NJC, committed to supporting the younger members of the chemistry community, underwrote student bursaries at this summer’s 18th European Symposium on Organic Chemistry, held in Marseille this past July. The 8 young awardees, from 8 European countries, are briefly profiled here.
| Szilvia Deak is a second year Ph.D. student in the research group of Prof. Ferenc Faigl at Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Department of Organic Chemistry and Technology (Hungary). The group develops novel regio- and stereoselective metallation processes for the synthesis of atropisomeric functionalised biaryls (1-phenylpyrrole derivatives) and optically active heterocyclic compounds (oxiranes, oxetanes, pyrrolidines) as potential chiral ligands and organocatalysts. Szilvia’s poster was entitled “Atropisomeric amino alcohols as new chiral ligands in asymmetric synthesis”. |
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| Paulina Hamankiewicz is currently finishing her Ph.D. thesis on molecular and chiral recognition of organic compounds using carbohydrate derivatives, decorated with urea moieties. She will be graduating from the University of Warsaw (Poland), where she is in the group of Prof. Janusz Jurczak (Laboratory of Stereocontrolled Organic Synthesis). Paulina’s poster: “Benzene, naphthalene, and anthracene urea derivatives as convenient tools for chiral recognition”. |
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| Maria Riala is from the Department of Chemistry of the University of Cyprus in Nicosia (Cyprus). After her undergraduate degree she completed her Ph.D. studies in the Research Laboratory of Fullerene and Supramolecular Chemistry under the supervision of Asst. Prof. Nikos Chronakis and graduated in June 2013. Maria’s research is focused on the synthesis of bis- and trisadducts of C60 with an inherently chiral addition pattern utilizing enantiomerically pure tethers. Maria’s poster: “Synthesis of chiral Th-symmetrical hexakis adducts of C60“. |
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| Ekrem Kaplan is a Masters chemistry student at Istanbul Technical University (Turkey). Under the supervisor of Prof. Esin Hamuryudan, Ekrem is preparing peripheral and non-peripheral substituted manganese(III) phthalocyanine bearing carboxylic side groups and investigating their electrochemical properties. Ekrem’s poster: “Synthesis and Electrochemical Studies of Carboxylic Acid Functionalized Phthalocyanines”. |
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| Tatiana Dias is a Ph.D. student in the Chemistry Research Centre at the University of Minho (Portugal) in the group of Prof. Fernanda Proença. The research group’s work is focused on the synthesis of new drug candidates, mainly nitrogen and oxygen-containing heterocyclic structures. Tatiana’s research has been centred on the development of new synthetic methodologies to prepare chromene derivatives to be tested as anticancer agents. Tatiana’s poster at ESOC was “2-Hydroxychalcones and carbon acid derivatives: Reactivity studies in acid media”. |
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| Kostas Voreakos is writing up his Master’s dissertation, after completing his research in the group of Dr. Dimitris Georgiadis of the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece). The research group focuses on the design and synthesis of metallopeptidase inhibitors and the development of synthetic methodologies for medicinal applications. Previously, Kostas earned first degrees in both chemistry and food technology. Kostas’s poster at ESOC was entitled “Conformationally Constrained Phosphinic Peptides: Synthesis of α,β-Disubstituted Phosphinyl Propanoates and Development of δ-lactam Phosphinic Surrogates”. |
Phosphinic Peptides |
| Agnese Stikute is a 4th year undergraduate student in Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Material Science and Applied Chemistry of Riga Technical University (Latvia). She works in the Institute of Technology of Organic Chemistry/Department of Chemical Technology of Biologically Active Compounds under the supervision of Prof. Mara Jure. Agnese’s research is devoted to the synthesis of analogues of natural antioxidants, focused on the discovery and optimization of the synthesis of cinnamoyl anilines and their derivatives. Agnese’s poster: “Cyclization of monoanilides of arylidene malonic acid”. |
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| Kärt Reitel is a Ph.D. student in Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia). She works in the organic synthesis group under the supervision of Prof. Tõnis Kanger. Kärt’s main research topic is the synthesis of cyclopropane-containing compounds and their application in organocatalytic reactions. Kärt’s ESOC poster was entitled “Aminocatalytic Michael addition of cyclopropane-containing aldehydes to nitroolefins”. |
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Congratulations to all the awardees! (Check out “who is who” in the photo montage below.)
