Nik, Sergiu and Robert’s paper on how HFIP facilitates enamide hydroarylation is accepted for publication in Chemical Science. Lots of important mechanistic insight in this one and a great example of how collaboration makes a paper better. Congrats!
Joseph has received the 2022 Liebig Lectureship from the Organic Division of the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker). The award is given each year to an outstanding young scientist in organic chemistry, preferably one working in a European country outside Germany. Joseph will give a series of lectures in Germany in January 2023 and a virtual lecture for EurJOC to be announced in the near future. The list of previous laureates can be found here.
The research field of protometabolism, including work from our lab and quotes from Joseph and Kamila, is the subject of an article in National Geographic. Thanks to Michael Marshall for this accessible piece. Read it here.
Jing’s work on a non enzymatic analog of pyrimidine nucleobase biosynthesis has been accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congrats!
Marie and Shaofei’s rapid method for the reduction of epoxides to primary alcohols has been accepted for publication in ACS Catalysis. Congrats!
A warm welcome to Silvana Pinna, who joins us from the group of Prof. Nick Lane at University College London, where she investigated the prebiotic chemistry of ATP. Welcome, Silvana!
A warm welcome to Weiqiang Chen, who joins us from the group of Prof. Martin Oestreich at the TU Berlin, where he developed surrogates for gaseous or toxic reagents. In our group, Weiqiang will work on both prebiotic and synthetic chemistry. Welcome, Weiqiang!
Our paper on a large expansion of the Friedel-Crafts reaction has been accepted for publication in Chem. We describe Friedel-Crafts reactions with primary aliphatic alcohols and electronically deactivated epoxides, as well as sequential Friedel-Crafts reactions stemming from epoxide-opening, all without pre-activation. This was a massive project with over 170 examples, some of it reaching back nearly 4 years. Congrats to Shaofei, Marie, Florent, Vuk and Andrei and to our DFT collaborators in the Rowley lab (Carleton).
Robert, Harpreet and Sophia’s re-evaluation and mechanistic study of metal ion-catalyzed transamination under biological conditions has been accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Congrats!
The eighth incoming class of PhD students joins the group. Valentyn, funded by the CSC Graduate School, will work on HFIP-enabled catalysis. Maciej, partially funded by the Région Grand-Est, will work on Vibrational Strong Coupling. A warm welcome to both!
The Moran Research Group 