Adrian Tlahuext-Aca was born in Mexico and received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemistry from the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, respectively. In 2014, he joined the NRW Graduate School of Chemistry and the group of Prof. Frank Glorius at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster for his doctoral studies which have been focused on merging photoredox and transition-metal catalysis. In 2016, Adrian received the IPMI Metalor Technologies Graduate Student Award for his research on dual gold/photoredox catalysis.

Alessandra Lattanzi was born in Rome. She graduated and received her PhD from “Sapienza” University of Rome. She has been visiting scientist in the groups of Prof. V. K. Aggarwal (Sheffield, 1999-2000) and Dr. N. E. Leadbeater (London, 2001). Since 2005 she has been Associate Professor at University of Salerno. In 2013 she obtained the national italian habilitation for Full Professor in organic chemistry. Her research interests focus on the areas of chirality, stereoselective organocatalysed and metal-catalysed synthesis of heterocyclic compounds and oxidation reactions. She published over 100 papers including reviews in international journals, book chapters and coedited a book on “Asymmetric synthesis of three-membered rings (WILEY, 2017).

Hans Günter Nedden completed his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in chemistry at the University in Tübingen (Germany) under the supervision of Prof. U. Nagel in 1997, working on the synthesis of chiral PN ligands and use in Ni-catalysed asymmetric cross couplings. After a postdoctoral stay with Prof. I. E. Marko in Belgium, working on iron (II)-bisimine pyridine catalysts for ethylene and propylene polymerisation, he joined ICI Synetix in 2001, later to become part of Johnson Matthey. His core interest is in catalytic research and in the synthetic development and scale-up of ligands and metal complexes with catalytic activity. He leads a team in Cambridge (UK) dedicated to bringing to market new homogenous catalysts for hydrogenation and transfer hydrogenation.

Dr. Ivan Shuklov graduated from Higher Chemical College of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2002 (Moscow, Russia). He received his Ph. D. with Prof. Dr. K. Krohn in 2006 from the University of Paderborn. Currently he is working at the Leibnitz-Institute of Catalysis (LIKAT, Rostock, Germany). Over the past decade his research concentrates on the various aspects of the chemistry of lactic acid and PLA associated with industrial production. His research interests cover asymmetric catalysis, and solvent effects in organic chemistry.

Hans-Jürgen Federsel, PhD in Organic Chemistry, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm (1980). Starting as process R&D chemist in Astra, Södertälje, Sweden (1974) he has occupied positions both as line and project manager. After the formation of AstraZeneca (1999) he became Director of Science, followed by appointment as Senior Principal Scientist. Academic qualifications lead to an Associate Professorship (KTH,1990) and a seat on the Board of the School of Chemical Science and Engineering. 2009 he was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. After closure of Södertälje R&D (2012), he relocated to Macclesfield, UK maintaining his previous role. In early 2017 (February) he decided to return to his home-country Sweden again, which meant leaving AstraZeneca after several decades of service and instead pick up a role as Chief Scientific Officer in EnginZyme – a newly founded biotech start-up focussing on developing a technology platform in biocatalysis, notably building on the immobilization of enzymes.

Dr. Carlos Palo-Nieto obtained his degree in Pharmacy (2008) and his PhD in the Department of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry (2013) at the University of Sevilla (Spain). During his PhD, he worked on the stereoselective synthesis of new compounds with biological interest from carbohydrate starting materials and also performed the synthesis of small molecules in search of anticancer and antimicrobial activity. During his PhD, he spent six months in Stockholm University working on asymmetric catalysis. Afterwards, he spent a year at Mid Sweden University (Sundsvall) as a post-doctoral fellow working in heterogeneous catalysis. After a short time working in pharmaceutical industry, in 2015, he joined the group of M. Carmen Galan at the University of Bristol (England) as Newton International Postdoctoral Fellow where his research focuses on the application of catalysis to oligosaccharide synthesis

Arkaitz Correa studied Chemistry at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), where he finished his PhD in 2006 under the guidance of Prof. Esther Domínguez. Along that time, he did a 3-month stay at the University of Groningen in the group of Prof. Ben L Feringa. In 2007 he joined the group of Prof. Carsten Bolm at the RWTH Aachen University (Germany) as a postdoctoral researcher for 2 years. Then, he moved to the ICIQ (Tarragona) to undertake further postdoctoral studies with Prof. Ruben Martin (2008-2014). In april 2014, he started his independent career at UPV/EHU as a Ramón y Cajal fellow and his current research interests are primarily focused on the field of C−H functionalization and heterocyclic chemistry.

Alex M. Szpilman grew up in Hillerød, Denmark.He completed his M.Sc. at the Technical University of Denmark. He did his Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute of Science, under the supervision of Professor Mario D. Bachi. Alex received a prestigious Carlsberg Postdoctoral Fellowship for his postdoctoral work which was carried out in the Erick M. Carreira group at the ETH. ​ In 2009 Alex started his independent career at the Technion. From 2010 to 2012 Alex was the incumbent of the Chaya Career Advancement Chair for young faculty. In 2016, Alex moved to Ariel University. Alex's research programs include nitroxide as catalysts, and umpolung of enolates using hypervalent iodine reagents. Additional research concerns energetic materials, the biological activity of natural products and solar light induced synthetic processes.

Shaoguang Zhang is a postdoctoral researcher in University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Beijing Institute of Technology with a B.En. degree in 2008. Then he joined Prof. Zhenfeng Xi's group in Peking University, and obtained his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry in 2013. From 2013 to 2016, he worked in Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with Dr. Morris Bullock on molecular electrocatalysis. In late 2016, he moved to Philadelphia and joined Prof. Neil Tomson's group in UPenn. His research interest includes molecular catalysis toward utilization of renewable energy, small molecule activation, metal hydride chemistry, inorganic/organic synthetic chemistry and reaction mechanism. He has more than 37 publications and 15 awards.

Isidro M. Pastor was born in Alicante (Spain) and studied chemistry at the University of Alicante, from which he obtained B.Sc. (1996) and M.Sc. (1997) degrees. He received his doctorate in 2000 from the University of Alicante. In November 2000, he joined the research group of Prof. Hans Adolfsson at the Arrhenius Laboratory (Stockholm University, Sweden) as a postdoctoral fellow until the end of 2002. In 2003, he returned to the University of Alicante, where he was appointed as a Teaching Assistant in 2003, an Assistant Professor in 2004, a Lecturer in 2007, and an Associate Professor in 2010. His research interests are in the field of organometallic chemistry, heterocyclic chemistry, metal–organic frameworks, and catalysis.

Maria Miguéns Pereira ibidem Mariette Pereira is Associate Professor with habilitation at the University of Coimbra since 2007. She finished the PhD in Chemistry in 1992-University of Coimbra, and later worked as Researcher at the Universities of Liverpool in 1993 and Autónoma of Barcelona in 1997-1998. She is the President of Coimbra Delegation of Portuguese Chemical Society since 2014. She is shareholder and was the Director of Chemical Research Laboratory of the pharmaceutical company Luzitin, Lda between 2010-2014. She is the Coordinator of Catalysis & Fine Chemistry Laboratory of Coimbra Chemistry Research Center since 2000. Her scientific interests are centered on the development of sustainable processes for catalytic reactions namely carbonylation and oxidation reactions for preparation of compounds with potential biological activity. She as a long-term experience on the development of innovative synthetic processes for tetrapyrrole macrocycles for biomedicinal applications, namely photodynamic therapy of cancer (PDT), microorganism inactivation (PDI) and also molecular imaging. She has published about 140 scientific papers in international scientific journals, 3 books, 5 book chapters and is the author of 4 international patents, two of them accepted in more than 30 countries.

Konstantin Luzyanin studied chemistry at Saint Petersburg State University (1997−2002). He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Technical University of Lisbon (in 2007), where he was also a postdoctoral researcher (2007−2008) and a senior research associate (2009−2012). For his Ph.D. studies, he was awarded Bruker’s Antońio Xavier Prize for application of modern NMR techniques in organometallic chemistry. He was a co-founder of the Modern Methods of Structure Elucidation (MMSE) – Portuguse national training site, celebrating 10 years in 2018. In 2013, Konstantin joined the newly created Center of Cluster Catalysis in Saint Petersburg as a Deputy Head and a Leading Scientist. In 2015, Konstantin moved to the University of Liverpool as the Head of the Analytical Services in Department of Chemistry and Researcher in Analytical Applications. He currently works on his habilitation project to be undertaken at Saint Petersburg State University.

Konstantin’s current research interests include organometallic chemistry of late transition metals, activation of small molecules, mechanisms of metal-mediated and metal-catalyzed reactions, and application of modern techniques of NMR spectroscopy.

Dr. Luzyanin is an author of more than 70 original papers (h-index: 22), 5 patents, 2 reviews, as well as 4 book chapters. In the course of last years, he supervised several M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, delivered several university courses and received funding from various funding bodies.

Luisa Maia is a postdoctoral fellow at the "Biological Chemistry @ FCT-UNL" group led by José J.G. Moura (hosted at UCIBIO, REQUIMTE, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa). She received her Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutical and Clinical Biochemistry from the Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal) for work on the new catalytic activities of mammalian molybdenum-containing enzymes relevant to human physiology and pathology. Her current research interests involve reactive oxygen and nitrogen species biochemistry and structure-activity relationships of metalloenzymes, with focus on the reaction mechanisms of molybdenum-containing enzymes (mammalian and prokaryotic enzymes).

Maria Manuel Marques was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1972. She studied chemistry at the new University of Lisbon, from where she also received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 2001 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. S. Prabhakar. From 2001 to 2003 she joined the group of Prof. Dr. J. Mulzer at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the University of Vienna, as a postdoctoral research fellow. In 2003, she returned to the Faculty of Science and Technology, New University of Lisbon (Requimte) as a research fellow. Since 2004 she has been involved in organic chemistry teaching at the Chemistry Department, and in 2016 she obtained her Habilitation in Chemistry. Her research encompasses the development of new synthetic and sustainable methodologies involving metal-catalyzed reactions towards bioactive compounds, in particular heterocyclic molecules, and the development of new synthetic strategies to prepare glycopeptides in order to understand biological systems.

Dr. David M. Jenkins completed his PhD in inorganic chemistry under the direction of Prof. Jonas Peters at the California Institute of Technology in 2005. Upon completion of his dissertation, he accepted a prestigious Miller Fellowship for Basic Research at the University of California, Berkeley where he worked with Prof. Jeffrey Long on magnetic materials. In 2008, Dr. Jenkins began his independent career at the University of Tennessee and was promoted in 2014 to the position of Mamantov Associate Professor of Chemistry. During his time at the University of Tennessee, he has won numerous university research awards, plus an NSF CAREER grant. His current research focuses on synthetic chemistry of N-heterocycles ranging for homogeneous catalysis to materials development and surface modifications for analyte detection.

Beatriz Royo is Coordinator Researcher and Head of the Chemistry Division at ITQB NOVA (Lisbon, Portugal). She studied chemistry at University of Alcalá (Spain) and obtained her PhD degree in Sussex (UK) in the group of Prof. M. Lappert in 1993. After four years in University of Alcalá, first as an Assistant Professor and later as a Research Scientist, she joined the group of Carlos Romão at ITQB NOVA. In 2004, she became head of the Organometallic Catalysis group at ITQB NOVA. Her current main interest is the development of environmentally benign catalytic processes using organometallic compounds of earth-abundant, cheap metals (Mn, Fe, Ni).

Sergio Rossi was born in Bergamo in 1983. In 2007 he obtained his Laurea in Chemistry at the University of Milan (Italy) and in 2010 he completed his PhD on the activation of trichlorosilyl derivatives with chiral Lewis bases under the supervision of Prof. M. Benaglia, at the University of Milan. In 2011, he joined the group of Prof. S.E. Denmark with a postdoctoral fellowship, at the University of Urbana-Champaign (USA), where he worked on Lewis base-catalyzed asymmetric sulfenylation reactions. In 2012 he moved back to Milan, as postdoctoral fellow, developing new enantiomerically pure tetrachlorosilane-based Lewis acids for catalysis. In 2013 he was awarded by a fellowship as brilliant young researchers granted by Cariplo Foundation and he was qualified and selected in a global competition among 600 young scientists worldwide to participate to the “63rd -Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting”. In 2017 he obtained an Assistant Professor position at the University of Milan, where he is currently working in the development of new stereoselective metal-free synthetic methodologies, in the stereoselective synthesis of chiral pharmaceutical products as well as in the development of catalytic stereoselective reactions under continuous-flow conditions in micro- and mesoreactors, taking advantage of new enabling technologies such as 3D-printing. He is currently member of the organizing committee of the International School of Process Chemistry (ISPROCHEM).

Scientific career
2006: B.S. degree in Chemistry
Department of Applied Chemistry, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan
(Supervisor: Prof. Takeshi Toru)
2013: PhD degree in Chemistry
Department of Frontier Materials, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan
(Supervisor: Prof. Shuichi Nakamura)
2013: Postdoctoral fellow
Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Germany
(Supervisor: Prof. Benjamin List)
2014- Assistant Professor
Department of Material Chemistry, Ryukoku University, Japan
(Supervisor: Prof. Kingo Uchida)


Awards 2011: The Prize of 5th Wakashachi Incentive Award, Aichi Prefectural Government
2012: The Poster Award of 2nd CSJ Chemistry Fest, Chemical Society of Japan
2012: Best Presentation Award, 92th Annual Meeting of CSJ, Chemical Society of Japan
2013: Postdoctoral fellowship, The Naito Fundation
2015: Kaneka Award,in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, The Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan


Current research topics Catalytic reaction, Alternative reaction methodology, Greener synthesis

Lawrence Wolf received his undergraduate degree in chemistry in 2006 at Drexel University and completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign under the guidance of Prof. Scott E. Denmark in 2012. He subsequently underwent postdoctoral research in the area of computational/theoretical chemistry at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung under the supervision of Prof. Walter Thiel in close collaboration with catalysis research groups. In the Fall of 2016 he joined the chemistry faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell as an assistant professor. His current research interests broadly include the development and application of modern reactivity models for elucidating reactivity/selectivity principles focused in catalysis as well as applying strategies in computer aided catalyst design.

Lawrence Wolf received his undergraduate degree in chemistry in 2006 at Drexel University and completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign under the guidance of Prof. Scott E. Denmark in 2012. He subsequently underwent postdoctoral research in the area of computational/theoretical chemistry at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung under the supervision of Prof. Walter Thiel in close collaboration with catalysis research groups. In the Fall of 2016 he joined the chemistry faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell as an assistant professor. His current research interests broadly include the development and application of modern reactivity models for elucidating reactivity/selectivity principles focused in catalysis as well as applying strategies in computer aided catalyst design.

José Pérez Sestelo was born in Vigo (1966). He studied Chemistry at the University of Santiago de Compostela where he got his PhD degree in 1994. After postdoctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania (1994-95) under the supervision of Prof. Amos B. Smith III, and Boston College (1996) with Prof. T. Ross Kelly, he joined the University of A Coruña in 1997 where he currently holds a position as Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry (habilitation as full professor in 2012). He has been visiting scholar at the University of Rostock (2011) and Michigan State University (2014). His research activity is focused on Organic Synthesis using organometallic compounds, highlighting his contributions in cross-coupling reactions using organoindium reagents. He has authored about 60 articles in high impact international journals.

Talia Pettigrew was born in Brisbane, Australia. She completed a dual Bachelor of Science (Hons I, Chemistry)/Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Queensland. Her Honours research with James de Voss and Joanne Blanchfield focussed on isolation of natural products from medicinal herbs. She then undertook a Master of Science Communication Outreach at the Australian National University, touring to regional areas with the Shell Questacon Science Circus. In 2014, Talia began her PhD research with Ian Paterson and David Spring at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include natural product isolation and total synthesis, as well as function-oriented modifications to natural product syntheses to create improved targets for medicinal applications.

Fernando López-Ortiz received a Ph. D. degree from the University of Oviedo (1987) under the supervision of Profs. J. Barluenga and F. Palacios. He was a postdoctoral Humboldt fellow (FRG) at the University of Siegen in the group of Prof. H. Günther (1987-88) and at the Max Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung (Mülheim a.d. Ruhr) working with R. Benn (1988-89). He promoted to an associate professor of the University of Oviedo in 1989 and to a full professor of the University of Almería in 1996.  His current research activities range from the application of phosphorus-stabilized carbanions to the preparation of catalysts and magnetic materials to mechanistic studies of reactions involving organometallic species through multinuclear magnetic resonance techniques.

Mário M. Q. Simões was born at Coimbra in 1965 and obtained his PhD degree in 2001 at the University of Aveiro under the guidance of Professor José A. S. Cavaleiro and Professor Ana M. V. Cavaleiro. He joined the University of Aveiro in 1992, as a training assistant, after working at Hovione - Sociedade Química during a short period (1990-1992) following his degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Coimbra (1990). His scientific activity is centred on organic chemistry and catalysis areas. The main research interests are related to catalytic oxidative transformations of organic compounds, both under homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions. He is currently an Organic Chemistry Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Aveiro and author or co‑author of more than 70 scientific publications, 14 books or book chapters, more than 40 oral communications and more than 140 poster presentations.

Moshe Portnoy is an associate professor of chemistry in Tel Aviv University. After graduating from Tel Aviv University in 1987, he conducted his Ph.D. research (1987-1993) in the Weizmann Institute of Science under the guidance of Prof. David Milstein. After two post-doctoral fellowships, one with Prof. Itamar Willner of the Hebrew University (1994-1995) and one with Prof. Barry M. Trost in Stanford University (1995-1997), he joined the faculty of the School of Chemistry of the Tel Aviv University, where he has been promoted to his current position in 2008. His research spreads over several areas of organic chemistry, among them development of new synthetic methods, solid-phase synthesis, organocatalysis, dendrimers and their applications in catalysis and life sciences.

Pavel Mykhailiuk was born in Kerch, Ukraine in 1984. In 2000 he won a bronze medal at 32nd International Chemistry Olympiads, IChO (Copenhagen, Denmark). In 2008 he received PhD in Biochemistry at Technical University of Karlsruhe (KIT, Germany) after working with Prof. Anne Ulrich. Thereafter, he joined the Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University (Ukraine), where he obtained PhD in Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Igor Komarov. Since then Pavel holds a position Senior Scientist at this University. Independently, in 2009 he joined “Enamine LTD” company (Ukraine), where he currently holds a position of Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). Pavel´s research interests include fluorine-containing compounds, conformationally restricted molecules, 3D-shaped unnatural scaffolds and their application in medicinal chemistry. He is co-author of more than 100 research manuscripts (H=18). In 2014, he was selected as a runner up of EFMC Prize for a Young Medicinal Chemist in Industry. In 2017, Pavel received D.Sc. in organic chemistry at the Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University (Ukraine).

Dr. Ana Cruz has been a chemist at Hovione’s Process chemistry development group for the last 7 years. She graduated in Applied Chemistry (Organic Chemistry Branch) from the New University of Lisbon in 2003. She spent one year working on a research project developing the synthesis of APIs in ITQB before moving to Bath (UK) to carry out a Ph.D in organic chemistry with Prof. Michael Willis. Her Ph.D work was focused on the development of C-H activation reactions catalyzed by palladium. After completing her Ph.D she joined Ascent Scientific as a synthetic chemist and in 2009 she returned to Portugal to join Hovione’s R&D group.  At Hovione she has worked on the development of processes to produce contrast agents and has worked on the chemistry of steroids and tetracyclines. More recently she has been working on process development and scale-up to produce APIs under a quality by design approach. Her main interests are palladium catalyzed reactions, crystallization processes and process modelling.

Armando J. L. Pombeiro is a Full Professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa, President of the Centro de Química Estrutural and Coordinator of its Synthesis and Catalysis thematic line, Director of the Catalysis and Sustainability (CATSUS) PhD program, Full Member of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon and former President of the Portuguese Electrochemical Society. His research Group investigates the activation of small molecules with industrial, environmental or biological significance, including (i) metal-mediated synthesis and (bioinspired) catalysis under mild/sustainable conditions (e.g., functionalization of alkanes, water oxidation, water in catalysis, alcohol/ketone oxidations, C-C couplings, CO2 utilization, catalysis in ionic liquids, in supercritical medium, under microwaves and/or metal-free, (ii) crystal engineering of coordination compounds, design and self-assembly of polynuclear and supramolecular structures (e.g., coordination polymers and MOFs), (iii) non-covalent interactions in synthesis, (iv) coordination compounds with anti-tumor and anti-bacterial activity), (v) molecular electrochemistry and (vi) theoretical studies. He was Chairman of the 25th International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry (ICOMC) in 2012, will chair the 7th EuCheMS Conference on N-Ligands in 2018 and the 22nd International Symposium on Homogeneous Catalysis in 2020. He teaches courses on homogeneous catalysis. He authored one book (plus four as editor), (co-)authored over 700 research publications, 38 patents, and presented 100 invited lectures at international conferences. His work has received over 15,000 citations and has an h-index of 56 (Web of Science). He was awarded the Madinabeitia-Lourenço Prize (Spanish Royal Chemical Society) including prizes from the Portuguese Chemical and Electrochemical Societies.

Dr. Carlos Mateos obtained his first degree in Organic Chemistry, in 1998, at the University of Oviedo (Spain). Then, he moved to Leverkusen, (Germany) to enjoy an industrial internship in Bayer AG working on the industrial development of azo-dyes. In 1999 he moved back to Spain and decided to pursue a PhD on natural product synthesis, at the University of Oviedo under the supervision of the late Professor José Barluenga. After receiving his PhD in 2004, Carlos joined the company Galchimia (a leading Spanish Contract Research Organization in Santiago de Compostela, Spain) as a project manager. In 2006, he moved to Alcobendas, Madrid to join Eli Lilly and Co. where he has been working in early discovery medicinal chemistry projects. He has recently become interested in developing new methodologies in Continuous Flow Chemistry and expanding the knowledge and capabilities of his group in that field. To that end, he has established several fruitful and enjoyable collaborations with academia.

Dr. Chris H. Senanayake was born in Sri Lanka and received a BS degree (First Class) in Sri Lanka. After coming to the United States, he completed his MS at Bowling Green State University with Professor Thomas Kinstle in synthetic chemistry. He obtained his Ph.D. under the guidance of Professor James H. Rigby at Wayne State University in 1987 where he worked on the total synthesis of complex natural products such as, ophiobolanes, and completed the first total synthesis of Grosshemin from the guaianolide family. He then undertook a postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Carl R. Johnson and worked on the total synthesis of polyol systems such as Amphotericin B and Compactin analogous, and the synthesis of C-nucleoside precursors. In 1989, he joined the Department of Process Development at Dow Chemical Co. In 1990, he joined the Merck Process Research Group. After 6 years at Merck, he accepted a position at Sepracor, Inc. and in 1996 he was promoted to Executive Director of Chemical Process Research. In 2002, he joined Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals. Currently, he is the Vice President of Chemical Development and leading a group of highly talented scientists, engineers, and administrative staff located in Ridgefield, CT.

Dr. Senanayake’s research interests focus on the development of new asymmetric methods for the synthesis of bioactive molecules and heterocycles and on catalytic, enzymatic, and mechanistic studies. He has published and lectured in the area of practical asymmetric synthesis and many disciplines of organic chemistry, particularly on how to develop drugs on an economical, greener and practical manner at large-scale for the rapid development of drugs. He is the co-author more than 375 papers, patents, book chapters and review articles in many areas of synthetic organic chemistry, drug development and design of improved chemical entities. He is an Editorial Advisory Board member of the Organic Process Research & Development Journal. In 2008, he was the chairperson of the Stereochemistry Gordon Conference. In 2010, he received the prestigious Siegfried gold medal award for development of practical processes for APIs and Process Chemistry. In 2011, he was appointed to the editorial board of the Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis Journal. In 2012 he was appointed to the advisory board of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry. In 2013 he was appointed to the board of editors of Organic Syntheses.

David Milstein is the Israel Matz Professor of Chemistry and the director of the Kimmel Center of Molecular Design at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He received a Ph.D. degree at the Hebrew University in Israel in 1976 with Prof. Blum, and performed postdoctoral research at Colorado State University, where together with his advisor, Prof. John Stille, he discovered the Stille Reaction. In 1979 he joined DuPont Company’s CR&D in Wilmington, USA as a Group Leader, and in 1986 he moved to the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where he headed the Department of Organic Chemistry in 1996-2005. His research interests include fundamental organometallic chemistry, and the design and application of metal-catalyzed reactions for sustainable chemistry. He has received several awards, including the 2012 Israel Prize (Israel’s highest honor) and The ENI Award for protection of the environment (2016). He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the German National Academy of Sciences-Leopoldina.

Prof. Ian Baxendale obtained his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Pavel Kocovsky at the University of Leicester. He then moved to a postdoctoral position with Prof. Steven V. Ley at the University of Cambridge. In 2003 he was awarded a Wolfson Royal Society Fellowship. In 2008 he was promoted to a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Chemistry and then in 2009 was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. In 2012 he moved to Durham to take up the Chair of Synthetic Chemistry. His current research interests are the design and implementation of new enabling technologies such as Flow Chemical Synthesis (FCS), Synthesis Automation Methodologies (SAM), microwave reactors and immobilised reagents and scavengers to expedite complex chemical syntheses.

Prof. Janine Cossy’s early career was spent in Reims, where she did her undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Champagne-Ardenne, working on photochemistry under the supervision of Prof. Jean Pierre Pète. After a postdoctoral stay with Prof. Barry M. Trost, for two years at the University of Wisconsin (USA), she returned to Reims where she became, in 1990, Director of Research at the CNRS. In the same year, she moved to Paris and, since 1990, she is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the ESPCI Paris. Janine Cossy's research interests focus on the synthesis of natural products and biologically active molecules and on the development of synthetic methods (organometallic reactions, catalysis, ring expansions, opening of strained rings, methods for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds, stereoselective reactions). She has many collaborations with pharma and agro companies. Her research efforts have resulted in more than 470 publications and 15 patents. Among the awards, she received the CNRS Bronze Medal (1987), the CNRS Silver Medal (1996), UK Royal Society Rosalyn Franklin International Lecturership awarded to internationally recognized women scientists (2005), Le Bel Award from the French Chemical Society (France) (2009). In 2013, she was nominated Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and in 2015, she obtained the E.C. Taylor Senior Award and the UR Ghatak endowment award (IACS, India). Since 2005, she has been one of the Organic Letters associate editors.

Prof. Kilian Muñiz was born in 1970 in Hildesheim, Germany. He received a doctorate in Chemistry from the RWTH Aachen in 1998 for work with Professor Carsten Bolm and was an Alexander von Humboldt/JSPS postdoctoral associate with Professor Ryoji Noyori at Nagoya University, Japan (1999-2000). From 2001-2005 he was a Liebig fellow at Bonn University, before accepting a full professorship at Strasbourg University (France). He was elected as a junior member to the Institute Universitaire de France in 2008. Kilian Muñiz moved to his present position at ICIQ in Tarragona (Spain) in 2009. Since 2010 he has also been an ICREA research professor. He received a 2015 Award for Excellence in Research from the Royal Spanish Chemical Society (RSEQ) and a 2016 Yoshida Lectureship from the IOCF. His research throughout the past decade has mainly dealt with the development of new synthetic methodology in the area of amination chemistry, particularly the oxidative diamination of alkenes.

Lutz Ackermann FRSC is a full professor of chemistry at Georg-August-University Göttingen, he obtained a Diploma in Chemistry at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (1993–98), then he conducted Ph.D. research under the guidance of Prof. Alois Fürstner at MPI Kohlenforschung in Mülheim (1998 – 2001), this was followed by a post-doctoral fellowship with Prof. Robert G. Bergman at UC Berkeley (2001-3) and then an Emmy Noether-Fellow (DFG) (Independent researcher) at the LMU München (2003 –7). In 2007 he was appointed to a position of Full Professor (W3) at the Georg-August-University Göttingen. From 2011-13 he was the Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry at Georg-August-University Göttingen, and from 2013 –15 the Dean of Research at the same department. In 2015 he was appointed as the Director of the Institute of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry at this University. He is an adjunct professor at the Università di Pavia, Italy and a visiting professor at the Università degli Studi di Perugia, Italy. In 2009 he held a JSPS Visiting Professor Fellowship at Osaka University, Japan, in 2008 he was a Goering Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and in 2007 a Visiting Professor at Università Milano. He has an h-index of ≥ 72 (≥ 220 publications) and has given more than 200 invited lectures. His main interests are in; C–H activation, homogenous catalysis, peptide chemistry, reaction mechanisms and base metal catalysis. He has received numerous awards, recognitions or grants, that include: the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Prize (2017), Thomson Reuters (Web of Science) ISI Highly Cited Researcher (2016), Invited Chair Professor Joliot at the Ecole superieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (ESPCI) (2016), Molecular Science Frontier Lecture Professorship, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) (2016), is a member of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Göttingen (2016), the Ta-Shue Chou Lectureship Award, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (2015), an ERC Independent Researcher Consolidator Grant (2012), the AstraZeneca Excellence in Chemistry Award (2011), Dozentenstipendium (FCI), ADUC prize (GDCh) (2007) and the ORCHEM-Preis für Naturwissenschaftler (GDCh) (2006).

Prof. Manfred T. Reetz (born 1943 in Germany) is currently emeritus group leader of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung (MPI) in Mülheim and simultaneously Hans-Meerwein-Research-Professor at the University of Marburg/Germany, where he runs his current group. Previously he was director at the MPI for two decades, and before that he held a chair for organic chemistry in Marburg. Prof. Reetz earned Bachelor and Master degrees in the USA (1965-67) and a doctoral degree in organic chemistry at Göttingen University (1969). For many years the Reetz group developed novel organometallic reagents, chiral catalysts and methods for application in organic chemistry. In 1995 the group turned to biocatalysis and pioneered the concept of directed evolution of stereo- and regioselective enzymes as efficient catalysts in organic chemistry and biotechnology. Together with other groups, the long-standing limitations of enzymes were eliminated. Today it constitutes a prolific source of catalysts for a wide variety of different asymmetric transformations, including enantioselective hydrolysis, oxidation, reduction, and C-C bond forming reactions. Ongoing methodology development in the Reetz group continues to enhance the efficacy of this protein engineering method.

Prof. Masakatsu Shiasaki earned his Bachelor Degree in 1969 and his Ph.D in 1974 at the University of Tokyo under the direction of Professor Shun-ichi Yamada. From 1974–1977, he did postdoctoral studies with Professor E. J. Corey at Harvard University and in 1986, he took a professorship at Hokkaido University, before returning to the University of Tokyo as a professor in 1991. In 2006 he was appointed as the Dean of the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, at the University of Tokyo (2006-08). In 2010 after retiring from the University of Tokyo he was appointed director of the Institute of Microbial Chemistry, Tokyo. His awards and honors include: The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award for Young Scientists, 1981 (Japan); Inoue Prize for Science, 1994 (Japan); Fluka Prize (Reagent of the Year 1996), 1996 (Switzerland); The Elsevier Award for Inventiveness in Organic Chemistry (Tetrahedron Chair), 1998 (Belgium); The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award, 1999 (Japan); Molecular Chirality Award, 1999 (Japan); The Naito Foundation Research Prize for 2002 (Japan); ACS Award: Arthur C. Cope Senior Scholar Award, 2002 (USA); Medal with Purple Ribbon, 2003 (Japan); The Toray Science Award, 2004 (Japan); The Japan Academy Prize, 2005 (Japan); Takamine Memorial Sankyo Award, 2006 (Japan); The Rare Earth Society of Japan Award, 2007 (Japan); ACS Award: Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, 2008 (USA); Centenary Medal and Lectureship (Royal Society of Chemistry), 2008 (UK); Prelog Medal, 2008 (ETH, Switzerland); Special Award of Synthetic Organic Chemistry of Japan, 2010 and Ryoji Noyori Prize 2012 (Japan).

Polly Arnold holds the Crum Brown Chair of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. She obtained degrees from Oxford and Sussex, and was a Fulbright postdoctoral fellow at MIT before returning to the UK to a lectureship in 1999. Her research is focused on the design and synthesis of highly reactive f-block complexes that can activate inert small molecules such as carbon oxides and hydrocarbons, and that can provide fundamental information on structure and bonding at the bottom of the periodic table.

Prof. Scott E. Denmark was born in New York on 17 June 1953. He obtained an S. B. degree from M.I.T. in 1975 and his graduate studies were carried out at the ETH Zürich under the direction of Professor Albert Eschenmoser, culminating in a D.Sc. Tech degree in 1980. That same year he began his career as assistant professor at the University of Illinois. He was promoted to associate professor in 1986, full professor in 1987 and then in 1991 named the Reynold C. Fuson Professor of Chemistry. Professor Denmark is primarily interested in the invention of new synthetic reactions and elucidating the origins of stereocontrol in novel, asymmetric reactions. The current emphasis in his laboratories focuses on the relationship between structure, reactivity and stereoselectivity in a variety of organoelement processes. He has pioneered the concept of chiral Lewis base activation of Lewis acids for catalysis in main group synthetic organic chemistry. His group has also developed palladium-catalyzed cross-couplings with organofunctional silicon compounds. In addition, his research program encompasses the development and application of tandem heterodiene cycloadditions for the synthesis of complex natural (alkaloids) and unnatural (fenestranes, phase transfer catalysts) nitrogen containing compounds. In recent years, his group has investigated the use of chemoinformatics to identify and optimize catalysts for a variety of organic and organometallic reactions. Professor Denmark has won a number of honours for both research and teaching. These include: A. P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, Stuart Pharmaceuticals Award, A. C. Cope Scholar Award (ACS), Alexander Von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, Pedler Lecture and Medal (RSC), the ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, the Yamada-Koga Prize, the Prelog Medal (ETH Zürich), the H. C. Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods (ACS), Robert Robinson Lecture and Medal (RSC), the ISHC Senior Award in Heterocyclic Chemistry, Paul Karrer Lectureship (Uni Zürich), the Frederic Stanley Kipping Award for Research in Silicon Chemistry (ACS) and the Harry and Carol Mosher Award (Santa Clara Section, ACS). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Chemical Society. He has received numerous honorary lectureships and visiting professorships and has served on many editorial advisory boards. He edited Volume 85 of Organic Syntheses, was Editor of Volumes 22-25 of Topics in Stereochemistry and was a founding Associate Editor of Organic Letters (1999-2004). After serving on the editorial board from 1994-2003, he became Editor-in-Chief and President of Organic Reactions, Inc. in 2008.

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS (out of over 360)

1. Lewis Base Catalysis in Organic Synthesis (with G. Beutner), Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 1560-1638.
2. On the Mechanism of Lewis Base Catalyzed Aldol Addition Reactions: Kinetic and Spectroscopic Investigations Using Rapid-Injection NMR (with B. M. Eklov, P. J. Yao, and M. D. Eastgate) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 11770-11787.
3. Silicon-Based Cross-Coupling Reactions in the Total Synthesis of Natural Products (with J. H.-C. Liu) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 2978-2986.
4. A Systematic Investigation of Quaternary Ammonium Ions as Asymmetric Phase-Transfer Catalysts. Synthesis of Catalyst Libraries and Evaluation of Catalyst Activity (with N. D. Gould and L. M. Wolf) J. Org. Chem. 2011, 76, 4260-4336.
5. Lewis Base Catalyzed, Enantioselective, Intramolecular Sulfenoamination of Olefins (with H. M. Chi) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 8915-8918.
6. Catalytic, Stereospecific Syn-Dichlorination of Alkenes (with A. J. Cresswell and S. T.-C. Eey) Nature Chemistry 2015, 7, 146-152.
7. Mechanistic Significance of the Si-O-Pd Bond in the Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions of Arylsilanolates (with S. A. Tymonko, R. C. Smith, A. Ambrosi, M. H. Ober, and H. Wang) J. Am. Chem.Soc. 2015, 137, 6200-6218.
8. Catalytic, Stereoselective Dihalogenation of Alkenes: Challenges and Opportunities (with A. J. Cresswell and S. T.-C. Eey) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 15642-15682.
9. Pre-Transmetalation Intermediates in the Suzuki-Miyaura Reaction Revealed: The Missing Link (with A. A. Thomas) Science 2016, 352, 329-332.
10. Harnessing the Power of the Water-Gas Shift Reaction for Organic Synthesis (with A. Ambrosi) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 12164-12189.

Dr. Thomas Schaub was born in 1980. He conducted undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) (1999-2002) and graduate studies (diploma in Chemistry and Diploma-Thesis with Dr. U. Radius at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry) (2002-4) followed by a PhD at the same laboratory (2004-6). He then conducted post-doctoral research in the group of Prof. David Milstein at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel (2007-8), followed by a position of research scientist in the homogeneous catalysis development unit within the Process Research and Chemical Engineering Unit (“Ammonlabor”) at BASF SE in Ludwigshafen, Germany (2008-14). In 2014, he became the lab head of the Catalysis Research Laboratory (CaRLa) in Heidelberg. He is the co-author of 30 scientific publications and the co-inventor on 56 patents. He has given talks as an invited speaker at different Conferences and gives lectures at several universities (including the University of Marburg and Imperial College London). He has received some prestigious fellowship awards that include, fellow of the Fritz-ter-Mer foundation (Leverkusen)(2002-4) and the Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship of the Minerva foundation (Munich) (2007-8). His main research interests include, process development using homogeneous catalysis (e.g. hydrogenations, aminations, carbonylations, etc), mechanistic investigations on homogeneous catalyzed reactions (e.g. use of CO2 as a building block, organometallic synthesis and high pressure chemistry.

Dr. Stefan Mix was born in Berlin / East Germany, where he also completed his secondary education. After graduation with a Diploma in chemistry, he received his doctorate in 2004 from the Technical University of Berlin after working in the group of Prof. Siegfried Blechert on stereoselective synthetic methodology and olefin metathesis. He is the author of several publications, and has been working with Almac Group since 2005. He has gained broad industrial experience including expertise in the fields of biocatalysis, crystallisation development, process development for chiral building blocks and APIs, and technology transfer to manufacturing network partners. His hobbies include sailplane gliding, kayaking and gardening.