Martin Romo, Ruben – ICREA Memoir 2021

Ruben Martin

Institut Català d'Investigació Química

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

Ruben Martin was born in Barcelona in 1976. He received his PhD in 2003 at the Universitat de Barcelona with Prof. A. Riera. In January 2004 he moved to the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung as a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow with Prof. A. Fürstner and in May 2005 he undertook further postdoctoral studies at MIT with Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald. In September 2008 he joined the ICIQ as a group leader. His current research interests concern the discovery and development of synthetically useful organometallic protocols. Ruben Martin was promoted to Associate Professor in July 2013 and to ICREA Professor in October 2013. During his time as group leader he has been awarded with 4 ERC projects by the European Research Council and with the 2020 Arthur Cope Scholar Award, 2019 Novartis Chemistry Award, 2018 Banc Sabadell Award to Sciences and Engineering, 2018 Hirata Award, 2018 OMCOS Award or being on the Forbes List for the top50 most awarded spaniards, among the most recent.

Research interests

Our research is focused on the development of new catalytic protocols for producing synthetically relevant molecules from ubiquitous and simple precursors by activating inert, abundant and ubiquitous C-H, C-C and C-O bonds, probably the most fundamental linkages in nature. Additionally, my research has also been focused on the design of new catalytic protocols that utilize biomass-derived feedstocks such as carbon dioxide (CO2) for preparing valuable carboxylic acid derivatives under mild reaction conditions. During the last years, my research at ICIQ has provided solutions to relevant and challenging synthetic problems from both scientific and industrial standpoint, thus providing a new opportunities to build up molecular complexity from simple and abundant precursors

Selected publications

– Davies J, Lyonett JR, Zimin DP, Martin R. “The road to industrialization of fine chemical carboxylation reactions“. Chem 2021, 7, 2927

– Yuli H, Börjesson M, Huayue S, Daning Z, Martin R & Zhu S 2021, “Nickel-Catalyzed Ipso/Ortho Difunctionalization of Aryl Bromides with Alkynes and Alkyl Bromides via a Vinyl-to-Aryl 1,4-Hydride Shift” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 20064

– ShangZheng S, Talavera L, Day CS & Martin R 2021 sp3 Bis-Organometallic Reagents via Catalytic 1,1-Difunctionalization of Unactivated Olefins Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.,60, 11740

– Day CS, Somerville RJ, Martin R ‘Deciphering the dichotomy exerted by Zn(ii) in the catalytic sp(2) C-O bond functionalization of aryl esters at the molecular level‘, Nature Catal. 2021, 4, 124

– Davies J, Janssen-Müller D; Zimin D, Day, CS, Yanagi T, Elfert J, Martin,R , ‘Ni-Catalyzed Carbixilation of Aziridines en Route to B-Amino Acids’, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021 ,143, 4949.

– Higginson B, Sanjose-Orduna J, Gu Y, Martin R ‘Nickel-Catalyzed Photodehalogenation of Aryl Bromides’, Synlett 2021, 32, 1633

– Yue WJ, Day CS, Martin R ‘Site-Selective Defluorinative sp(3) C-H Alkylation of Secondary Amides’, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 6395

– Tortajada A, Menezes CJT, Serrano E, Monleon A, Day CS, Julia-Hernandez F, Martin R 2021, ‘Ligand-Controlled Regiodivergent Catalytic Amidation of Unactivated Secondary Alkyl Bromides’, ACS Catal. 2021, 11, 10223

– Toriumi N, Shimomaki K, Murata K, Martin R, Iwasawa N, ‘Mechanistic Studies into Visible Light-Driven Carboxylation of Aryl Halides/Triflates by the Combined Use of Palladium and Photoredox Catalysts’, Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn 2021, 94, 1846

– Jankins TC, Martin-Montero R, Martin R, Engle KM. ‘Low-Valent Tungsten Catalysis Enables Site-Selective Isomerization-Hydroboration of Unactivated Alkenes’, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 14981

– Tortajada A, Börjesson M, Martin R, “Nickel-catalyzed reductive carboxylation and amidation reactions”. Acc. Chem. Res. 2021, 54, 3941