On September 22th, invited by Prof. Tian He (Academician of CAS), Prof. Wang Jianbo (the National Outstanding Youth Fund Owner, from Peiking University) visited our school. During the visited, Prof. Qu Jingping (President of ECUST) welcomed the arrival of Prof. Wang Jianbo on behalf of ECUST, and Prof. Wang gave some valuable advices about the construction and development of the organic chemistry discipline in our school. Meanwhile, Prof. Wang attended the Famous Teacher Forum and gave a lecture titled “Recent Advances in Carbene-based Coupling Reactions”. Prof. Qu Dahui hosted the lecture, and Prof. Tian He, Zhao Chunchang, Ma Xiang, Zhang Jun, Zhao Meixin also attended the lecture.
In the lecture, Prof. Wang addressed several new types of transition-metal-catalyzed reactions of diazo compounds and aryl tosylhydrazones, in which these carbene precursors have been explored as the cross-coupling partners in C-C single bond and C=C bond formations. These transformations can be considered as the insertion of a metal carbene into the catalytic cycle of the classic cross-coupling reactions. The key step in these coupling reactions is the carbene migratory insertion, which is comparable to the insertion of CO into a metal-carbon bond. The similar one-carbon unit insertion of carbene opens up new possibilities in the development of novel transition-metal-catalyzed C-C bond forming reactions. After the lecture, Prof. Wang discussed with participants and exchanged opinions.
CV of Prof. Wang Jianbo:
Wang Jianbo is a Professor of Chemistry in the College of Chemistry, Peking University, China. He received his B.S. degree from Nanjing University of Science and Technology in 1983, and his Ph.D. from Hokkaido University (with Professor Hiroshi Suginome) in 1990. He was postdoctoral associate at the University of Geneva from 1990 to 1993 with Professor Charles W. Jefford, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1993 to 1995 with Professor Howard E. Zimmerman and Professor Leonard A. Fahien. He began his independent academic career at Peking University in 1995 as an associate professor, and was promoted to full professor in 1999. His research interests have been focused on catalytic metal carbene transformations. In the past five years, his group has extensively studied the combination of cross-coupling reaction and metal carbene reaction. A series of cross-coupling reactions that involve carbene process have been developed from these investigations. Another recent research topic in his group is the development of basic organic functional group transformations that are practically useful in organic synthesis. In particular, his group has established methods that convert aromatic amino group into boron group and trifluoromethyl group. His group has published over 200 research papers. He has received number of awards, which include National Outstanding Young Investigator Found by Natural Science Foundation of China (2002); Eli Lilly Research Excellence Award in China (ELSEA) (2006); Cheung Kong Scholarship (2006); and Chinese Chemical Society-BASF Award (2008). Professor Jianbo Wang is an associate editor of the Journal of Physical Organic Chemistry (Wiley) and Chinese Journal of Organic Chemistry. He is the editorial advisory board member of Organic Letters, Tetrahedron and Tetrahedron Letters.
