Current Organic Synthesis

Dr. Qingmin Wang is currently a professor at State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, at Nankai University. His research interests are isolation, total synthesis, structural optimization and bioactivity research of natural products; design, synthesis and structure activity relationships of pesticides and drugs; synthetic organic chemistry.

Prof. Weihong Tan earned his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at the University of Michigan in 1992 after he earned his M. Sc. in Physical Chemistry from Chinese Academy of Sciences and B. Sc. in Chemistry from Hunan Normal University. In addition to his current position as the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biology at Hunan University, he is also a University Distinguished Professor and a V.T. and Louis Jackson Professor at the University of Florida. He has made pioneering contributions in spectrochemical analysis: ultrasensitive bioanalysis with DNA probes, ultrasmall optical biosensors, development of biophotonic nanomaterials and aptamer-based chemistry and biotechnologies. He has published over 600 peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Prof. Barry M. Trost began his academic career in 1965 from the University of Wisconsin, where he became the 'Vilas Research Professor' in 1982. He joined the faculty at Stanford University as the professor of chemistry in 1987, and became professor of humanities and sciences in 1990. His work included the entire field of organic synthesis, particularly emphasizing the novel methodology, which translated into more efficient total synthesis of complex bioactive compounds. Prof. Trost has received numerous awards, including Dr. Paul Janssen Prize, Bing Teaching Award, the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (1998), etc. He has been elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Sciences (1982) and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1980), with a record of publishing many scientific articles and a few books.

Laurence Harwood pursued his PhD studies at Manchester University under the direction of Prof. Hamish Sutherland, and gained his doctorate in 1978. After postdoctoral work at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris with Professor Marc Julia from 1978 to 1980. He returned to Manchester, became a member of the chemistry faculty and, in 1983, moved to a Tutorial Fellowship and Lectureship at Merton College and the Dyson Perrins Laboratory, Oxford University. In 1996, he moved to the Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Reading. He has supervised more than 60 doctoral co-workers and has published more than 150 scientific articles. He has been Synlett Regional Editor for Europe since 2001 and a member of Editorial Advisory Boards for ARKIVOK, Current Organic Synthesis, Targets in Heterocyclic Systems, Jordanian Journal of Chemistry and Cogent Chemistry. In 2010, he became the Chief Scientific Officer of TechnoPep. Since 2015, he has taken on the additional role of Director of the University of Reading’s Chemical Analysis Facility. His research focuses on the development of new synthetic methods and their application to the synthesis of natural and unnatural products.

György Keglevich graduated as a chemical engineer. He has been Professor of Chemistry since 1995, and the Head of the Department of Organic Chemistry and Technology, Budapest Univesity of Technology since 1999. He is engaged with P-heterocyclic and environmentally-friendly chemistry comprising MW chemistry, phase transfer catalysis and the development of new catalysts. He is the author or co-author of 460 papers He holds editorial positions at several journals such as Curr. Green Chem., Cur. Org. Chem., Lett. Org. Chem., etc. He is the editorial board member of Heteroatom Chem. and Phosphorus Sulfur Silicon.

Dr. Zbigniew J. Witczak obtained his Ph.D. from the Medical University of Lodz, Faculty of Pharmacy, Lodz, Poland. After the postdoctoral work with Roy L. Whistler at Purdue University he briefly worked an industry (A. E. Staley) and joined in 1990, a Faculty in School of Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut. He moved to Wilkes University, Nesbitt School of Pharmacy in 2000 where he became a full Professor. He has published over hundred research papers and book chapters, edited six books and he holds six patents in the fields of carbohydrate medicinal and biological chemistry.

Dr. José A. González-Delgado received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2014 from the University of Granada (Spain). In the same year, he gained a Marie Curie ITN fellowship at Inovapotek, Pharmaceutical Research & Development, Lda (Porto, Portugal) and in 2017, he joined the group of Prof. Tomás Torres at Autonomous University of Madrid as postdoctoral fellow. Since 2018, he is an Assistant Professor at the University of Huelva working in the group of Prof. Uwe Pischel about synthesis of dyes and photoswitches molecules and their applications in Supramolecular and Host-Guest Chemistry.

Dr. Jie Han is an associate professor in Nankai University, Tianjin, China. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 2003 from Chengdu Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Then, he worked as research assistant from 2004 to 2005 at the University of Hong Kong, China, and worked as visiting scholar from 2013 to 2015 at Northwestern University, IL, USA. His major research interests include organic functional materials, supramolecular chemistry and synthetic organic chemistry. He has published 60 research papers in peer-reviewed international journals.

Bárbara Socas Rodríguez obtained her PhD from the University of La Laguna (2012-2017) and focused on the development of new methodologies for the evaluation of estrogenic compounds in food and environmental samples. She has participated in several international, national, and regional research projects related to the application of sustainable procedures for the analysis of organic compounds. Between 2018 and 2019, she worked as temporary lecturer at the Department of Chemistry at the ULL in the area of Analytical Chemistry. After that, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Green Technology Group (GTG) at the University of Lund (Sweden) based on the application of supercritical fluids and mass spectrometry. Currently, she is working as “Juan de la Cierva Formación” postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Foodomics where she participates on the evaluation of safety of valorized food by-products.

Dr. Ziwen Wang is a professor at Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China. He received his Ph.D. from Nankai University under the supervision of Prof. Qingmin Wang in 2011. After 2 years of post-doctoral research in new drug development at Nankai University within Prof. Yunqi Geng's group, he joined Tianjin Normal University. His major research interests include synthetic organic chemistry and new drug development. He has published a number of research papers in peer-reviewed international journals.

Dr. Huacheng Zhang is a professor in Xi'an Jiaotong University in China. He completed his graduate studies majored in organic chemistry from the Shandong University. He was a visiting scholar and a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Sir Fraser Stoddart's lab at Northwestern University, as well as a research fellow in Prof. Yanli Zhao's group at Nanyang Technological University. He was also a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Jonathan L. Sessler at University of Texas at Austin, and a visiting scholar in Prof. Lei Fang's lab in Texas A&M University. Dr. Huacheng has broad research interests in supramolecular chemistry and organic chemistry.

Gopinathan Anilkumar received his Ph.D. in 1996 from Regional Research Laboratory-CSIR, Trivandrum with Dr. Vijay Nair. He did his postdoctoral studies at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Osaka University, Japan, Temple University, USA, and Leibniz-Institüt für Katalyse (LIKAT), Rostock, Germany. Currently, he is a Professor in Organic Chemistry at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India. His research interest focuses on organic synthesis, heterocycles, and catalysis. He has published more than 95 papers and 7 patents. He has received Dr. S Vasudev Award from Govt. of Kerala, India for best research in 2016.

Professor Tarek Hassan Afifi graduated from Al-Azhar University in 1984 and received his PhD from the same institution in 1991. He was appointed to the position of Assistant Professor in Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University. He joined Professor Tamotsu Takahashi's research group in Hokkaido University, Japan for sixth months as a Senior Research Associate. He joined Professor Alaa S Abdel Aziz's research group at University of Winnipeg, Canada and worked as Research Associate. He was promoted to Professor of Organic Chemistry in 2005 at Al-Azhar University. He worked as a visiting Professor with Professor Pamela J Shapiro at University of Idaho, USA in 2006-2008. He worked as Professor of Applied Organic Chemistry at Hail University, KSA from 2008 – 2009. He is currently a Professor of Organic Chemistry at Taibah University, Saudia Arabia.

Prof. Bonora obtained a degree in Chemistry in 1969 from the University of Padova (Italy). He was first Associate Professor in the University of Padova (Italy) and then Full Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Universities of Cagliari (Italy) and Trieste (Italy), where he became Visiting Professor after his retirement in 2011. He has published more than 280 scientific publications and is a named inventor of 8 issued patents. He is editorial board member of Recent Patents on Drug Delivery & Formulation, Open Natural Products Journal and Open Natural Products Reviews.

Terrence Burke received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Washington (Seattle) and has spent most of his professional career within the Intramural Program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is currently a Senior Investigator in the Chemical Biology Laboratory (National Cancer Institute). He has published more than 300 scientific publications and is a co-inventor on 20 issued U.S. patents.

Dr. James Cook is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he has been working since 1973. He received a BS in Chemistry with Honors from West Virginia University in 1967. He worked with Professor Phillip LeQuesne at The University of Michigan from 1968-1971 and received his PhD in Organic Chemistry. During doctoral studies he worked on Alkaloidal N-oxides in Hallucinogenic Drugs and on Alkaloids of Alstonia muelleriana Domin. He joined Professor James P. Kutney’s group at The University of British Columbia as a postdoctoral fellow in 1972. In 1973, he joined The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to The University Distinguished Professor in 2002. He has published over 420 papers and has received The UW-System Innovator Award, as well as The UW-Milwaukee Innovator Award and a JSPS fellowship. He currently holds grants from NIMH, NINDS, GM, NIAG, NIHBL and NIAAA for drug design.

Prof. Armando Córdova is a chemist from Stockholm in Sweden who performs research at Mid Sweden University and the Arrhenius Laboratory at Stockholm University. He obtained his M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering in 1995 and Ph.D. in 1998, at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. He then took an appointment at the Swedish Pulp and Paper Research Institute (STFI). In 1999, he took a two-year leave for postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, U.S.A. He continued research at TSRI for two more years and in 2003, he started a research group at Stockholm University. In 2004, he became associate professor and in 2009, he was selected for a professor chair in Organic Chemistry. He also received awards for his research and entrepreneurial activities including the Tage Erlander Prize given by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences (2006), the King Carl XVI Gustaf's 50-year foundation award (2007) and a SKAPA award (in memory of Alfred Nobel, 2009). Prof. Córdova is also co-founder of the chemical company OrganoClick AB, which made an IPO at NASDAQ in 2015 and have large-scale production and sales throughout the world.

Juan Castillo received his PhD (2013) from the Universidad del Valle, Colombia under the guidance of Prof. Rodrigo Abonia. He was a post-doctorate fellow in the Institut des Sciences Moléculaires de Marseille, France under the guidance of Prof. Jean Rodriguez and Prof. Yoann Coquerel (2013–2015). Later, he was also a postdoctorate fellow in the group of Prof. Jaime Portilla at Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia (2015–2017). He is currently Full-time Lecturer at the Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia. He has significant experience on multiple bond-forming transformations (MBFTs), synthetic green chemistry and catalytic/eco-compatible approaches for the synthesis of biologically relevant heterocycles.

Dr. Stefan Chassaing obtained his Ph.D. in 2006 in Chemistry from the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg (France). After two postdoctoral stays, he was recruited in 2008 as Associate Professor at University Paul Sabatier of Toulouse (France). Since 2013, he has been group leader at ITAV in Toulouse, an interdisciplinary institute devoted to developing research programs in life sciences. His research interests focus on the design/development of chemical tools i) for organic synthesis (methodologies, supported catalysis, green chemistry), and ii) for diagnosis and therapeutics (fluorescence/luminescence, drug-delivery, nanomedicine). So far, he has co-authored around 50 research papers and 6 book chapters.

Dr. Mário J. F. Calvete received his doctorate (PhD) in Natural Sciences–Organic Chemistry in 2004, from Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, Germany, with Prof. Dr.H.C. Michael Hanack. In 2010, he was appointed as Auxiliary Researcher at University of Coimbra. He is also Invited Auxiliary Professor and his current research interests are tetrapyrrolic macrocycle design and other heterocyclic ligands and their uses in homogeneous/heterogeneous catalysis and theranostics. Until 2016, he had published ca. 60 peer-reviewed papers in international journals, one book and 5 book chapters.

Dr. Biswanath Das, M.Sc. (1st Class, Rank 1st) received Ph.D. from Calcutta University and continued his Post-Doc work in Virginia Tech.US under the supervision of Professor D. G. I. Kingston). He is a Former Chief Scientist of CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad, India. His field of research is Chemistry of Bioactive Organic Compounds (natural products and synthetic compounds). He is further interested to carry out his research on isolation, characterization, modification and total synthesis of naturally occurring organic molecules of biological interest. Dr. Das has 433 research publications (in SI Journals), several book articles and patents to his credit. He has delivered lectures in various national and international seminars and symposia. He is honored with different prestigious awards such as FRSC, London and FIC, India. Recently, he has been recognized as “One of the Top Scientists” from India by Stanford University.

Dr. Kuiling Ding received his Ph.D. in 1990 at Nanjing University. He became an assistant professor at Zhengzhou University in 1992 and a full professor at the same university in 1995. During 1993-1994, he was engaged in a postdoctoral research with Professor Teruo Matsuura at Ryukoku University in Japan. In the period of 1997-1998, he was a UNESCO research fellow with Professor Koichi Mikami at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan. He joined Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS, in Dec of 1998 as a professor of chemistry and has been the director of the institute since 2009. He was a visiting professor during the period of 08-11, 2003 at Nagoya University, Japan, with Professor Masato Kitamura. His research interests include development of new strategies and catalysts for homogeneous & heterogeneous catalysis. Dr. Ding received National Natural Science Award of China in 2009, the 1st Yoshida Prize of International Organic Chemistry Foundation (IOCF) Japan in 2015, and Humboldt Research Award in 2016. He was elected a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013.

Prof. Surya K. De has published several papers, and a number of US and international patents are to his credit. Prof. De is an editorial board member of Anticancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry and Current Organic Synthesis. Prof. De is a co-inventor of VETRICEPT for skin and wound cleanser, VENTICARE for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices, and SPECTRICEPT for high-level disinfectant and sterilant. Prof. De is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry since 2010 and Chartered Chemist from the Royal Society of Chemistry since 2011 and a life fellow at the Indian Chemical Society. Prof. De is the sole author of 3 books: Applied Organic Chemistry: Reaction Mechanisms and Experimental Procedures in Medicinal Chemistry, Wiley 2020; Fundamental of Cancer Detection, Treatment, and Prevention, Wiley, 2021; Medicines for Cancer: Elsevier, 2023. Prof. De is an adjunct professor at Bharath University, Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, India. Currently, Prof. De is an elected councilor of the American Chemical Society.

Dr. Guowei Deng received his Ph.D. at Technical Institute of Physical and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences(China) in 2014, and now he is an Organic Chemistry Associate Professor in the College of Chemistry and Life Science, Institute of Functional Molecules, Chengdu Normal University. His research work mainly focuses on the design and preparation of conjugated organic molecules, especially their application in the field of organic electro-optic materials and sensor. He has published over 40 papers in these fields.

Robert Franzéns is currently a Lecturer at Aalto University (Organic Chemistry) and an Adjunct Professor (Heterocyclic Chemistry) at Turku University. The research is focused on industrial organic chemistry and use of chiral catalysts for different chemical processes. In 2013 and 2007, he worked as a visiting Professor at Chiba University, and during 2000-2002, and 1995-1997, he served as a Postdoctoral researcher in Japan. During 2002 - 2016 he worked as Professor of Organic Chemistry as Tampere University of Technology. He has authored 60 scientific papers. His interests are in the synthesis of drug molecules and biologically active natural products, the discovery and development of new synthetic methods, and in organometallic chemistry.

Dr Ferenc Fülöp was a PhD student at the Chinoin Pharmaceutical Company and Department of Organic Chemistry, József Attila University in 1979. Currently, he is a Full professor at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical University. Along with this, he is a Chair of the Regional Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at Szeged, Chair of Bolyai Janos Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Chair of Chemical Division of Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His major research interests include synthesis and stereochemistry of saturated heterocycles, enantioselective reactions, amino acids, enzyme reactions, combinatorial chemistry, drug discovery research (anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective agents), green chemistry, flow chemistry, sustainable chemistry. He has 640 research publications; 35 review articles, and 28 drug patents. He has lectured 45 plenary or keynote lectures, attended 150 conference and seminar lectures in different countries.

Dr. Ruimao Hua received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Environmental Chemistry and Engineering in 1996 from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan). He is now a professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University. Dr. Hua's research interests are on the development of organic synthetic methodology, and the synthesis & applications of organic materials for displays (liquid crystal display & OLED display). He was authored and co-authored over 100 publications with h-factor of 31, and authorized over 120 patents with another 55 patents pending.

Gilbert Kirsch (born 1947) has been trained as an organic chemist at the Universities of Strasbourg and Metz. He started his academic carrier in 1973 at the University of Metz (now University of Lorraine) where he holds currently a position of Emeritus Professor of Organic Chemistry. He had a post-doc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (TN) in the Nuclear Medicine Group and was also invited scientist at Kodak (Rochester, NY) at the University of Minho (Portugal) and Emory University (Atlanta, GA). His interest lies in heterocyclic chemistry in general. He published over 200 papers, chapters in Patai’s Functionnal group series, in Houben-Weyl, in Wiley's Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds and in Springer’s Selenium and Tellurium Chemistry.

Prof. Dr. Knölker received his Ph.D. from the University of Hannover (1985). After postdoctoral studies at the University of California in Berkeley (1986), he did his habilitation at the University of Hannover (1990). He was appointed as full professor of organic chemistry first at the University of Karlsruhe (1991) and then moved to the Technische Universität Dresden (2001). He was a visiting scientist in India as fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (2000) and twice in Japan as fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, JSPS (1998, University of Tsukuba and 2007, Kyushu University). In 2006, Prof. Knölker was elected as an Ordinary Member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and became a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Since 2011, he is the editor-in-chief of the series “The Alkaloids” (Academic Press, London). His research areas include the development of novel synthetic methodologies, organometallic chemistry, natural product synthesis, biomolecular chemistry, and medicinal chemistry. Professor Knölker’s group has published more than 280 scientific articles, reviews and patents.

Prof. Hadi Kargar got his Ph.D. Chemistry degree in 2007 from the Isfahan University, Iran, under the supervision of Prof. V. Mirkhani and Prof. S. Tangestaninejad in the field of inorganic chemistry. Currently, Prof. Kargar is working as Prof. of inorganic chemistry in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ardakan University, Iran. Prof Karger's research area is Homogeneous and Heterogeneous catalysts, Biomimetic oxidation, Synthesis of Schiff bases and their complexes, Metalloporphyrins, and synthesis of organic compounds.

Dr. Debasish Kundu is Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at GGDC Mangalkote under the University of Burdwan. His research interest is focused on design of transition metal catalyzed organic transformations. He has done his B. Sc. From Visva-Bharati University in 2008 (University Rank 1) and did his M. Sc. from IIT Kharagpur in 2010 (University Rank 1). Dr. Kundu has completed his Ph. D. from IACS-Kolkata in 2015 and he was awarded Elli Lilly Asia Outstanding Thesis Award. He has visited several research institutes as visiting scientist in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. Dr. Kundu has published more than 30 articles in several prestigious national and international journals of ACS, RSC, Wiley and Elsevier (h index-17).

Hu Li is Professor of Center for R&D of Fine Chemicals, Guizhou University (GZU), China. Dr. Li stayed as a visiting student researcher at Technical University of Denmark, and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences prior to obtaining his Ph.D. from GZU. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Nanjing Agricultural University, and Tohoku University. His research focuses on the catalytic conversion of renewable and waste resources into chemicals and biofuels with functional materials. Dr. Li has published more than 10 patents and over 100 peer-reviewed papers on sustainable catalysis and green chemistry. Currently, He is Associate Editor of Current Green Chemistry and Frontiers in Energy Research, and Editorial Board Member of several international journals.

Prof. Kenneth K. Laali is a Professor of Chemistry at University of North Florida. He completed his PhD from University of Manchester. He has authored and co authored over 280 peer-reviewed publications as well as reviews, books/monographs and patents. Prof. Laali’s research interests focus on multifaceted projects that combine synthetic, structural/mechanistic and theoretical approaches. His research contributions include generation and NMR studies of carbocations, onium ions, organ fluorine and super acid chemistry. In the past decade, he has directed much of his attention to synthetic method development and catalysis in ionic liquids and more recently to drug discovery projects.

Professor Lakshman obtained the Ph.D. degree from the University of Oklahoma and then completed postdoctoral work at the US National Institutes of Health. After serving a short stint in industry, he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of North Dakota and then moved to The City College of The City University of New York. He is currently Professor of Chemistry and he was Executive Officer for The City University of New York Ph.D. Program in Chemistry (2008–2011) with the responsibility of managing the multicampus Ph.D. program consortium.

Dr. Chao-Jun Li received his Ph.D. from McGill University (1992) and was a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University (92-94). From 1994-2003, he was on the faculty at Tulane University (US) and, since 2003 he is at McGill University and holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Green Chemistry and E. B. Eddy Chair of Chemistry. He served as the Co-Chair of the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network (2009-2016), the Director of CFI Infrastructure for Green Chemistry and Green Chemicals. He has published >500 research articles, 7 books, and has given >470 plenary/keynote/invited lectures. Some of the well-known research studies conducted by him include a wide range of Grignard-type reactions in water, alkyne-aldehyde-amine coupling (A3-coupling), the Cross-Dehydrogenative-Coupling (CDC) reactions, and the umpolung of hydrazones as organometallic reagent surrogates.

Dr. Chao-Jun Li is E. B. Eddy Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Green Chemistry and. He served as the Director of NSERC CREATE for Green Chemistry and the Co-Director of the FRQNT Centre for Green Chemistry and Catalysis (CCVC). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Chemical Society (ACS) and Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC). He has published ca 400 research articles, 6 books, given ca 400 plenary/keynote/invited lectures.

Dr. Li obtained his doctorate (Ph.D.) in Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology from University of Science and Technology of China in 2012. Then, he conducted postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Lei Liu at Tsinghua University. Currently, Dr. Li is an Associate Professor in Hefei University of Technology. He is interested in the chemical synthesis of post translational modified proteins and has published more than 40 scientific publications.

Rafael Luque is Deputy Head of Department from Dpt. Quimica Organica at Universidad de Cordoba, where he graduated in 2005. Prof. Luque has a significant experience on biomass and waste valorisation practises to materials, fuels and chemicals as well as nanoscale chemistry and green engineering, with over 270 published research articles, 3 patent applications and 8 edited books as well as numerous contributions to book chapters and invited, guest, keynote and plenary lectures in scientific events worldwide. Among recent awards, Rafael received the Marie Curie Prize from Instituto Andaluz de Quimica Fina in Spain (2011), the Green Talents award from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (2011), the TR35 Spain from Technology Review and MIT as one of the top 10 young entrepreneurs in Spain (2012) and very recently the RSC Environment, Sustainability and Energy Early Career Award (2013) from the Royal Society of Chemistry UK and the 2015 Lu Jiaxi lectureship from the College of Chemistry and Engineering in Xiamen University (China).

Dr. David G. Lynn has contributed broadly in the areas of systems chemistry, molecular recognition, synthetic biology and chemical evolution, and has developed chemical and physical methods for the analysis of supramolecular self-assemblies, in signal transduction for cellular development and pathogenesis, in molecular skeletons for storing and reading information, and for the evolution of biological order. He holds a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professorship and is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor in Chemistry and Biology at Emory University. In 2011, he received the Emory Scholar-Teacher Award for pioneering science/arts venues communicating science, the ACS Herty Metal in 2013, and served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry from 2006-15.

Prof. Malhotra obtained PhD from Seton Hall University, New Jersey and worked as a postdoctoral associate with Nobel Laureate Prof H.C. Brown at Purdue University. Subsequently, he joined the faculty of New Jersey Institute of Technology. In 2006, he joined the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, Maryland and established a new ‘Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry’ for the National Cancer Institute. In 2015, Dr. Malhotra joined the faculty of Stanford University. He has published >100 research articles, edited five books and holds five patents. In 2008, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.

José Carlos Menéndez holds a doctorate in Pharmacy from Universidad Complutense, Madrid, and carried out postdoctoral research at Imperial College, London under the supervisión of Prof. Steven V. Ley. He is Profesor Titular at the Organic and Medicinal Chemistry Department at UCM, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Aix-Marseille and Bologna Universities. His research in synthetic medicinal chemistry has been documented in about 250 research articles, reviews and chapters and 12 patents.

Dr. Mino obtained a doctorate (Ph. D.) in Chemistry from Doshisha University at Kyoto, Japan. Currently Dr. Mino is an Associate Professor in Chiba University at Chiba, Japan. His research interests focus on methodologies in catalytic asymmetric reactions and transition metal catalyzed reactions. He has published more than 100 scientific publications.

Prof. Cristina Nativi is full professor of organic chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Univesity of Florence (Italy) and leader of the GlycoMim reaserch group. Prof. Nativi is member of the scientific committee of the start-up Giotto Biotech and of the Leonardo da Vinci (LdV) BioBank. She is chair of the Italian Meeting School on Carbohydrate Chemistry. Prof. Nativi has authored more than 120 manuscripts, 5 patents and 5 book chapters on saccharidic immunostimulants and anti-pathogens, on sugar-containing metallo-enzyme inhibitors and synthetic receptors for carbohydrates.

Dr. Mohammad Nikpassand obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Guilan University, Rasht, Iran, (2007). Currently he is an Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry and Head of the Chemistry Department at the Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran. He has numerous scientific publications in both English and Persian languages to his credit.

Prof. Dr. Onys’ko obtained his Ph.D. and Doctor of Chemical Sciences degrees from Institute of Organic Chemistry in Kyiv, Ukraine. Currently, he is head of the Heteroatom Chemistry Department at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, NAS of Ukraine. In 2014, he received the State Award of Ukraine in Science and Technology. Prof. Onys’ko is co-author of more than 250 scientific publications, 3 chapters in chemistry books and 26 patents. He is an editorial board member of three chemical journals.

Prof. Florence Popowycz got her PhD with Prof. Pierre Vogel in 2003 from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) after working on mannosidase inhibitors. After a 1-year post-doctoral stay in Geneva, she moved to Lyon where she holds now a full professor position at the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA). Her main interests are devoted to the development of new synthetic methodologies and its applications to heterocyclic scaffolds. Dr. Popowycz has authored more than 45 manuscripts and 6 patents.

Albert Padwa was born in New York City. He received both his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University. Following an NSF postdoctoral position at the University of Wisconsin, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the Ohio State Univerasity. He moved to SUNY Buffalo as Associate Professor and was promoted to Professor in 1969. Since 1979, he was appointed the William Patterson Timmie Professor of Chemistry at Emory University. Al’s research interests have encompassed heterocyclic chemistry, alkaloid synthesis, tandem organometallic chemistry, and organic photochemistry. Among other awards, he has been the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship, an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, a Senior Award in Heterocyclic Chemistry from the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemists and an ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award. He served as the Chairman of the Organic Division of the ACS and as President of the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry. He is currently one of the Associate Editors of the Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Dr. Donald Poirier received his basic training in organic chemistry (PhD at Université Laval) and subsequently specialized in medicinal chemistry and endocrinology (Post-doctorat at CHUL - Research Center). Professor at Université Laval since 1991, he is interested in the development of inhibitors of steroidogenic enzymes and antitumor agents for the treatment of different diseases (breast, prostate and leukemia cancers, endometriosis, osteoporosis and Alzheimer). He is especially interested in different aspects of organic chemistry (synthesis, solid-phase synthesis, new methodologies, NMR analysis, etc.) and medicinal chemistry (SAR and QSAR analysis, molecular modeling, biological assays, etc.) related to steroid research. He has published 204 scientific publications and 9 patent applications.

Dr. Stéphane Quideau obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994. He started his independent career at Texas Tech University. In 1999, he moved back to France at the University of Bordeaux. He was nominated junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) in 2004, and promoted Full Professor in 2005. He received the Acros Prize from the French Chemical Society, the Henri Labbé Prize from the French Academy of Sciences, and the Scientific Prize of the Groupe Polyphénols Society. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Recent Advances in Polyphenol Research (Wiley) and has published more than 120 scientific articles.

Dr. Seferoğlu received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Gazi University in 2016. He joined Professor Heiko Ihmels's group at The University of Siegen (Germany) as a visiting professor in 2012 (for one year). In 2017, he was appointed as full Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Gazi University. Prof. Dr. Zeynel Seferoğlu has about 25 years of academic experience of research in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, DNA-small molecule interactions, the design and synthesis of organic functional fluorescence dyes and their applications as DNA probes, solar cells, OLEDs, NLO materials, molecular switches and sensors. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed scientific papers and edited two books chapters. His h-index is 22.

Dr. Shaik Anwar received his Master’s (2002) in Chemistry from the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India. He worked as a medicinal chemist (2002–2003) with Aurigene Discovery Technologies, Bangalore, India. He, then moved to the University of Hyderabad to pursue his Ph.D. with Prof. M. Periasamy working on amino alcohols, amino naphthols, and amines. He carried out his postdoctoral work with Prof. Kwunmin Chen for nearly four years (2009–2013) at NTNU working on the design and synthesis of Organcatalysts for applications in Monocyclic, Bicyclic, and Spirocyclic skeletons. Since 2013, he is working as a faculty in Chemistry Division at Vignan’s Foundation for Science, Technology, and Research-VFSTR, Vadlamudi, Guntur. His research interests include Asymmetric organocatalysis, Spirocycles, and Fused heterocycle synthesis.

Professor William Tam received his B.Sc. at the University of Hong Kong in 1990 and his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto (Canada) in 1995. He was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at the Imperial College (UK) and at Harvard University (USA). He joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) in 1998 and is currently a Full Professor. Professor Tam has received several awards in research and teaching, and has published four books and over 120 scientific publications.

Bela Torok (PhD, University of Szeged, 1995) completed his postdoctoral training (with George Olah) at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles He has held faculty appointments at Michigan Technological University and the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he is currently a Professor of Chemistry. He was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (with Richard Schrock) in 2011/12. His awards include the Young Scientist Award by the International Association of Catalysis Societies or the M.J. Collins Award. He has published over 170 papers and several book chapters and two books. His main research focus is on the design of new green chemistry processes for the synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Ramon Rios he got his Bachelor Degree from University of Barcelona. In 2000, he obtained his PhD degree under the supervision of Prof. Albert Moyano working in the study of the Pauson Khand reaction with electron deficient enzymes. After several postdoc and research stages with Prof. Greg C. Fu (MIT, BOSTON, 1999), Prof. Patrick Walsh (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 2001), Prof. Benjamin List (Max Plank, Muelheim an der Ruhr, 2004-2006), Prof. Armando Córdova (University of Stockholm, Stockholm, 2006-2007) and Prof. Jose Mª Alvarez-Pez (University of Granada, Granada, 2007); and an industrial experience (J.C. Uriach S. A., Barcelona, 2002-2004). He was awarded with an ICREA Junior Academia in 2008. He began his independent career as a ICREA Researcher in 2008 at the University of Barcelona. In August 2012, he became a Reader in Organic Chemistry in the University of Southampton. He has been a visiting professor in Nagoya Institute of Technology (Japan) and Sungkyunkwan (SKKU) University (South Korea). He is the author of more than 115 papers, 13 chapters in chemical books, and 1 patent. He has edited a book about the Pauson-Khand reaction, and one about organocatalysis. In total he has more than 4600 citations and Idh = 41. He was also editor of Asymmetric Organocatalysis (Ed. Versitas). His research interests are the development of new asymmetric methodologies based in Organocatalysis and/or Organometallic Chemistry.

Dr. Muhammad Bilal Tahir has PhD in Physics with specialization in Energy and Environmental Applications, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Environmental Engineering, Photocatalysis etc. He is currently working as Lecturer and Inchargeof Center of Material Science and Nanotechnology of University of Gujrat, Gujrat. He has published more than 100 papers on the topics of material synthesis, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), renewable energy, alternative fuels, waste-to-energy, catalytic and resource recovery. He has delivered over 40 oral/invited talks to various national and international forums. His work is cited over 3000 times in the peer review press with a total impact factor over 300 and H-index of 24. Dr. Tahir is serving as guest editor in several special issues of the journal Current Analytical Chemistry, Frontiers in Energy Research and numerous others. He has completed many national and international funded research projects. He has been actively involved in community services and consultation to the various international organizations for providing sustainable solutions for energy and waste-related issues.

Dr. Caichao Wan received his doctoral degree from Northeast Forestry University in China. Now he takes up an academic position at Central South University of Forestry and Technology as an associate professor. His research interests include carbohydrates, supramolecular chemistry and sol-gel chemistry as well as electrochemistry and environmental sciences. Dr. C. Wan has published more than 50 scientific papers and 2 books. He is a member of editorial boards of two chemical journals and also serves as a reviewer for more than 30 journals (like Advanced Materials and Journal of Materials Chemistry A).

Dr Jianliang Xiao is a Professor of Catalysis at the University of Liverpool, UK. Prior to joining Liverpool in 1996, he worked with Nobel Laureate Prof Noyori in Japan and received undergraduate and postgraduate training in China and Canada. His main research interest is in molecular catalysis, asymmetric synthesis and green chemistry, and he has published 240 papers in these areas with his students and collaborators.

Lin Xu received his PhD degree in Chemistry from the East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST, Shanghai) in 2012 under the supervision of Professor Xuhong Qian. Subsequently, he joined the East China Normal University (ECNU, Shanghai) as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 2014. Since 2015, he started his postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge. His research interests focus mainly on the fluorescent sensing and supramolecular self-assembly.

Dr. Zhan-Hui Zhang received his Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry at Nankai University, China. He stayed as a visiting researcher at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Presently, he is a professor at Hebei Normal University and head of a Research group for green chemistry. His current research interests include the development of new green solvents, new reagents, and catalysts in organic synthesis. He has published more than 100 scientific papers. Dr. Zhang has served as an Editorial Board Member of Arkivoc, Current Organocatalysis, and Current Organic Synthesis. As a reviewer, he has also served for more than 60 SCI journals and won the "Top peer reviewer" in 2018.

Fengzhi Zhang received his first degree at Lanzhou University, and Ph.D from the University of Nottingham. After several years post-doctoral work at Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, he then took up an academic position at Zhejiang University of Technology supported by “Zhejiang Provincial 1000-Talent Program”. His research interests include the electroorganic synthesis, hypervalent iodine chemistry, and their synthetic applications.

Dr. Rojalin Sahu is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. She has received her Masters degree from Utkal University, Vanivihar and her PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.

Dr. Aniket P. Sarkate is presently working as an Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Technology, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. He has more than 10 years of research experience in synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry particularly in the synthesis and molecular modeling of molecules having biological and commercial importance. He has published more than 70 research papers in the international journals. He has received research grant from the different funding agencies like UGC, RGSTC and AICTE. He is currently working on the different targets in anticancer and antimicrobial drug discovery.

Dr. Wani graduated from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India in 2013. Worked as an FCT- postdoctoral fellow with Prof. A. Sobral group from 2013-2016 in the field of organic and medicinal chemistry at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. In fall 2016, Dr. Wani moved to the University of Texas, USA and worked with Dr. K. Tsuchikama’s group at Texas Therapeutics Institute, Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, UTHealth on the development of non-traditional antimicrobial agents and strategies combating multi-drug resistance. In fall 2017, Dr. Wani was appointed as assistant professor in Chemistry Department, Faculty of Sciences, University of Jeddah, KSA, where he is currently working. Dr. Wani continues to work on the development of new molecules and novel strategies to combat microbial infections at the interface of chemistry and biology. He has many international publications, book chapters, and a book, besides many international and national honours and awards to his credit. Dr. Wani is working hard to advance the organic and medicinal chemistry field with new questions and pertinent issues of 21 st century.

Dr. Gurumurthy Hegde is currently a Chair Professor at BMS R and D Centre, Bangalore. He is also a Director at the Career Development Centre. He received his PhD in Physics from CSIR Laboratory, India. He is a Life Member of ILCS, India. His research interests include Synthesis of Nano-particles and Nano-spheres, Synthesis, characterization and photoswitching properties of Coumarin based compounds, Non-Enzymatic Electrochemical Determination of biomolecules Using Carbon Nanosphere. He has 120 scientific papers published as well as 5 books and book chapters. He has received 18 patents. Besides, he is a reviewer of 25 journals and has been awarded 60 prestigious awards.

Dr. Yaokang Lv has been teaching at the Zhejiang University of Technology since January 2014. Dr. Lv took part in 16 research programs and published a number of papers. Dr. Lv has an h-index of 35. Currently, Dr. Lv's research mainly focuses on the synthesis of organic-inorganic hybrid materials and their application, advanced pharmaceutical packaging materials, energy conversion, and storage materials as well as the research about the recycling of waste materials.

Dr. Jia-Bao Liu is currently a Professor at School of Mathematics and Physics, Anhui Jianzhu University, Hefei 230601, China. He received the B.S. degree in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics from Wanxi University, Anhui, China, in 2005, and the M.S. degree and Ph.D. degree in mathematics and Applied Mathematics from Anhui University, Anhui, China, in 2009 and 2016, respectively. From September 2013 to July 2014, he was a Visiting Researcher at the School of Mathematics, Southeast University, China. In March 2017, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Mathematics, Southeast University, China. He is the author or coauthor of more than 160 journal papers and two edited books. He is an Executive Guest Editor of Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening. He is Guest Editor of Journal of Chemistry and the guest editor of journals; Frontiers in Neuroscience, and Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. His current research interests include graph theory and its applications, fractional calculus theory, neural networks, and complex dynamical networks. Dr. Liu is a Reviewer of Mathematical Reviews and Zentralblatt-Math.

Prof. Diganta Sarma did Ph.D from National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India in 2007. Prof. Sarma then moved to Kyoto Pharmaceutical University as JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow. After completing 2 year tenure as JSPS Fellow Prof. Sarma joined University of Kansas, USA as Research Associate in 2009 and worked there until February, 2012. Then Prof. Sarma joined Dibrugarh University as Assistant Professor in 2012 and is currently working as Professor in the Dept. of Chemistry, Dibrugarh University. Prof. Sarma's research interests are: Green Chemistry, Peptide Chemistry, Click Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry. Prof. Sarma has published many articles in international journals of high repute and also authored a Green Chemistry Book published by Kalyani Publications, in addition to book chapters in books published by Elsevier and Springer publications. Prof. Sarma is the recipient of JSPS Bridge Fellowship Award, 2018. Five students got their MPhil degrees and 12 students got their PhD degrees under Prof Sarma's supervision.

Dr. Rojalin Sahu is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. She has received her Masters degree from Utkal University, Vanivihar and her PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.

Dr. Seferoğlu received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Gazi University in 2016. He joined Professor Heiko Ihmels's group at The University of Siegen (Germany) as a visiting professor in 2012 (for one year). In 2017, he was appointed as full Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Gazi University. Prof. Dr. Zeynel Seferoğlu has about 25 years of academic experience of research in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, DNA-small molecule interactions, the design and synthesis of organic functional fluorescence dyes and their applications as DNA probes, solar cells, OLEDs, NLO materials, molecular switches and sensors. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed scientific papers and edited two books chapters. His h-index is 22.

Prof. Fateh V. Singh completed his Masters in chemistry from SSV College, Hapur, UP, India in 1998. He then pursued his Ph.D. from CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow, India in 2007 under the supervision of Dr. Atul Goel. After the completion of his doctoral studies, he worked in Prof. H. A. Stefani's research group at USP, São Paulo, Brazil for more than two years. In 2010, he joined as Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Thomas Wirth at Cardiff University, UK and learned various new reactions regarding organoselenium and hypervalent iodine chemistry. In 2014, he started his independent career and joined VIT Chennai as an assistant professor. Mainly, his research group is interested in the findings of new organoselenium and hypervalent catalysts for organic synthesis. Moreover, his research group is also involved in the development of new organic fluorescent molecules for OLEDs and chemical sensors. Currently, he has different research grants from the Government of India. He has published a number of research papers, several book chapters and review articles.