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, 2024 Medal of the RSEQ or being on the Forbes List for the top50 most awarded spaniards, among the m
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
– Chen JH, Tan CRC, Rodrigalvarez J, Zhang S & Martin R 2024, ‘Site-Selective Distal C(sp3)-H Bromination of Aliphatic Amines as a Gateway for Forging Nitrogen-Containing sp3 Architectures‘, Angewandte chemie-international edition, 63, e202406485
– Rodrigalvarez J & Martin R 2024, ‘Boryl radicals facilitate C(sp2)-C(sp3) cross-coupling reactions‘, Nature synthesis, 3, 1188
– Velasco-Rubio A Martin R, 2024 ‘Recent Advances in Ni-Catalyzed 1,1-difunctionalization of Unactivated Olefins‘, Advanced synthesis & catalysis, 366, 593
– Davies J, Lyonnet JR, Carvalho B, Sahoo B, Day CS, Juliá-Hernández F, Duan YY, Velasco-Rubio A, Obst M, Norrby PO, Hopmann KH, Martin R 2024, ‘Kinetically-Controlled Ni-Catalyzed Direct Carboxylation of Unactivated Secondary Alkyl Bromides without Chain Walking‘, Journal of the american chemical society, 146, 1753
– Odena C, Martin R et al. 2024, ‘Late-Stage C(sp 2)-C(sp 3) Diversification via Nickel Oxidative Addition Complexes‘, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 146, 21264
– Romano C & Martin R, 2024 ‘Ni-catalysed remote C(sp3)–H functionalization using chain-walking strategies‘, Nature reviews chemistry, 8, 833
– Liu Z, D’Amico F & Martin R 2024, ‘Regiodivergent Radical-Relay Alkene Dicarbofunctionalization‘, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 146, 28624
– Lyonnet JR Velasco-Rubio A Abrams R Phan H Mühlfenzl K Chen XM Cerveri A Correia JT Paixao MW Elmore CS & Martin R, 2024, ‘Photocatalytic Multicomponent Carboxylation of Olefns and Sulfinate Salts with 13CO2‘, ACS Catalysis, 14-24.
– Odena C, Gómez-Bengoa E & Martin R 2024, ‘Ring-walking mediated by Ni-Ni species as a Vehicle for Enabling Distal C(sp2)-H Functionalization of aryl pivalates‘, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 146 – 112.
Selected research activities
2024 Medal of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ)
2024 Tito Scaiano Lectureship Award