The electrophilic activation of a substrate by means of a Brønsted acid is the most straightforward and common
approach used to promote a reaction and hence Brønsted acids have been widely utilized as efficient catalysts for
numerous organic transformations. The development of novel Brønsted acid catalysts has been continuously studied
due to their broad synthetic applicability. In the past decade, innovative research on Brønsted acid catalysis has
enabled great progress. Specifically, research has focused on ‘chiral Brønsted acid catalysis’, in which
enantioenriched products are obtained using a catalytic amount of a chiral organic molecule bearing an acidic
functionality. Currently, chiral Brønsted acids represent a widely applicable class of catalysts for a variety of
enantioselective transformations.
In this lecture, I would like to introduce the recent achievements in developing enantioselective carbon-carbon bond
forming reactions using 1,1’-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL)-derived phosphoric acids as chiral Brønsted acid catalysts.
Biography:
Masahiro Terada graduated from Department of Applied Chemistry, Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1986
and received his PhD in 1993 from Tokyo Institute of Technology. He was appointed as an Assistant Professor in
Professor Mikami’s Laboratory at Tokyo Institute of Technology (1989). He worked as a postdoctoral fellow
with Professor M. D. Shair at Harvard University in 1999-2000 and moved to Tohoku University as an Associate
Professor in 2001. He has been a Professor of Chemistry at the Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University
(Japan) since 2006. Now he has published more than 150 papers (including review articles) and 16 patents.
He is the recipient of the Incentive Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (2003), The Chemical Society
of Japan Award for Creative Work (2008), and Mukaiyama Award (2010). His current research interests are
focused on the development of new and useful synthetic methodologies based on the design of novel chiral Brønsted
acid and base catalysts as well as the utilization of transition metal catalysts.
