Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Blog

We are excited to announce that peer review in Reaction Chemistry & Engineering will be handled by our new panel of expert Associate Editors. Please join us in welcoming these esteemed members of the international reaction engineering and reaction chemistry research community to our Editorial Board:

• Ian R. Baxendale (Durham University, UK)
• Saif A. Khan (National University of Singapore)
• Laura Torrente Murciano (University of Cambridge, UK)
• Haihui Wang (Tsinghua University, China)

“Reaction Chemistry & Engineering has selected Associate Editors from the chemistry and chemical engineering communities to provide a fast and insight review process for contributors to the Journal.  I would like to thank the new Associate Editors for taking on this important role in facilitating top notch research publications bridging chemistry and chemical engineering research.”

Editor-in-Chief Professor Klavs F. Jensen

Our Associate Editors are all now welcoming submissions of cutting-edge research at the interface of chemistry and chemical engineering.

Submit your article today

We have collected some recent publications from our new Associate Editors. This papers in this collection are either Open Access, or free for anyone to read until 01 June 2021.

Read our Associate Editors’ articles now

Read on for more information about our new Associate Editors!

Ian R. Baxendale

Professor & Chair of Synthetic Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
Durham University, UK

Ian Baxendale is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Durham, UK. He works on the design and implementation of new technologies to enable complex chemical syntheses, including flow synthesis, automated methodologies, microwave reactors and immobilised reagents and scavengers. Ian previously co-founded the Innovative Technology Centre, Cambridge and spin out company Reaxa Ltd with Prof. Steven Ley. He gives teaching lectures and runs lab training for industrial and academic researchers to learn more about his methods, as well as acting as a scientific consultant to a number of companies.

As a Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Associate Editor, Professor Ian R. Baxendale will provide expertise in particular in the fields of:

• Chemical synthesis in continuous flow
• Enabling technologies for chemical synthesis
• Synthesis automation methodologies

Group website

Saif A. Khan

Associate Professor & Deputy Head of Department
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
National University of Singapore

Saif Khan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore, Singapore, and a Scientific Editor for Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, helping to ensure that articles meet the stringent criteria required for publication in the journal. He works on the design and analysis of chemical reactors which perhaps go beyond the familiar – think reactions in bubbles, droplets and foams. His platform of choice is microfluidic systems, which allow the control of transport properties and non-equilibrium conditions for efficient, economical and sustainable chemical synthesis.

Dr Khan was a R. T. Haslam Presidential Fellow at MIT prior to moving to Singapore.

As a Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Associate Editor, Professor Saif A. Khan will provide expertise in particular in the fields of:

• Design and analysis of chemical reactors
• Chemical and biological microfluidics
• Multiphase fluid physics

Group website

Laura Torrente Murciano

Reader in Reaction Engineering and Catalysis
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
University of Cambridge, UK

Laura Torrente is a lecturer in the Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology Department at the University of Cambridge and an EPSRC Fellow in Manufacturing. She is a member of the UK Catalysis Hub, Energy@Cambridge and the NanoCDT. Prior to this, she was a lecturer at the University of Bath, Research Associated at Imperial College London and worked as R&D Engineer at Repsol YPF (Spain).

As a Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Associate Editor, Dr Laura Torrente Murciano will provide expertise in particular in the fields of:

• Process integration and catalysis
• Synthesis of nanostructured materials
• Energy and sustainable processes

Group website

Haihui Wang

Professor
Beijing Key Laboratory for Membrane Materials and Engineering
Tsinghua University

Haihui Wang is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University, China. He works on the inorganic membranes for clean energy and clear environment including membrane separation, membrane reactor, electrocatalysis and batteries. He received the Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in 2003 and got the Distinguished Young Scientist Foundation, National Nature Science Foundation of China in 2012. He was a Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry since 2016.

As a Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Associate Editor, Professor Haihui Wang will provide expertise in particular in the fields of:

• Inorganic membrane separation
• Membrane catalysis reactors
• New energy materials

Group website

Please join us in welcoming our new Associate Editors!

–Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Office

We are delighted to welcome Professor Anita Maguire to the Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board.

Anita is Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Director of the Analytical & Biological Chemistry Research Facility, and Vice President for Research & Innovation, at University College Cork, Ireland.

Anita’s research interests are within synthetic organic chemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry, and a key feature of her research team is extensive interaction with the pharmaceutical industry both within Ireland and internationally.

Anita undertook undergraduate and postgraduate studies at University College Cork (B.Sc., 1985; Ph.D., 1989), focusing during her studies on asymmetric catalysis in reactions of α-diazoketones. Following postdoctoral research in the Facultes Universitaires, Namur, Belgium, and subsequently at the University of Exeter, she returned to Cork in 1991 initially as a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, then as Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry in 2002, and then as the first Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 2004. In 2011 she was appointed as Vice President for Research and Innovation at University College Cork. She was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Bergen from 2011-16. Her research interests include asymmetric synthesis, including transition-metal catalysis and biocatalysis, the development of novel synthetic methodology employing α-diazocarbonyl compounds, organosulfur chemistry, and continuous flow chemistry, and the design and synthesis of bioactive compounds with potential pharmaceutical applications. Anita is a co-PI in the Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC). She is the inaugural Chair of the National Forum on Research Integrity and was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2014.

Please join us in warmly welcoming Anita to the Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board!

We are delighted to highlight Dr Joel Hawkins as part of the Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board.

Joel is is a Senior Research Fellow in Chemical Research and Development at Pfizer, where his interests lie in the development and application of new technologies for pharmaceutical process research and development. Previously an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley, where he investigated asymmetric Diels-Alder catalysts and fullerene chemistry, Joel regularly gives talks on the use of flow chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry, including at the 2015 Flow Chemistry Congress. His exciting work on the use of flow chemistry in synthesis relevant to industry is highlighted in his recent Chemical Science paper with Steven Ley, also a member of the Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board:

Flow chemistry as a discovery tool to access sp2–sp3 cross-coupling reactions via diazo compounds
Duc N. Tran, Claudio Battilocchio, Shing-Bong Lou, Joel M. Hawkins and Steven V. Ley
Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 1120-1125

To keep up with the news from Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, be sure to sign up to our e-alerts and follow us on Twitter! Submit your work here.

SCI/RSC Continuous Flow Technology III

14th – 16th March 2016, Cambridge, UK

This three day conference on Continuous Flow Technology is organised by both SCI and the Royal Society of Chemistry, combining previously successful 1 and 2 day symposia. This reflects the advances made with continuous flow technology over recent years and the impact it is making right across the chemicals industry spanning discovery applications, process development advances and value for commercial manufacture of fine and speciality chemicals.

The meeting is directed at individuals with a curiosity into what Flow is and how it may benefit them or their organisations (covering aspects from microfluidics to production scale manufacture) and those people already involved in the area (by highlighting the latest developments and cutting edge research to further stimulate appetites).

Confirmed speakers include Klavs Jensen (MIT, USA) and Ian Baxendale (Durham University, UK). Further details are available here.

We are delighted to announce that Professor Ian Baxendale has joined the Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board as a Scientific Editor, helping to ensure articles meet the stringent criteria required for publication in the journal.

Ian Baxendale is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Durham, UK. He works on the design and implementation of new technologies to enable complex chemical syntheses, including flow synthesis, automated methodologies, microwave reactors and immobilised reagents and scavengers. Take a look at his recent paper in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry:

Flow synthesis of ethyl isocyanoacetate enabling the telescoped synthesis of 1,2,4-triazoles and pyrrolo-[1,2-c]pyrimidines, Marcus Baumann, Antonio M. Rodriguez Garcia and Ian R. Baxendale, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2015, 13, 4231–4239.

Ian previously co-founded the Innovative Technology Centre, Cambridge and spin out company Reaxa Ltd with Prof. Steven Ley. He gives teaching lectures and runs lab training for industrial and academic researchers to learn more about his methods, as well as acting as a scientific consultant to a number of companies.

To keep up with the news from Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, including the latest Editorial Board appointments, be sure to sign up to our e-alerts and follow us on Twitter. Submit your work here.

It is our pleasure to welcome Professor Alexander Katz to the Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board.

Alexander Katz is a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and a Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board member. His research focuses on the rational design of high performing materials for catalysis and adsorption inspired by the organisation of active sites found in biological systems, using advanced methods to precisely control the solid surface structure. The deep insight into catalytic actives sites that is possible is illustrated by his paper in Catalysis Science & Technology:

Identification of site requirements for reduction of 4-nitrophenol using gold nanoparticle catalysts, Michael M. Nigra, Jeong-Myeong Ha and Alexander Katz, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2013, 3, 2976–2983.

Prof. Katz is the previous recipient of a Fullbright Scholar teaching and research exchange grant to TECHNION-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.

To keep up with the news from Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, including the latest Editorial Board appointments, be sure to sign up to our e-alerts and follow us on Twitter. Submit your work here.

We are excited to announce that Professor Steven Ley has been appointed to the Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board.

Steven Ley is Director of Research in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, UK, and a Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board member. A significant thread of his organic chemistry research targets the development of new sustainable chemical methodologies with the goal of improving chemical manufacture and synthesis, in particular using flow methodology. Read his latest article on the deca-gram scale synthesis of enantiopure (R)-(+)-3-methyl-6-isopropenyl-cyclohept-3-enone-1 in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry:

A practical deca-gram scale ring expansion of (R)-(−)-carvone to (R)-(+)-3-methyl-6-isopropenyl-cyclohept-3-enone-1, Leandro de C. Alves, André L. Desiderá, Kleber T. de Oliveira, Sean Newton, Steven V. Ley and Timothy J. Brocksom, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2015, 13, 7633–7642.

Professor Ley is a previous president of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2000–2002), and has been awarded over 40 prizes and awards to mark his scientific achievements, including the 2014 IUPAC-Thales Nano Prize in Flow Chemistry which in 2012 was awarded to Klavs Jensen, Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board Chair.

To keep up with the news from Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, including the latest Editorial Board appointments, be sure to sign up to our e-alerts and follow us on Twitter. Submit your work here.

We are guided by an expert Editorial Board of outstanding chemists and chemical engineers, ensuring that Reaction Chemistry & Engineering is truly the home for world leading research spanning multiple disciplines and scales, and that your submitted manuscripts are in safe hands.

Klavs Jensen is the chair of the Editorial Board and a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. His research interests include chemical synthesis in microreactors, which allow for precise control over a greater range of operating conditions compared to traditional reactor designs. He also works on microfabrication techniques for a range of materials and devices, from microbiosystems to advanced nanomaterials. Check out his latest ChemComm paper:

Oscillatory three-phase flow reactor for studies of bi-phasic catalytic reactions, Milad Abolhasani, Nicholas C. Bruno and Klavs F. Jensen, Chem. Commun., 2015, 51, 8916.

Professor Jensen was named one of the One Hundred Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era as part of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) centennial celebrations. In 2012 he was the first recipient of the IUPAC-ThalesNano Prize in Flow Chemistry.

Saif Khan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore, Singapore, and a Scientific Editor for Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, helping to ensure that articles meet the stringent criteria required for publication in the journal. He works on the design and analysis of chemical reactors which perhaps go beyond the familiar – think reactions in bubbles, droplets and foams. His platform of choice is microfluidic systems, which allow the control of transport properties and non-equilibrium conditions for efficient, economical and sustainable chemical synthesis. His recent Green Chemistry paper is in this area:

Rapid nanoparticle-catalyzed hydrogenations in triphasic millireactors with facile catalyst recovery, Swee Kun Yap, Yuan Yuan, Lu Zheng, Wai Kuan Wong, Jiaguang Zhang, Ning Yan and Saif A. Khan, Green Chem., 2014, 16, 4654.

Dr Khan was a R. T. Haslam Presidential Fellow at MIT prior to moving to Singapore.

Donna Blackmond is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute, USA, and a Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board member. Her research focusses on kinetic and mechanistic investigations of asymmetric catalytic reactions, probing the origin of biological homochirality or developing understanding of crucial synthetic pathways for pharmaceutical production, as in her recent Catalysis Science & Technology paper:

The role of reversibility in the enantioselective conjugate addition of α,α-disubstituted aldehydes to nitro-olefins catalyzed by primary amine thioureas, Yining Ji and Donna G. Blackmond, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2014, 4, 3505–3509.

In 2013, Professor Blackmond was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering, and she is also an investigator in the Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life.

Mark Davis is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, USA, and a Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board member.  His current research interests lie in the distinct areas of catalytic materials and macromolecular therapeutics design, united by the common themes of synthetic chemistry and analytical engineering problem solving. His latest paper on the synthesis of zeolites for use in catalytic applications can be found in Journal of Materials Chemistry A:

High-silica, heulandite-type zeolites prepared by direct synthesis and topotactic condensation, Joel E. Schmidt, Dan Xie and Mark E. Davis, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015, 3, 12890–12897.

In 2014, Professor Davis was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research with Avelino Corma and Galen D. Stucky.

Volker Hessel is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands, and a Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board member. He is Chair of the Micro Flow Chemistry and Process Technology group, focussing on chemical and process intensification in micro and flow reactors, and the design and use of new reactions to enable process development. Take a look at his recent paper in Green Chemistry:

Separation/recycling methods for homogeneous transition metal catalysts in continuous flow, Iris Vural Gürsel, Timothy Noël, Qi Wang and Volker Hessel, Green Chem., 2015, 17, 2012–2026.

Professor Hessel is involved with several large scale EU projects and is a previous winner of the AIChE award for Excellence in Process Development Research.

Guangsheng Luo is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University, China, and a Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board member. He studies the behaviour of chemical reaction systems on a micro-scale, in order to develop efficient, safe and environmentally friendly chemical processes. He is also interested in separation technologies and the large scale production of functional materials. His scalable nano-precipitation method was published last year in Soft Matter:

Modified nanoprecipitation method for polysulfone nanoparticles preparation, Y. Liu, Y. C. Lu and G. S. Luo, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 3414–3420.

Professor Luo is the director of the State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering.

Dionisios Vlachos is a professor in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware, USA, and a Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Editorial Board member. His research involves a combination of modelling, simulation and experimental validation for a variety of applications, including understanding catalytic reaction mechanisms and designing chemical reactors and functional materials, leading ultimately to better and safer chemical processes. Read his paper in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics on the Cr(III) catalyzed isomerization mechanism of glucose to fructose:

Insights into the Cr(III) catalyzed isomerization mechanism of glucose to fructose in the presence of water using ab initio molecular dynamics, Samir H. Mushrif, Jithin J. Varghese and Dionisios G. Vlachos, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2014, 16, 19564–19572.

Professor Vlachos is a previous winner of the AIChE R. H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

To keep up with the news from Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, including the latest Editorial Board appointments, be sure to sign up to our e-alerts and follow us on Twitter.