text: Vedejs' main areas of research focus included organic synthesis methodologies and reaction mechanisms. His group targeted the synthesis of several natural products, such as retronecine, mitomycin, and cytochalasin, but the completion of a total synthesis was always secondary to the main goal of exploring new methodologies. His mechanistic research of the Wittig reaction revealed the importance of the oxaphosphetane. The application of heteroatoms such as nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, boron, silicon and tin were often prominently featured, which has been summarized in his self-penned account of his work. Vedejs also tackled a wide range of methodologies aimed at stereoselective synthesis including protonation of carbanions, acylation and alkylation of achiral and prochiral nucleophiles, parallel kinetic resolution, and control of configuration by crystallization-induced asymmetric transformation.
  Over the course of his career, Vedejs published over 230 peer-reviewed articles. He served as an associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society from 1994 to 1999, as chair of the NIH Medicinal Chemistry Study Section from 1990 to 1991, as chair of the Organic Division of the American Chemical Society in 2003, and as a member of the Organic Syntheses Board of Editors from 1980 to 1988. He served as editor (along with Scott E. Denmark) of the three volume series Lewis Base Catalysis in Organic Synthesis. Over the course of his 45 years in academia, he mentored over 80 doctoral students, and numerous post-doctoral fellows and undergraduates.