Awardee
Paolo Melchiorre , born in 1973, studied Chemistry at the University of Bologna (Italy) where he graduated in 1999. Then he began his doctoral studies in Chemistry working in the area of enantioselective catalysis. Before obtaining his PhD in 2003, he spent a research period in Denmark working with Prof. Karl Anker Jørgensen, Århus University, where his studies centered on asymmetric organocatalysis. Afterwards, he worked as a postdoctoral associate at the Industrial Chemistry Faculty of the Bologna University. There, he began his independent studies on the development of novel organocatalytic asymmetric transformations. In October 2007, he took a permanent position as an Assistant Professor at Bologna University. In September 2009, Paolo moved to Catalonia as ICREA Research Professor and ICIQ Senior Group Leader. Presently, he is a Group Leader at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ, Tarragona – Spain), and an IIT Senior Researcher.
Francesco Stellacci graduated in Materials Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano in 1998 with a thesis on photochromic polymers with Prof. Giuseppe Zerbi and Mariacarla Gallazzi. In 1999 he moved to the Chemistry Department of the University of Arizona for as a post-doc in the group of Joe Perry in close collaboration with the group of Seth Marder. In 2002 he moved to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an assistant professor. He was then promoted to associate without (2006) and with tenure (2009). In 2010 he moved to the Institute of Materials at EPFL as a full Professor. He holds the Alcan EP Chair. Francesco was one of the recipients of the Technology Review TR35 "35 Innovator under 35" award in 2005, and the Popular Science Magazine "Brilliant 10" award in 2007. He has been a Packard Fellow starting 2005.
Invited Speakers
Scott E. Denmark was born in Lynbrook, NY in 1953. He obtained a S. B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975 and a D.Sc. Tech. from the ETH-Zürich under the direction of Albert Eschenmoser in 1980. That same year he was appointed as assistant professor at the University of Illinois and since 1991 has been the Reynold C. Fuson Professor of Chemistry. Professor Denmark’s research involves the invention of new synthetic reactions, mechanistic and stereochemical aspects of carbon-carbon bond forming reactions and the design and development of asymmetric catalysts using chemoinformatics. Professor Denmark has won a number of honors including the Pedler and Robert Robinson Medals (RSC), the Aldrich Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods, the F. S. Kipping Award in Silicon Chemistry (ACS) and the Prelog Medal.
Bernd Giese is a guest professor in chemistry at the University of Fribourg in Fribourg, Switzerland (full professor at the University of Basel) who specializes in the bio-organic chemistry and synthesis of radicals in biological systems.He received his Ph.D. from the University of Munich in 1969, and his Habilitation from the University of Freiburg in 1976. His current research centers on electron charge transfers in the peptide bonds and proteins of DNA. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003
Matthew S. Sigman is a Peter J. Christine S. Stang Presidential Endowed Chair of Chemistry at the University of Utah, USA. He is focused on the discovery of new practical catalytic reactions with broad substrate scope, excellent chemoselectivity, and high stereoselectivity to access novel medicinally relevant architectures. He believes that the best strategy for developing new classes of catalysts and reactions applicable to organic synthesis is using mechanistic insight to guide the discovery process.
Young Investigators
Serena Berardi graduated in Chemistry at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, working with prof. Valeria Conte. She earned her PhD from the University of Padova under the supervision of Prof. Gianfranco Scorrano and Prof. Marcella Bonchio. After two years of postdoctoral research in the same group, she joined the group of Prof. Antoni Llobet at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia as a Marie Curie Cofund Fellow. She then obtained a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship to work in the group of Prof. Carlo Alberto Bignozzi at the University of Ferrara, where she is currently a tenure-track Assistant Professor. Her research interests span the preparation and characterization of semiconductor materials and catalysts with the aim of developing (photo)electrodes for solar energy conversion and storage.
Giulio Ragazzon obtained his PhD at the University of Bologna. After a short post-doc at the University of Padova, he is now junior assistant professor (RTD-A) at the University of Trieste, in the group of Prof. Prato. His scientific interests are grounded in supramolecular chemistry. He is the recipient of several awards, the most important of which is the gold medal at the European Young Chemist Award 2016 - PhD level.
Information
Cristiano Zonta
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche
Università di Padova
Via Marzolo, 1
35131 Padova
e-mail: cristiano.zonta at unipd.it
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