My research Field and who am I in the academic world:
My field of research is asymmetric organocatalysis. "Oragnocatalysis" means catalysis using organic molecules. The main concept of Organocatalysis was known for years. The first example of such a reaction was dated back to as early as 1970. Although, the organocatalysis field truely take off very recently (2000) when Benjamin List, RA lerner, and Carlos Barbas from Scripps Institute, California published a paper showcasing enantioselective reactions can be done using amino acids like L-proline[1]. You can read the full history from Barbas lab website[2]. This was very exciting cause this means, now we can carry-out enantioselective reactions without use of enzymes. This was truly a remarkable breakthrough. Benjamin List's research group in Max Planck and Carlos Barbas's group in Scripps countributed many pioneering research to the field in the next two decades. Benjamin List awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2021) for his contribution to the field. Carlos Barbas died in 2014. Surely, he missed the Nobel prize.
My PhD supervisor (Prof. Fujie Tanaka) was one of the long time member of Barbas group (1997-2010). She joined Barbas group in 1997, later she became associate professor in the same group. She left Scripps for OIST, Japan in 2010. I'm her 2nd PhD student at OIST.
1] J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 10, 2395–2396
2] www.scripps.edu/barbas/organocatalysis.html?fbclid=IwAR1SPRFrt3SlK-_x5_ka9VtoCMB1P1-r_82PvdnSajWHaLabtg-hVKFmBaQ
My field of research is asymmetric organocatalysis. "Oragnocatalysis" means catalysis using organic molecules. The main concept of Organocatalysis was known for years. The first example of such a reaction was dated back to as early as 1970. Although, the organocatalysis field truely take off very recently (2000) when Benjamin List, RA lerner, and Carlos Barbas from Scripps Institute, California published a paper showcasing enantioselective reactions can be done using amino acids like L-proline[1]. You can read the full history from Barbas lab website[2]. This was very exciting cause this means, now we can carry-out enantioselective reactions without use of enzymes. This was truly a remarkable breakthrough. Benjamin List's research group in Max Planck and Carlos Barbas's group in Scripps countributed many pioneering research to the field in the next two decades. Benjamin List awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2021) for his contribution to the field. Carlos Barbas died in 2014. Surely, he missed the Nobel prize.
My PhD supervisor (Prof. Fujie Tanaka) was one of the long time member of Barbas group (1997-2010). She joined Barbas group in 1997, later she became associate professor in the same group. She left Scripps for OIST, Japan in 2010. I'm her 2nd PhD student at OIST.
1] J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 10, 2395–2396
2] www.scripps.edu/barbas/organocatalysis.html?fbclid=IwAR1SPRFrt3SlK-_x5_ka9VtoCMB1P1-r_82PvdnSajWHaLabtg-hVKFmBaQ
