Bercaw, John

Richard S. Threlkel, John E. Bercaw, Paul F. Seidler, Jeffrey M. Stryker, and Robert G. Bergman... 

Dedicated to Professor John E. Bercaw on the occasion of his 60th birthday. 

I would like to acknowledge several of the researchers in this field for looking over drafts of selected chapters of this book and/or providing preprints, illustrations, or other helpful information Bob Morris, Bob Crabtree, Mike Heinekey, John Bercaw, Juergen Eckert, Bruno Chaudret, Odile Eisenstein, Agusti Lledos, Carl Hoff, John Hartwig, John Peters, Jack Norton, Ken Caulton, Mike Hall, Rick Ernst, A1 Sattelberger and many others. 

Submitted by DAVID J. SIKORA, KEVIN J. MORIARTY, and MARVIN D. RAUSCH Checked by A. RAY BULLS,t JOHN E. BERCAW.t, VIKRAM D. PATEL,t and ARTHUR J. CARTYt... 

Checked by A. RAY BULLS,t JOHN E. BERCAW,f VIKRAM D. PATEL,t imd... 

John E. Bercaw Allan J. Canty Karen I. Goldberg Kyle A. Grice Jay A. Labinger Helena C. Malinakova Marc-Etienne Moret David C. Powers ... 

Submitted by ENDY Y.-J. MIN and JOHN E. BERCAW Checked by ALYSON L. KENWARD and WARREN PIERS ... 

Checked by STEFAN ROGGAN, CHRISTEL JANKOWSKI, CHRISTIAN LIMBERG, IAN TONKS, and JOHN BERCAW ... 

In 1983, Maurice Brookhardt and Malcolm Green published their concept of the intramolecular agostic C-H bond in complexes that feature a Lewis-acidic transition-metal center, i.e. those that possess a vacant coordination site. During the same year, Patricia Watson at the Du Pont company and John E. Bercaw at Caltech independently reported the activation of methane by d complexes of lanthanides and early transition metals (Lu and Sc respectively) according to the new a-bond metathesis mechanism (an intramolecular version being Schrock s a-elimination, in other d complexes, vide supra, which was developed by Tobbin Marks at Evanston with his seminal work in d° organoactinide chemistry also reported in 1982). 

This law, which is known to many in Caltech s Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division, is based on Prof. John E. Bercaw s obstavation that for a surprisingly large number of reactions, a brief initial optimization ofteai provides results that cannot be surpassed by an exhaustive follow-on optimization effort. 

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