| Citation | Professor Holmes is distinguished for his contributions to the synthesis of biologically important natural products and for pioneering work on light emitting conjugated polymers. He has developed new synthetic methodology based on Claisen rearrangement and Baeyer-Villiger ring expansions for the synthesis of medium ring ether and lactone natural products. The innovative use of hetero Diels-Alder, 1,3-dipolar and "hetero-ene" cycloadditions has resulted in new strategies for piperidine and indolizidine syntheses. Notable achievements include the synthesis of histrionicotoxin and his contribution to the development of light emitting diodes in collaboration with Richard Friend |