Plenary Speakers
Prof. Varinder Aggarwal
University of Bristol, United Kingdom
Prof. Varinder K. Aggarwal studied chemistry at Cambridge University and received his Ph.D. in 1986 under the guidance of Dr. Stuart Warren. After postdoctoral studies (1986-1988) under Prof. Gilbert Stork, Columbia University, he returned to the UK as a Lecturer at Bath University. In 1991 he moved to Sheffield University, where he was promoted to Professor in 1997. In 2000, he moved to Bristol University where he holds the Chair in Synthetic Chemistry. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2012.
Varinder Aggarwal is a renowned organic chemist who has developed new chemical methods to assemble complex, biologically important molecules. His research includes new catalytic asymmetric methods, developing new classes of reagents for iterative synthesis, and applications of these methods in the synthesis of complex molecules. Early in his career, he showed how to convert the stoichiometric sulfur ylide epoxidation methodology into a catalytic and asymmetric process, and provided a set of rules that govern both diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity in this important reaction. He later discovered new asymmetric reactions between sulfur ylides/lithiated carbamates and organoboranes/boronic esters which lead to homologated organoboron products in high enantioselectivity including tertiary boronic esters, reactions that could be used iteratively. This work has been particularly impactful, enabling complex molecules to be assembled in a few steps and with very high stereocontrol. Apart from chemistry, his interests include running, cycling, table tennis, yoga, cinema and theatre.
Prof. Fernando Albericio
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Prof. Dr. Hans-Günther Schmalz
University of Cologne, Germany
Prof. Dr. Hans-Günther Schmalz obtained his PhD in 1985 from Goethe University, Frankfurt, and was subsequently followed by a Postdoc at Princeton University in the USA. Before taking up a position at the University of Cologne in 1999, he served as a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Technical University Berlin and as a Junior Research Group Leader in the Department of Chemistry at Goethe University, Frankfurt. His research mainly focuses on the development of methods and strategies for the stereoselective synthesis of biologically relevant molecules. In this context, they are exploring, among other things, new possibilities to exploit transition-metal organic chemistry, both in a stoichiometric and in a catalytic manner. Current projects in the group cover a rather broad spectrum of organic chemistry (multistep synthesis of natural products and analogues, enantioselective catalysis, bio-organometallic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, and chemical biology). Natural products continue to be a major source of inspiration and challenge in his research. He has received numerous awards, including the Albertus Magnus Teaching Award from the University of Cologne and a Teaching Champion from the Technical University Berlin.
Prof. Steven Ballet
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Prof. Steven Ballet completed his PhD (Topic: Constrained aminobenzazepinones for application in peptidomimetics; promotor: Prof. Dirk Tourwé) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Brussels, Belgium) in 2007. Directly following his PhD training, Dr. Ballet went for a first postdoctoral stay in Australia at the University of Adelaide with Professor Andrew Abell. During this stay, he applied ring-closing and cross-metathesis reactions on amino acid and peptide substrates. As such, dimeric but also ring-closed peptide scaffolds could be obtained. More specifically, RCM was used to stabilize (‘staple’) the helical conformation of alpha and beta peptides. As a second postdoctoral training, Prof. Ballet went to the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (IRCM, Montreal, Canada) for specialized training in the opioid peptide field. Together with Prof. Peter W. Schiller, he designed bifunctional opioid ligands with dual MOR/DOR agonist profiles and hybrid opioid/non-opioid multitarget ligands. Since 2010, Prof. Ballet is appointed as a faculty member at his alma mater, where he pursues his efforts in the peptide and peptidomimetic field. Other research topics involve injectable peptide hydrogels for sustained release of bioactive peptides, the synthesis of turn/helix/loop mimetics, and transition metal-catalysed derivatization of peptides in aqueous media. He is the author of over 150 papers, 6 patents and several book chapters.
Prof. Dr. Svetlana B. Tsogoeva
Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Prof. Dr. Svetlana B. Tsogoeva graduated with Distinction in 1995 from St. Petersburg State University, where she completed her doctoral thesis in 1998 on the “Synthesis of Modified Analogues of Steroid Estrogens” supported by Procter & Gamble. Then, she moved to Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, for postdoctoral research. In July 2000 she joined the Degussa AG Fine Chemicals Division as a research scientist. In January 2002 she was appointed the first junior professor in Germany at the Georg-August-University of Göttingen. Since February 2007, she has been a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany. She has published over 150 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and is among the top 2% of most cited researchers worldwide (Stanford Lists 2021-2024). Her awards and distinctions include a Thieme Chemistry Journal Award (2007), an Otto-Röhm Research Award (2012), Research Grant Awards from the Wilhelm Sander-Stiftung (2015, 2020) and the Volkswagen Foundation (2022, 2025). Her research spans topics from catalysis to medicinal chemistry. She is an Editorial/Advisory Board Member for ACS Med. Chem. Lett, Scientific Reports, ChemPhysChem, Tetrahedron Chem, and a Senior Editor of ACS Central Science.
Prof. Nicholas J. Turner
University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Dr. Alexander Makarov
Thermo Fisher Scientific, Germany
