Mini-Reviews in Organic Chemistry

Dr. Hua Zhao studied chemistry (B.S.) and chemical engineering (M.S.) at Tianjin University, China, before he earned his Ph.D. degree in 2002 from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Newark, NJ, USA, and completed a postdoctoral training at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. Dr. Zhao is currently a Professor and Chair in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO, USA. He became fascinated with ionic liquids at graduate school while working on organic synthesis and enzymatic resolution of amino acids in aqueous ionic liquids. His current research covers a broad range of interests, including biocatalysis, ionic liquids, biofuels (cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel), synthesis of medicinal molecules with anti-cancer and antiviral properties, and microwave-assisted enzymatic reactions.

Prof. Stephen Pyne received his BSc (Hons) at Adelaide University (top first class) and his PhD in 1979 from the Australian National University. After postdoctoral research fellowships at Purdue University (with P. Fuchs) and Harvard (with E.J. Corey) he was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Wollongong in 1985. In 1998 he was appointed to Professor. He won the A.J. Birch Medal for excellence in Organic Chemistry Research, from the Organic Division of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute in 2012 and the Archibald Ollé Prize for Chemical Literature in 2015. He has published more than 290 journal publications in the areas of natural product synthesis, asymmetric synthesis, natural products, fullerene and medicinal chemistry.

Guan-Wu Wang is currently a full professor at University of Science and Technology of China. He obtained his B.S., M.S. and PhD from Lanzhou University in 1987, 1990, 1993, respectively. He then did his postdoctoral work at Fudan University, Kyoto University, University of Kentucky, University of Chicago and Yale University. He has published over 180 scientific papers. His research interests include fullerene chemistry, mechanochemistry and C–H activation reactions.

Dr. Mallikarjuna N. Nadagouda received his Ph.D. from India in 2003. Dr. Nadagouda went on to become an Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education (ORISE) postdoctoral fellow at the United State Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL), and subsequently achieved his current position as a Physical Scientist at NRMRL in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is also adjunct professor at Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA. He has worked in the areas of nanomaterials and nanotechnology, analytical chemistry, green chemistry, polymer blends, solid coatings, solid state chemistry and drug delivery. He has published over 175 papers in reviewed journals with a citation index of around 6700, and he holds several patents.

Prof. Leonardo Palmisano is professor of Chemistry at University of Palermo, member of Italian Chemical Society, American Chemical Society and fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry. His scientific activity has been mainly carried out in the field of heterogeneous photocatalysis for environmental and Green Chemistry applications. Prof. Palmisano is co-author of more than 300 papers and chapters in books, and 7 patents. He is co-author of a didactical book “Fondamenti di Chimica” EdiSes and been recently elected President of SPEA conferences (Solar Chemistry and Photocatalysis: Environmental Applications). Citations 11000 and h-index 57 (SCOPUS), 15400 and h-index 67 (GOOGLE SCHOLAR).

Ananda S Amarasekara is a professor of chemistry at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, where he has been a faculty member since 2003. He received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from City University of New York. The current research interest of his group is to develop acidic ionic liquid based chemocatalytic methods for the processing of biomass to renewable fuels and feedstock chemicals. He is the author of the book "Handbook of Cellulosic Ethanol" and has published more than 100 peer reviewed research articles.

Debasish Bandyopadhyay, PhD, MRSC, is currently Research Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Texas-Pan American, USA. Dr. Debasish does research in Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry and Green Chemistry. His specific areas of interest include Medicinal Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Anticancer drug discovery, and Green Chemistry. He has around 61 Publications in Internationally Peer-reviewed Journals, 93 National/State/Regional presentations, 2 book chapters and 2 patents to his portfolio.

Prof. Nina Berova is a research and adjunct professor in the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University, New York, USA. Her research is focused on organic stereochemistry and combined application of experimental and theoretical chiroptical spectroscopic methods (ED, ORD Ȧ VCD) for structural analysis. Her more recent interests include structural analysis by porphyrins as versatile and sensitive molecular probes. She has over 220 publications and is recipient of many scholarships and visiting professorships, as well as awards specifically for her studies on chirality. Since 1998, she is a co-editor of Journal “Chirality.” Prof. Berova is also a co-editor and co-author of few monographs on Circular Dichroism.

Dr. Franz Bracher studied Pharmacy at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, and obtained his Dr. rer. nat. in 1986. After a postdoctorate in the group of Wolfgang Opppolzer at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), he moved to the University of Marburg (1987-1992), was appointed Associate Professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig, and finally Full Professor for Pharmacy at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich in 1987. His main research topics are the development of novel drug candidates, mostly based on natural products total synthesis, development of inhibitors of sterol biosynthesis in fungal and mammalian cells, heterocyclic chemistry, and the development of novel screening systems for drug discovery. He authored about 200 publications in this field.

Dr. Li Cai is an organic chemist whose research focuses on carbohydrate chemistry, enzymatic synthesis of carbohydrates, and chemical glycobiology. Dr. Cai is also devoted to enhancing the teaching and learning of chemistry, which includes advising undergraduate researches. He received his B.S. degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and M.S. degree in Medicinal Chemistry from Peking University. He then attended the Ohio State University, where he earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry. He has published more than 25 peer-reviewed papers in chemical research and education (among more than 50 publications total) since joining the USC faculty.

Dr. Asit K. Chakraborti is Professor and Head of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), S.A.S. Nagar, India. He received his Ph.D. degree in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata, India in 1985. He has published 158 research papers (with more than 6800 citations) and filed 41 patents. Dr. Chakraborti is Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. His research interests are in synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry. In the area of synthetic organic chemistry, his efforts are directed towards the development of new synthetic methodologies through devising novel concepts.

Prof. Chen is now working at Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2000, he was selected for Hundred Talents Program by CAS. In 2006, he was awarded National Science Fund of China for Distinguished Young Scholars. He has published about 250 research papers and 3 books during the last two decades. His current research interests include (1) synthesis of triptycene-derived macrocyclic hosts and their applications in supramolecular chemistry, (2) synthesis of novel chiral organic dyes and their applications in organic functional materials, (3) synthesis of helicene-based catalysts and their applications in catalytic asymmetric synthesis.

Dr. Biswanath Das received his B.Sc. (Hons) In Chemistry from Burdwan University and M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry (1st Class, Rank 1st) from Kalyani University. He became a Ph.D. from Calcutta University and continued his Post-Doc in US and Taiwan. His field of research is Chemistry of Bioactive Organic Compounds. Dr. Das has 416 publications (in SI Journals) and 14 Book Articles to his credit. Dr. Das has delivered lectures in various national and international seminars and symposia. He is honored with different prestigious awards.

Roman Dembinski was educated (Ph.D.) at the Polish Academy of Sciences, and as a research associate with J. A. Gladysz. Since 1999 he has held a faculty appointment at Oakland University, USA, currently at the rank of Professor and Chair. Recently he has joined also Center of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies, Department of Bioorganic Chemistry. His scientific interests include synthetic organic, medicinal/nucleosides, fluorous, fluorine, and organometallic chemistry. His publications reached over 1500 citations and h-index of 19. His recent awards include Fulbright Scholar.

Prof. Dr. Yuqiang Ding received his Ph.D. degree in 2002 from Georg-August-University Goettingen (Germany) where he finished his Diplom equivalent examination under the guidance of Professor Herbert W. Roesky. After his postdoctoral research in Max-Planck Institute of Coal Research with Professor Klaus Poerschke, he became a full professor of Jiangnan University (China) in 2004. His current research interests embrace the synthesis and application of organometallic complexes as catalysts and materials.

Chris Easton is a graduate of Flinders University and the University of Adelaide. He held positions at Harvard University (1980-1981), the Research School of Chemistry (1982), the University of Canterbury (1983-1986) and the University of Adelaide (1986-1994), before his appointment as a Senior Fellow in the Research School of Chemistry, in 1995. He was awarded a D.Sc. from the University of Adelaide in 1998 and is the recipient of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Birch Medal for 2000, and the Archibald Ollé Prize for Chemical Literature for 2000. He was promoted to Professor at the Research School of Chemistry in 2001 and elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2004.

Prof. El Sayed H. El Ashry obtained Ph.D. and D.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Alexandria, Egypt. Currently, Prof. El Ashry is an Emeritus Professor in the University of Alexandria. He has received many awards, such as The Gold Medal Telesio-Galilei Academy 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, etc. Prof. El Ashry has published more than 400 scientific publications. He is author of a book and editor of another one in the field of carbohydrate and heterocyclic chemistry.

Prof. Vitor Francisco Ferreira moved in 1980 to the research group of Professor Ernest Wenkert at the University of California San Diego and obtained his Ph.D. In 1992, he became full professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, Brazil. He was president of the Brazilian Chemistry Society between 2012 and 2014. Prof. Ferreira’s 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. He has authored/co-authored over 240 article publications in various journals, having a significant number of total citations, i.e. more than 4,210.

Dr. Enikő Forró obtained her Ph.D. from Szeged University, Hungary, under the supervision of Professor Ferenc Fülöp, in 2000. Dr. Forró was appointed full professor in the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, at University of Szeged, in 2013. She is head of enzymatic laboratory, and, under her supervision, 17 diploma works and 3 Ph.D. theses have been prepared and defended successfully. She has a wide range of research interests in enzymatic chemistry, preparation of enantiomeric compounds, important from both pharmacological and chemical aspects. Until now, she has published over 120 publications, having a significant number of total citations, i.e. more than 2,160.

Prof. Chris Frost completed his Ph.D. degree (with Jonathan M.J. Williams) at the University of Loughborough. After his postdoctoral fellowship, he joined the Chemistry Department at the University of Bath, UK. Then, in 2011, he was promoted to Full Professor in Organic Chemistry. Research in the Frost group involves creating new chemical tools for catalysis and biosensing. Specifically, they are developing effective tandem or sequential catalytic processes to modify the structural and physicochemical properties of molecules. Current projects involve electrochemical detection of DNA, catalytic signal amplification, post-synthetic modification of oligonucleotides and exploring new concepts and selectivities in C-H activation. Prof. Frost has published over 100 papers and has presented more than 50 invited lectures.

Dr. S.V. Giofrè was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy. In 2005 He graduated cum laude in “Chemical and Pharmaceutical Technology” at the University of Messina. In 2009 he obtained the PhD qualification in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Messina. From 2012 to the present, He is an Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Messina.

Dr. Michael Harmata, obtained his A.B. in Chemistry, University of Illinois, Chicago (1980). Later, he obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana (1985). Since 1986, he has been associated with University of Missouri-Columbia. Currently, he is Norman Rabjohn Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, University of Missouri-Columbia. He has received various honors and awards for his contribution to science. He has around 204 journal publications and 16 books to his credit overall.

Dr. Liang-Nian is currently a Professor of Chemistry at Nankai University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC, from 2011). He received his Ph.D. from Nankai University in 1996. His research interests cover green chemistry, catalysis, and CO2 chemistry (CO2 activation and its chemical transformation into fuels/value-added chemicals), catalysis in green solvents and biomass conversion (castor-related energy), and green technology related to desulfurization. Dr. Liang-Nian has authored over 190 scientific publications and has held 21 patents. He has also edited 12 books and chapters. He is an editor-in-chief of “Current Organic Synthesis (Bentham Science)” and on the editorial board of a dozen of international scientific journals.

Satoshi Horikoshi received his PhD degree in 1999, and was subsequently a postdoctoral researcher at the Frontier Research Center for the Global Environment Science until 2006. He joined Sophia University as Assistant Professor in 2006, and then moved to Tokyo University of Science as Associate Professor in 2008, after which he returned to Sophia University as Associate Professor in 2011. Currently he is Vice-President of the Japan Society of Electromagnetic Wave Energy Applications (JEMEA), and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Microwave Power and Electromagnetic Energy and other international journals. His research interests involve new material synthesis, molecular biology, formation of sustainable energy and environmental protection using microwave- and/or photo-energy. He has co-authored over 170 scientific publications and has contributed to and edited or co-edited 20 books.

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.

Prof. Ivo Iavicoli obtained his degree in Medicine and his specialty in Occupational Medicine (both cum laude) at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, Italy. He completed a Ph.D. in Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene at the University of Milan. At present he is Associate Professor of Occupational Medicine at the Department of Public Health of the University of Naples ‘Federico II’. He is also Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Health and Health Sciences of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, U.S.A. He is the author of more than 250 publications in national and international journals.

Dr. Mangalagiu is a professor of organic and medicinal chemistry and Vice-Rector with research at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania. Previously, prof. Mangalagiu served as Dean, Vice-Dean, Head of Organic Chemistry Department, etc. at Faculty of Chemistry. He has nearly 30 years of experience in the research, focused in the area of Heterocycles Compounds. He has over 160 papers, 13 patents, 3 international chapter books, etc. He was Visiting Professor and/or invited speaker to prestigious foreign universities (Ludwig Maximilianus University Munchen and Technische Universität Braunschweig, University of Florence, Universite D’Angers), awarded with numerous prizes and honours: DAAD and NATO award, “Costin D. Nenitescu Medal” (Romanian Society of Chemistry), “Al.I.Cuza University Award in Research”, “Grand Prize Euroinvent” (Euroinvent, Romania), Special Award of Croatian Association of Inventors, etc.

Prof. Teodoro S. Kaufman, Ph.D., currently holds the position of Full Professor of the Department of Organic Chemistry, at the School of Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the National University of Rosario (FCByF-UNR) in Rosario, Argentina. His main research interests include the synthesis of structurally or biologically unique heterocyclic natural products, their analogs or derivatives, the characterization of pharmaceutically active compounds through the development of new analytical methodologies, often involving a chemometrics approach, and the development of new synthetic methodologies for the construction of C-C and C-Het bonds, among others. Prof. Kaufman has authored over 200 meeting presentations, 130 original research papers and reviews, published in SCI-indexed journals, 10 patents and 2 invited book chapters for international publishers.

Dr. Nader Ghaffari Khaligh received his Ph.D. degree in 2013 from the University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran. After a two-year period at the Professor Reza Institute, he moved to the Nanotechnology & Catalysis Research Study (University of Malaya) as a researcher. Since 2015, Dr. Khaligh is Senior Researcher at University of Malaya. He is author or co-author of over 70 publications, including some reviews and mini-reviews on the heterogeneous catalysts and multi-task reagents. Furthermore, he has given more than 20 lectures at international conferences and research institutions.

Prof. A. Douglas Kinghorn has been Professor and Jack L. Beal Chair in Natural Products Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at the College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University (OSU) since 2004. He received Ph.D. (1975) and D.Sc. (1990) degrees from The School of Pharmacy, University of London. He has authored or co-authored over 500 peer-reviewed research articles, review articles, and book chapters. His research interests include the isolation and structural characterization of bioactive natural products from higher plants, particularly potential anticancer agents, antileishmanial compounds, cancer chemopreventives, and taste-modifying substances. In 2016, he received a Distinguished Scholar Award from OSU.

Prof. Gilbert Kirsch has been trained as an organic chemist at the Universities of Strasbourg and Metz, France. He started his academic carrier in 1973 at the University of Metz (now University of Lorraine), where he currently holds 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 has 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.

Dr Alain Krief is Emeritus Professor of Organic at the University of Namur, adjunct Professor at the University of Karachi and Executive Director of the international Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development. Its main research interests involve the discovery of novel chemical reactions, understanding the mechanism of steroid biosynthesis, chemical knowledge management and chemical education. He has published around 300 papers in the related fields.

Roman Lesyk was born in Stary Sambir, Lviv region, Ukraine, in 1968. He earned his PhD in 1996 and got the habilitation for professorship in 2005 in the field of medicinal and heterocyclic chemistry. He is a professor of pharmaceutical/medicinal chemistry in Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University. During 2004-2014 occupied Pharmaceutical faculty dean’s position, since 2015 – Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical, Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry. His research interests center around 4-thiazolidinone cores within structure-based drug design, especially in the area of medicinal chemistry of anticancer and antimicrobial agents. He is an author of 350 scientific papers and 50 patents.

Dr. Lewis is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He holds the Ph.D. and D.Sc. from the University of Adelaide, South Australia. After post-doctoral study at Arkansas and Illinois, he served on the faculty of Baylor and South Dakota State University, before moving to Eau Claire. He has been Chair of the American Chemical Society's Division of the History of Chemistry, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. His research interests range from the development of site-specific fluorescent probes for live cells to the history of organic chemistry in Russia. He is the author of over 75 papers and five books, including Advanced Organic Chemistry (Oxford University Press, 2016); he holds 18 U.S. patents.

Prof. JUN F. (JAMES) LIANG became a Ph.D. in Biopolymers from NanKai University, Tianjin, China (1993). Since 2003, he has been associated with Department of Chemistry, Chemical Biology, and Biomedical Engineering Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, United States. Currently, Dr. Liang is a professor at Department of Chemistry, Chemical Biology, and Biomedical Engineering Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, United States. He has around 12 patents and 99 peer reviewed publications to his credit.

Dr. Jialei Liu obtained his Ph.D. degree (2010) in organic chemistry from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jinan, China. He is now working as an associate researcher in Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science. His research area involves synthesis of organic conjugated functional small molecules and their application in optics, electronics and drug. So far, he has published more than 80 SCI academic peer-reviewed papers, and more than 10 patents as co-inventor.

Prof. Erjia Liu received his Ph.D. degree from K.U. Leuven, Belgium, in 1997. He is currently an Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His research interests mainly focus on thin films, coatings, carbon materials, nanocomposites, electroanalysis, tribology, corrosion, additive manufacturing, and micro/nanofabrication. He has authored about 150 refereed journal papers, 140 conference presentations, 11 books, 4 book chapters, and 2 patents.

Dr. Zhe Liu is a research professor in Wenzhou Institute of Biomaterials and Engineering (WIBE), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is currently leading the Lab of Bio-Imaging and Translational Medicine (LBITM). In 2007, Dr. Liu obtained his doctorate of chemical biology from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS). Afterwards, he joined the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS) in School of Medicine, as a postdoctoral scholar working in the field of development of novel bioactive chelates and conjugates for melanoma diagnosis and therapy. He is now an adjunct professor of Department of Radiology, Wenzhou Medical University Affiliated No. 2 Hospital.

Prof Harri Lönnberg is the emeritus professor of organic chemistry of Turku University, Finland. He graduated in 1976 from the same university, having done postgraduate research on the kinetics and mechanisms of the hydrolysis of O-glycosidic bond under the supervision of Professor Alpo Kankaanperä. From 1976 to 1992 he held various research posts of the Academy of Finland and in 1992 he then became appointed as the professor of organic chemistry at the University of Turku. His current research interests include studies on the recognition and cleavage of RNA, targeting of therapeutic oligonucleotides by covalent conjugation, pro-drug strategies for nucleotide drugs, and novel paradigms for large scale synthesis of oligonucleotides. His previous studies have dealt with kinetics and mechanisms of the hydrolytic reactions of glycosides, nucleosides, nucleotides and oligonucleotides, solid-supported synthesis of various bioconjugates, fluorescence-based hybridization diagnostics and DNA–base modifications. He has published more than 300 scientific papers.

Professor Pedro Lozano was born in Ceutí, Spain in 1961. He received his PhD in Sciences (Chemistry) at the University of Murcia in 1988. He spent two years (1990-91) at the Centre de Bioingénierie Gilbert Durand, Toulouse (France) as a post-doctoral fellow, then returned to the University of Murcia (Spain) as Lecturer in Biochemistry, and being finally promoted to Full Professor in 2004. Since 2014, Prof. Lozano is Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Murcia. His research activity has always been related with applied biocatalysis in ionic liquids and supercritical fluids, being authored more than 130 manuscripts (articles, book chapters, etc).

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).

Huimin Ma is a Professor of Chemistry at the Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS). He received his B. Sc. in 1983 from Shandong University and Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry in 1990 from ICCAS (supervisor, Prof. Shuquan Liang), followed by doing 2-year postdoctoral research at Wuhan University with Prof. Yun’e Zeng. He was granted a research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, working at Bremen University with Prof. Wolfram Thiemann in Germany (1996−1997). In 2005, he was granted the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in China. He has contributed more than 150 journal articles as well as 20 invited book chapters and reviews, and is a member of the Editorial Board of several chemical and biological journals. His research interests focus on the design and synthesis of new spectroscopic probes and their analytical applications.

Dr. Ma is a Professor of Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University. He has been working on heterogeneous catalysis, environmental catalysis, and nanocatalysis for 18 years. He got a Ph.D. from University of California, Riverside. Dr. Ma has authored 108 journal publications, 10 book chapters, and over 100 popular articles on newspapers/magazines. He is also a reviewer of over 70 journals and an Editorial Board Member of 5 journals.

Dr. Susan received her B Pharm from the University of Nottingham in 1991. She was qualified as a Pharmacist (RPSGB) in 1992 before receiving her Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Bath in 1995. She gained Post-Doctoral experience at the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Prague (Royal Society European Fellowship), Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz and the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford before taking up the Kinerton Lectureship of Organic Chemistry at Trinity College, Dublin. She joined the School in April 2003 as Lecturer of Medicinal Chemistry and was promoted to Senior lecturer in 2008. She is currently the Chair of the University South East Asia Dialogue Group and was the Associate Dean for Admissions for the Faculty of Science from 2011 till 2016.

Dr. Grzegorz Mloston completed chemistry studies at the University of Łódź, Poland, and subsequently prepared the Ph.D. thesis entitled ‘Reactions of Phenylmethylene with Imines’ under the supervision of Prof. R. Bartnik. He currently occupies the position of full-professor at the University of Łódź (since 1998). In the period of 2012 to 2016, he served the academic community as the Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry. His research interest is mainly focused on modern organic synthesis, organocatalysis, heteroatom chemistry, organic chemistry of sulfur, fluorine organic chemistry, reactive intermediates, and organic reaction mechanisms. Dr. Mloston, as an author/co-author, has published over 300 articles in various journals, having a significant number of total citations, i.e. more than 3,970.

Prof. Dr. Thierry Ollevier, obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry at the University of Namur, Belgium, in 1991. He obtained his B.Sc. (1991) and Ph.D. (1997) at the Université de Namur, Belgium. After an Assistant Professor appointment (2001) at Université Laval, Québec (Canada), 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 green synthetic chemistry. He has 75 publications (53 research articles, 20 encyclopedia articles, 2 conference proceedings), 3 book chapters, and 1 book to his credit.

Dr. Abdel Omri obtained his Ph.D. from Université de Montréal in 1996. Dr. Omri is currently Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry with a cross appointment to the Department of Biology, the Biomolecular Sciences Ph.D. Programme, School of Rural and Northern Health Ph.D. Programme. His research interests are focused on Lipid-based drug and vaccine delivery systems. Dr. Omri is also involved in the education of undergraduate and graduate students through the coordination of several calendar courses in biochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology and pharmaceutical technology. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed research articles over his career on various aspects of drug delivery and targeting in addition to several published book chapters and books. Dr. Omri has 2 patents.

Laura Orian got her PhD in Chemical Sciences at the University of Padova in Italy, where she is currently Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry. Her research activity is in the theoretical-computational field and deals mainly with the investigation of the structural, electronic and reactivity properties of inorganic and bio-inspired catalysts and functional molecules, aiming at rational design and assessment of structure-reactivity predictions. In her group, accurate mechanistic studies are carried out using state-of-the-art quantum chemistry methods, suitable for systems with few tens of atoms as well as hybrid approaches based on the development of ad hoc force fields, to model systems with hundreds/thousands of atoms. L.O. is author of more than 50 indexed papers in international journals.

Professor Helen Osborn obtained a BA in Chemistry from the University of Oxford (1991), followed by a PhD in Organic and Biological Chemistry from the University of Bristol (1994). She then undertook post-doctoral research with Professor Steve Ley at the University of Cambridge before embarking on her independent career at the University of Reading (1996). She is currently Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the School of Pharmacy, University of Reading. She has extensive research expertise in the synthesis and biological analysis of carbohydrates, and their analogues, as well as medicinal chemistry aligned to anti-cancer and anti-bacterial strategies. She has published more than 70 original research papers in international peer reviewed journals.

Hélène Pellissier carried out her PhD under the supervision of Dr G. Gil in Marseille (France) in 1987. The work was focused on the reactivity of isocyanides. In 1988, she entered the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) as a researcher. After a postdoctoral period in Professor K. P. C. Vollhardt’s group at the University of California, Berkeley, she joined the group of Professor M. Santelli in Marseille in 1992, where she focused on the chemistry of 1,8-bis(trimethylsilyl)-2,6-octadiene and its application to the development of novel very short total syntheses of steroids starting from 1,3-butadiene and benzocyclobutenes. She is currently chargée de recherche (CNRS) at Aix-Marseille Université.

José R. Pérez-Correa received the BSc and MSc degrees in Chemical Engineering in 1982 from the University of Chile. In 1987 he was awarded the Diploma of the Imperial College and a PhD degree from the University of London, both in Chemical Engineering. Prof. Pérez-Correa was appointed Full Professor at the Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering Department of the Catholic University of Chile in 2011. His research interests include extraction and purification of natural products, as well as optimization of chemical processes and bioprocesses. He has published over 90 ISI papers and more than 30 book chapters.

Arthur Ragauskas held the first Fulbright Chair in Alternative Energy and is a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Academy of Wood Science and TAPPI. In 2014, he assumed a Governor’s Chair for Biorefining based in University of Tennessee’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, with a complementary appointment in the UT Institute of Agriculture’s Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries and serves in the US Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate, Biosciences Division, at ORNL. His research program is directed at understanding and exploiting innovative sustainable bioresources for biofuels, and bio-based materials and chemicals.

Maddali L. N. Rao obtained Ph.D. in 1996 from the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India. He had carried out post-doctoral research in Japan and USA before joining IIT Kanpur in the year 2003. Dr. Rao with more than 20 years of research experience is currently Professor in the Department of Chemistry, IIT Kanpur. He has been actively involved in the development of New Generation Cross-coupling reactions, GREEN Organometallic methods for organic synthesis. His other broad research interests spread across Organic Synthesis, Metal-catalyzed reactions, Organocatalysis, microwave-mediated organic synthesis, organometallics and Green Chemistry.

Dr. Olivier Renaudet received his Ph.D. degree in 2002 in the field of peptide and carbohydrate chemistry from the Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France. Thereafter, he pursued postdoctoral researches in the group of Prof. J.-L. Reymond at the University of Berne (Switzerland) then he returned to Grenoble to obtain an Assistant Professor (2004) and a full Professor position (2012) at the Department of Molecular Chemistry. He has co-edited a themed issue on “Multivalent Scaffolds in Glycoscience” published in the Chemical Society Reviews (RSC Publishing) in 2013. His current research activities focus on the development of multi-click approaches to synthesize multi-functional homo- and heteroglycoclusters as antitumoral synthetic vaccines, nanovectors or anti-pathogenic agents.

Prof. Patrick Rollin is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Orléans, France. His prime interests in chemistry involve Thiochemistry of sugars and chemistry of thio-sugars, Use of uncommon thio-functions in regio- and stereocontrolled glycochemistry, Phytochemistry (The order Brassicale: glucosinolates and sulfur-containing metabolites), and Glycerol chemistry (Integrated valorization of regrowing resources and bio-products). Prof. Rollin has authored/co-authored over 190 article publications in various journals, having a significant number of total citations, i.e. more than 2,895. Furthermore, he has been France’s elected representative in the European Carbohydrate Organisation (2003-2009), Member of the French National Council of the Universities - Commission 32 (2004-2007), Registered in the Albo dei Revisori of the Italian MIUR (since 2003), etc.

Dr. Thomas Rosenau received his doctorate from Dresden University of Technology, Germany, and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA, and his habilitation in organic chemistry from BOKU University Vienna, Austria. He is currently professor at BOKU University, holding the Chair of Wood, Pulp and Fiber Chemistry and heading the Division of Chemistry of Renewable Resources. He is also adjunct professor of fiber science at Shinshu University, Japan and adjunct professor at the Johan Gadolin Process Chemistry Center at Abo Akademi Turku, Finland. Dr. Rosenau has published more than 310 scientific articles, several book chapters, and 14 patents.

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.

Claudio Santi received the PhD in Chemical Sciences from the University of Perugia under the supervision of Prof. Marcello Tiecco. Currently he is professor of Organic Chemistry and teaches the courses of Spectroscopy for Organic Chemistry and Organic Chemistry of Natural Compounds. He leads the group of Catalysis and Organic Green Chemistry in the department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and is worldwide recognized expert n organoselenium chemistry. His research interest range from the application of selenium reagents in green chemistry to the development of new orgaselenium containing drugs. He is author of more than 130 publications including review articles and book chapters.

Dr. Carlos Manuel Santos Silva did Licentiate Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto in 1992. Later, he did his PhD from Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto in 1998. Currently, he is assistant professor in Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro. Dr. Silva has around 105 peer reviewed scientific journal publications, 2 book chapters and 2 patents in his portfolio.

Armando J. D. Silvestre (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5403-8416). PhD in Chemistry (1994), Associate Professor at the Dept of Chemistry University of Aveiro and CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials. He is leader of CICECO Research Group on Biorefineries, Biobased Materials and recycling. His research interests are centered on the valorization of plant biomass, involving chemical characterization, new extraction processes, biological activity of extracts for nutraceutical applications: His research interests also address the development of new biobased polyesters (mainly from 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid) and (nano)composite materials, notably from (nano)cellulose fibers. He is author of 240 papers (+4800 citations, h=36), 15 book charters e 4 patents. He as participated in more than 30 national and EU funded projects.

Dr. Irina Smoliakova obtained an M.S. in Chemistry degree from Lomonosov Moscow State University and a Ph.D. degree from Zelinski Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russia. In 1991, she was invited to work in the laboratory of Professor R. Caple at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, USA. In 1995, she became an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department of the University of North Dakota (UND), USA. Presently, Dr. Smoliakova is a Professor in the same Department. She is a recipient of NIH and NSF grants, the UND Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Elmer and Min West Faculty Award for achievements in teaching, research and service. She is a co-author of more than 60 peer-reviewed publications.

Prof. Snider obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. He is Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. He has published more than 300 scientific papers in the area of natural products synthesis and development of new synthetic methods.

Professor Sugai Takeshi did his bachelors in Organic Chemistry from The University of Tokyo Faculty of Agriculture in 1981. He also did his masters from The University of Tokyo Graduate School, Division of Agricultural Science in 1983. Later, he was enrolled into doctorate course of The University of Tokyo Graduate School, Division of Agricultural Science but withdrew without completion in 1984. His research areas are (a) Organic Chemistry (b) Synthetic Chemistry (c) Catalyst and Chemical Process (d) Bioengineering (e) Biological Productive Chemistry and Bioorganic Chemistry. Currently, he is a Professor (Faculty of Pharmacy) in Keio University. Prof. Takeshi has various scientific publications in the area of chemistry and his contribution to science is noteworthy.

CLAUDIU T. SUPURAN is professor of medicinal chemistry at the Neurofarba Department, Section of Pharmaceutical and Nutriceutical Sciences, University of Florence, Italy. He has published more than 1250 papers, his Hirsch factor is h = 110; the number of citations since 1995 > 49800. His main research interest is on enzyme inhibitors, and especially carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, of which he discovered several new classes in the last years. One of the sulfonamides discovered in his group entered Phase I clinical trials in 2014 for the treatment of advanced, metastatic solid tumors. He is Editor-in-Chief of Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry, Current Enzyme Inhibition, etc. For the last 25 years the main interest of his research was focused on metallo-enzymes and their modulators of activity. In 2013 he was rated as the most cited scientists in Pharmacology & Toxicology by LabTimes (LabTimes 2013, 5, 38).

Dr. Fei Teng is Deputy Director of Jiangsu Engineering and Technology Research Center of Environmental Cleaning Materials (ECM), Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, China. In 2005, Dr. Teng obtained his Ph.D. degree from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). During 2005 to 2010, he continued research as postdoctor, research professor, postdoctor at Tsinghua University, Ajou University of South Korea, Michigan Technological University of US, respectively. Notably, Dr. Teng has authored more than 110 SCI publications and 20 Chinese patents. Since 2011, Dr. Teng is a professor at Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, where he teaches "Physical Chemistry" and "Pharmacochemistry".

Mike Threadgill is Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Bath. He has nearly forty years of experience in medicinal chemistry and drug design, focussing mainly on cancer. Previously, he held positions at Roche Products Ltd. (part of Hoffman-La Roche), Aston University and the MRC Radiobiology Unit. His qualifications include MA (University of Cambridge), PGCE (University of Durham), PhD (University of Cambridge) and DSc (University of Bath). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Honorary Fellow of the Indian Society of Chemists & Biologists and Vice-President of the Groupement des Pharmacochimistes de l’Arc Atlantique.

Prof. Kiyoshi Tomioka is a Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Kyoto, Japan, and Emeritus Professor of Kyoto University, Japan. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1976. He has been a Professor at Kyoto University since 1996 for 14 years before moving to Doshisha. His research interests are in synthetic organic chemistry, asymmetric synthesis, organometallic chemistry, and molecular architecture. He became Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry (2016). He has authored/co-authored over 270 article publications in various journals, having a very significant number of total citations, i.e. more than 9,325.

Dr. HONG-BO WANG, obtained his B. Sc. in Applied Chemistry, Huazhong Agricultural University, China (2003). He did M.S. in Organic Chemistry, Central China Normal University, China (2006). He became a Ph.D. in Chemistry, the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada (2011). Since 2015, Dr. Wang is a Professor of Chemistry in Jianghan University, Wuhan, China. His research interests lie in areas of Supramolecular Polymers and Organic Porous Materials for Biomass Energy Storage. He has received numerous honors and awards. Dr. Wang has around 18 publications to his portfolio so far.

Valentin Wittmann obtained a PhD from the Technical University of Munich (Germany). Subsequently, he carried out postdoctoral research at the Goethe-University of Frankfurt (Germany) and at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California (USA). In 1997 he returned to Frankfurt to start independent research. Since 2003 he is professor of organic/bioorganic chemistry at the University of Konstanz (Germany). From 2006 until 2011 he was Dean of Studies and since 2016 he is head of the Department of Chemistry. His main research area is the chemical biology of carbohydrates including metabolic glycoengineering, investigation of multivalent carbohydrate-protein interactions, and RNA-targeting antibiotics.

Dr. Peng Zhan obtained his Ph.D. degree (2010) in medicinal chemistry from Shandong University, Jinan, China. He is now working as an associate professor in Shandong University. His research area involves discovery of novel antiviral, anticancer and neurodegenerative diseases-related agents based on the rational drug design approaches. So far, he has published more than 70 SCI academic peer-reviewed papers, and more than 20 patents as co-inventor. He received the first prize of Shandong Province Science and Technology Innovation Achievement excellent graduate Award in 2010, CPA-Servier Young Investigator Awards in Medicinal Chemistry in 2016, and many other honors and awards.

Dr. Liming Zhang is an expert of organic-inorganic hybrid materials, transition metal complexes with organic ligands, nanomaterials, including their synthesis, characterization, photophysical analysis and application. His research covers materials based on pure organic ones, metal complexes, nanocrystals, material synthesis/processing, theoretical calculation, morphology study, photophysical/optical analysis, spectroscopic analysis and opto-electronic performance. He published over 60 related papers and patents, supported by funds from National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Provincial Science and Technology Developing Project. He serves as an Editor-in-Chief for two international journals and an honored/recognized editorial member/reviewer for over 50 journals.

Prof. Weiping Zhang obtained his PhD in physical chemistry at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2000. From 2000 till 2004 he was a postdoctoral fellow at ETH, Zurich and National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. Then he returned to DICP where he became an associate professor in 2005 and professor in 2006. In 2011 he moved to Dalian University of Technology, China as a full professor. His research interests are in situ NMR and catalytic mechanisms of organic reactions. He has over 70 peer-reviewed publications to his credit.

Dr. Zhao is a full professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Texas at San Antonio. He holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Würzburg (Germany) and MS in organic chemistry from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China). Dr. Zhao has more than 20 years of research experience in synthetic methodology development, asymmetric catalysis, oxidation, and synthesis. In these areas, he has published more than 90 papers and a monograph. Dr. Zhao previously served twice as an Associate Editor for Organic Reactions and is currently serving as an editorial board member for several chemistry journals.

Jian Zhou is currently a Professor at East China Normal University. He obtained his Ph.D from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS, in 2004. His research interests focus on the development of new methodologies to construct fully substituted carbon stereocenters. He has published more than sixty papers in international peer-reviewed journals, and a written a book with Wiley.

Santanu Panja completed his B.Sc with Honours in Chemistry from Asutosh College, University of Calcutta. He then received an M.Sc. degree specialising in organic chemistry in 2011. After qualifying for the national eligibility test (NET) jointly conducted by UGC and CSIR, Govt. of India, successively in 2010 and 2011, he joined University of Kalyani to pursue doctoral research on supramolecular chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Kumaresh Ghosh. After completion of his Ph.D in 2017, Santanu joined the Université de Bordeaux as research associate (research adviser: Prof. Philippe Barthélémy). Presently, he is working at the University of Glasgow as a Newton Research Fellow under the mentorship of Prof. Dave Adams. His research interest covers the area of supramolecular chemistry, specifically gel chemistry.

Dr. Changhai Xu is currently a full professor at Jiangnan University. He obtained his Ph.D from North Carolina State University (USA) in 2009. His research interests focus on chemistry pertaining to textiles, especially synthesis of dyestuffs and chemical auxiliaries. He has published more than forty papers in international peer-reviewed journals. He currently serves as the associate director of the Key Laboratory of Eco-textiles at Ministry of Education, China.