Sarpong was born in Bechem, Ghana on April 23, 1974, and spent his early childhood in Bolgatanga.[7][8] His mother is a teacher, and his father a medical doctor who also holds a master's degree in public health.[9][10] It was during his childhood that Sarpong first became interested in chemistry, when he saw how effective the drug ivermectin was in combatting river blindness (onchocerciasis).[11] Ivermectin was being distributed in Africa by Merck free of charge,[12] and Sarpong's father worked with the World Health Organization to aid in the distribution of the drug.[11] Sarpong got his hands on his father's copy of the Merck Index, an encyclopedia of chemicals, and spent his free time imagining how chemistry could change people's lives. In 1984, Sarpong's family moved to Livingstone, Zambia and later Lobatse, Botswana in 1986. In Zambia and Botswana, he saw the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa.[13] In Botswana, Sarpong attended the Maru-a-Pula School, where he was introduced to organic chemistry by his teacher Dr. Ramakrishna.[1][14] Having this additional mentor encouraged Sarpong to pursue a career in chemistry, despite having an offer from a premedical program at a British university.[14]
Sarpong then pursued graduate studies with Prof. Martin Semmelhack at Princeton University. In Prof. Semmelhack's laboratory, he worked on organic compounds containing the enediyne functional group that model the activity of the calicheamicin class of antibiotics.[15][16] Sarpong received his Ph.D. in 2001.
In 2004, Sarpong started his independent scientific career at the University of California, Berkeley as an assistant professor.[1] He was promoted to associate professor in 2010 and full Professor in 2014.
The Sarpong group specialize in the synthesis of bioactive organic molecules, with a focus on the natural products of flora and fauna.[3] He has developed new synthesis strategies for alkaloids, a family of natural medicines that includes quinine and morphine.[11] In particular, Sarpong is interested in natural product synthesis for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.[13]
In 2017, Sarpong delivered a talk at TEDx Berkeley entitled The face of disease in Sub-Saharan Africa, in which described the influences on his desire to pursue chemistry growing up in Africa, and also encouraged his audience to reevaluate their perceptions of disease in Africa.[9][19] Sarpong is committed to improving diversity within the chemistry community,[20] and has supported many scholars in the early stages of their academic careers.[13]
Roque, Jose B.; Kuroda, Yusuke; Göttemann, Lucas T.; Sarpong, Richmond (2018). "Deconstructive diversification of cyclic amines". Nature. 564 (7735): 244–248. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0700-3.
Marth, C. J.; Gallego, G. M.; Lee, J. C.; Lebold, T. P.; Kulyk, S.; Kou, K. G. M.; Qin, J.; Lilien, R.; Sarpong, R. (2015-12). "Network-analysis-guided synthesis of weisaconitine D and liljestrandinine". Nature. 528 (7583): 493–498. doi:10.1038/nature16440. ISSN 1476-4687.
