Our Inaugural Early Career Advisory Board

Abstract

Young and strong: We are pleased to introduce our very first Early Career Advisory Board – excited to have such a diverse group of young scientists “on board”! As of January 2020, the three ACES journals (Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry, Chemistry—An Asian Journal, and ChemNanoMat) have kicked off Early Career Advisory Boards, to strengthen connections with young researchers. Please join us in welcoming this outstanding group of early career chemists! Their biographies are included below, so that you can find out more about them. Keisuke Asano completed his PhD at Kyoto University (Japan) in 2012 under the supervision of Professor Seijiro Matsubara. He was appointed as an assistant professor at Kyoto University in 2012 and joined the group of Professor Jun-ichi Yoshida before moving back to the group of Professor Seijiro Matsubara in 2013. He received The 30th Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists (2014), Eisai Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (2014), Special Young Lecturer at the 95th CSJ Annual Meeting (2015), Poster Award at the 39th Naito Conference (2015), and The 68th The Chemical Society of Japan Award for Young Chemists (2019). Eun Jin Cho received her Chemistry undergraduate degree in 2002 and her Master's degree in 2004 from the Seoul National University, South Korea, under the direction of Professor Eun Lee. She earned her PhD degree in 2008 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, under the direction of Professor Daesung Lee, and undertook postdoctoral training with Professor Stephen L. Buchwald at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2011, she returned to South Korea to begin her independent career at Hanyang University (ERICA) as an Assistant Professor. She moved to Chung-Ang University as an Associate Professor in 2015 and was promoted to full professor in 2019. Research in the Cho group is centered on development of new chemical reactions and the synthesis of functional materials. Rongrong Hu received her B.S. degree from Peking University and her PhD degree from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She is currently a Professor of the State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices at South China University of Technology. She has published over 110 peer-reviewed articles and reviews. Her research interests include the development of alkyne or isocyanide-based multicomponent polymerization methodology through the combination of organic and polymer synthesis, and luminescent polymers with diverse structures and applications. Her current research focuses on the development of multicomponent polymerizations of elemental sulfur and sulfur-containing functional polymers. Hyunwoo Kim is an associate professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He obtained his B.S. degree in 2000 and M.S. degree in 2004 from Seoul National University under the guidance of Prof. B. Moon Kim. He obtained his PhD degree under the supervision of Prof. Jik Chin at University of Toronto in 2009. After postdoctoral training with Prof. James L. Leighton at Columbia University, he started his independent career at KAIST in 2011. His research group focuses on designing novel compounds for catalysts, ligands, and sensors. He is the founder and CEO of Chiral Solutions, Inc. Lara Malins completed her B.A. in chemistry at Boston University in 2009 before relocating to The University of Sydney to undertake her PhD with Professor Richard Payne. In 2015, Lara joined the laboratory of Professor Phil Baran at The Scripps Research Institute as an NIH postdoctoral research fellow. She began her independent academic career in 2017 at the Australian National University, where her group focuses on the development of new strategies for peptide macrocyclization and late-stage modifications, with applications in the synthesis of bioactive peptide natural products. Fanke Meng obtained his Bachelor's degree at Peking University in 2010 and was a graduate student at Boston College under the supervision of Amir Hoveyda until 2015. After he achieved his PhD degree in 2015, he continued his postdoctoral studies at Boston College. He joined Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in September 2016. His research interest focuses on the development of new cobalt-catalyzed enantioselective transformations. Akimitsu Narita received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Chemistry at the University of Tokyo under the supervision of Professor Eiichi Nakamura. Then he joined the group of Professor Klaus Müllen at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) in Mainz, Germany, and obtained his doctorate in Chemistry from Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in 2014. He was a Marie Curie Fellow as an Early-Stage Researcher in the Initial Training Network ‘SUPERIOR’ for three years from 2010. In 2014, he was appointed as a project leader at MPIP. In 2018, he joined Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) as an Assistant Professor (Adjunct) leading the Organic and Carbon Nanomaterials Unit. His current research focuses on syntheses and characterizations of novel polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and atomically precise nanocarbon materials, including graphene nanoribbons. He received the Chemical Society of Japan Award for Young Chemists for 2017. Upendra Sharma completed his PhD at CSIR-IHBT, Palampur/GNDU, Amritsar under the supervision of Dr. Bikram Singh in October 2012. During his PhD he was trained in organic chemistry with emphasis on catalysis and plant product chemistry. Afterwards, he joined Prof. Debabrata Maiti at IIT Bombay in November 2012 and worked on the synthesis of heterocycles via Palladium-catalyzed C−H activation. In March 2014, he had the opportunity to work with Prof. Sukbok Chang at KAIST, South Korea. He started his independent research in CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresurce Technology as a Scientist in the fall of 2014. His group research focus involves transition-metal-catalyzed C−H activation and natural product chemistry. His group is mainly looking for new antimalarial molecules either through metal-catalyzed modification of quinolines or from natural sources. In 2016, Dr. Sharma received the Thieme Chemistry Journal Award, and the Manjushree Pal Memorial Award for Best Oral Presentation from the Ethanopharmacology Society of India, Kolkata in 2017. During his carrier, he has published >95 research articles in reputed international journals. Youhei Takeda graduated from Waseda University in 2005 with a Bachelor's degree under the supervision of Prof. Isao Shimizu. He received his PhD degree from Kyoto University under the supervision of Prof. Tamejiro Hiyama and Masaki Shimizu in 2010 and thereafter joined the Timothy M. Swager group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral fellow. During this term, he was appointed as a JSPS research fellow (DC2 and PD). He started his academic career as an Assistant Professor at Osaka University in 2011, and he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015. He has also worked as an Adjunct Lecturer (co-current position) at Vietnam-Japan-University, Hanoi for 4 years since 2015. Since 2019, he has been appointed as the Program Officer (co-current position) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. He was awarded the Incentive Award in Synthetic Chemistry, Japan, in 2019. His research interests include the design, synthesis, and interdisciplinary applications of heteroatom-embedded exotic π-conjugated organic compounds. Ian Tonks is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He received his B.A. in Chemistry from Columbia University in 2006, and performed undergraduate research with Prof. Ged Parkin. He earned his PhD in 2012 from the California Institute of Technology, where he worked with Prof. John Bercaw on olefin polymerization catalysis and early transition-metal–ligand multiply bonded complexes. After postdoctoral research on the mechanism of asymmetric olefin hydroformylation with Prof. Clark Landis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he began his independent career at the University of Minnesota in 2013. His current research interests are focused on the development of earth abundant, sustainable catalytic methods using early transition metals.