After completing his PhD, he became professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where he eventually attained the rank of University Professor and taught until 1979. From 1979 to 1993, he was a professor at Yale University, where he rose to the rank of Sterling Professor of Chemistry. By 1991 he was sharing his time with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as director of the Laboratory for Cancer Research Bioorganic Chemistry, becoming chair in 1993. He accepted an appointment as professor at Columbia University in 1993, and now splits his time between Columbia and Sloan-Kettering.
Samuel J. Danishefsky is known for his role in synthesizing the many complex organic compounds, many of which are related to pharmaceuticals. Among the molecules synthesized by Danishefsky at Columbia University are epothilones and calicheamicin, which are natural products with promise as anti-cancer agents.
In 1995/96 he shared the Wolf Prize in Chemistry with Gilbert Stork of Columbia University for "designing and developing novel chemical reactions which have opened new avenues to the synthesis of complex molecules, particularly polysaccharides and many other biologically and medicinally important compounds".[5]
He is the recipient of several other awards including the American Chemical Society's Guenther Award and Aldrich Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, the F.A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research of the American Chemical Society, the Tetrahedron Prize (1996), the Arthur C. Cope Award (1998), the New York City Mayor's Award for Science and Technology, and the Bristol Myers Squibb Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry for his achievements in synthetic organic chemistry, particularly for the development of methods for preparing complex substances found in nature, and their emerging applications in the field of cancer treatment.[6] He is a member of the Board of Scientific Governors at The Scripps Research Institute. He holds an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University.
^Danishefsky, Samuel J.; Masters, John J.; Young, Wendy B.; Link, J. T.; Snyder, Lawrence B.; Magee, Thomas V.; Jung, David K.; Isaacs, Richard C. A.; Bornmann, William G.; Alaimo, Cheryl A.; Coburn, Craig A.; Di Grandi, Martin J. (1 January 1996). "Total Synthesis of Baccatin III and Taxol". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 118 (12). American Chemical Society (ACS): 2843–2859. doi:10.1021/ja952692a. ISSN0002-7863.
