John Richard was born in Bloomington Indiana, grew up in the Midwest.
Research projects in progress at this time in Professor Richard’s lab include: (1) The determination of the rate and equilibrium constants for addition of nucleophilic reagents to simple carbenium ions and the effect of changing carbenium ion structure on these kinetic and thermodynamic parameters. (2) The generation of biologically important enolates, and development of experimental protocol to estimate the pKas for weak carbon acids. (3) Studies on the mechanism for nonenzymatic and enzyme-catalyzed aldol addition reactions in water. (4) The determination of the mechanistic imperatives for nonenzymatic and enzyme-catalyzed aldose-ketose and allylic isomerization reactions. (5) The characterization of the transition state and intermediates of b-galactosidase catalyzed hydrolysis of glycosides and determination of the function of essential amino-acid residues in the enzymatic reaction.