Professor Neil Garg has been awarded the 2013 Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grant in Synthetic Organic Chemistry.
The award for synthetic organic chemistry is bestowed annually by researchers at BMS, in consultation with leading organic chemists in academia. The award recognizes faculty in the early stages of their careers who have made a fundamental contribution to organic synthesis. The award carries $150K over its two-year span. As part of the award, Professor Garg will visit Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2014 to deliver the award lecture.
Neil Garg (Photo: Penny Jennings)
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Garg received a B.S. in Chemistry from New York University where he did undergraduate research with Professor Marc Walters. During his undergraduate years, he spent several months in Strasbourg, France while conducting research with Professor Mir Wais Hosseini at Université Louis Pasteur as an NSF REU Fellow. Garg obtained his Ph.D. in 2005 from the California Institute of Technology under the direction of Professor Brian Stoltz. He then joined Professor Larry Overman’s research laboratory at the University of California, Irvine as an NIH Postdoctoral Scholar. Garg joined the faculty at UCLA in 2007. In 2012, he was promoted to Associate Professor and began serving as Vice Chair for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. In 2013, he was promoted to Full Professor. SELECTED AWARDS & HONORS
•2013 Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grant in Synthetic Organic Chemistry
•Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, 2013
•S. T. Li Prize for Achievements in Science and Technology, 2012
•ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable Grantee Award, 2012
•A. P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 2012
•Roche Excellence in Chemistry Award, 2012
•UCLA Hanson-Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2011
•UCLA Herbert Newby McCoy Award, 2011
•AstraZeneca Excellence in Chemistry Award, 2011–2012
•Amgen Young Investigator Award, 2011–2012
•Eli Lilly Grantee Award, 2010–2012
•DuPont Young Professor Award, 2010–2013
•NSF CAREER Award, 2010–2015
•Thieme Chemistry Journal Award, 2010
•Boehringer Ingelheim New Investigator Award, 2009
•National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2005–2006
•National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Fellowship, 1999 
Neil Garg with his research group students RESEARCH
Research in the Garg Laboratory is directed toward the development of synthetic strategies and methods that enable the synthesis of complex bioactive molecules. Our methodological interests lie primarily in the areas of transition-metal catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of unconventional phenol-based electrophiles and tactics for the preparation of functionalized heterocycles. These efforts have facilitated syntheses of the drugs flurbiprofen and zyvox, in addition to the natural products aspidophylline A, physovenine, debromoflustramine B, indolactam V, and N-methylwelwitindolinone C isothiocyanate. 
