Bill was an exceptionally productive graduate student in the lab of Professor Stephen D. Burke where he was the lead researcher on the total synthesis of quadrone. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Swiss Federal Technical Institute (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland, he joined Pfizer Central Research in Groton, Connecticut. There he made significant contributions toward advancing treatments for human and animal diseases, particularly in the areas of diabetes, cancer, central nervous system diseases, and inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis. He epitomized the relentless determination and the creative spirit necessary to solve perplexing, but rewarding problems, in chemical research. His family and friends have established the Murtiashaw Memorial Fund in support of the Murtiashaw Graduate Fellowships and an annual Murtiashaw Lectureship in Organic Chemistry. The first Murtiashaw Lecture was given in January 1997 by Bill's Ph.D. mentor, Steve Burke, professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin.
Previous lecturers:
Dr. Steven D. Burke, University of Wisconsin-Madison - 1997
Dr. K. Peter C. Vollhardt, University of California-Berkeley - 1997
Dr. Nicholas J. Turro, Columbia University - 1998
Dr. Joel Hawkins, Pfizer - 1998
Dr. Robert A. Volkman, Pfizer Central Research - 1999
Dr. Peter J. Stang, University of Utah - 1999
Dr. Lawrence A. Reiter, Pfizer Central Research - 2000
Dr. Amos B. Smith, III, University of Pennsylvania - 2000
Dr. Dennis J. Hoover, Pfizer Central Research - 2001
Dr. George Chang, Pfizer Inc., Groton, Connecticut - 2002
Dr. Jan-Erling Backvall, Stockholm University - 2002
Dr. Fred Wudl, University of California, Los Angeles - 2002
Dr. Richard McCullough, Carnegie Mellon University - 2003
Dr. Scott J. Miller, Boston College - 2004
Dr. Jennifer L. Liras, Pfizer Global Research & Development - 2004
Dr. John Ragan, Pfizer Global Research and Development - 2005
Dr. Craig J. Hawker, University of California, Santa Barbara - 2005
Dr. John Wong, Pfizer Global Research and Development - 2006
Dr. Virgil Percec, University of Pennsylvania - 2006
Dr. Roger Ruggeri, Pfizer Global Research and Development - 2007
Dr. Milan Mrksich, University of Chicago - 2007
Dr. Carrie Wagner, Screening & Scaling in the Pharmaceutical Industry - 2008
Dr. Ken Suslick, University of Illinois-Champaign - 2008
Dr. David B. Damon , Pfizer Global Research and Development - 2009
Dr. Dennis A. Dougherty, California Institute of Technology - 2010
Dr. Barbara Spong, Pfizer Global Research and Development - 2010
Dr. Scott E. Denmark, University of Illinois - 2011
Dr. Carlos F. Barbas, The Scripps Research Institute - 2012
Dr. Robert H. Grubbs, California Institute of Technology - 2012
Dr. Robert M. Waymouth, Stanford University - 2013
Dr. Ralph P. Robinson, Pfizer Global Research and Development - 2013
Dr. Jade Nelson, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Industry - 2014
Dr. Cheryl Hayward, Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development - 2014
Dr. Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, Carnegie Mellon University - 2015
Dr. Brian Chekal, Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development - 2016
David MacMillam, Merk Center for Catalysts - 2016
Ian Manners, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada - 2019
Guangbin Dong, University of Chicago, IL - 2020
Jianmin Gao, Boston College - 2020
Timothy Lodge, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN - 2023