Léon Ghosez

Léon Ghosez (2018)

Léon Ghosez (* 1934 in Aalst , Belgium ) is a Belgian professor emeritus and former professor of chemistry at Louvain University . He is an emeritus member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Literature and Arts of Belgium.

academic career

Ghosez studied at Louvain University, where he received his doctorate in 1958 under the supervision of Georges Joseph Smets. He then worked for two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University with Robert B. Woodward and for a few months with Rolf Huisgen at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , before he received his habilitation in 1969 at the age of 32 and became a professor at the Louvain University was. During his time at Louvain University (1963 to 1999) he supervised the research of 125 doctoral students and 135 postdocs. During this time he also worked at the University of Liège (1969 to 1999) and at the École polytechnique in Palaiseau . He was an active founding member of the Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie (IECB) at the University of Bordeaux , where he set up a research group in 1998. From 2000 to the end of 2009 he was director of the IECB together with Jean-Jacques Toulmé. Ghosez is currently doing research at the IECB and is Professor Emeritus at Louvain University.

Research priorities

Project 1: Small natural molecules that have been shaped and optimized through evolution and are therefore perfectly adapted to interact with natural macromolecules and induce a biological response. The first research project is to design and manufacture privileged frameworks with short reaction sequences. It should be possible to easily convert these into a wide variety of natural substances which are of interest for therapeutic use. This provides an entry point into the drug discovery process at a much more advanced stage, in which standard diversity libraries are searched.

Project 2: The aim of the second project isto developnew ionic solvents and Lewis-derived super acids from silicon , both of which are derived from strong Brönsted acids with relatively low molecular weight. These are used as functionally tolerant, albeit highly electrophilic, solvents or catalysts for reactions with highly functionalized molecules. These solvents and catalysts are free from toxic metals and leave little waste, which enables sustainable processes.

The Ghosez cyclization (also Ghosez lactonization) for the synthesis of α, β-unsaturated δ- lactones was named after Léon Ghosez.

Honors

Ghosez was honored with the Medal of the Société Chimique de France .

Web links

• List of publications by Léon Ghosez on ResearchGate
• List of publications on Academictree
• List of Léon Ghosez's patents

Individual evidence

1. ^ Organic & medicinal chemistry. Retrieved March 15, 2019 . 
2. ↑ letter CV Leon Ghosez. Retrieved March 30, 2019 .