Professor Beak received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1957 and his Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 1961 and then joined the faculty at Illinois.

Professor Beak's research interests are in synthetic, structural and mechanistic organic chemistry, new reaction processes, synthetic methodology, and reactive intermediates.

Dynamic Thermodynamic Resolution: Advantage by Separation of Equilibration and Resolution (with W. K. Lee and Y. S. Park) Acc. Chem. Res., 42 (2), 224 (2009).

The Endocyclic Restriction Test: The Geometries of Nucleophilic Substitutions at Sulfur(VI) and Sulfur(II) (with S. G. Jarboe and M. S. Terrazas), J. Org. Chem., 73 (24), 9627 (2008).

Asymmetric Syntheses of 3,4-Substituted Tetrahydroquinoline Derivatives by (-)Sparteine-Mediated Dynamic Thermodynamic Resolution of 2-(a-Lithiobenzyl)-N-pivaloylaniline (with Y. Kim and Y. S. Park) Synlett, 22, 3805 (2006).

Dynamic Thermodynamic Resolution: Solvent Effects, Mechanism, and an Asymmetric 3,4,5-Substituted Benzazapine Synthesis (with Y. S. Park, E. G. Yum, and A. Basu) Organic Letters, 8, 2667 (2006).

Asymmetric Synthesis of 4,5,6-and 3,4,5,6-Substituted Azepanes by a Highly Diastereoselective and Enantioselective Lithiation-conjugate Addition Sequence (with S. J. Lee) J. Am. Chem. Soc., 128, 2178 (2006).

Asymmetric Lithiation-Substitution Sequences of Substituted Allyl Amines, (with S. J. Lee and D. K. Kim), J. Org. Chem., 70, 5376 (2005).