Professor Sophie Rousseaux has been renewed as Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Organic Chemistry. She is one of 156 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs announced this week.
“I am delighted about the renewal of my Canada Research Chair," says Rousseaux. "This honour is truly a recognition of the hard work the students in my group have been doing over the past five years. With the support of the CRC program, we are excited to continue developing new cutting-edge reactions that will ideally impact the way modern medicines are prepared.”
The Canada Research Chair Program was established in 2000 to fund outstanding researchers in this country. It provides approximately $295 million annually to universities to help retain and attract top minds, spur innovation and foster training excellence in Canadian post-secondary institutions.
Rousseaux leads an internationally recognized research program focused on using earth-abundant and inexpensive nickel catalysts to efficiently prepare value-added products from abundant feedstocks.
With the CRC funding, Rousseaux aims to explore the reactivity of new redox-active alcohol derivatives in Ni-catalyzed cross-couplings with a focus on the synthesis of pharmaceutically-relevant molecules.
“Over the last century, impressive developments in transition metal-catalysis have enabled the production of molecules in our everyday lives, including medicines, plastics, and food,” she says.
“Our needs are now shifting towards the development of more efficient processes for their preparation, from both an environmental and economic point of view.”