Heterogeneous Catalysis in Sustainable Synthesis

Dr Torok received his Ph.D. from the University of Szeged, Hungary in Organic Chemistry/Heterogeneous Catalysis in 1995. After receiving his Ph.D. he did postdoctoral training with the 1994 Nobel Laureate George Olah at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles working on the development of environmentally benign alkylate gasoline production. He has held various faculty appointments at Michigan Technological University and the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he is currently a Professor of Chemistry. In 2011/12 he was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology working with the 2005 Nobel Laureate Richard Schrock on the development of new alkene metathesis catalysts. His main research focus is on the design of new green chemistry processes for the synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The major tools applied in his research are heterogeneous catalysis (both metal and solid acid), catalytic hydrogenation, the application of aqueous medium in organic synthesis and unusual activation methods such as microwave and ultrasonic irradiation. He has published over 150 papers and book chapters, many of them in the journal Green Chemistry and Green Chemistry related books. Dr Schäfer received his Dipl.-Ing. degree in chemistry after studies at the Technical University Darmstadt and University Bordeaux 1. Subsequently he moved to University of Strasbourg and worked on metal-mediated cyclization reactions under the supervision of Michel Miesch. After obtaining his PhD from the University of Strasbourg in 2013, he moved to the University of Massachusetts Boston to work as a postdoctoral researcher with Béla Török. He is currently a lecturer and research scientist at UMass Boston, where his research interests are in the development of new methods for green transformations with a focus on catalytic hydrogenation in water. Anne Kokel has been a researcher in Green Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA since 2015, where her work focuses on the design of green methods using energy-efficient techniques, non-toxic chemicals and recyclable processes for the synthesis of compounds with biomedical relevance. After studying at the Universite de Bourgogne, France, she went on to complete her MA at Université Savoie Mont Blanc, France, before joining the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA in 2014. With a strong knowledge of green chemistry, toxicology and medicinal chemistry, she has published multiple papers, reviews and book chapters.