Palladacycles: Catalysis and Beyond

Anant R. Kapdi studied chemistry at the University of Mumbai (MSc 2002) and York (MSc 2005; Dr. Ian J. S. Fairlamb). He completed his PhD in 2008 under the supervision of Dr. Fairlamb at York University, before starting postdoctoral work in the research group of Prof. Lutz Ackermann at the Georg-August-University Gottingen. He is currently a UGC-FRP assistant professor. He is also a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt return fellowship (TUM, Munich) and the DAAD fellowship for scientists, and was recently appointed a fellow of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences. The unifying theme of his research is the development of synthetically efficient processes for targeting molecules of synthetic and biological relevance using palladacycles or palladium colloids. Debabrata Maiti received his MSc in 2003 from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, and his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 2008. He has taught at IIT since December 2010 and has been the recipient of several awards, including the NASI Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award (2013), IAS-Young Associate (2013), IIT Bombay-IRCC Young Scientist Award (2013), Thieme Chemistry Journal Award (2013), CRSI Young Scientist Award (2014), AVRA Young Scientist Award (2014), ISCB Young Scientist Award (2014), and INSA-Young Scientist Award (2014). His research interests include development of transition-metal mediated reactions and bioinspired catalysis.