Amide Bond Activation

Michal Szostak is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Rutgers University, Newark. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas with Prof. Jeffrey Aubé in 2009. After postdoctoral stints at Princeton University with Prof. David MacMillan and at the University of Manchester with Prof. David Procter, in 2014, he joined the faculty at Rutgers University. His research group is focused on the development of new synthetic methodology based on transition-metal-catalysis, amide bond activation, conformational preferences of amides, transition-metal-mediated free-radical chemistry, C-H activation, and application to the synthesis of biologically-active molecules. He is the author of over 150 peer-refereed publications. His group has pioneered the concept of amide bond ground-state-destabilization to achieve selective N-C cross-coupling, decarbonylative cross-coupling of amides, cross-coupling of amides via acyl-metal intermediates, transition-metal-free reactions of amides by tetrahedral intermediates, development of novel amide precursors, discovery of the most twisted acyclic amides reported to date, as well as their structural, energetic characterization and development of new catalysts for amide and ester bond cross-coupling.

1) Bridged Lactams as Model Systems for Amidic Distortion
2) Modification of Amidic Resonance Through Heteroatom Substitution at Nitrogen - Anomeric Amides
3) Amide Bond Activation by Twisting and Nitrogen Pyramidalization
4) Transition-Metal-Free Reactions of Amides by Tetrahedral Intermediates
5) Electrophilic Amide Bond Functionalisation
6) Transamidation of Carboxamides and Amide Derivatives: Mechanistic Insights, Concepts, and Reactions
7) Amide Bond Esterification and Hydrolysis
8) Activation of Amide C-N Bonds by Nickel Catalysis
9) Pd-NHC Catalysis in Cross-Coupling of Amides
10) Cross-Coupling of Amides through Decarbonylation
11) Transition Metal-Catalyzed Radical Reactions of Amides
12) Weinreb Amide as a Multifaceted Directing Group in C-H Activation
13) Computational Studies of Amide C-N Bond Activation
14) Esters as Viable Acyl Cross-Coupling Electro-Philes
15) Cross-Coupling of Aromatic Esters by Decarbonylation