Lecture on Catalysis

Asymmetric catalysis: science and opportunities (Nobel lecture).

Asymmetric catalysis, in its infancy in the 1960s, has dramatically changed the procedures of chemical synthesis, and resulted in an impressive progression to a level that technically approximates or sometimes even exceeds that of natural biological processes. The recent exceptional advances in this area attest to a range of conceptual breakthroughs in chemical sciences in general, and to the p...

New Perspectives on Thiamine Catalysis: From Enzymic to Biomimetic Catalysis

This paper is a brief review of the detailed mechanism of action of thiamine enzymes, based on metal complexes of bivalent transition and post-transition metals of model compounds, thiamine derivatives, synthesized and characterized with spectroscopic techniques and X-ray crystal structure determinations. It is proposed that the enzymatic reaction is initiated with a V conformation of thiamine ...

Homogeneous Catalysis Homogeneous Catalysis

A perspective on enzyme catalysis.

The seminal hypotheses proposed over the years for enzymatic catalysis are scrutinized. The historical record is explored from both biochemical and theoretical perspectives. Particular attention is given to the impact of molecular motions within the protein on the enzyme's catalytic properties. A case study for the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase provides evidence for coupled networks of predomi...

Lecture Notes on Sorting

We begin this lecture by discussing how to compare running times of functions in an abstract, mathematical way. The same underlying mathematics can be used for other purposes, like comparing memory consumption or the amount of parellism permitted by an algorithm. We then use this to take a first look at sorting algorithms, of which there are many. In this lecture it will be selection sort becau...