Professor Lipkowitz was raised on a dairy farm in the foothills of the Catskill mountains in New York. Having graduated from high school in 1968 he received his BA degree with a major in Chemistry from SUNY Geneseo in 1972. He then graduated with a PhD in Chemistry from Montana State University in 1975 working in the area of natural products synthesis (Bradford Mundy, mentor) followed by a 9-month postdoctoral stay at The Ohio State University working on the synthesis of high-symmetry, strained ring hydrocarbons (Leo Paquette, mentor). Professor Lipkowitz spent 28 years in academia, simultaneously in the Purdue University School of Science and Indiana University School of Informatics; two years working for the American Chemical Society in Washington DC; and then 14 years working for the US Department of Defense in Arlington Virginia where he developed and ran a program on the topic of Computer-Aided Materials Design in the Office of Naval Research. He retired from DoD in May 2021.

Trained as an experimentalist, he found a home in the nascent field of computational molecular science. He served 11 years as Associate Editor for the Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Science (ACS); developed two Gordon Conferences, the first with Don Boyd (Eli Lilly and Company) on Computational Chemistry and the second with Rampi Ramprasad (Georgia Tech) on Computational Materials Science and Engineering; and served 31years as Editor-in-Chief, for Reviews in Computational Chemistry (John Wiley and Sons) with multiple co-editors. Professor Lipkowitz is currently using traditional QSAR methods to develop drugs for prostate cancer with his collaborators at Howard University (Oladapo Bakare in the HU School of Arts and Science and Yayin Fang in the HU School of Medicine). He is contemplating a number of projects related to chemical and materials design at the CU Denver campus.

Education and Degrees

BA, State University of New York – Geneseo (1972)

PhD, Montana State University National Forest Service Research Associate (1975)

Post-doctoral, Ohio State University, National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow (1976)

Selected Publications

Provided here are some representative research publications, listed in chronological order, from my academic career.

K. B. Lipkowitz, B. P. Mundy and D. Geeseman, Studies Directed Towards a Practical Synthesis of Brevicomins (II).  A Novel Synthesis of 1,5-Dimethyl-8-oxabicyclo[3.2.1]octane-6-one, Synthetic Communications, 3, 453-458 (1973).

L. A. Paquette, I. Itoh and K. B. Lipkowitz, Synthesis and Reactivity Patterns of meso- and dl-Bistriquinacenes.  Efficient Route to the Diastereomeric Bivalvanes, Journal of Organic Chemistry, 41, 3524-3529 (1976).

K. B. Lipkowitz, R. Larter and D. B. Boyd, PsPs Interactions III.  A Theoretical Search for a New Nonclassical Carbonium Ion: The Sigma Allyl Cation, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 102, 85-92 (1980).

K. B. Lipkowitz, Molecular Mechanics Documentation Booklet on Empirical Force Fields, Quantum Chemistry Program Exchange Workshop on Practical Applications of Quantum Chemical Methods, Vol. 2, Chapter 4 (1980).

K. B. Lipkowitz, A Reassessment of Nitrobenzene Valence Bond Structures, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 104, 2647-2648 (1982).

K. B. Lipkowitz, D. A. Demeter, R. Zegarra, R. M. Larter and T. Darden, A Protocol for Determining Enantioselective Binding of Chiral Analytes on Chiral Chromatographic Surfaces, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 110(11), 3446-3452 (1988).

K. B. Lipkowitz, B. Baker and R. Larter, Dynamic Molecular Surface Areas, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 111(20), 7750-7753 (1989).

K. B. Lipkowitz and M. A. Peterson, Molecular Mechanics in Organic Synthesis, Chemical Reviews, 93(7), 2463-2486, 1993.

K. B. Lipkowitz, G. Pearl, B. Coner and M. A. Peterson, An Explanation of Where and How Enantioselective Binding Takes Place on Permethylated-b-Cyclodextrin: A Chiral Stationary Phase Used in Gas Chromatography, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 119(3), 600-610, 1997.

K. B. Lipkowitz, R. Coner and M. A. Peterson, Locating Regions of Maximum Chiral Discrimination: A Computational Study of Enantioselection on a Popular Chiral Stationary Phase Used in Chromatography, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 119(46), 11269-11276, 1997.

K. B. Lipkowitz, Applications of Computational Chemistry to the Study of Cyclodextrins, Chemical Reviews, 98 (5), 1829-1873, 1998.

K. B. Lipkowitz, D. Gao, S. Schefzick and O. Katzenelson, Computation of Physical Chirality: An Assessment of Orbital Desymmetrization Induced by Common Chiral Auxiliaries, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 121(23), 5559-5564, 1999.

K. B. Lipkowitz, Atomistic Modeling of Enantioselection, Accounts of Chemical Research, 33(8), 555-562, 2000.

K. B. Lipkowitz, D. Avnir and S. Schefzick, Enhancement of Enantiomeric Excess by Ligand Distortion, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 123(27), 6710-6711, 2001.

K. B. Lipkowitz, C. A. D’Hue, T. Sakamoto and J. N. Stack, Stereocartography: A Computational Mapping Technique That Can Locate Regions of Maximum Stereoinduction Around Chiral Catalysts, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 124(47), 14255-14267, 2002.

Y.-Y. Fang, K. B. Lipkowitz and E. C. Long, Diastereoselective DNA Cleavage by Ni(II)·Gly-Gly-His. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 128 (10), 3198-3207, 2006.

K. F. Morris, E. J. Billiot, F. H. Billiot, C. B. Hoffman, A. A. Gladis, K. B. Lipkowitz, W. M.  Southerland and Y. Fang, Molecular Dynamics Simulation and NMR Investigation of the Association of the -Blockers Atenolol and Propranolol with a Chiral Molecular Micelle. Chemical Physics, 457, 133-146, 2015

Provided here are some representative educational publications, listed in chronological order, from my academic career.

K. B. Lipkowitz, Booklet on MMI/MMPI/MM-II, Quantum Chemistry Program Exchange Workshop on Practical Applications of Quantum Chemistry, Vol. 3, Chapter 3 (1981).

K. B. Lipkowitz, A Need to Reassess Physical-Organic Curricula.  A Course Enhancement Using Readily Available Quantum Chemistry Programs, Journal of Chemical Education, 59, 595-597 (1982).

D. B. Boyd and K. B. Lipkowitz, Molecular Mechanics:  The Method and its Underlying Philosophy, Journal of Chemical Education, 59, 269-274 (1982).

K. B. Lipkowitz, Using the QCPE Holdings in Chemical Education II.  Molecular Models in Organic Chemistry Laboratory, Journal of Chemical Education, 61, 1051-1052 (1984).

K. B. Lipkowitz, Molecular Mechanics:  What It Is and How To Use It, Quantum Chemistry Program Exchange Workshop on Practical Applications of Quantum Chemical Methods, Vol. 5, Chapter 3 (1984).

K. B. Lipkowitz, Molecular Modeling in Organic Chemistry. Correlating Odors with Molecular Structure, Journal of Chemical Education, 66, 275-277 (1989).

K. B. Lipkowitz, Abuses of Molecular Mechanics: Pitfalls to Avoid, Journal of Chemical Education, 72(12), 1070-1075, 1995.

K. B. Lipkowitz, D. Robertson, G. Pearl and F. A. Schultz, Computational Chemistry for the Inorganic Curriculum, Journal of Chemical Education, 73(2), 105-107, 1996.

K. B. Lipkowitz, M. Jalaie, D. Robertson and A. Barth, Interdisciplinary Learning with Computational Chemistry: A Collaboration Between Chemistry and Geology, Journal of Chemical Education, 76(5), 684-697, 1999.

K. B. Lipkowitz and D. H. Robertson, Conformer Hunting: An Open-Ended Computational Chemistry Exercise that Expresses Real-World Complexity and Student Forethought, Journal of Chemical Education, 77(2), 206-209, 2000.

K. B. Lipkowitz, T. Naylor and K. S. Anliker, Introducing Chiroscience into the Organic Laboratory Curriculum, Journal of Chemical Education, 77(3), 305-307, 2000.

C. M. Hosten, G. Talenova and K. B. Lipkowitz. Introducing Undergraduates to the Role of Science in Public Policy and in the Service of the Community, Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 12, 388-394, 2011.