During his lifetime Baizer frequently expressed frustration at the slow pace at which electrochemistry’s attributes were accepted and utilized by the broader community of organic chemists. Even now, despite a tremendous surge and a steady increase in the number of researchers who are exploring the breadth of the field, the rate of its inclusion in textbooks lags far behind – a situation that appears to be on the cusp of a most appropriate change.
I was fortunate to have Manuel Baizer as my colleague at UCSB. His optimism, drive, curiosity and interest in the field was contagious. Without doubt, his arrival on the UCSB campus provided the spark needed to turn my passing interest into action. Several co-directed students and research projects resulted including, for example, work involving electrogenerated bases, the generation and utilization of superoxide, as well as various intramolecular electroreductive processes and their application to the total synthesis of natural products.
Today’s presentation will focus upon examples of these efforts and will then turn to ongoing research in the area of mediated electron transfer chemistry.