Click Chemistry

Valery V. Fokin received his Ph.D. degree in 1998 from the University of Southern California, where he worked under the direction of Prof. Nicos A. Petasis. He then joined the group of Nobel Prize Winner Prof. K. Barry Sharpless at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California as a postdoctoral fellow, where he studied catalytic oxidations of olefins. In 2000, he was appointed assistant, and in 2006 associate professor in the Chemistry Department at Scripps. His research is centered on understanding of the chemical reactivity and its applications in chemistry, biology, and materials science. Floris P.J.T. Rutjes received his PhD with Professor Nico Speckamp in 1993. After a post-doctoral stay in the group of Professor K. C. Nicolaou (The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA), he was appointed at the University of Amsterdam in 1995. Four years later, he became full professor in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Nijmegen. In 2002, he was awarded the GoldMedal of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV) and in 2003 the AstraZeneca award for research in organic chemistry. His research interests include the use of bio- and metal-catalysts in organic synthesis and the development of novel synthetic methodology.