Folkers Lectureship

The Folkers Lectureship was initially established in 1951 by Karl Folkers with funds from a Merck Board of Directors' Scientific Award (a program which honors especially valued scientific leaders within the Merck Pharmaceutical Company)

Karl Folkers received his B.S. at the University of Illinois with Speed Marvel in 1928, and his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, Madison with Homer Atkins in 1931. Folkers then did three years of postdoctoral research with Treat B. Johnson at Yale University. He joined the Merck Laboratories in 1934, and began a distinguished career in the area of vitamins and other medicinally important natural products (alkaloids, antibiotics, hormones). His most recognized contribution in the Vitamin area was the isolation in pure form of the pernicious anemia factor, which he called Vitamin B₁₂ (later named cyanocobalamine when the full structure was determined by single crystal X-Ray diffraction), and which subsequently became important for both human and animal nutrition. This work became possible because of the then new technique of column chromatography which permitted purification of very small amounts of the red cyanocobalamine. He is also known for his synthesis of Vitamin B₆ (pyridoxine) and much work on the health consequences of widespread Vitamin B₆ deficiency (including Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Chinese Restaurant Syndrome). His research groups at Merck, SRI and U. of Austin also carried out extensive studies on biological electron transfer, focussed on Vitamin Q₁₀ and Coenzyme Q (the latter was first isolated by the group of David Green at the University of Wisconsin, and this group provided Folkers with a sample for structure determination).

In 1962 Folkers was President of the American Chemical Society. He left Merck in 1963 to become President of Stanford Research Institute, and in 1968 embarked on a third career as a Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Texas, Austin. In 1969 he received an honorary Doctorate of Science Degree from the University of Wisconsin. During his career Folkers published over 300 scientific papers and received numerous national and international awards.

The Karl Folkers Merck Lectureship was the first one given by the Merck Company (in 1951), in the amount of $12,500. An equal award went to the University of Illinois. Through the wonders of the stock market there have been more than 25 Folkers lecturers at Wisconsin, and there is still $5000 left in the fund.

Ziegler, Karl	1952-53	Nobel Prize 1963
Robinson, Sir Robert	1953-54	Nobel Prize 1947
Ertman, G. A.	1955-56
Calvin, Melvin	1956-57	Nobel Prize 1961
Prelog, W.	1956-57	Nobel Prize 1975
Jones, E. R. H.	1956-57
Barton, D. H.	1959	Nobel Prize 1969
Eschenmoser, A.	1959-60
Lynen, Feodor	1959-60
Muxfeldt, Hans	1960-61
van Tamelen, E.	1960-61
Westheimer, Frank	1961-62
Buchi, George	1962-63
Scott, A. L.	1963-64
Buchi, George H.	1964
Nakanishi, K.	1966
Breslow, Ronald	1968
Corey, E. J.	1970	Nobel Prize 1988?
Arigoni, Diulio	1971
Johnson, William S.	1976
Lehn, Jean Marie	1979	Nobel Prize 1987
Dunitz, Jack D.	1981
Kishi, Yoshito	1982
Baldwin, Jack	1985
Kochi, Jay K.	1986
Prinzbach, Horst	1988
Overman, Larry E.	1999