On April 12th, 2024, we were delighted to host Professor Qing-Hua Fan from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS), to give the 103^rd lecture of the Shenzhen Medical Forum. The lecture was chaired by Associate Professor Guo-Kai Liu form the School of Pharmacy of Shenzhen University Medical School. Professor Fan’s intriguing lecture was titled  "Asymmetric Hydrogenation of (Hetero)aromatic Compounds " and held at the Lihu Campus of Shenzhen University.

Professor Xingang gave an inspiring talk on asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation of (hetero)aromatic compounds. He first explained that aromatic compounds are important chemical raw materials with a low cost, easy availability, diverse structures, and high stability. Direct asymmetric hydrogenation of these compounds is a straightforward and atom-economical way to obtain a wide range of chiral cyclic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic compounds. However, unlike asymmetric hydrogenation of simple olefins, ketones and ketoimines, aromatic compounds have high chemical stability and require simultaneous reduction of multiple double bonds, making their asymmetric hydrogenation a great challenge. Next, Professor Fan explained that over the past two decades, the development of new catalytic systems and/or catalytic strategies has led to the efficient asymmetric hydrogenation of many types of heteroaromatics. Indeed, in recent years, Professor Fan’s group have developed a new counteranion-assisted asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation system, and realized enantioselective hydrogenation of a series of nitrogen-containing heteroaromatic compounds, and cyclic and acyclic imines with unprecedented activity and excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivity. Most recently, with the use of strategies of the alkali promoted enol-ketone tautomerization or heterogeneous-homogeneous catalyst relay catalysis, Professor Fan and coworkers have successfully realized the highly chemoselective and enantioselective asymmetric (transfer) hydrogenation of phenanthrols, naphthol and phenol derivatives for the first time. This approach allows for enantiomerically pure cyclic alcohols to be prepared from simple raw materials.

Professor Fan's lecture aroused great interest and a warm response from the audience and was followed by an energetic and interactive question and answer session. We thank Professor Qing-Hua Fan for his wonderful academic presentation and his patient and detailed answers, which greatly benefited all students and faculty in attendance. Finally, Associate Professor Guo-Kai Liu presented Professor Qing-Hua Fan with the "Shenzhen University Medicine Forum" Honorary Medal on behalf of the Shenzhen University Medical School.

Brief introduction of Speakers

Professor Qing-Hua Fan was born in 1966 in Hunan Province, China. He received his B.S. degree from the Department of Chemistry, Xiangtan University in 1989, and his M.S. degree from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) in 1992. He then started his research into silicon polymers and related advanced functional materials as an assistant professor at the ICCAS. In 1995, he joined Professor Albert S. C. Chan’s group at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1998. After that, he returned to Beijing to take up the position as an associate professor and became a research group leader in ICCAS. In 2003, he was promoted to professor. He received the Outstanding Young Scientist Award of the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2003. His research interests focus on asymmetric catalysis, environmentally benign catalytic reactions, the synthesis of biologically active heterocyclic compounds, and molecular design and self-assembly of functional dendrimers. He has authored more than 140 publications, and has an H-index of 30. In 2005, he received the second-class prize of National Natural Science Award (rank 2).