Abstract
Despite the tremendous accomplishments that have been described in the development of palladium- and nickel-catalyzed carbon–carbon bond-forming processes, it is nevertheless true that many significant opportunities remain. For example, to date the overwhelming majority of studies have focused on couplings between two sp2-hybridized reaction sites (e.g., an aryl metal with an aryl halide).
As of 2001, there were relatively few examples of metal-catalyzed coupling reactions of alkyl electrophiles. During the past several years, the speaker and his research group have pursued the discovery of transition metal-based catalysts for coupling activated and unactivated alkyl electrophiles that bear β hydrogens. The group's recent efforts to develop broadly applicable methods, including enantioselective processes, will be discussed.
About the speaker
Prof Gregory Fu received his BSc in Chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1985, where he worked in the laboratory of Prof Barry Sharpless (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry). He received his PhD in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1991. He spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof Robert Grubbs (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry) at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In 1993, he returned to MIT, where became the Firmenich Professor of Chemistry. In 2012, Prof Fu moved to Caltech, and is currently the Altair Professor in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
Prof Fu is a pioneer in many areas of research, such as boron heterocycles, palladium-and nickel-catalyzed coupling processes, and the development of applications of planar-chiral heterocycles as enantioselective nucleophilic catalysts and as chiral ligands for transition metals.
Prof Fu is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received numerous awards such as the Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, the Springer Award in Organometallic Chemistry, the Elias J. Corey Award and the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society.
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