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Education & Experience
Education
1994-1998 B.Sc. in Chemistry with first-class honors at National University of Singapore
1998-2000 M.Sc. in Chemistry at the National University of Singapore. Supervisor: Teck-Peng Loh
2000-2005 Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Supervisor: Gregory C. Fu
Appointments
2005-2008 Postdoctoral researcher, Yale University & University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne. Supervisor: John F. Hartwig
2008-2013 Singapore National Research Foundation Fellow (joint appointment)
2008-2018 Assistant Professor, Nanyang Technological University
2018-2019 Senior Research Scientist, Nanyang Technological University
2019 Associate Professor, Peking University, Shenzhen Graduate School
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Awards & Honors
2008 Singapore National Research Foundation fellowship
2011-14 Asian Core Program Lectureship Award, 2011 Malaysia, 2012 Taiwan, 2013 Japan, 2014 China
2012 Thieme Chemistry Journals Award for professors at early career
2013 GSK-EDB Green and Sustainable Manufacturing Award, Singapore
2015 SPMS Young Researcher Award, Nanyang Technological University
2017 GSK-EDB Green and Sustainable Manufacturing Award, Singapore
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Research Fields
Research interest
My research focuses on transition metal catalysis, mechanistic studies and application to stereoselective synthesis of chiral drugs. An emphasis is placed on asymmetric catalytic processes. Chiral drugs contribute to one third of modern medicines today. Nowadays, almost all of newly approved small-molecule drugs are made in optically pure forms, so as to avoid toxicity caused by unwanted isomers.
Other research interest includes:
1) Application of photocatalysis and reactive radical species in metal catalysis. 2) Replacement of expensive noble metals with Earth-abundant late 3d metals. 3) Heterogeneous catalysis for industrial application. 4) Stereoselective formation of strained rings, deuterated and fluorinated compounds, which are becoming increasingly important in medicines.
Examples of ongoing projects include:
Heck reaction, arylation of carbonyl compounds, palladium radical catalysis, nickel-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation and copper-catalyzed addition of air-stable organoboron reagents. In particular, asymmetric hydrogenation has become an important tool for large-scale synthesis of chiral key intermediates in industry, but hydrogenation catalysts rely heavily on very expensive, rare metals, such as rhodium, iridium and ruthenium. It poses a severe problem of sustainability in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
I also seek intellectual contribution in transition metal catalysis at a fundamental level:
1) New modes of bond activation, for example, using classical hydrogen bonding for soft ionization of arylpalladium halides in asymmetric Heck reaction (2014).
2) New modes of bond formation in metal catalysis, for example, discovery of a new elementary step of 1,4-insertion in copper-catalyzed asymmetric addition (2015).
3) New means of chirality transfer from catalysts to products, for example, employing weak CH/O hydrogen bonding in palladium-catalyzed asymmetric coupling of enolates (2013).
Publication
58 research papers in total. As corresponding author, published 7 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and 18 in Angewandte Chemie. Featured in “Author Profile” in Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2016, pp 4636).
h-index 31. Citation 3241 updated in April 2019 (Google Scholar).
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Selected Publications
1. Copper-Catalyzed Asymmetric Arylation of N-Heteroaryl Aldimines: Elementary Step of a 1,4-Insertion.Chunlin Wu, Xurong Qin, Adhitya Mangala Putra Moeljadi, Hajime Hirao, Jianrong Steve Zhou* (HH contributed DFT calculation) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 2705-2709.
2. Asymmetric Stepwise Reductive Amination of Sulfonamides, Sulfamates and a Phosphinamide via Nickel Catalysis. Xiaohu Zhao, Haiyan Xu, Xiaolei Huang and Jianrong Steve Zhou* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 592-596. Highlighted by Mark Lautens et al. in Synfacts 2019, 15(03), 0258
3. Palladium-Catalyzed Enantioselective Arylation of Racemic Ketones to Form Bridged Bicycles via Dynamic Kinetic Resolution. Xiaolei Huang, William Ray Jun Jie Oh and Jianrong Steve Zhou* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 7673-7677.
4. Palladium-Catalyzed para-Selective Alkylation of Electron-Deficient Arenes. Zhiwei Jiao, Li Hui Lim, Hajime Hirao and Jianrong Steve Zhou* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 6294-6298.
5. Nickel-Catalyzed N-Alkylation of both Acylhydrazines and Arylamines with Alcohols and Enantioselective Examples. Peng Yang, Caili Zhang, Yu Ma, Caiyun Zhang, Aijie Li, Bo Tang* and Jianrong Steve Zhou* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 14702-14706. Highlighted by Yamamoto et al. Synfacts 2018, 14(2), 164.
6. Asymmetric Intermolecular Heck reaction of Propargylic Acetates and Cycloalkenes to Access Fused Cyclobutenes. Zhiwei Jiao, Qi Shi, Jianrong Steve Zhou* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 14567-14571. Highlighted by Lautens et al. Synfacts 2018, 14(1), 48.
7. Nickel-Catalyzed Asymmetric Reductive Heck Cyclization of Aryl Halides to Access Indolines. Xurong Qin, Marcus Wen Yao Lee, Jianrong Steve Zhou* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 12723-12726. Highlighted by Lautens et al. Synfacts 2017, 13(10), 1040.
8. Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric α-Arylation of Alkylnitriles. Zhiwei Jiao, Kwok Wei Chee, Jianrong Steve Zhou* J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016,138, 16240. One of most read JACS articles of the month. Highlighted by Yamamoto et al. Synfacts 2017, 13(3), 274.
9. Palladium-Catalyzed Enantioselective α-Arylation of α-Fluoroketones. Zhiwei Jiao, Jason Beiger, Yushu Jin, Shaozhong Ge, Jianrong Steve Zhou,* John F. Hartwig* J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 15980. One of most read JACS articles of the month. Highlighted by Lautens et al. Synfacts 2017, 13(2), 155.
10. Nickel-Catalyzed Enantioselective Reductive Amination of Ketones with Both Arylamines and Benzhydrazide. Peng Yang, Li Hui Lim, Pratanphorn Chuanprasit, Hajime Hirao,* Jianrong (Steve) Zhou* (HH contributed calculation) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 12083.
11. Asymmetric Conjugate Addition of Organoboron Reagents to Common Enones Using Copper Catalysts. Chunlin Wu, Guizhou Yue, Christian Duc-Trieu Nielson, Kai Xu, Hajime Hirao,* Jianrong (Steve) Zhou* (HH contributed DFT calculation) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016,138, 742. One of the most read JACS articles of the month. Highlighted by Lautens et al. Synfacts 2016, 12(4), 394 and Organic Chemistry Portal in 2016.
12. Palladium-Catalyzed Direct Cyclopropylation of Heterocycles. Xiaojin Wu, Chuanhu Lei, Guizhou Yue, Jianrong (Steve) Zhou* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 9601. Highlighted in Synform 2015, 12, A175.
13. Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Reductive Heck Reaction of Aryl Halides. Guizhou Yue, Kaining Lei, Hajime Hirao, Jianrong (Steve) Zhou* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 6531. One of the most accessed papers of the month in Angew Chem.
