I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge,
graduating in 1985. I remained at Cambridge under the supervision of
Dr Stuart Warren to obtain my PhD studying the synthesis of vinylisoxazoles as synthons for
unsaturated amino derivatives.
1,
2 In 1989 I moved to Imperial College to join the group of
Prof. Steve Ley as
the holder of the Merck, Sharp and Dohm postdoctoral research fellowship. My
postdoctoral work included the study of allyltricarbonyliron lactone and
lactam complexes, applications to total synthesis, and asymmetric catalysis.
3,
4,
5,
6,
7 In 1991, I was appointed a lecturer in Organic Chemistry at
Newcastle University and since that time have developed
projects in synthetic methodology, asymmetric synthesis and chiral
catalysis, and transition metal mediated reactions.
Publications from my PhD and Postdoc work
1. Regiospecific synthesis of (E)-unsaturated
3,5-dialkyl-isoxazoles and derived leukotriene analogues using phosphine
oxides.
E.W. Collington, J.G. Knight, C.J. Wallis, and S. Warren, Tetrahedron
Lett., 1989, 30, 877.
2. A new method for stereoselective homoallylic amine synthesis.
S.K. Armstrong, E.W. Collington, J.G. Knight, A. Naylor, and S. Warren,
J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1, 1993, 1433 - 1436.
3. Assessment of butene-1,4-diols as starting materials for the preparation
of pi-allyltricarbonyliron complexes.
R.W. Bates, D. Diez-Martin, W.J. Kerr, J.G. Knight, S.V. Ley, and A.
Sakellaridis, Tetrahedron, 1990, 46, 4063.
4. Alkenylcyclic sulphates as novel precursors for the preparation of pi-allyltricarbonyliron
lactone complexes.
M. Caruso, J.G. Knight, and S.V. Ley, Synlett, 1990, 224.
5. Total synthesis of Avermectin B1a: Synthesis of the carbohydrate
bis-oleandrose fragment and coupling to the Avermectin B1a aglycone.
M.J. Ford, J.G. Knight, S.V. Ley, and S. Vile, Synlett, 1990, 331.
6. Total synthesis of the anthelmintic macrolide avermectin B1a.
S.V. Ley, A. Armstrong, D. Diez-Martin, M.J. Ford, P. Grice, J.G. Knight,
H.C. Kolb, A. Madin, C.A. Marby, S. Mukherjee, A.N. Shaw, A.M.Z. Slawin, S.
Vile, A.D. White, D.J. Williams, and M. Woods, J. Chem. Soc., Perkin
Trans. 1, 1991, 667.
7. Synthesis of the alkaloids (-)-heliotridane and (-)-isoretronecanol via
pi-allyltricarbonyliron lactam complexes.
J.G. Knight and S.V. Ley, Tetrahedron Lett., 1991, 32, 7119.
