From August 31 to September 3, 2019, the 11th National Organic Chemistry conference was held at ShanghaiTech University. This year, the number of participants was a record high, attracting 2,700 chemical professionals, meanwhile more than 40 companies and academic institutions sponsored the academic event. The conference was organized by the Chinese Chemical Society, the Organic Chemistry Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society, ShanghaiTech University, and Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry.
Organic molecules created by synthetic chemistry are widely used in pharmaceuticals, biomedical and new materials. Efficient synthetic methods can benefit the manufacturing process greatly, by both reducing manufacturing costs and providing better economic and social benefits. Recently Chinese synthetic chemists have made remarkable breakthroughs in some areas. Every two years, the National Organic Chemistry Conference is held, covering not only classic synthetic chemistry, but also focusing on the sustainable catalysis processes, organic functional materials, and disease-causing mechanisms and diagnostics. New technologies and methods in chemical biology, medicinal chemistry based on structural biology, and full synthesis of complex active natural products are the frontiers of the current intersection and integration of organic chemistry.
The conference included 12 plenary talks, 20 special keynote lectures, 160 invited lectures, 116 oral reports and more than 300 posters. Attendees included Nobel Prize laureates, 10 academicians, 68 Young Talent scholars and Changjiang scholars, and more than 80 recipients of outstanding young scientist awards.
ShanghaiTech Vice President and Provost Professor Yin Jie, welcomed the academicians and guests, and briefly introduced the history of ShanghaiTech University and the major national scientific research projects ShanghaiTech researchers are involved in. Shanghai Tech University has recruited 515 permanent professors and 293 special professors, including four Nobel Prize laureates, 32 Chinese Academy of Sciences academicians, three Chinese Academy of Engineering academicians, and nine National Academy of Sciences. There are six academicians of the American Academy of Sciences, three academicians of the Royal Society, and 99 Young Talent scholars. ShanghaiTech University cooperates with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is participating in the construction of a number of large-scale scientific facilities. ShanghaiTech strives to make important contributions to the construction of the Shanghai Science and Technology Center. At present, the national scientific facilities that have been built and under construction within 1 kilometer radius of ShanghaiTech University include Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) and National Center for Protein Science •Shanghai (NCPSS).
Professor Ding Kuiling, Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Conference, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Executive Vice President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, explained the significance of organic chemistry and the achievements of Chinese scientists in the field. He said that the domestic organic chemistry discipline is developing rapidly. Chinese scientists have made many major breakthroughs in chemical biology research, including discovery of new drug molecules, creation of new materials, and green manufacturing of bulk chemicals. On the one hand, they focus on scientific crossover and originality. Academics pursue excellence and elegance, but also pay great attention to the transformation of research results, and are making remarkable contributions to the development of sustainable chemical, pharmaceutical, materials and other industries. A number of novel structural ligands are used in the efficient conversion of a series of organic chemical reactions, and are frequently used by scholars at home and abroad for their research work or applied to industrial processes. Zhou's catalyst, Feng's ligand and The Ullmann-Ma reaction are outstanding representatives of organic chemists in China. The three of them won the 2018 Future Science Award,” and Professor Ma Dawei became the first scholar from mainland China to receive the Arthur Cope Scholar Award from American Chemical Society.
Chen Yongjun, executive deputy director of the Department of Chemistry of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, introduced some of the recent reforms of the fund committee and the school. Professor Karl Barry Sharpless, an adjunct professor at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a Nobel laureate, attended the conference and brought a breakthrough in the field of drug discovery for a new generation of click chemistry.
SIOC’s Professor Ma Dawei gave a plenary talk entitled Developing Efficient Methods and Improving Synthetic Value.” Academician Professor Tian He from ECUST gave a wonderful report on the latest progress in the mechanism and application of vibration-induced luminescence.
HKU Professor Yem introduced the supramolecular assembly and nanostructure construction based on metal organic complexes and molecular units at the conference, and described their broad application prospects in the field of functional materials, including bioprobes, organic optoelectronic devices and memristors. etc.
To celebrate International Women's Chemist Year, a forum on females in chemistry was held, and outstanding female professors from famous universities shared their cutting-edge scientific research achievements. A roundtable forum jointly hosted by Professor Li Yanmei of Tsinghua University and Professor Zhang Qian of Northeast Normal University covered topics including female researcher career development.
The meeting also paid special attention to the outstanding work of young scholars in recent years with a Young Chemist session.
