Mr. Debashis Mandal, a third-year PhD student in the Nagoya University Graduate School of Science’s Department of Material Sciences – Chemistry (Academic Advisor: Kenichiro Itami, Professor in Graduate School of Science) won the Reaxys PhD Prize for 2012. The Reaxys PhD Prize is an international prize presented by Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher in the fields of science, technology, medicine and the social sciences. The prize is awarded to young chemists either working towards a PhD, or within one year of completing a PhD, who have created breakthrough research results in the field of organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, or metalorganic chemistry. Every year students throughout the world make submissions (more than 350 submissions in 2012), and a selection committee of top researchers selects 45 finalists, of which three are selected for prizes.
Mr. Mandal won the prize for his research on the total synthesis of Dragmacidin D via direct carbon-hydrogen (C-H) couplings, in which he developed a C-H coupling reaction that enables the direct C-H bond activation to connect organic molecules. Furthermore, he was able to synthesize Dragmacidin D (a biologically active complex natural organic compound) in an extremely efficient manner using this basic theory and method.
Mr. Mandal is the second person from a Japanese university to win this prize.
Relevant website: Reaxys PhD Prize
