Speakers > Plenary speakers
Prof. Elena Fernández AffiliationDepartment of Physical Chemistry and Inorganic Chemistry, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain. Elena Fernández received her degree in chemistry at the University of Barcelona in 1991. She did PhD studies in catalytic hydroformylation of sugars with Prof. S. Castillón and Prof. A. Ruiz (1991-1995) and she moved to Oxford University (UK) (1995-1997) for a postdoctoral position with Prof. John M. Brown where her studies culminated with an approach towards the first catalytic asymmetric hydroboration-amination reaction. Elena accepted in 1997 a lecturer position at the University Rovira i Virgili, becoming part of the permanent staff in 2000 and Full Professor in 2019. She received the Award on Excellence of Research in Organometallic Chemistry 2014 and the Award on Excellence of Research in Chemistry 2017, both from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry. She is Distinguished Professor at the URV from 2018. Her current scientific campaign is aimed to generate knowledge and awareness about activation modes of borane reagents to be used in selective organic synthesis of multifunctional compounds. She has contributed to several seminal articles, reviews and book's chapters, highlighting the edition of two books on Synthesis and Applications of Organoboron Compounds for Springer (2015) and Advances in Organoboron Chemistry toward Organic Synthesis for Science of Synthesis-Thieme (2019). Prof. Dennis G. Hall AffiliationDepartment of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Dennis Hall received his PhD in 1995 from the Université de Sherbrooke ( Québec, Canada) under the supervision of Prof. Pierre Deslongchamps. Between 1995-1997, he was an NSERC Postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Peter G. Schultz in the department of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He initiated his independent carrer in 1997 at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada) where he is currently University Professor of chemistry and holds the Tier-1 Canda Research Chair in Boron Chemistry for Catalysis and Drug discovery. The unifying theme of his research programme is the development of new synthetic and biological applications of organoboronic acid derivatives, with topics including stereocontrolled reaction methodology, catalysis, multicomponent reactions, bioconjugation, chemical biology, and medicinal chemistry. He has co-authored over 150 research publications, 12 book chapters and was the editor of the successful monograph "Boronic acids – Preparation, applications in Organic Synthesis, Medicine and Meterials (Wiley-VCH)", now in the second edition. Hall currently serves on the Editorial Board of Organic Reactions. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Socety of Canada in 2017, and was awarded a Killian Research Fellowship (2019-2021, Canada council of the Arts). Prof. Shih-Yuan Liu AffiliationChemistry Department Faculty, Boston College, USA. Shih-Yuan Liu received his BS degree in chemistry from Vienna University of Technology (Austria) in 1998. He did his doctoral work at MIT with Prof. Gregory Fu and received his PhD degree in organic chemistry in 2003. He then pursued hos postdoctoral studies in inorganic chemistry with Prof. Daniel G. Nocera, also at MIT. He started his independent career as an Assistant Professor at the department of chemistry at the university of Oregon in 2006, and he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012. He joined the department of chemistry at Boston College as a full professor in 2013. In 2019, he was also appointed to lead an International Guest Chair (the Energy and Environment Solutions Initiative – E2S) at University of Pau and Pays de l’Adour, France, in the Institute of analytical sciences and physical chemistry for the environment and materials (IPREM). He is interested in the development of boron(B)-nitrogen(N)-containing heterocycles, specifically azaborines. These are structures resulting from the replacement of two carbon atoms in benzene with a boron and a nitrogen atom. Azaborines are isosteres of the important family of benzenoid compounds / arenes. We aim to exploit the unique properties of azaborines and investigate their potential as arene surrogates in materials and biomedical research. Our approach combines the broad utility of arenes with the unique elemental features of boron. Areas of exploration include organic synthesis, catalysis, hydrogen storage, optoelectronic materials, and drug discovery. The development of azaborines has the potential of changing the way chemists think about creating molecular diversity, namely through isosterism. Prof. Matthias Wagner AffiliationInstitut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany. Matthias Wagner studied chemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich (LMU). He received his Diploma in 1990 and obtained his PhD with Heinrich Nöth in 1992. He moved for a postdoc with Malcom L. H. Green to the Oxford University and finished his habilitation in 1997 at the Technical University Munich (TUM) in the group of Wolfgang A. Hermann. Since 2000, he is full professor of organometallic chemistry at the J. W. Goethe University of Franfurt/Main. He has published more than 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals and given about 150 scientific lectures. His current research interest include general main-group chemistry (p-block elements in catalysis, cluster compounds), organic optoelectronic materials (B- and Si-doped p-electron systems), organoboron polymers (condensation, hydroboration, and ring-opening polymerization), dynamic covalent chemistry, reactive intermedaites, unusual bonding situations (low valent B and Si compounds, one-electron two-center bonds). https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/58708118/Group of Prof Dr Matthias Wagner Prof. Zuowei Xie AffiliationDepartment of Chemistry, The Chinese University of Hong-Kong. Prof. Zuowei Xie is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Choh-Ming Li Professor of Chemistry in The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received a BSc degree from Hangzhou University (now Zhejiang University) in 1983 and a MSc in 1983 from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He earned his PhD in Chemistry in 1990, working in a joint PhD program offered by Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technische Universität Berlin. He has been working in the Chemistry Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1995. Prof. Xie’s main research focuses on the chemistry of (super)carboranes and metallacarboranes. He has published over 290 scientific papers and received numerous honors and awards including the prestigious State Natural Science Prize (2008), Chinese Chemical Society Yao-Zeng Huang Award in Organometallic Chemistry (2010) and The Croucher Award (2003). He also served on the editorial board of Organometallics, Dalton Transactions, Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers, and Science China (Chemistry). Prof. Makoto Yamashita AffiliationDepartment of Applied Chemistry, Nagoya University, Japan. Makoto Yamashita graduated from Hiroshima University in 1997 under the supervision of Prof. Kin-Ya Akiba. In 2002, he received his PhD from Hiroshima University under the supervision of Prof. Yohsuke Yamamoto. Between 2001 and 2004, he worked as a JSPS research fellow, including in the group of Prof. John Hartwig at Yale University (1.5 years) and in the group of Prof. Takayuki Kawashima at the University of Tokyo (6 months). In 2004, he accepted a position as research associate in the group of Prof. Kyoko Nozaki at the University of Tokyo, where he was promoted to Assistant Professor and then to Lecturer. In 2011, he moved to Chuo University as an independent Associate Professor where he was promoted Professor in 2015. In October 2016, he moved to Nagoya University. His research interests include main group chemistry especially for reactive species of boron- and aluminium-contaning molecules, physical organic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, as well as homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. |
