Date of Birth: 
About James L. Leighton
- James Lincoln Leighton (born February 12, 1964, New Haven, CT) is a Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University.
- He is known for his non-aldol approaches to polyketides. As an undergraduate at Yale University (B.S.
- 1987), Leighton worked for synthetic chemist Samuel J.
- Danishefsky.
- After 2 years with Merck Research Laboratories, Leighton began his graduate studies with Abbott and James Lawrence Professor David A.
- Evans at Harvard University (Ph.D.
- 1994), culminating in the total syntheses of both Calyculin A and Zaragozic acid.
- Leighton continued his chemical studies as an NSF postdoctoral fellow with Sheldon Emery Professor Eric N.
- Jacobsen, also of Harvard University, developing initial methods for what became known as the Jacobsen hydrolytic kinetic resolution. In 1996, Leighton began his independent career at Columbia, becoming Full Professor in 2004.
- In recognition of his scholarly contributions in the laboratory and classroom, he was awarded the Arthur C.
- Cope Scholar award (2003) by the American Chemical Society, as well as the Mark Van Doren Award for Teaching, Columbia's most prestigious teaching award.
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