Tamio Hayashi was recently honored by Thomson as one of the leading Japanese scientists in Emerging Research Fronts.

Many researchers working for organic synthesis have been waiting for a new, efficient method of forming a carbon-carbon bond in an asymmetric manner, and the rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric 1,4-addition was recognized to be one of the most versatile and reliable asymmetric carbon-carbon bond forming reactions. This paper is a review article published in Chem. Rev., whose circulation is worldwide.

Yes, it does. Of the catalytic asymmetric reactions, asymmetric reduction and oxidation have already been well developed, which is demonstrated by the Nobel Prize in Chemistry of 2001 (asymmetric hydrogenation by Noyori and Knowles, and asymmetric oxidation by Sharpless). On the other hand, the development of asymmetric carbon-carbon bond formation was much slower. The present catalytic asymmetric 1,4-addition which proceeds with high selectivity provides a new efficient methodology in the field of asymmetric catalysis.

It is our general understanding that catalytic asymmetric synthesis provides, in principle, a most efficient route to pharmaceutical products, and the rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric 1,4-addition described here appeared on the stage of organic synthesis as a new, promising method with a broad scope.

I have been involved in asymmetric synthesis catalyzed by chiral transition metal complexes, especially in asymmetric carbon-carbon bond forming reactions, for more than 30 years. The paper by Professor Miyaura (Organometallics, 1997, 16, 4229), where he reported the first example of rhodium-catalyzed 1,4-addition of organoboronic acids, gave me a chance to study the asymmetric version of this useful carbon-carbon bond formation.