CCE - Beckman Lecture
Véronique Gouverneur secured a PhD in chemistry at the Université Catholique de Louvain (LLN, Belgium), under the supervision of Professor L Ghosez. In 1992, she moved to a postdoctoral position with Professor R Lerner at the Scripps Research Institute (California, USA). She accepted a position of Maître de Conférence at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg (France). She worked with Dr C Mioskowski and was Associate Member of the Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires directed by Professor J-M Lehn during this period. Veronique started her independent research career at the University of Oxford in 1998 in the Chemistry Faculty and was promoted to Professor of Chemistry in 2008. She was also a tutorial fellow at Merton College teaching organic chemistry. Her research aims at developing new approaches to address long-standing problems in the synthesis of fluorinated molecules including pharmaceutical drugs and probes for imaging (Positron Emission Tomography). To date, she has mentored more than 40 Postdocs and supervised 55 PhD (= DPhil in Oxford) to completion. Since 2022, she is the Waynflete Professor of Chemistry at Magdalen College. She has coordinated European ITN projects (currently H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016, FLUDD), and is the (co)author of > 200 peer-reviewed publications and 10 patents. Her research has been rewarded by numerous prizes and distinctions, e.g. 2015 ACS Award for Creative work in Fluorine Chemistry, RSC Tilden Prize 2016, Tetrahedron Chair 2016, Elected Member of the European Academy of Sciences (EURASC) 2017 and in 2019 the Prelog Medal, Elected Fellow of the Royal Society and the RSC Organic Stereochemistry Award. She received the Henri Moissan Prize in 2021 and in 2022 the Arthur C. Cope Award.
Fluoro chemicals are key for fundamental and applied sciences including applications in medicine, agrochemistry and material science. The starting point of the entire fluorochemical industry is the conversion of acid grade fluorspar into hydrogen fluoride (HF) with sulfuric acid, a reaction first reported in 1771 by Swedish chemist Carl Scheele, and still in use today. The process requires considerable expertise and know-how due to the highly hazardous nature of HF. The supply chain of HF, which is transported either as liquefied gas or in solution as fluorohydric acid, is equally demanding and high maintenance. In this lecture, we will share how our journey in asymmetric catalysis led methodologies that convert fluorspar into critically needed fluorine-containing molecules applying operationally simple and energy- effective methods that bypass the production of hydrogen fluoride.
Add this event to your calendar.