having the Tsuji-Trost reaction and the Trost ligand bear your name is impressive enough, but championing atom economy is the deeper legacy: he helped turn synthetic chemistry toward doing more with less waste, an idea that now feels almost moral. The wall of honors, including Japan's Noyori Prize, only confirms it. What I respect most is that he changed not just what chemists make but how they think about making it. That is influence at the level of a discipline's conscience, and it is genuinely rare.
Overview
Barry M. Trost (born June 13, 1941, in Philadelphia) is an American chemist who is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor Emeritus in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. The Tsuji–Trost reaction and the Trost ligand are named after him. He is prominent for advancing the concept of atom economy.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Barry Trost
- Name (Japanese)
- バリー・トロスト
- Reading
- ばりー・とろすと
- Born
- June 13, 1941 (age 84)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Gemini / Snake
- Origin
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- chemist / university teacher
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- University of Pennsylvania
Awards & achievements
- 1977 ACS Award in Pure Chemistry
- 1981 ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry,
- 2004 Arthur C. Cope Award
- 2014 August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal
- 1981 Centenary Prize
- 2013 Ryoji Noyori Prize
- 1995 Roger Adams Award in Organic Chemistry
- 2000 William H. Nichols Medal
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Chemist — see all → · University teacher — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.