Prof. E.S.H. El Ashry obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) and a (D.Sc.) in Chemistry from the University of Alexandria, Egypt. He holds a Diploma in chemistry and Chemical Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. Currently Prof. El Ashry is an emeritus Professor in the Alexandria University. He worked as post doctorate and then as visiting professor at Ohio State University, Michigan technological University, New york state university, Konstanz University, the International Centre for Chemical and Biological sciences, Pakistan. He is Alexander von Humboldt and Fulbright Fellow. Prof. El Ashry got a lot of awards such as The Gold Medal Telesio-Galilei Acadmy of Science for the pioneering work in Chemistry, Egypt 1st Class Ribbon of Science and arts from the President of Egypt, A laureate of the first State-Excellence Prize, State national award, The 2012 Alexandria University Appreciation Award, and The Dr. Taha Hussein Award (first President of Alexandria University) for Cultural and Scientific leadership. He has published more than 400 scientific publications. Prof. El Ashry was in the Editorial board of various Bentham Journals and he is currently in the board of the this journal in addition to many international journals.

Salvatore earned his doctorate at Purdue University (1997) followed by postdoctoral studies at Eli Lilly and Company. He began his independent scientific career at Florida Atlantic University (in 2000) where he rose through the ranks to Full Professor (in 2011). His current interests are in the development of new reactions especially those involving allenes to facilitate the synthesis of therapeutically important compounds and the design of ultrafast radiolabeling methods for applications in PET. Salvatore has received numerous awards and grants from the American Chemical Society, NSF, and NIH. He is also an Associate Editor for Perspectives in Medicinal Chemistry.

Dr. D'Auria obtained the Laurea on Chemistry at the University of Rome "La Sapienza". He was researcher at this University until 1992. Then he was Associate Professor and from 2001 Full Professor at the University of Basilicata. He published more than 300 articles in the field of the organic chemistry and in organic photochemistry. He is member of the Executive Committee of the European Photochemistry Association and Editor in Chief of EPA Newletter. He is Regional Editor of Letters in Organic Chemistry.

PGyörgy 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 the journals Curr. Green Chem., Cur. Org. Chem., Lett. Org. Chem., Curr. Org. Synth.. Lett. Drug Des. Disc. and Curr. Catal.. He is the member of the Editorial Board of Heteroatom Chem. and Phosphorus Sulfur Silicon.

Patrice VANELLE is organic chemistry professor at the university of Aix-Marseille (AMU), Director of the "Laboratoire de Pharmaco-Chimie Radicalaire", Institut de Chimie Radicalaire (ICR) UMR CNRS 7273. Honorary Dean of the Pharmacy Faculty of Marseille, he is currently Vice-President of AMU, Corresponding member of the National Academy of Pharmacy and President of the National Council of Universities (section 81). He has published more than 300 scientific publications. PV and his group are involved in electron transfer reactions in heterocyclic and quinonic series, synthesis and structure-activity relationships of potential pharmacologically active agents and new methodologies in organic chemistry (microwave irradiation, OED strategy,…).

PV is currently Co-Editor-in-chief of Letters in Organic Chemistry (LOC) published by Bentham Science Publishers.

M.C. Aversa completed her academic career as professore ordinario of Organic Chemistry (2001-2013) at the Dipartimento di Scienze chimiche, biologiche, farmaceutiche e ambientali, Università degli Studi di Messina, Italy, and is currently retired, but continues to pursue her scientific interests regarding organic synthesis with special attention to heterocyclic/organosulfur compounds, stereochemistry, sugar conjugates. She has published more than 120 scientific articles / reviews. She is currently emeritus member of the Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti, Regional Editor of this journal, and Arkivoc member of the editorial board of referees, as well as usual referee for numerous further prestigious scientific journals.

Marco Bandini got the PhD in Chemistry in the 2000 at the University of Bologna (Prof. A. Umani-Ronchi). He spent research periods in USA and UK and he has been visiting professor at CCNU Wuhan (China). In 2012 MB has been appointed associate professor at the Dep. of Chemistry “G. Ciamician” at UNIBO. He has published more than 120 scientific publications with an H-index = 39 and almost 6000 citations. His current research interests span from organometallic catalysis, metal-drugs and chiral [Ir[(III)] triplet emitters.

Martin Banwell was born in New Zealand in 1954 and attended the Victoria University of Wellington from which he received the PhD in 1979. After a post-doctoral year in the US he moved to the University of Adelaide, then to the Universities of Auckland and Melbourne before joining the Australian National University in 1995 where he has remained ever since. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and has received various awards from the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, the most recent being the 2014 H. G. Smith Memorial Medal.

Emeritus Professor John Bremner holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the Australian National University, Canberra. He was formerly Professor of Organic Chemistry in the School of Chemistry, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia. His research interests cover heterocyclic and medicinal chemistry, including the design and development of new anti-bacterial agents. He has over 220 scientific publications, and is on the Editorial Board of a number of journals.

José A. S. Cavaleiro got his BSc degree at the University of Coimbra, Portugal and his PhD degree at the Robert Robinson Laboratories (supervision of Profs. George W. Kenner and Kevin M. Smith), University of Liverpool, UK. His academic career as a staff member started at Coimbra University and later continued at Lourenço Marques (Mozambique) and Aveiro (Portugal) Universities. Since 1986 he is Professor of Chemistry at the Aveiro University. José A. S. Cavaleiro is the recipient of several prizes (e.g., Parke-Davis prize, Liverpool University, 1973; “Ferreira da Silva” prize, Portuguese Chemical Society, 2004; Spanish-Portuguese prize, Royal Spanish Chemical Society, 2010). His research interests are centered on the synthesis, reactivity and applications (medicinal, catalytic and others) of porphyrins and related compounds. He is author of 502 scientific publications in major journals of organic chemistry.

Professor Chan received his B.Sc. from University of Toronto (1962), M.Sc. and Ph. D. from Princeton University (1963, 1966). He was a Research Associate at Harvard University from 1965-1966 with Prof. R. B. Woodward. He joined McGill University in 1966 as Assistant Professor, and rose through the ranks as Associate Professor (1972-1978), Professor (1979-2000), Chair, Department of Chemistry (1985-1991), Dean of Science (1991-1994) and Vice Principal (Academic) (1994-1999). He is currently Professor Emeritus of McGill University and Visiting Distinguished Chair Professor of HK Polytechnic University. He received the Merck, Sharpe and Dohme Award of the Chemical Institute of Canada, 1982; Senior Killam Fellow of Canada Council, 1983-85; R. U. Lemieux Award of Canadian Society of Chemistry, 1993 and elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, 1993. His research interest is in Organic Synthesis using organosilicon chemistry, Green Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry. He has over 300 scientific publications and is named inventors in over 20 issued patents worldwide.

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 Pr. Jean Pierre Pète. After a postdoctoral stay with Pr. 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 (UK) (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 (USA) and the UR Ghatak endowment award (IACS, India). She is Organic Letters associate editor since 2005.

Pier Giorgio Cozzi (PG) is full professor of organic chemistry at the at the University of Bologna. He is the president of the Master degree in Chemistry. Among his scientific interests, the development of new, enantioselective catalytic reactions, the design of new chiral ligands, and the formation of quaternary stereocenters using new synthetic methodologies are the principal. Recently, he has focused his research on the growing area of asymmetric photoredox catalysis. Professor P. G. Cozzi has been a visiting professor in many Universities in Europe and abroad. He was the coordinator of the Fp7 project CATAFLU.OR and he has participate to other European projects. He recently received a JSPS fellowship for visiting Japan, and he was awarded in 2015 with the Piero Pino Gold Medal from Italian Chemical Society.

Renato Dalpozzo was born in 1957. He graduated from the University of Bologna in 1981, with a Laurea in industrial chemistry. He was Researcher of Organic Chemistry at University of Bologna from 1983. In 1992, he moved to the University of Calabria as Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry and then as Full Professor of Environmental and Cultural Heritage Chemistry and now of Organic Chemistry again. His research interests include studies on the reactivity of organometallic compounds with aromatic systems, the use of dianions derived from enamino carbonyl compounds, the stereoselective reduction of various classes of ketones, the development of new Lewis acid systems, and enantioselective organocatalysis.

Marcus Vinícius Nora de Souza is a senior technologist at Oswaldo Cruz public health foudation – RJ, and leads a research group in organic chemistry, with emphasis in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry, acting on neglected diseases (tuberculosis and malaria), cancer and synthetic methodologies. He has authored more than 250 manuscripts, 5 patents and 3 books, and their formation includes a PhD in organic and bioorganic chemistry (Universite de Paris XI (Paris-Sud) – France) with stage at the University of Barcelona – Spain, and three postdocs in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry (University of Florida – USA, Federal University of Juiz de Fora – MG, Pharmaceutical industry Genzyme - Boston – USA).

Professor Vitor Francisco Ferreira was born in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil in 1953. He obtained his BS and MSc at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro under the guidance of Professor Antonio Ventura Pinto. He then moved in 1980 to he research group of Professor Ernest Wenkert at the University of California San Diego and obtained his PhD. In 1984 he was appointed as researcher fellow at National Institute of Technology and 1990 moved to Universidade Federal Fluminense as Associate Professor and started his own research group. In 1992 He became full professor at same university. In 2007 he became member of Brazilian Academy of Science and in 2008 and 2014 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He was president of the Brazilian Chemistry Society between 2012-2014 His research interests include synthesis using readily available carbohydrate, heterocycles and naphthoquinones for the synthesis of bioactive compounds for neglected diseases and development of synthetic methods using diazocompounds

B.A.M. Figadère is director of research at CNRS and at University of Paris-Sud (France). He obtained a PhD from University of Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris, France) in 1987. After a two years’ post-doctoral position at University of California at Riverside (Prof W. Okamura, USA), he joined the CNRS at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Univ. Paris-Sud, where he is currently head of the BioCIS laboratory, a public laboratory administered by the CNRS and Univ. Paris-Sud. He has published more than 150 scientific papers, 10 patents in the field of natural products chemistry (isolation, total synthesis and pharmacomodulation).

Prof. Gabriele received the PhD in Chemical Sciences from the University of Calabria (Italy). After a research position at the University of Parma (Italy) with Professor Gian Paolo Chiusoli, he joined Prof. Ronald Breslow’s group at Columbia University (New York, USA) as a post-doc fellow for one year. He them came back to the University of Calabria, where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2006. He is author of more than 140 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and 15 patents. His research interests include the development of novel catalytic methods for the production of high value added molecules under sustainable conditions and the development of novel synthetic processes for carbon oxide reutilization.

Hongchao Guo received his Ph. D. degree from China Agricultural University (P. R. China) in 2002, followed by several years of research at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung (Muelheim), University of California at Los Angeles and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2010, he joined China Agricultural University as an associate Professor, and then was promoted as Professor in 2011. His research focuses on Lewis base and acid-catalyzed cycloaddition and annulation reactions and their application in the organic synthesis.

Dr. Ramesh Gupta is Dean SASRD, & Professor of chemistry at Nagaland University India. He received his Bachelor of Science in Biochemical Science, and Master of Science in organic chemistry from Lucknow University India, and Doctorate in Chemistry at Lucknow University, on Drug Development. Dr. Ramesh Gupta is a Medicinal & Bioorganic Chemist and has worked for several years as visiting professor/Scientist in various Medical schools; Louis pasture University France, University of Arizona USA, Osaka University & Nagoya University Japan, Kyung Hee University, Korea advance institute of science and technology (KAIST) Korea, Ben-Gurion University Israel, Linkoping University Sweden, University of Mons Belgium, University of Western Australia, Sydney ,University of Bergen ,Norway and some others. Prof Guptas’ research focuses on the Natural & Synthetic Drug Development, role of sulfur amino acids in health care, functional food, nutraceuticals and environmental Biotechnology & gender issues.

Xiang-Ping Hu received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003. After a postdoctoral stay at University of Edinburgh, he came back to Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in 2006, where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2013. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in the field of asymmetric catalysis. His current research activities focus on asymmetric catalysis, special interest in the development of novel chiral ligands for copper-catalyzed asymmetric propargylic transformation and cycloaddition.

Kazuaki Ishihara is a Professor in Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan. He received his Doctorate of Engineering degree from Nagoya University in 1991 with Professor Hisashi Yamamoto. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University with Professor E. J. Corey, he moved back to Japan in 1992 and worked his way up from Assistant Professor (1992–1997) to Associate Professor (1997–2002) and now his current position (2002–) at Nagoya University. Professor Ishihara has received numerous awards and honors for his work. His most recent awards include: the SIS Award 2015 from the Society of Iodine Science (SIS), and the Synthetic Organic Chemistry Award 2016 from the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (SSOCJ). Professor Ishihara has served on numerous editorial advisory boards, including: “Letters in Organic Chemistry,” “European Journal of Organic Chemistry,” “Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry,” and “Topics in Current Chemistry.” His principle areas of research have evolved over time from the design of Diels-Alder catalysts to the design of superacids to design of recoverable and reusable catalysts to the design of supramolecular acid-base combined catalysts. His current research is in developing catalytic, organic reactions and processes directed toward green chemistry.

Vladimir V. Kouznetsov received his Ph.D. (1986) and D.Sc. (1994) degrees in Chemistry from Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (Moscow) under guidance of Prof. Nicolay S. Prostakov. He spent postdoctoral fellowship (1990–1992) with Prof. José M. Barluenga in the University of Oviedo (Spain). From 1994, he is Professor in the Industrial University of Santander (Bucaramanga, Colombia). He has published more than 240 peer-reviewed publications (h = 22, 2.260 citations) including 5 patents, 3 books, and 7 book chapters. In 2016, he became Regional Editor (Region: South America) of Current Organic Synthesis. He is also editorial board member of Current Organic Synthesis (2003) and Mini-Reviews in Organic Chemistry (2016). He was principal tutor of 40 graduated and 30 under graduated students, both in Russia and Colombia. He received various awards in Pharmacology, Oncology and Phyto-pharmaceutical science. In 2012, he received National Science Award, Colombian Association for the Advancement of Science. He is Corresponding Member of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences from 2014. His current research activities focus on heterocyclic diversity-oriented synthesis, green synthetic methodologies, interface between chemistry and biology.

Mikhail Krasavin is a Professor of synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry at Saint Petersburg State University (Russia). Prior to assuming this post in 2014, he spent over 10 years in positions of increasing responsibility in pharmaceutical industry (Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Bioresearch Center, ChemDiv, Inc.) , where he was involved in multiple drug discovery programs in the areas of oncology, metabolic disease, infectious disease and CNS disorders. In 2011-2013 Dr. Krasavin led an independent research group at Eskitis Institute for Drug Discovery (Griffith University) in Braisbane, Australia. Prof. Krasavin has authored more than 100 manuscripts, 8 patents, several book chapters and has consulted various drug discovery and development business entities. In 2016, he was elected a Professor of the Russian Academy of

Heinrich Lang studied chemistry at University of Constance. Then he spent2 years as postdoctoral fellow (DFG) at M.I.T. He joined the Faculty at the University of Heidelberg in 1988; Habilitation in 1992. From 1992 - 1996 he was a Heisenberg fellow. Since 1996 he is full professor (Inorganic Chemistry) at TU Chemnitz. A call to TU Kaiserslautern in 2003 was not taken. Since 2008 Prof. Lang is Adjunct Faculty of the Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, U.S.A. He is member of scientific and editorial advisory boards, and has published 700 Peer-reviewed papers and received honors and awards. Since 2012 he is vice-president of TU Chemnitz for Research and Promotion of Young Scientists. His research interests are in organometallic and metal-organic chemistry, including (nano)materials.

Prof. Dr. Esther Lete is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Bilbao (Spain). She obtained a first class honours degree in Chemistry at the University of Bilbao in 1978. She received a PhD degree (doctoral award) at the University of the Basque Country in 1982 with a thesis on synthesis of 3‐ arylisoquinolines (supervisor. E. Domínguez). After a stay with P. J. Garrat at University College London, studying the chemistry and synthetic applications of carbanions, she took up a lectureship in organic chemistry at the University of the Basque Country and was promoted to Full Professor in 1997. Her current research interests include organometallic chemistry and asymmetric synthesis. She is now involved in the development of stereo‐ and enantioselective strategies of C‐C bond forming reactions for the synthesis of heterocyclic systems. Especially she is concerned with synthetic methodologies based on carbolithiation, alpha‐amidoalkylation, Heck and C‐H functionalization reactions.

Frederick Luzzio was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts and raised near Ft. Knox, Kentucky. He graduated (BSc) from Vanderbilt University in 1976 where he majored in chemistry and biology. He worked as a development chemist at Arthur D. Little, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts until entering the graduate program at Tufts University where he earned his MSc and PhD degrees in organic chemistry under the mentorship of Frank S. Guziec, Jr. After finishing graduate study, he spent three years in the laboratories of E. J. Corey as a post-doctoral fellow, followed by two years in the Biomedical Products Department of DuPont. Since 1988 he has served on the faculty of the University of Louisville where he currently holds the rank of Professor. His research interests are in the areas of organic synthesis, natural products and medicinal chemistry.

S.I.Maffioli graduated in chemistry followed by a post-graduate degree in Synthetic Chemistry in at University of Milan After ten years in Biosearch Italia (then Vicuron), where she became medicinal chemistry group leader, she joined Naicons in 2007. She has more than twenty years of experience in pharmaceutical industry in the field of isolation, structural elucidation and chemical optimization of new natural products for the development of new pharmaceutical leads. Other professional experiences include total synthesis, chemical scale-up and process optimization. She is the author of over 40 publications and patent applications.

Peter E. Nielsen is full professor at University of Copenhagen, Denmark since 1995. He is one of the inventors of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) (1991), and has further studied and developed this DNA mimic during the last 25 years in relation to chemistry, origin of life, molecular biology and drug discovery. He is the co-author of more than 400 scientific papers, reviews and books. He is a member of EMBO and the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences, and he has received several national and international scientific prizes including the Novo Nordic Foundation and the Lundbeck prizes.

Yoshiaki Nishibayashi received his Ph.D. in 1995 from Kyoto University under the supervision of Professor Sakae Uemura. He became an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo in 1995 and moved to Kyoto University in 2000. In 2005, he became an associate professor at the University of Tokyo as PI. Since 2016, he has been a full professor at the University of Tokyo. He received the Chemical Society of Japan Award for Distinguished Young Chemists in 2001, the JSPS Prize in 2012, the Green & Sustainable Chemistry Honorable Award in 2012, and the SSOCJ Company Award for Novel Reaction & Method in 2015. His current research interests are focused on organic and organometallic chemistry.

Thierry Ollevier obtained his B.Sc. (1991) and Ph.D. (1997) from the Université de Namur, Belgium, and was postdoctorate fellow at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium under Istvan E. Markó (1997), NATO postdoctorate fellow at Stanford University under Barry M. Trost (1998–2000), then postdoctorate fellow at the Université de Montréal under André B. Charette (2000–2001). After an Assistant Professor appointment (2001) at Université Laval, he became Associate (2006) and is currently Full Professor. Current research in his group aims at designing novel catalysts, developing catalytic reactions and applying these methods to chemical synthesis. He is active in the areas of Lewis acids, asymmetric catalysis, organic chemistry in aqueous conditions, and synthetic green chemistry.

Cyril Papamicaël obtained his Ph.D. under the guidance of Professor G. Dupas at the University of Rouen (France) in 1997 to synthesize and functionalize carbolines. He then spent two years working with Professor A. Gossauer at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). During the course of his research work, he was interested in the synthesis of metallo-porphyrin models for light-harvesting studies. Thereafter, he was engaged in a postdoctoral work for two years with Professor C.J. Schofield at the University of Oxford (United-Kingdom) to synthesize and study metallo-b-lactamase inhibitors. He was finally recruited on a permanent researcher position at INSA-university of Rouen He is both interested in the design of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and the chemistry devoted to medical imaging.

Dr. Pierluigi Quagliotto obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences in 1995 from the University of Torino. Since 1999 he is Assistant Professor at the University of Torino. He spent a short time as a visiting researcher at the EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) in the lab of Prof. M. Gratzel. His research deals with the synthesis and characterization of surfactants and amphiphilic molecules for practical applications, the surfactant-assisted Pd catalyzed reactions and the synthesis of ligands and complexes for photovoltaic Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSC) and CO2 reduction. He is involved as a beta-tester and cooperator in the development of the web-based open source program Open Enventory (by Dr. F. Rudolphi and Prof. L. Goossen University of Kaiserslautern, Germany), a free Inventory and Lab Notebook for Organic Chemists. He is coauthor of 74 papers.

Vincent Rotello is the Goessmann Professor of Chemistry and University Distinguished Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He joined UMass in 1993, and received the NSF CAREER, Cottrell Scholar and Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar awards, the Sloan Fellowship, and the Langmuir Lectureship, the RSC Bioorganic Lecturer, and is a Fellow of the AAAS and the Royal Society of Chemistry (U.K.) He is also the Editor in Chief of Bioconjugate Chemistry. His research program focuses on engineering the interface between hard and soft materials, with > 480 peer-reviewed publications to date.

Professor Artur Silva obtained a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He also holds a BSc degree in Chemistry-Physics from the same University. Currently Professor Artur Silva is Full Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Chemistry Department, University Aveiro. He published more than 495 SCI papers (h = 40), 27 book chapters and delivery more than 45 lectures in scientific meetings and is a named inventor of 2 issued Portuguese Patents. He supervised 21 PhD students and 31 MSc students; he has also participated in 16 financed Portuguese and European projects and in 8 bilateral financed projects with European Research Groups.

Dr. Kenso Soai obtained a doctorate (Ph.D.) in chemistry with Professor Teruaki Mukaiyama from University of Tokyo, Japan. He was a postdoctoral associate with Professor Ernest Eliel at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He joined the faculty member of Department of Applied Chemistry, Tokyo University of Science. He has been a Professor since 1991. His research includes asymmetric autocatalysis, origin of homochirality, asymmetric catalysis. He has been awarded Chirality Medal, Chemical Society of Japan Award, Medal with Purple Ribbon, Synthetic Organic Chemistry Award, Science and Technology Prize by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Dr. Vinod K. Tiwari is associated with Banaras Hindu University since 2005 as Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry. He obtained his MSc from BHU (in 1998) and PhD from CDRI-JNU (in 2004) followed by postdoctoral research experience at University of Florida (with Prof. Alan R Katritzky, 2005), University of California-Davis (with Prof. Xi Chen, 2007) and Universitat Konstanz, Germany (with Prof. Richard R Schmidt, 2009). He was offered a Lecturership at Bundelkhand University (2004-2005) before being appointed in BHU, India (2005-continued) where he started his independent research career. His current research focus on Synthetic Carbohydrate Chemistry and Novel synthetic methodology. With more than 17 years of research and twelve years of teaching experience, Dr. Tiwari completed nine PhD thesis, five major projects and significantly contributed 121 peer reviewed publications (h-index: 27, citation: 2580) including 8 Patents and 12 invited Book chapters of high repute. He delivered numerous invited lectures (over 75) at different institutes in India and abroad and holds editorial board member of four international journals as well Joint Secretary, Association of Carbohydrate Chemist & Technologist of India (ACCTI). His research was recognized with many prestigious awards/honors and medals by different academic/scientific societies.

Dr. Ana M. G. Silva completed her PhD degree in Chemistry at the University of Aveiro in 2002. After her PhD, she was a Post-doc Fellow of FCT at the same University. Since 2007, she holds a researcher position at REQUIMTE, University of Porto. Dr. Silva research interests is mainly focused on the synthesis of libraries of strong emitting fluorophores (rhodamines and fluoresceins) and metal chelating ligands (3-hydroxy-4-pyridinones, catechols and pyridyl units).