The 2019 TCR Lecturer is Keiji Maruoka, Kyoto University, Japan.
The Chemical Record (TCR) Lecture award was initiated in 2002 shortly after the start of the journal The Chemical Record. It has become a high-profile series with a view to fostering international and interdisciplinary exchange. The TCR Lecturer is selected by a committee consisting of the Editorial Board of The Chemical Record and the immediate past TCR Lecturer. The lecture takes place annually as part of the Spring Meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ).
Keiji Maruoka obtained his B.S. from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1976 and his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii, USA, in 1980. He joined the School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan, as an assistant professor in 1980 and was promoted to Lecturer then Associate Professor in 1985 and 1990, respectively. In 1995, he moved to the Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University, Japan, as a full professor. Since 2001, he has been a professor at Kyoto University, Japan, and is currently Leader of the Specially Promoted Research “High-Performance Organocatalyst Project” at Kyoto University.Maruoka is Co-Chair of the Editorial Board for the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry, Editor-in-Chief of The Chemical Record, and member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Chemistry–An Asian Journal, among other journals.
His current research interests include the design of high-performance organocatalysts for sustainable chemical transformations with the aim of large-scale production of useful materials in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. In particular, chiral phase transfer catalysts for useful amino acid synthesis, and organocatalysts and bidentate Lewis acids for synthetic applications.
The TCR Lecture series has included many renowned speakers from a wide range of fields in chemistry:
- 2018: Michael Grätzel, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
- 2017: Helma Wennemers, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
- 2016: David MacMillan, Princeton University, USA
- 2015: Scott J. Miller, Yale University, New Haven, USA
- 2014: Scott A. Snyder, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, USA
- 2013: Andrew B. Holmes, University of Melbourne, Australia
- 2012: E.W. “Bert” Meijer, Eindhoven University of Technology, NL
- 2010: Hisashi Yamamoto, University of Chicago, USA
- 2009: Gabor Somorjai, University of California, Berkeley, USA
- 2008: Michel Rohmer, Univ. Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France
- 2006: Anthony R. West, University of Sheffield, UK
- 2005: Malcolm Chisholm, Ohio State University, USA
- 2005: Bruno Scrosati, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy
- 2004: Robert M. Metzger, University of Alabama, USA
- 2004: Koji Nakanishi, Columbia University, USA
- 2004: Christian Wandrey, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany, USA
- 2003: Gerhard Ertl, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Germany, USA
- 2003: Reinhard Hoffmann, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany
- 2003: Yuan T. Lee, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
- 2002: Roy H. Doi, University of California, Davis, USA
- 2002: Steven V. Ley, Cambridge University, UK
