Giurie del Premio

Sezione sulla chimica della sintesi peptidica

1. Bruce H. Morimoto
   

Allon Therapeutics Inc., Vancuver, British Columbia, Canada.

Dr. Morimoto received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and after a post-doctoral fellowship at U.C. Berkeley, he joined the faculty in the Chemistry Department at Purdue University.  Dr. Morimoto is a member of the Safety Pharmacology Society Board of Directors and part of the Orasi Medical Executive Advisory Board.

1. Luis Moroder
   

Max-Plank-Institut für Biochemie, Martinsried, BRD.

Sezione sulla sintesi asimmetrica / Composti Chirali

1. Luciano Caglioti
   

Università “La Sapienza”,  Roma, Italia.

Since Feb. 1, 1971 he has been Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Rome "La Sapienza".

He has published more than a hundred scientific papers, most of which have appeared in international journals. He has 8 industrial patents to his credit, and is the author of three books, two on Organic Chemistry and one on Chemistry of Natural Substances, which are used as textbooks in many Italian universities.

He published a book on popular science, " I due volti della chimica" (The Two Faces of Chemistry) for EST (Mondadori Publishing House), with a preface by Primo Levi, translated into English by MIT Press. He has also published a short essay, "Madre Natura, anzi Matrigna", printed by Sperling & Kupfer, 1993.

From July 1980 through Aug. 1990 he was Director of the (Finalized) Project of the National Research Council (C.N.R.), "Fine and Secondary Chemistry".

He is a member of the New York Academy of Science, of Accademia dei XL, of Hungarian Academy of Science, of Accademia di Modena.

He is part of the Commission for planning in the field of the Pharmaceutical Industry.

He has been Chairman of the Italian Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Research (Israel).

In 1988, Minister Ruberti appointed him co-ordinator of the Commission for the National Plan for Research in Chemistry.

In 1989 Ministers Ruberti and Ruffolo appointed him among the members of a preparatory committee for the National Program for Environmental research.

He was elected as Faculty representative, to the National University Council (CUN).

Since 1994, he has been co-ordinator of the Strategic Project of CNR for utilization of results from public research in the industrial sphere.

In 1993 Minister U. Colombo appointed him as a member of the committee for the drafting of the Research Plan in Chemistry.

Since 1993 he has been chairman of ISRIM (Superior Institute for the Study and Research in Material Science).

He is the Italian delegate in the EEC Commission for Environmental Research.

A NOTE FROM THE EXPERT

"I remember I was once awarded with an an honoris causa degree in Engineering at the Polytechnic University in Budapest. After the ceremony, I had lunch together with the Faculty Dean and the President of the Institute and a number of other colleagues of mine. I was sitting right between the two and they started speaking in Latin to put me at ease, since I guess they weren't keen on speaking English and they had probably learned about my school background and must have thought I spoke Latin rather well.

The problem was that I could not speak any Latin even though I had studied it for 8-9 years back in the old school days. So I answered to them in English. They kept on speaking in Latin and I responded in English throughout the whole lunch. What a very poor figure I made!

1. Ian Lennon
   

Chiral Quest Inc., Cambridge, UK.

In 1989 he left Merck to study for a PhD with Steve Ley at Imperial College, London, working on a synthesis of the ionophore antibiotic tetronasin. After completion of his PhD he carried out an industrial post-doc with Parke-Davis in Cambridge, UK.

In 1993 Ian joined a small start-up company called Chiros and was soon promoted to Group Leader of Chemocatalysis. Chiros added drug discovery to its chiral technology portfolio and was launched on the London Stock Exchange as Chiroscience in 1994.

In 1995 Ian was given the opportunity to work with Barry Trost at Stanford University to evaluate his palladium(0) catalysed asymmetric allylic alkylation technology, for which Chiroscience obtained an exclusive license in 1997.

In 1996 the chiral technology function of Chiroscience was ring fenced and called Technology Services and became Chirotech Technology Ltd in 1998. A highlight of Ian’s career was the leadership of the team that developed the manufacturing route for travoprost, a prostaglandin analogue for Alcon Laboratories. The molecule has 5 chiral centres and two stereo-defined olefins, which required 22 synthetic steps. The team produced material for toxicology and clinical trials. Ian was promoted to Head of Collaborative Research and was responsible for all of the external projects funded by fine chemical and pharmaceutical companies.

In 1999 Chirotech was purchased by Ascot and along with Mitchell Cotts in West Yorkshire, became known as Ascot Fine Chemicals. In 2000 Ian’s responsibilities were extended to include management of the chemocatalysis core research team, developing new applications for Chirotech’s in-licensed technology, including DuPhos, Phanephos, the Noyori/Ikariya ketone hydrogenation¡¦s and Trost technology. The team is also involved in the development of new ligands for asymmetric hydrogenation.

Ascot was acquired by The Dow Chemical Company in 2001 and Chirotech is now part of the Dowpharma business of The Dow Chemical Company. Ian is currently an Application Development Scientist for Chemocatalysis and is involved with the development of Dowpharma¡¦s asymmetric chemocatalysis capability, promotion of chiral technology and with the management of customer projects.

Whilst working on a synthesis of tert-leucine I proposed to react 2-bromo-3,3-dimethyl butyric acid with ammonia to produce the desired amino acid. Many colleagues in the laboratory looked at this and said it would not work as the bromide was neopentyl and too hindered to react. I carried out reaction anyway and obtained an 80% yield with the racemate and an 85% yield of (S)-amino acid starting with the (S)-bromo acid.

The reaction proceeds by forming a Ą-lactone, hence the double inversion seen in the single isomer reaction. The lesson I learnt was not to talk myself out of trying a reaction just because it looks like it will not work. You can learn more by carrying out the reaction, than just deciding not to try. Also, an hour in the library (now more likely to be Scifinder) can save a week in the laboratory.

1. Dirk Spielvogel
   

Solvias AG, Basel, CH.

In 2001 he went on to broaden his horizon on chemocatalysis signing on as a postdoc fellow financed by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the group of Prof. S. Buchwald at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There he contributed on asymmetric α-arylation methodology and provided new structural insights into Ni-BINAP chemistry.

With a broad background in synthetic chemistry, biocatalysis and chemocatalysis he initiated his industrial career in 2002 in the catalysis development group at Solvias AG in Basel, Switzerland, working flexible as a projects chemist in on both the synthesis and catalysis group for internal and external clients. In 2005 he accepted the offer to join Solvias management and become the group leader for the chemical development group. In 2008 he supervised the fusion of both chemical development and catalysis to provide a comprehensive technology based service offering to Solvias’ clients.

With increasing demand to develop projects not only chemically but to provide integrated development service including analytical and solid state development he has recently taken on the position of a senior project manager, delivering integrated services to Solvias’ clients.

His major interest are phase appropriate chemical and analytical development of small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients, with particular focus on those amenable to significant contributions by Solvias’ technologies and experiences base

Dirk Spielvogel is the author of seven scientific publication and book chapters. He has further been named as an inventor on two patent applications. Lastly, he has presented scientific lectures at various conferences including OPR&D, SCI and Solvias Science Day.

Sezione sulla catalisi e sue applicazioni

(inclusa la catalisi enzimatica)

1. Oliver Briel
   

Umicore Group, Brussels, Belgium.

Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich with Prof. Wolfgang Beck, continued to work as post doctoral assistant until end of 1998.

1999 – 2001 Research and Process Development for manufacturing of organometallic Platinum group catalysts at Degussa. In the same unit, from 2001 until 2005 he was heading the applied technology group, responsible for recovery of Precious Metals from industrial homogeneous catalytic processes. Meanwhile, being a member of Umicore he changed his position in 2005 to be a “Marketing Director”, taking responsibility of developing new, strategic market fields related to Umicore’s Precious Metals Chemistry business.

Current interests are all new applications related to the use of Precious metals. Among them are chiral catalysis, coupling catalysis, metathesis reactions, manufacture of functional surfaces, photo active compounds, electronic materials and others.

1. Ian Grayson
   

Evonik Industries, Essen, BRD.

1. Bruce H. Lipshultz
   

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), USA.

Bruce Lipshutz arrived at UC Santa Barbara as an Assistant Professor in 1979.  His training began as an undergraduate at SUNY Binghamton in the labs of Howard Alper (B.A. 1973).  His Ph.D. work was completed at Yale in 1977 under the mentorship of Harry Wasserman, after which postdoctoral work was conducted at Harvard with E. J. Corey.  Much of his career has been devoted to the development of new synthetic methods and reagents of general use for the synthetic community (e.g., SEM-Cl, “Higher Order Cuprates”, “Cuprate-in-a-Bottle”, DCAD, “Copper Hydride-in-a-Bottle”, Ni/C, Cu/C, etc.).  More recent efforts have concentrated on green chemistry, in particular with the theme of “getting organic solvents out of organic reactions.”  The approach focuses on micellar catalysis, where new “designer” surfactants have been developed such that several ‘name’ reactions involving Pd-catalyzed cross-couplings, as well as olefin metathesis and organocatalysis, can be carried out in water at room temperature.

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1. Nicoletta Ravasio
   

Gruppo Interdivisionale di Catalisi - Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari -  Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) - Milano, Italia.

Education: 1987 Ph.D. in Chemistry, Bari University; 1982 First degree thesis in Chemistry, Milano University

Member steering committee Italian Group of Catalysis and Italian Group of Green Chemistry

Author or co-author of more than 100 scientific papers and 4 patents.

Most of her scientific activity has been devoted to the use of heterogeneous catalysis in organic synthesis with particular focus on chemo-, regio-, and stereo-selectivity aspects. She studied selective  hydrogenation reactions of polyunsaturated organic compounds, selective alcohol dehydrogenation, olefin epoxidation, C-C bond forming and  Lewis acid catalyzed reactions.  Particular interest is devoted to the set-up of bi- and tri-functional processes to reduce the number of steps in a synthetic pathway. Cu, Fe, Ti  and Zr based catalysts and sustainability aspects in synthesis are privileged throughout her work. Another main field of interest is the use of renewable raw materials for the synthesis of industrial products, including biodiesel, and the development of the biorefinery concept.