Each subject of organic chemistry reviewed in this series is presented from a preparative viewpoint. Emphasis is placed on limitations, interfering influences, effects of structure and the selection of experimental techniques.

Andrew S. Kende, Charles F. Houghton Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus PhD, Harvard University, 1957. Professor Kende’s research interests include the total synthesis of alkaloids, terpenes, and antibiotics; rearrangement reactions; synthesis of antineoplastic natural products; chemistry of small rings; chemical and biochemical studies of polyhalogenated xenobiotics and of bacterial autoinducers.