American chemist K. Barry Sharpless developed stereoselective oxidation reactions, and showed that the formation of an inhibitor with femtomolar potency can be catalyzed by the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, beginning with an azide and an alkyne. He discovered several chemical reactions which have transformed asymmetric synthesis from science fiction to the relatively routine, including aminohydroxylation, dihydroxylation, and the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation. He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2001, for his part in the unraveling of chiral catalysts asymmetrically engineered molecules that do not structurally mirror themselves, a breakthrough that has enabled researchers to selectively control chemical reactions.

Currently he spends much of his time promoting click chemistry which are selective, exothermic reactions which occur under mild conditions in water; the most successful variant of which is the alkyne-azide (3 + 2) cycloaddition to form 1,2,3-triazoles.

Sharpless was born in Philadelphia. He began his studies in Dartmouth College and earned his PhD from Stanford University in 1963. He continued post-doctoral work at Stanford University and Harvard University.

Sharpless became professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the Scripps Research Institute, where he currently holds the W. M. Keck professorship in chemistry.

An interesting personal note, as passed around by graduate students at Scripps Research Institute: Barry is notorious for eating/tasting chemicals that he finds on his students' benches. In fact, he once ate osmium tetroxide while giving a seminar. Osmium tetroxide, while incredibly useful in organic synthesis, has a high vapor pressure and will permanently blind you if the vapors get in your eye. Barry also has only one eye; the other was injured when, an NMR tube exploded in his face while he was observing the work of a graduate student