ESOC 2021

C. Oliver Kappe is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Graz (Austria) and Scientific Director of the Center of Continuous Flow Synthesis and Processsing (CC FLOW). He received his diploma (1989) and his doctoral (1992) degrees in organic chemistry from the University of Graz and after two postdoctoral stays (University of Queensland and Emory University) returned to Graz in 1996 to start his indepenent acacdemic career and was appointed Full Professor in 2011. For the past decade the focus of his research has been directed towards flow chemistry/microreaction technology, encompassing a wide variety of synthetic transformations and experimental techniques. His research group is actively involved in projects dealing with API synthesis and manufacturing, employing a number of different enabling and process intensification strategies.

Professor Steven Ley is currently a Voluntary Research Associate at the University of Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College and was BP 1702 Professor of Chemistry for 21 years. Steve obtained his PhD from Loughborough University and afterwards carried out postdoctoral research with Leo Paquette (Ohio State University) and with Derek Barton (Imperial College). He started his career at Imperial College in 1975, , and became Head of Department there in 1989, moving to Cambridge University in 1992. In 1990 he was elected to the Royal Society (London) and was President of The Royal Society of Chemistry. Steve’s research interests are varied and span many disciplines including new synthetic methodologies, the total synthesis of natural products and the development of enabling technologies for chemical synthesis - especially in the area of flow chemistry technologies. Four spin-out companies have emerged from these research interests. Steve has published over 880 papers and has been honoured with 50 major awards including recently (since 2009).

Ben List’s research focuses on chemical synthesis and catalysis. He has contributed and pioneered fundamental concepts in organocatalysis including aminocatalysis, enamine catalysis, and asymmetric counteranion directed catalysis (ACDC). After his finding of the proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric intermolecular aldol reaction in 2000, Ben List’s group has discovered the first proline-catalyzed asymmetric Mannich reaction, novel Michael additions, and aldehyde α-alkylations. He has also contributed to a clear mechanistic understanding of enamine catalysis and established the basis for the design of new reactions and catalysts. His latest work deals with chiral anions in asymmetric catalysis. His general concept of asymmetric counteranion directed catalysis has recently found widespread use in organocatalysis, transition metal catalysis, and Lewis acid catalysis.

The research of Ben List’s group has been recognized with several awards, including the Synthesis-Synlett Journal Award (2000), the Otto-Bayer-Prize (2012), the Horst-Pracejus-Prize (2013), the Mukaiyama Award (2013), the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2014), and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Prize (2016). In 2018 he became an elected member of the German National Academy of Science Leopoldina.

Mónica H. Pérez-Temprano obtained her BS degree in Chemistry at the University of Valladolid in 2005, and her PhD in 2011 under the supervision of Prof. Espinet and Prof. Casares. Next, she joined the research group of Prof. Sanford at the University of Michigan. In 2015, she began her independent career as Junior Group Leader at Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ). At ICIQ, the Pérez-Temprano group is focused on the development of experimental knowledge-driven approaches for the rational design of transition metal-catalyzed transformations. To do so, her group develops different strategies for accessing highly reactive intermediates and using them as “knowledge building blocks” for overcoming synthetic limitations and/or investigating novel reactivity patterns.

Tanja Gaich received her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Vienna (2009, Prof. Dr. J. Mulzer) She then moved on as a post-doctoral research fellow to the Scripps Research Institute La Jolla CA (Prof. P. S. Baran, 2009-2010). In 2010, she started her independent career at the Leibniz University Hannover (mentorship Prof. Dr. M. Kalesse), and was funded by the "Fonds der chemischen Industrie" and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation with the "Sofja Kovalevskaja prize". Since July 2015 she is a full professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Konstanz. Her research interests contain the total synthesis of bioactive natural products and the synthesis and design of chiroptical molecular switches.