Ryoji Noyori ACES Award Symposium

King Willem Alexander Room

Monday 21 August 2023, 10:20h to 12:20h

In 2005, major chemical societies from across Asia and the Pacific region founded the Asian Chemical Editorial Society (ACES) in a spirit of scientific collaboration and international cooperation, and with it its flagship journal, Chemistry – An Asian Journal.

The biennial Ryoji Noyori ACES Award and accompanying scientific symposium was established in 2017 with the support of the German Chemical Society (GDCh) to honor the instrumental role of Nobel Laureate Ryoji Noyori in nurturing the collaborative spirit of ACES, and as the founding Chairman of the Editorial Board of Chemistry – An Asian Journal.

ACES is proud to organize this symposium to honor Prof. Keiji Maruoka, Kyoto University, Japan as the recipient of the fourth Ryoji Noyori ACES Award.

Program
10:20 – 10:30    Introductory Remarks and Award Presentation

10:30 – 11:00    Keiji Maruoka (Kyoto University)
Design of High-Performance Maruoka Catalysts for Amino Acid and Peptide Synthesis

11:00 – 11:20    Magnus Rueping (RWTH Aachen University, KAUST)
Catalysis for C-C and C-heteroatom bond forming reactions

11:20 – 11:40    Eun Jin Cho (Chung-Ang University)
N-O Bond Activation by Energy Transfer Photocatalysis

11:40 – 12:00    Jie Wu (National University of Singapore)
On-Demand Synthesis of Organic Small Molecules

12:00 – 12:20    Helma Wennemers (ETH Zurich)
Bioorthogonal Ligations with Isonitriles

Speakers

Keiji Maruoka was born in Japan. He graduated from Kyoto University (1976) and received his Ph.D. (1980) from University of Hawaii (Thesis Director: Prof. H. Yamamoto).  He became an assistant and associate professor of Nagoya University. He moved to Hokkaido University as a full professor (1995), and then is a professor of Kyoto University since 2000. He is also a distinguished professor of Guangdong University of Technology in China. Recently, he was awarded Arthur C. Cope Scholar Awards (2011), Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon (2011; National Prize from The Japanese Emperor), Humboldt Research Award (2011), Torey Science & Technology Award (2012), Noyori Prize (2016), The Japan Academy Prize (2018), Fujiwara Award (2022), and 2023 Ryoji Noyori ACES award. He is a chief editor of Chem. Rec., a co-chair and editor of Asian JOC, and is a member of the international advisory editorial board of Chemistry – Asian J. and Adv. Synth. Catal.

Magnus Rueping studied at the Technical University of Berlin, Trinity College Dublin and ETH Zürich, where he completed his diploma thesis under the direction of Professor Dieter Seebach. He stayed in the Seebach group and obtained his Ph.D. from the ETH in 2002 working on the synthesis, the structural and the biological aspects of oligo(hydroxybutanoates) and of β- and γ-peptides. Magnus then moved to Harvard University to work with Professor David Evans on enantioselective transition-metal catalysis. In August 2004, he was directly appointed to a C3-professorship, the Degussa Endowed Professorship of Synthetic Organic Chemistry at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt. After four years in Frankfurt, Magnus accepted a Chair and Full Professorship at RWTH Aachen University and since 2016 he is Professor of Chemical Science and member of the KAUST Catalysis Center. His group’s research activities are directed toward the development and simplification of catalytic methodology and technology, and their application in the sustainable synthesis of diverse functional molecules. Over the years the group has developed new catalysts and catalytic concepts involving various types of catalysis: homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, asymmetric catalysis, metal catalysis, organocatalysis and biocatalysis, photo(redox) catalysis, electrocatalysis, as well as combined processes resulting in tandem or cascade procedures and applications. In addition the group is involved in the development of continuous flow (micro)reactor systems, including feedback algorithms and in-operando analytics.

Eun Jin Cho received her undergraduate degree in Chemistry in 2002 and her Master’s degree in 2004 from Seoul National University in South Korea, where she worked under the guidance of Professor Eun Lee. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in 2008 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, working under the supervision of Professor Daesung Lee. After completing her Ph.D., she performed postdoctoral research with Professor Stephen L. Buchwald at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2011, she returned to South Korea to start her independent research career as an Assistant Professor at Hanyang University (ERICA). In 2015, she joined Chung-Ang University as an Associate Professor and was promoted to Full Professor in 2019. The focus of the Cho group’s research is the development of new chemical reactions and the synthesis of functional materials.

Jie Wu pursued his PhD study with Prof. James S. Panek at Boston University working on natural product total synthesis. In his postdoc research at MIT with Prof. Timothy Jamison and Prof. Alan Hatton, Jie has been exposed to the hard core of continuous flow chemistry. Since joining NUS in July 2015, his research group focuses on new synthetic methodology development using photocatalysis assisted by advanced flow technologies. His group is also interested in the development of advanced flow technologies for on-demand and automated synthesis of functionalized organic molecules. In July 2021, Jie was promoted to tenured associate professor. Jie is a recipient of Tokyo Chemical Industry-SNIC Industry Award in Synthetic Chemistry (2021), NUS Young Research Award (2021), Yong Scientist Award (2020), Asian Core Program Lectureship Award (2017-2022), Thieme Chemistry Journal Award (2019), and NUS Chemistry Department Young Chemist Award (2018).

Helma Wennemers is an organic chemist whose research concentrates on asymmetric catalysis, chemical biology, and synthetic materials. She develops peptides to address the question whether small molecules can fulfill functions for which nature evolved large macromolecules. This scope includes the development of bioinspired asymmetric catalysts and functionalizable collagen, and molecular scaffolds for applications in supramolecular and biological chemistry (e.g., cell-penetrating peptides and tumor targeting) and the controlled formation of metal nanoparticles. Helma received her Ph.D. degree from Columbia University, New York, and did postdoctoral studies at Nagoya University before joining Basel University as the Bachem-endowed Assistant Professor. In the fall of 2011, Helma moved to ETH Zurich, where she is Professor of Organic Chemistry. Her research has been recognized by numerous named lectureships and awards, including the Arun Guthikonda Lectureship at Columbia University (2019), the Calvin Lecture at UC Berkeley (2017), the David Ginsburg Lecture at the Technion in Haifa (2010), the Leonidas Zervas Award from the European Peptide Society (2010), the Pedler Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (2016), the Inhoffen Medal from the Helmholtz Center (2017), the Netherlands Scholar Award for Supramolecular Chemistry (2019), the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society (2021), the Scoffone Prize from the Italian Peptide Society (2022), and the Vincent du Vigneaud Award from the American Peptide Society (2023).