People of ASP

Jack received the B.Sc. in Pharmacy (1962), and M.Sc. (Kelleher) and Ph.D. (Schwarting, Bobbitt) in Pharmacognosy (1966, 1968) at Univ. Connecticut (UConn). While at UConn Jack was a Trainee in the first multidisciplinary, NIH Natural Products program in the US. After a postdoc with Charlie Sih at Wisconsin, he joined the Pharmacy faculty at the Univ. Iowa (1969), rose to associate (1972) and full professor (1977), and served as Head of Medicinal & Natural Products Chemistry for 18 years. Jack was mentor to 30 Ph.D. students and 30 postdocs publishing 220 papers and patents over 40 years. His research examined all facets of biocatalysis, discovered many new natural product biotransformations, probed reaction mechanisms and characterized the enzymes involved. Jack’s lab defined the concept of microbial models for xenobiotic metabolism as a means of predicting patterns of metabolism expected in mammals, plants, soil and insects. His lab identified the first NOS system in the bacterial world, and the intricate second messenger implications of bacterial NOS continue to be elaborated. Jack was founder and first director of the Univ. Iowa, Center for Biocatalysis & Bioprocessing, a multidepartmental research group with 60 faculty from 8 departments. The well-supported CBB boasts one of the finest fermentation, bioprocessing labs in the world including a newly opened cGMP fermentation/downstream processing facility. Jack was Co-Director of a massive NSF ERC Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis awarded to a consortium led by Kansas, Iowa, Prairie View A&M, and Washington Univ. in St. Louis. Jack served widely as a consultant to many pharma, chemical and agro-industries, the NCI, and was a member of nine editorial boards. (JPNR)