Guest Speaker – Bristol-Myers Squibb Lecture

Bio
Ruben Martin was born in Barcelona in 1976. He received his Ph.D in 2003 at the Universitat de Barcelona with Prof. Antoni Riera, working on the total synthesis of glycosidases inhibitors. In early 2004 he moved to the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung as a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Alois Fürstner, where he worked on the application of novel iron catalysts for cross-coupling and Alder-ene type reactions. In May 2005 he undertook further postdoctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a MEC postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald where he developed new synthetic strategies for metal-catalyzed C-C and C-N bond-forming reactions. In September 2008 he joined the ICIQ as a group leader, and five years later he was promoted to Associate Professor. In October 2013, he was promoted to ICREA Research Professor. His current research interests concern the discovery and development of synthetically useful organometallic methodologies.

Abstract
The recent years have witnessed a renaissance in the general area of Ni-catalyzed reactions. The popularity of these processes is mainly attributed to the unique features of nickel when compared to its d10 congeners, and the promiscuity of nickel to participate in multiple redox manifolds. Our research group has reported some progress directed towards the utilization of feedstock materials en route to added-value building blocks by means of Ni-catalyzed transformations. Among these, we have shown the ability for enabling a series of C–C and C–heteroatom bond-forming reactions from simple (un)saturated hydrocarbons or native functionality. These methods are characterized by their simplicity and wide substrate scope, including challenging substrate combinations.

Prof. Martin’s Research Group / Development of Catalytic Strategies

Bristol-Myers Squibb – Lecture Sponsor
The UNC Department of Chemistry thanks the lecture sponsor, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company for funding Prof. Martin’s visit. BMS is an American multinational pharmaceutical company, headquartered in New York City, and is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.