John Clark Sheehan (September 23, 1915 – March 21, 1992) was an American organic chemist whose work on synthetic penicillin led to tailor-made forms of the drug. After nine years of hard work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), he became the first to discover a practical method for synthesizing penicillin V. While achieving total synthesis, Sheehan also produced an intermediate compound, 6-aminopenicillanic acid, which turned out to be the foundation of hundreds of kinds of synthetic penicillin. Dr. Sheehan's research on synthetic penicillin paved the way for the development of customized forms of the lifesaving antibiotic that target specific bacteria. Over the four decades he worked at M.I.T., Sheehan came to hold over 30 patents, including the invention of ampicillin, a commonly used semi-synthetic penicillin that is taken orally rather than by injection. His research covered not only penicillin, but also peptides, other antibiotics, alkaloids, and steroids.
Early life He was born on September 23, 1915, in Battle Creek, Michigan, to Florence and Leo C. Sheehan. His family had Irish and Yankee background, and he was raised as a Catholic and attended Catholic grade schools. His father was then a sports editor and police reporter for a local newspaper, The Battle Creek Enquirer. Leo C. Sheehan left home at the age of fifteen and found work as a reporter in San Francisco. As a skilled writer, he progressed quickly with The Battle Creek Enquirer and became the managing editor. At one point, he functioned as the ghostwriter for Frank Murphy, who was once the governor of Michigan and a Supreme Court Justice. Sheehan's mother was a genealogist who later became the Michigan registrar for the Daughters of the American Revolution. His paternal grandfather, John W. Sheehan, was a successful lawyer, while his maternal grandfather, Nathaniel Y. Green, was a bank manager who had a keen interest in science and nature. Green played a role in stimulating John C. Sheehan's interest in science by giving him a microscope with an oil-immersion lens. He also introduced Sheehan to the curator of a local museum and took his grandson to meetings where Green frequently met with others passionate about astronomy. At a young age, John Sheehan had been fascinated by science, especially explosives and rocketry. He started with a simple chemistry set and then progressed to a basement laboratory where he built models and performed experiments. A model airplane that he built with a delta wing won a competition in his self-design class. Apart from science, Sheehan was also very competitive in other activities. He was an excellent marble shooter in elementary school, representing his school in the state championships. In addition, he was the winner of a city-wide yo-yo competition, the winner of a Boy Scout election, an active member of his high school football team, as well as Battle Creek College's best tennis player. Sheehan's father had a long struggle with cancer and died at age fifty. Sheehan had two brothers, Joseph Sheehan and David Sheehan. Joseph is a professor of psychology at the University of California and ran training programs for relieving speech defects with his wife, Vivian. David Sheehan, the youngest of the three, worked in the manufacturing industry in Battle Creek. John Sheehan married Marion Jennings shortly after receiving his Ph.D and had three children: John C. Sheehan Jr., David E. Sheehan, and Elizabeth (Betsy) S. Watkins. He had six grandchildren.
Education John Sheehan attended Catholic grade schools, even though John and his brother Joseph were not particularly religious later in life. He studied chemistry and political science at Battle Creek College. In 1937, Sheehan graduated as the valedictorian of his class and won a scholarship for graduate studies in any subject of his choice. He decided to study organic chemistry at the University of Michigan, receiving his Master's in 1938 and his PhD in 1941. His doctorate advisor, Werner E. Bachmann, was involved in the synthesis of steroid hormones. As a post-doctoral fellow, Sheehan collaborated with Bachmann on the commercially feasible production of RDX also known as cyclonite, which turned out to give the Allies a huge advantage at sea during World War II.
Early career After the efficient completion of RDX synthesis, John Sheehan had the experience of applying organic chemistry to real-life problems. Having struggled against pneumonia and mastoiditis in his earlier years, Sheehan was eager to start working on antibiotics. He wrote, "If my doctors had had a course of treatment as effective as that made possible by penicillin, I would probably not have lost that year." In 1941, he accepted a position at Merck & Co. in Rahway, New Jersey. He worked there until 1946 as a senior research chemist under the supervision of Dr. Max Tishler. Sheehan had good results for his work on many projects, including those on calcium pantothenate, streptomycin, and vitamin B6. However, he wanted to pursue the synthesis of penicillin, which was hard in an industrial setting driven by results given that many scientists of his time believed that it was impossible. John Sheehan's work attracted the attention of Arthur C. Cope, who was the head of the Department of Chemistry at the M.I.T. at the time. He decided to join the M.I.T. faculty as an assistant professor at a salary that was half of what he made at Merck. Within his first few years at M.I.T., John Sheehan was already recognized for his ingenuity in synthetic organic chemistry, especially for his new methods of synthesis of peptides, three new syntheses of β-lactams, first synthesis of the penicillin ring system, and his work on several other natural products.
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