Enantioselective C-C Bond Forming Reactions : From Metal Complex-, Organo-, and Bio-catalyzed Perspectives

Piet van Leeuwen, born 1942, is a leading expert in homogeneous catalysis with organometallic complexes, supramolecular complexes, and metal nanoparticles. After his PhD in Leyden University in 1967 on coordination chemistry he started his career with Shell Amsterdam in 1968 and worked on organometallic chemistry and catalysis. He spent one year (1971-2) with Willi Keim in the Shell Development laboratory in California, a stronghold of homogeneous catalysis at the time. Since 1978 he was head of the Shell´s research group “Fundamental aspects of homogeneous catalysis” in Amsterdam. In 1989 he initiated the homogeneous catalysis group at the University of Amsterdam and moved there full-time in 1994. From 2000 till 2005 he was a part-time professor of industrial homogeneous catalysis in Eindhoven and director of the National-Research-School-Combination-Catalysis of the Netherlands. In 2004 he became a group leader in the ICIQ-Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, where his work since 2009 focused on ligand effects in metal nanoparticle catalysis. In 2015 he moved to LPCNO in INSA-Toulouse, continuing a wide range of collaborations. During the 5 years in LPCNO he collaborated with Chaudret´s group “Nanostructures et Chimie Organométallique” advising on catalysis.

He was founding Editor-in-Chief of RSC´s journal Catalysis, Science & Technology which he remained for ten years until 2020. In 2019 he won the Alwin Mittasch Prize, the renown international catalysis award from the German Catalysis Society (GeCatS) and the DECHEMA Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie e.V. honouring “his groundbreaking contributions to the molecular understanding of catalysis using organometallic complexes”. He received two honorary doctorates. He authored, co-authored, and co-edited several books and book series on homogeneous, supramolecular, and nanoparticle catalysis. His book Homogeneous Catalysis, Understanding the Art, 2004, is a classic in the field.

Oscar Pàmies Ollé did a post-doctoral stay in the group of Prof. J.-E. Bäckvall (Stockholm University) working in the combination of enzymes and metal catalysts. In 2002 he returned to Tarragona, where he is working as associate professor. His main research interest is the development of novel, sustainable and efficient catalytic methods for the synthesis of fine chemicals and energy production. He has been involved in more than 15 national and European research projects. He is author of more than 155 articles in SCI indexed Journals and book chapters with over 6000 citations (h-index: 43). In 2007, he received a favorable assessment from the Program I3 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education. He received the Grant for Research Intensification from URV in 2008. In 2010, he was awarded with the ICREA Academia Award. Since 2017 he is the Head of the Physical and Inorganic Chemistry Department.

Montserrat Diéguez studied chemistry at the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) in Tarragona (Spain), where she earned her Ph.D. in 1997, working in the group of Prof. C. Claver. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship where she worked with Prof. R.H. Crabtree at Yale University, in New Haven (USA), she returned to Tarragona in 1999 and accepted a lectureship position at the URV, becoming part of the permanent staff in 2002. In 2011 she was promoted to full Professor in Inorganic Chemistry at the URV.

She has been involved in more than 60 research projects in the fields of organometallic chemistry, steroselective synthesis, and asymmetric catalysis. She is the author/co-author of more than 150 articles in SCI-indexed journals and book chapters, and of several contributions to conferences. She received distinction from the Generalitat de Catalunya for the promotion of University Research in 2004 and from the URV in 2008. She has also been awarded the ICREA Academia Prize from the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies 2009–14 and 2015–20, for research excellence, facilitating research priority dedication. Her main research interests are focused on the sustainable design, synthesis, and screening of highly active and selective chiral catalysts for reactions of interest to the biological, pharmaceutical, and organic nanotechnological industries. Her areas of interest include organometallic chemistry, stereoselective synthesis, and asymmetric catalysis, using combinatorial and biotechnological approaches.