2023 Chemistry News Archive

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Dr. Irene Stará, PhD, from IOCB Prague (Czech Republic) joined the Advisory Board of Organic Materials in November 2023.

Dr. Stará is a prominent senior scientist and project leader at the IOCB Prague (Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences). She currently serves as Deputy Group Leader in the Ivo Starý Group at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry IOCB, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Her academic journey is marked by a distinguished Ph.D. (CSc.) in Organic Chemistry earned in 1993 from the IOCB. Following her doctoral studies, Dr. Stará embarked on a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Wolfgang Oppolzer at the Université de Genève, Switzerland, from 1993 to 1994.

This foundational period laid the groundwork for her subsequent impactful contributions to the field. She has published 90 papers and 6 book chapters, earning an impressive h-index of 32. Notably, she served as a Visiting Professor in Toulouse, France (2018) and Tokyo, Japan (2016). Since 2016, she has been the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Experientia Foundation and since 2018, she has been a member of the CAS International Affairs Council. Dr. Stará's research interests span organic synthesis, organometallic chemistry, asymmetric synthesis, catalysis, synthesis, and properties of π-electron systems, self-assembly on solid surfaces, on-surface chemistry, nanoparticles, molecular electronics, and single-molecule devices.

We welcome Dr. Stará to our Advisory Board and we are anticipating a successful and inspiring collaboration with her.

We are thrilled to announce that Professor Daniele Leonori from the RWTH Aachen University, Germany, will join the SYNTHESIS Editorial Board as Associate Editor with effect of November 1st, 2023.

Daniele graduated from the Università degli Studi di Perugia (Italy) in 2006 and received his PhD from the University of Sheffield (UK) in 2010. Following two postdocs in Germany at RWTH Aachen University and the Max Plank Institute for Colloids and Interfaces he returned to the UK as Research Officer at the University of Bristol (2012–2014). Daniele started his independent academic career at the University of Manchester (UK) in 2014 where he was promoted to Reader in 2018 and Professor in 2020. In 2022, Daniele and his group moved to the RWTH Aachen University, where he is a Chair of Organic Chemistry. Research in the Leonori group focuses on the development of novel methods exploiting the reactivity of radical and photoexcited species.

Detailed Profile & Publications

We welcome Professor Daniele Leonori on the SYNTHESIS Editorial Board and look forward to a successful and inspiring collaboration with him!

Debabrata Maiti will take on the role of Editor-in-Chief on January 1, 2024.

It is our great pleasure to announce that Professor Debabrata Maiti (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India) will take over the position of SYNLETT Editor-in-Chief from Professor Benjamin List (Max-Planck-Institute, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany) in January 2024. Debabrata Maiti was born in India in 1980 and obtained his BSc at RKM Vidyamandira, Belur Math in 2001 and his MSc in 2003 under the supervision of Prof. Goutam Kumar Lahiri, IIT Bombay. In 2008, he completed his PhD at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA, under the supervision of Prof. Kenneth D. Karlin. After postdoctoral studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald, he joined the Department of Chemistry at IIT Bombay in 2011. Debabrata has received several awards, such as the 2013 Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award, National Academy of Sciences, India, the Thieme Chemistry Journals Award in 2013, and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology 2022, the highest recognition in the field of Indian science and technology. His research interests are focused on the development of remote C–H functionalization reactions, bioinspired catalysis, and new and sustainable synthetic and catalytic methodologies.

Thieme has been publishing the international journal SYNLETT since 1989, when Peter Vollhardt founded the journal together with Bernd Giese, Steve Ley (CBE), and Hisashi Yamamoto. The late Victor Snieckus joined them in 1990 to complete the original Editorial Board who served together, with other additions over the years, for some two decades. Benjamin List came on board in 2011 as a Regional Editor (successor to Bernd Giese) and has held the role of Editor-in-Chief since 2015 when he took over from Peter Vollhardt. Together with a renewed Editorial Board, he played a key role in shaping the journal, especially as mastermind and developer of the Select Crowd Review process, which combines modern peer review with innovative technology. Benjamin List remains with us as SYNFACTS editor for the category 'Organo- and Biocatalysis'. 

Debabrata Maiti will be the first Editor-in-Chief from India in the history of Thieme Chemistry journals, and we invite researchers, authors, and reviewers from around the world to warmly welcome him in his new role. We are confident that his leadership will inspire excellence, encourage collaboration, and facilitate the dissemination of groundbreaking research in organic synthesis. We look forward to fruitful collaborations!

Qian Wan joins the team as editor of Volume 29, covering acetals and carbohydrates.

We are pleased to announce Prof. Qian Wan as a new member of the team of editors overseeing the Science of Synthesis Knowledge Updates series. Prof. Qian Wan, of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (China), will be taking care of future content related to Volume 29 which covers various classes of acetal-containing compounds.

The original Science of Synthesis Volume 29, “Acetals: Hal/X and O/O, S, Se, Te”, published in 2007, was edited by Prof. Stuart Warriner (University of Leeds, UK). As well as covering methods for the introduction of various acetal functional groups, the scope of this volume also includes particular types of compounds such as cyclic acetals (e.g., dioxetanes and dioxolanes) and spiroketals. Coverage of carbohydrate chemistry is also prominent, with methods for preparing glycosyl compounds including di- and oligosaccharides also included.

Prof. Qian Wan received a B.S. degree in chemistry from Central China Normal University in 1997. In 2000, then completed M.S. studies at the Paris-Sud University, supervised by Prof. Claudine Augé. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2004, also at the Paris-Sud University, under the supervision of Prof. André Lubineau and Prof. Marie-Christine Scherrmann, and then joined the group of Prof. Samuel J. Danishefsky at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as a postdoctoral fellow. Between 2007 and 2011, he was a scientist at Amgen, and then in 2012, he began his independent career as a full professor in Tongji School of Pharmacy at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Prof. Wan’s research interests focus on the development of novel and efficient strategies for the synthesis of biologically important oligosaccharides and the discovery of new free radical chemistry.

Dr. J.C. (Chris) Slootweg is editor-in-chief of Sustainability & Circularity NOW.

Chris Slootweg was born in Haarlem (The Netherlands) in 1978 and received his undergraduate education from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2001, with research stays at the University of Amsterdam (Prof. Piet van Leeuwen) and University of Sussex (Prof. Michael Lappert). After earning his PhD in 2005 under the supervision of Prof. Koop Lammertsma, he pursued postdoctoral studies at the ETH Zürich with Peter Chen. He started his independent scientific career in 2006 at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014 and moved to the University of Amsterdam in 2016. The mission of his laboratory is to educate students at the intersection of fundamental physical organic chemistry, main-group chemistry, and circular chemistry. Chris is co-founder and scientific advisor of SusPhos BV, a pioneering company focused on upcycling phosphate-rich waste streams to generate high-quality alternatives to replace current fossil-sourced products.

Detailed Profile & Publications

It is our pleasure to welcome Prof. J. C. (Chris) Slootweg as SusCircNOW Editor-in-Chief. We look forward to a successful collaboration with him in the future!

New Associate Editors joined the editorial board or Organic Materials in January 2023. We heartly welcome Prof. Laura Russo (University of Milano-Bicocca), Prof. Satish Patil (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore), Prof. Akimitsu Narita (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan), and Prof. Ognjen Miljanic (University of Houston, USA). Please find their biographies below.

Akimitsu Narita is an Assistant Professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemistry at the University of Tokyo under the supervision of Professor Eiichi Nakamura. He then joined Professor Klaus Müllen's group at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) in Mainz, Germany, and obtained his doctorate in Chemistry from Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in 2014. In the same year, he became a project leader in the Synthetic Chemistry Department at MPIP. In 2018, he joined OIST as initially an Assistant Professor (Adjunct) to lead the Organic and Carbon Nanomaterials Unit. His current research focuses on the synthesis of functional organic materials, especially large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other nanocarbon molecules, and exploration of their potential applications.

Satish Patil is presently a Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Prof. Patil has made extensive fundamental and applied contributions to research on organic semiconductors. In particular, his research works on air-stable n-channel conjugated polymers, singlet fission in organic materials, and observation of band-like transport in conjugated polymers is truly path-breaking. Professor Patil has guided several PhD students and has more than 14 years of teaching experience in India’s premier R&D and academic institution. He is a recipient of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) medal for Young Scientist (2009), Young Affiliate of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), DST-SwarnaJayanti Fellow, Bronze Medal of Chemical Research Society and Materials Research Society of India and Prof. Kaushal Kishore Memorial Award of the Society of Polymer Science, India.

Laura Russo is Associate Professor at University of Milano-Bicocca, Adjunct Lecturer at University Galway and Visiting Researcher at Cùram – Center for of Excellence of Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine. LR has awarded the prestigious Junior Research Award for Organic Chemistry in Life Science of the Italian Chemical Society for her scientific contribute on organic chemistry applied to biomedical and life science field. LR has been invited as lecturer in national and international conferences organized by relevant scientific institution (i.e. IUPAC). Her research interests are focused on organic chemistry applied to the biomedical field, including the development of artificial biological tissues, the role of glycans on cell fate induction, the development of 3D bioprinted tissues, the covalent grafting of bioactive molecules to improve medical devices performances.

Ognjen Miljanic was born in Belgrade, then Yugoslavia in 1978. He attended the University of Belgrade, from which he graduated in 2000 with a Diploma in Chemistry. Same year, he moved to California to pursue his PhD at UC Berkeley with Prof. Peter Vollhardt. After graduating from Berkeley in 2005, he moved to UCLA for postdoctoral work with Prof. Fraser Stoddart. Since 2008, he has been a faculty at the University of Houston, where he is currently a Professor of Chemistry. Ognjen’s research interests are in the field of porous molecular crystals, dynamic combinatorial chemistry, and macrocyclic chemistry. He has published over 90 papers and a textbook on Introduction to Energy and Sustainability (Wiley, 2021), and has given more than 120 invited lectures at universities and conference in 28 countries. For his work, he has been honored with a National Science Foundation CAREER award, a Cottrell Scholar award, and an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship for advanced researchers, among other distinctions. He lives in Houston with his three children.

Renzo Luisi joins the team as editor of content relating to organolithium-, -sodium, and -potassium chemistry

We are delighted to announce that Prof. Renzo Luisi, of the University of Bari (Italy), has joined the team of editors for the Science of Synthesis Knowledge Updates series, where he will be responsible for future content relating to Volume 8 on Compounds of Group 1 (Li...Cs). The original Volume 8 of Science of Synthesis was published in 2006, edited by Professors Victor Snieckus and Marek Majewski. The scope of this volume covers organometallic compounds of the group 1 metals, which includes the synthesis of organolithium, -potassium, and -sodium species, and their applications as reagents in organic synthesis.

Renzo Luisi is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Bari “A. Moro” in Italy. He graduated summa cum laude in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Bari (Italy) in 1996, and received a PhD in Chemical Sciences in 2000. He was appointed Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry in 2005 and Full Professor in 2020. His research interests have focused on organometallic chemistry (mainly organolithium chemistry), boron, fluorine and sulfur chemistry, the synthesis and reactivity of small heterocycles, asymmetric synthesis, and dynamic NMR spectroscopy. Recently, his interests have shifted towards sustainability in modern synthesis by using flow chemistry and enabling technologies. He has published more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed international journals, several book chapters, and reviews. In 2022 he was the recipient of the award “Organic Chemistry and Methodological Aspects” from the Division of Organic Chemistry – Italian Chemical Society. He is also International Coordinator of the Horizon Europe Project SusPharma - Merging Sustainable and Digital Chemical Technologies for The Development of Greener-By-Design Pharmaceuticals.

To find out more about Renzo Luisi and his research group, click here.

As of January 1, 2023, Professor Thierry Ollevier from Université Laval (Canada) takes on the responsibility as Editor-in-Chief of SynOpen.

Thierry Ollevier obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 1997 from the University of Namur (Belgium). Following his PhD, he spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow, first at Stanford University (USA, 1998–2000) and then at the Université de Montréal (Canada, 2000–2001). In 2001, he moved to the Université Laval as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor (2006) and then Full Professor (since 2010). The research areas of Thierry’s group are focused on organic chemistry and synthetic methodology. Current research involves asymmetric synthesis including the design of new chiral ligands, diazo chemistry, metal-catalyzed and metal-free reactions as well as electrosynthesis and green chemistry.

Detailed Profile & Publications

It is our pleasure to welcome Prof. Thierry Ollevier as SynOpen Editor-in-Chief. We look forward to a successful collaboration with him in the future!

As of January 1, 2023, Professor Jung Min Joo from the Pusan National University (Rep. of Korea) will become an Editorial Board member of SYNTHESIS.

Jung Min Joo graduated from Seoul National University in 2003 and received her PhD from Princeton University in 2008 (advisor: Prof. Chulbom Lee). After a postdoc at Columbia University (advisor: Prof. Dalibor Sames) and two years in industry at Eli Lilly, she returned to Korea to Pusan National University where she grew through the ranks of Assistant and Associate Professor. Since 2022, she is appointed as Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry. Her main research focus is on transition-metal-catalyzed electrosynthesis reactions including C–H and C–X functionalization, asymmetric synthesis, and the activation of small molecules.

Detailed Profile & Publications

It is a pleasure to welcome Prof. Jung Min Joo on the SYNTHESIS Editorial Board. We look forward to a successful collaboration with her in the future!

As of January 1, 2023, Professor Tomislav Friščić from the University of Birmingham (UK) will join the Editorial Board of SYNTHESIS.

Tomislav Friščić pursued his education at the University of Zagreb (Croatia) before moving to the University of Iowa, USA for his PhD (2006). He was a post-doctoral associate with William Jones (2006) and a Herchel Smith Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge (2008) before joining McGill University in Canada in 2011 where he grew from Assistant to Associate to Full Professor (since 2019). Very recently, he accepted the position of Leverhulme International Professor in Green and Sustainable Chemistry at the University of Birmingham (UK). His research focuses on the development of solid-state catalytic and self-assembly methodologies in diverse areas of organic, metal-organic, pharmaceutical and materials synthesis. He has co-authored >250 research and review articles, as well as book chapters, in the areas of solid-state and materials chemistry, green chemistry, crystal engineering and mechanochemistry.

Detailed Profile & Publications

It is a pleasure to welcome Prof. Tomislav Friščić on the SYNTHESIS Editorial Board. We look forward to a successful collaboration with him in the future!

As of January 1, 2023, Professor Monika Raj from Emory University (USA) will join the Editorial Board of SYNLETT.

Monika Raj grew up in Chandigarh (India) and obtained her PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur (India). After receiving her PhD, she moved to the USA as a postdoctoral fellow, first at the University of Pennsylvania and then at New York University. In 2014, she joined the Department of Chemistry at Seton Hall University as an Assistant Professor and moved to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Auburn University in 2017. As of 2020, she is appointed as Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Emory University. The central theme of research in Dr. Raj’s laboratory is the development of chemical probes to understand biological systems including probes for the selective modification of amino acids and post-translational modifications in a complex cell lysate mixture for single-molecule protein sequencing, activity-based protein profiling and chemoproteomic studies. Monika Raj’s group also develops bioconjugation reactions, fluorescent sensors for detecting biological metabolites in cells and generating cyclic peptides platform for targeting protein–protein interactions. Dr. Raj is a recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Sloan Research Fellow, Thieme Chemistry Journals Award, Early Career Researcher Awards from the American Peptide Society and the Japan Peptide Society, and the Rising Star Award from the Chemical Protein Synthesis by the German Peptide Foundation.

Detailed Profile & Publications

It is our pleasure to welcome Prof. Monika Raj on the SYNLETT Editorial Board. We look forward to a successful collaboration with her in the future!