Professor Thorsten Bach, Technical University Munich, Germany, has received the Horst Pracejus Prize 2017 from the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh, German Chemical Society). The prize recognizes outstanding work in the fields of enantioselectivity or chirality.
The award was presented at the Chemiedozententagung 2017 in Marburg, Germany, on March 13, 2017. Professor Bach was honored for his pioneering work in the field of photoinduced asymmetric catalysis.
Thorsten Bach studied chemistry at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Marburg, Germany, under the supervision of Manfred Reetz in 1991. He was a postdoctoral fellow with David Evans at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, in 1991 and 1992 and completed his habilitation at the University of Münster, Germany, in 1996. Bach was Professor at the University of Marburg from 1997 to 2000 and joined the Technical University Munich as Professor in 2000.
Among other honors, Thorsten Bach has received the AstraZeneca Research Award in 2001, the Novartis European Young Investigator Award in 2003, and the Degussa Award for Chirality in Chemistry in 2006.
Professor Bach’s research interests include enantioselective photochemical reactions, sensitizers, photocycloaddition reactions, the total synthesis of natural products and of biologically active compounds, new catalytic methods for stereoselective nitrogen transfer, the development and synthesis of new chiral ligands, the stereoselectivity of reactions involving carbenium ions, C–H activation reactions, and supramolecular catalysis.
Selected Publications
- Radical Reactions Induced by Visible Light in Dichloromethane Solutions of Hünig’s Base: Synthetic Applications and Mechanistic Observations,
Alexander Böhm, Thorsten Bach,
Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22, 15921–15928.
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201603303 - Structural rearrangement cascade initiated by irradiation of but-3-enyl orotates,
Alena Hölzl, Thorsten Bach,
J. Photochem. Photobiol., A 2016, 331, 60–65.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jphotochem.2015.09.020 - Recent Advances in the Synthesis of Cyclobutanes by Olefin [2 + 2] Photocycloaddition Reactions,
Saner Poplata, Andreas Tröster, You-Quan Zou, Thorsten Bach,
Chem. Rev. 2016, 116, 9748–9815.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00723 - A Chiral Thiourea as a Template for Enantioselective Intramolecular [2 + 2] Photocycloaddition Reactions,
Florian Mayr, Richard Brimioulle, Thorsten Bach,
J. Org. Chem. 2016, 81, 6965–6971.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.joc.6b01039 - Pd(II)-Catalyzed Regioselective 2-Alkylation of Indoles via a Norbornene-Mediated C–H Activation: Mechanism and Applications,
Lei Jiao, Eberhardt Herdtweck, Thorsten Bach,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 14563–14572.
DOI: 10.1021/ja3058138 - Palladium-Catalyzed Direct 2-Alkylation of Indoles by Norbornene-Mediated Regioselective Cascade C–H Activation,
Lei Jiao, Thorsten Bach,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 12990–12993.
DOI: 10.1021/ja2055066 - Enantioselective Intramolecular [2 + 2]-Photocycloaddition Reactions of 4-Substituted Quinolones Catalyzed by a Chiral Sensitizer with a Hydrogen-Bonding Motif,
Christiane Müller, Andreas Bauer, Mark M. Maturi, M. Consuelo Cuquerella, Miguel A. Miranda, Thorsten Bach,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 16689–16697.
DOI: 10.1021/ja207480q - Photochemical Reactions as Key Steps in Natural Product Synthesis,
Thorsten Bach, Jörg P. Hehn,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 1000–1045.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201002845
Also of Interest
- Horst Pracejus Prize 2015,
ChemViews Mag. 2015.
F. Dean Toste, University of California, Berkeley, USA, honored
