Prof. Weihong Tan earned his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at the University of Michigan in 1992 after he earned his M. Sc. in Physical Chemistry from Chinese Academy of Sciences and B. Sc. in Chemistry from Hunan Normal University. In addition to his current position as the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biology at Hunan University, he is also a University Distinguished Professor and a V.T. and Louis Jackson Professor at the University of Florida. He has made pioneering contributions in spectrochemical analysis: ultrasensitive bioanalysis with DNA probes, ultrasmall optical biosensors, development of biophotonic nanomaterials and aptamer-based chemistry and biotechnologies. He has published over 600 peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Laurence Harwood pursued his PhD studies at Manchester University under the direction of Prof. Hamish Sutherland, and gained his doctorate in 1978. After postdoctoral work at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris with Professor Marc Julia from 1978 to 1980. He returned to Manchester, becoming a member of the chemistry faculty and, in 1983, moved to a Tutorial Fellowship and Lectureship at Merton College and the Dyson Perrins Laboratory, Oxford University. In 1996, he moved to the Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Reading. He has supervised more than 60 doctoral co-workers and has published more than 150 scientific articles. He has been Synlett Regional Editor for Europe since 2001 and a member of Editorial Advisory Boards for ARKIVOK, Current Organic Synthesis, Targets in Heterocyclic Systems, Jordanian Journal of Chemistry and Cogent Chemistry. In 2010, he became Chief Scientific Officer of TechnoPep. Since 2015, he has taken on the additional role of Director of the University of Reading’s Chemical Analysis Facility. His research focuses on the development of new synthetic methods and their application to the synthesis of natural and unnatural products.

György Keglevich graduated as a chemical engineer. He has been Professor of Chemistry since 1995, and the Head of the Department of Organic Chemistry and Technology, Budapest Univesity of Technology since 1999. He is engaged with P-heterocyclic and environmentally-friendly chemistry comprising MW chemistry, phase transfer catalysis and the development of new catalysts. He is the author or co-author of 460 papers He holds editorial positions at the journals Curr. Green Chem., Cur. Org. Chem., Lett. Org. Chem., Curr. Org. Synth.. Lett. Drug Des. Disc. and Curr. Catal.. He is the member of the Editorial Board of Heteroatom Chem. and Phosphorus Sulfur Silicon.

Dr Alain Krief is Emeritus Professor of Organic at the University of Namur, adjunct Professor at the University of Karachi and Executive Director of the international Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development. Its main research interests involve the discovery of novel chemical reactions, understanding the mechanism of steroid biosynthesis, chemical knowledge management and chemical education. He has published around 300 papers in the related fields.

Dr. Zbigniew J. Witczak obtained his Ph.D. from the Medical University of Lodz, Faculty of Pharmacy, Lodz, Poland. After the postdoctoral work with Roy L. Whistler at Purdue University he briefly worked an industry (A. E. Staley) and joined in 1990, a Faculty in School of Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut. He moved to Wilkes University, Nesbitt School of Pharmacy in 2000 where he became a full Professor. He has published over hundred research papers and book chapters, edited six books and he holds six patents in the fields of carbohydrate medicinal and biological chemistry.

Manoj B. Gawande received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry in 2008 from the Department of Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Technology, (Formerly UDCT) Matunga, Mumbai, India, under the supervision of Prof. R.V. Jayaram. Presently, he is working as a Senior Researcher and Head of nanocatalysis research group at Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials, Faculty of Science, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic. He has published over 75 scientific publications, including reviews patents, papers, editorial and commentary articles. Dr. Gawande is a Guest editor of several leading journals including RSC Advances (RSC Publications), and Current Organic Chemistry (Bentham publications). He is Associate Editor for Current Catalysis and Regional Editor for Current Organic Synthesis (Bentham Publications). He is also Editorial board member of Scientific Research (Nature Publication).

Dr. Jacob has studied chemistry at the University of Leicester (UK), philosophy at the University of Hagen in Germany, and holds a D.Phil. degree in Bioinorganic Chemistry from the University of Oxford (UK). After conducting postdoctoral research as Alexander von Humboldt fellow with Bert Vallee at Harvard Medical School he moved to the University of Exeter (UK) and, in 2005, to the University of Saarland in Germany, where he is currently Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry. Dr. Jacob is author of well over 120 publications and has edited several books and special issues in the field of biological redox chemistry. His prime interests include Reactive Sulfur Species (RSS), “intelligent” sensor/effector molecules and their respective interactions with the intracellular thiolstat, which he monitors with modern methods of intracellular diagnostics to elucidate the underlying modes of action. His research at the interface of chemistry and philosophy focusses on basic epistemological aspects of chemistry as a modern science.

After his Ph.D. studies at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland (1969, Prof. Horst Prinzbach), Pierre Vogel spent two years at Yale University with Prof. Martin Saunders. He then joined the research laboratory of Syntex in Mexico-City and worked with Prof. Pierre Crabbé. He returned to the University of Lausanne where he was promoted Full Professor in 1977. He has been Associate Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. He published three books and has co-authored more than 550 publications. He retired in 2010 from the EPFL and is now Hon. Prof. of this school.

Prof. Robert J. Linhardt received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1979 and did postdoctoral studies at MIT. He is the Anne and John Broadbent, Jr. '59 Senior Constellation Chair in Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research focuses on glycoscience and is an expert on glycosaminoglycans. He has received multiple honors, including the ACS Isbell, Hudson and Wolfrom Awards, the Volwiler Research Achievement Award and the Scientific American 10. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, holds over 50 patents and has authored over 750 research articles.

Professor Jiaxi Xu received his training in chemistry (B.Sc., 1983-1987) and organic chemistry (Ph.D., 1987- 1992) at Peking University, Beijing, China. He carried out postdoctoral stays in School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Beijing Medical University, Beijing, China (1992-1994), in Department of Chemistry at Colorado State University, USA (2000-2001), and in Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA (2001-2002). He worked as a research associate in Department of Chemistry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (1995). He has authored/co-authored over 350 peer reviewed journals articles, more than 5000 SCI citations and holds 18 patents.

Dr. Siva Ayyanar was born and raised in Dindigul, Tamilnadu, India. He completed his bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in chemistry at Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed University) in 1999, where he worked in the laboratory of Prof. M. Sundaravadivelu studying/synthesis of diazepine derivatives. Following postgraduate studies, Siva Ayyanar joined the lab of Prof. E. Murugan at the University of Madras, where he worked in the field of Asymmetric Synthesis especially synthesized pharmaceutically valuable products using chiral organocatalysts. He completed his Ph.D in chemistry on 2006. After that he worked as an Associate Scientific Manager in Syngene International Ltd, A Biocon Company, Bangalore for about two years. Then he moved to South Korea for Post-Doctoral fellow position under the group of Prof. Taiho Park, Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea from 2007 to 2010. In 2010, Siva Ayyanar joined as an Assistant Professor, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, School of Chemistry, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India. His current research interest includes asymmetric synthesis, organometallic chemistry, supramolecular Chemistry and Dye sensitized solar cells. He received many awards/recognitions such as Brain of Korea 21, best researcher award from Madurai Kamaraj University and DST young scientist award.

Professor Tarek Hassan Afifi graduated from Al-Azhar University in 1984 and received his PhD from the same institution in 1991. He was appointed to the position of Assistant Professor in Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University. He joined Professor Tamotsu Takahashi's research group in Hokkaido University, Japan for sixth months as a Senior Research Associate. He joined Professor Alaa S Abdel Aziz's research group at University of Winnipeg, Canada and worked as Research Associate. He was promoted to Professor of Organic Chemistry in 2005 at Al-Azhar University. He worked as a visiting Professor with Professor Pamela J Shapiro at University of Idaho, USA in 2006-2008. He worked as Professor of Applied Organic Chemistry at Hail University, KSA from 2008 – 2009. He is currently a Professor of Organic Chemistry at Taibah University, Saudia Arabia.

Prof. Bonora obtained a degree in Chemistry in 1969 from the University of Padova (Italy). He was first Associate Professor in the University of Padova (Italy) and then Full Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Universities of Cagliari (Italy) and Trieste (Italy), where actually he is Visiting Professor after his retirement in 2011. He has published more than 280 scientific publications and is a named inventor of 8 issued patents He is member of Editorial Board of Recent Patents on Drug Delivery & Formulation, Open Natural Products Journal and Open Natural Products Reviews

Terrence Burke received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Washington (Seattle) and has spent most of his professional career within the Intramural Program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is currently a Senior Investigator in the Chemical Biology Laboratory (National Cancer Institute). He has published more than 300 scientific publications and is a co-inventor on 20 issued U.S. patents.

Dr. Li Cai is an organic chemist whose research focuses on carbohydrate chemistry, enzymatic synthesis of carbohydrates, and chemical glycobiology. Dr. Cai is also devoted to enhancing the teaching and learning of chemistry, which includes advising undergraduate researches. He received his B.S. degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and M.S. degree in Medicinal Chemistry from Peking University. He then attended the Ohio State University, where he earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry. He has published more than 25 peer-reviewed papers in chemical research and education (among more than 50 publications total) since joining the USC faculty.

Dr. Mário J. F. Calvete received his doctorate (PhD) in Natural Sciences–Organic Chemistry in 2004, from Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, Germany, with Prof. Dr..H.C. Michael Hanack. In 2010 he was appointed as Auxiliary Researcher at University of Coimbra. He is also Invited Auxiliary Professor and his current research interests are tetrapyrrolic macrocycle design and other heterocyclic ligands and their uses in homogeneous/heterogeneous catalysis and theranostics. Until 2016, he had published ca. 60 peer-reviewed papers in international journals, one book and and 5 book chapters.

Juan Castillo received his Ph.D. (2013) from the Universidad del Valle, Colombia under the guidance of Prof. Rodrigo Abonia. He was postdoctorate fellow in the Institut des Sciences Moléculaires de Marseille, France under the guidance of Prof. Jean Rodriguez and Prof. Yoann Coquerel (2013–2015), later postdoctorate fellow in the group of Prof. Jaime Portilla at Universidad de los Andes, Colombia (2015–2017). He is currently full-time lecturer at the Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia. He has a significant experience on multiple bond-forming transformations (MBFTs), synthetic green chemistry and catalytic/eco-compatible approaches for the synthesis of biologically relevant heterocycles.

Dr. Stefan Chassaing obtained his Ph.D. in 2006 in Chemistry from the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg (France). After two postdoctoral stays, he was recruited in 2008 as Associate Professor at University Paul Sabatier of Toulouse (France). Since 2013, he has been group leader at ITAV in Toulouse, an interdisciplinary institute devoted to developing research programs in life sciences. His research interests focus on the design/development of chemical tools i) for organic synthesis (methodologies, supported catalysis, green chemistry), and ii) for diagnosis and therapeutics (fluorescence/luminescence, drug-delivery, nanomedicine). So far, he has co-authored around 50 research papers and 6 book chapters.

Dr. James Cook is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he has been since 1973. He received a BS in Chemistry with Honors from West Virginia University in 1967. He worked with Professor Phillip LeQuesne at The University of Michigan from 1968-1971 and received his PhD in Organic Chemistry. During doctoral studies he worked on Alkaloidal N-oxides in Hallucinogenic Drugs and on Alkaloids of Alstonia muelleriana Domin. He joined Professor James P. Kutney’s group at The University of British Columbia as a postdoctoral fellow in 1972. In 1973 he joined The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to The University Distinguished Professor in 2002. He has published over 420 papers and has received The UW-System Innovator Award, as well as The UW-Milwaukee Innovator Award and a JSPS fellowship. He currently holds grants from NIMH, NINDS, GM, NIAG, NIHBL and NIAAA for drug design.

Prof. Armando Córdova is a chemist from Stockholm in Sweden who performs research at Mid Sweden University and the Arrhenius Laboratory at Stockholm University. He obtained his M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering in 1995 and Ph.D. in 1998 at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. He then took an appointment at the Swedish Pulp and Paper Research Institute (STFI). In 1999 he took a two-year leave for postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, U.S.A. He continued research at TSRI for two more years and in 2003 he started a research group at Stockholm University. In 2004, he became associate Professor and in 2009 he was selected for a Professor chair in Organic Chemistry. He has also received awards for his research and entrepreneurial activities including the Tage Erlander Prize given by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences (2006), the King Carl XVI Gustaf's 50-year foundation award (2007) and a SKAPA award (in memory of Alfred Nobel, 2009). Prof. Córdova is also co-founder of the chemical company OrganoClick AB, which made an IPO at NASDAQ in 2015 and have large-scale production and sales throughout the world.

Dr. Serge Cosnier is Research Director at CNRS and head of the Department of Molecular Chemistry at the Grenoble Alpes University (France). He received his doctoral degree in Chemistry from the Toulouse University (1982). Cosnier’s activity is focused on electrochemical biosensors, biofuel cells, electrogenerated polymers, molecular electrochemistry and carbon nanotubes. Dr Cosnier has authored over 325 publications (h-index 54), 2 books and holds 13 patents. In 2009, he received the Katsumi Niki Prize of the International Society of Electrochemistry and was appointed as Fellow of this Society in 2010. In 2013, Dr Cosnier becomes a member of the Academia Europaea.

Dr. Kuiling Ding received his Ph.D. in 1990 at Nanjing University. He became an assistant professor at Zhengzhou University in 1992 and a full professor at the same university in 1995. During 1993-1994, he was engaged in a postdoctoral research with Professor Teruo Matsuura at Ryukoku University in Japan. In the period of 1997-1998, he was a UNESCO research fellow with Professor Koichi Mikami at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan. He joined Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS, in Dec of 1998 as a professor of chemistry and has been the director of the institute since 2009. He was a visiting professor during the period of 08-11, 2003 at Nagoya University, Japan, with Professor Masato Kitamura. His research interests include development of new strategies and catalysts for homogeneous & heterogeneous catalysis. Dr. Ding received National Natural Science Award of China in 2009, the 1st Yoshida Prize of International Organic Chemistry Foundation (IOCF) Japan in 2015, and Humboldt Research Award in 2016. He was elected a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013.

Luis R. Domingo obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1987. In 2010 he obtained his current position of Full Professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry of University of Valencia. His research interest is the study of organic chemical reactivity using quantum chemical procedures based on the analysis of the electron density. He has published more than 250 articles. He has developed several reactivity indices within the Conceptual Density Functional Theory (CDFT) and he proposes a new reactivity theory named Molecular Electron Density Theory (MEDT) revealing that established theories based on molecular orbital analyses are entirely outdated.

Robert Franzéns is currently a Lecturer at Aalto University (Organic Chemistry) and an Adjunct Professor (Heterocyclic Chemistry) at Turku University. The research is focused on industrial organic chemistry and use of chiral catalysts for different chemical processes. In 2013 and 2007, he worked as a visiting Professor at Chiba University, and during 2000-2002, and 1995-1997, he served as a Postdoctoral researcher in Japan. During 2002 - 2016 he worked as Professor of Organic Chemistry as Tampere University of Technology. He has authored 60 scientific papers. His interests are in the synthesis of drug molecules and biologically active natural products, the discovery and development of new synthetic methods, and in organometallic chemistry.

Dr. Ruimao Hua received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Environmental Chemistry and Engineering in 1996 from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan). He is now a professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University. Dr. Hua's research interests are on the development of organic synthetic methodology, and the synthesis & applications of organic materials for displays (liquid crystal display & OLED display). He was authored and co-authored over 100 publications with h-factor of 31, and authorized over 120 patents with another 55 patents pending.

Uli Kazmaier studied chemistry at the University of Stuttgart where he obtained his PhD working with U. Schmidt. Afterwards he joined the research groups of M. T. Reetz (Marburg) and B. M. Trost (Stanford) as a postdoc. In 1992, he moved to Heidelberg starting his own scientific work at the Institute of Organic Chemistry. In 2000 he received a Novartis Chemistry Lectureship and in 2001 an offer of a full professorship at Saarland University. His current research interest is focused on new organometallic reagents and reactions especially for amino acid and peptide synthesis, and their application to natural product synthesis. He has published more than 200 scientific publications.

Gilbert Kirsch (born 1947) has been trained as an organic chemist at the Universities of Strasbourg and Metz. He started his academic carrier in 1973 at the University of Metz (now University of Lorraine) where he holds currently a position of Emeritus Professor of Organic Chemistry. He had a post-doc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (TN) in the Nuclear Medicine Group and was also invited scientist at Kodak (Rochester, NY) at the University of Minho (Portugal) and Emory University (Atlanta, GA). His interest lies in heterocyclic chemistry in general. He published over 200 papers, chapters in Patai’s Functionnal group series, in Houben-Weyl, in Wiley's Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds and in Springer’s Selenium and Tellurium Chemistry.

Editorial Board Member: Hans-Joachim Knölker Prof. Dr. Knölker received his Ph.D. at the University of Hannover (1985). After postdoctoral studies at the University of California in Berkeley (1986), he did his habilitation at the University of Hannover (1990). He was appointed as full professor of organic chemistry first at the University of Karlsruhe (1991) and then moved to the Technische Universität Dresden (2001). He was a visiting scientist in India as fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (2000) and twice in Japan as fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, JSPS (1998, University of Tsukuba and 2007, Kyushu University). In 2006, Prof. Knölker was elected as an Ordinary Member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and became a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Since 2011, he is the editor-in-chief of the series “The Alkaloids” (Academic Press, London). His research areas include the development of novel synthetic methodologies, organometallic chemistry, natural product synthesis, biomolecular chemistry, and medicinal chemistry. Professor Knölker’s group has published more than 280 scientific articles, reviews and patents.

Prof. Kouznetsov received his Ph.D. (1986) and D.Sc. (1994) degrees in Chemistry from Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (Moscow) under guidance of Prof. N.S. Prostakov. He spent postdoctoral fellowship (1990–1992) with Prof. J.M. Barluenga in the University of Oviedo (Spain). From 1994, he is Professor in the Industrial University of Santander (Bucaramanga, Colombia). He has published more than 240 peer-reviewed publications (h=22, 2.260 citations) including 5 patents, 3 books and 7 book chapters. He received various awards in Pharmacology, Oncology and Phyto-pharmaceutical science. His current research activities focus on heterocyclic diversity-oriented synthesis, green synthetic methodologies, interface between chemistry and biology.

Kenneth Laali did his PhD work at the University of Manchester (R. N. Haszeldine and B. L. Booth). A Postdoctoral stint at King’s College London (V. Gold) was followed by research appointments in Strasbourg (J. Sommer), Amsterdam (H. Cerfontain), and at ETH-Zurich (H. Zollinger). In 1982 he joined G. A. Olah’s group at USC, and in 1985 began his independent career at Kent State University where he went through the ranks and became Full Professor in 1996. In 2009 he moved to University of North Florida as Professor/Founding Chair of a New Chemistry Department, and in 2013 he was named UNF’s 4th Presidential Professor. He has authored/coauthored 210 peer-reviewed publications and four books.

Professor Lakshman obtained the Ph.D. degree from the University of Oklahoma and then completed postdoctoral work at the US National Institutes of Health. After serving a short stint in industry, he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of North Dakota and then moved to The City College of The City University of New York. He is currently Professor of Chemistry and he was Executive Officer for The City University of New York Ph.D. Program in Chemistry (2008–2011) with the responsibility of managing the multicampus Ph.D. program consortium.

Professor Lee obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. He did postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institution of Technology under the supervision of Prof. Barry Sharpless. Prof. Lee joined Baptist University in 1982 and advanced through the years to Chair Professorship. He was Head of Department of Chemistry for 10 years. His research interests are organic synthesis, analytical science and science education. Prof. Lee is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Hu Li is Professor of Center for R&D of Fine Chemicals, Guizhou University (GZU), China. Dr. Li stayed as a visiting student researcher at Technical University of Denmark, and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences prior to obtaining his Ph.D. from GZU. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Nanjing Agricultural University, and Tohoku University. His research focuses on the catalytic conversion of renewable and waste resources into chemicals and biofuels with functional materials. Dr. Li has published more than 10 patents and over 100 peer-reviewed papers on sustainable catalysis and green chemistry. Currently, He is Associate Editor of Current Green Chemistry and Frontiers in Energy Research, and Editorial Board Member of several international journals.

Dr. Chao-Jun Li is E. B. Eddy Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Green Chemistry and. He served as the Director of NSERC CREATE for Green Chemistry and the Co-Director of the FRQNT Centre for Green Chemistry and Catalysis (CCVC). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Chemical Society (ACS) and Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC). He has published ca 400 research articles, 6 books, given ca 400 plenary/keynote/invited lectures.

Dr. Li obtained his doctorate (Ph.D.) in Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology from University of Science and Technology of China in 2012. Then, he conducted postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Lei Liu at Tsinghua University. Currently, Dr. Li is an Associate Professor in Hefei University of Technology. He is interested in the chemical synthesis of post translational modified proteins and has published more than 40 scientific publications.

Rafael Luque is Deputy Head of Department from Dpt. Quimica Organica at Universidad de Cordoba, where he graduated in 2005. Prof. Luque has a significant experience on biomass and waste valorisation practises to materials, fuels and chemicals as well as nanoscale chemistry and green engineering, with over 270 published research articles, 3 patent applications and 8 edited books as well as numerous contributions to book chapters and invited, guest, keynote and plenary lectures in scientific events worldwide. Among recent awards, Rafael received the Marie Curie Prize from Instituto Andaluz de Quimica Fina in Spain (2011), the Green Talents award from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (2011), the TR35 Spain from Technology Review and MIT as one of the top 10 young entrepreneurs in Spain (2012) and very recently the RSC Environment, Sustainability and Energy Early Career Award (2013) from the Royal Society of Chemistry UK and the 2015 Lu Jiaxi lectureship from the College of Chemistry and Engineering in Xiamen University (China).

Prof Harri Lönnberg is the emeritus professor of organic chemistry of Turku University, Finland. He graduated in 1976 from the same university, having done postgraduate research on the kinetics and mechanisms of the hydrolysis of O-glycosidic bond under the supervision of Professor Alpo Kankaanperä. From 1976 to 1992 he held various research posts of the Academy of Finland and in 1992 he then became appointed as the professor of organic chemistry at the University of Turku. His current research interests include studies on the recognition and cleavage of RNA, targeting of therapeutic oligonucleotides by covalent conjugation, pro-drug strategies for nucleotide drugs, and novel paradigms for large scale synthesis of oligonucleotides. His previous studies have dealt with kinetics and mechanisms of the hydrolytic reactions of glycosides, nucleosides, nucleotides and oligonucleotides, solid-supported synthesis of various bioconjugates, fluorescence-based hybridization diagnostics and DNA–base modifications. He has published more than 300 scientific papers.

Prof. Malhotra obtained PhD from Seton Hall University, New Jersey and worked as a postdoctoral associate with Nobel Laureate Prof H.C. Brown at Purdue University. Subsequently, he joined the faculty of New Jersey Institute of Technology. In 2006, he joined the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, Maryland and established a new ‘Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry’ for the National Cancer Institute. In 2015, Dr. Malhotra joined the faculty of Stanford University. He has published >100 research articles, edited five books and holds five patents. In 2008, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.

José Carlos Menéndez holds a doctorate in Pharmacy from Universidad Complutense, Madrid, and carried out postdoctoral research at Imperial College, London under the supervisión of Prof. Steven V. Ley. He is Profesor Titular at the Organic and Medicinal Chemistry Department at UCM, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Aix-Marseille and Bologna Universities. His research in synthetic medicinal chemistry has been documented in about 250 research articles, reviews and chapters and 12 patents.

Dr. Mino obtained a doctorate (Ph. D.) in Chemistry from Doshisha University at Kyoto, Japan. Currently Dr. Mino is an Associate Professor in Chiba University at Chiba, Japan. His research interests focus on methodologies in catalytic asymmetric reactions and transition metal catalyzed reactions. He has published more than 100 scientific publications.

Eric Monflier received his Ph.D. degree in 1992 in the field of organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis. In 1992, he became Associate Professor at the University of Artois where he set up an independent research group working on aqueous phase organometallic catalysis. In 1995, he received his Habilitation and was promoted Professor in 1996. Eric Monflier's research is mainly focused on catalytic processes in non-conventional media (water, ionic liquids, deep eutectic solvents, supercritical CO2) and on carbonylation reactions. He played a key role in the development of eco-friendly cyclodextrin based catalytic processes.

Prof. Cristina Nativi is full professor of organic chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Univesity of Florence (Italy) and leader of the GlycoMim reaserch group. Prof. Nativi is member of the scientific committee of the start-up Giotto Biotech and of the Leonardo da Vinci (LdV) BioBank. She is chair of the Italian Meeting School on Carbohydrate Chemistry. Prof. Nativi has authored more than 120 manuscripts, 5 patents and 5 book chapters on saccharidic immunostimulants and anti-pathogens, on sugar-containing metallo-enzyme inhibitors and synthetic receptors for carbohydrates.

Dr. Mohammad Nikpassand obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Guilan University, Rasht, Iran, (2007). Currently he is an Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry and Head of the Chemistry Department at the Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran. He has numerous scientific publications in both English and Persian languages to his credit.

Prof. Dr. Onys’ko obtained his Ph.D. and Doctor of Chemical Sciences degrees from Institute of Organic Chemistry in Kyiv, Ukraine. Currently he is head of Heteroatom chemistry department in the Institute of Organic Chemistry, NAS of Ukraine. In 2014 he received State Award of Ukraine in Science and Technology. Prof. Onys’ko is co-author of more than 250 scientific publications, 3 chapters in chemistry books and 26 patents. He is a member of editorial boards of three chemical journals.

Albert Padwa was born in New York City. He received both his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University. Following an NSF postdoctoral position at the University of Wisconsin, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the Ohio State Univerasity. He moved to SUNY Buffalo as Associate Professor and was promoted to Professor in 1969. Since 1979, he was appointed the William Patterson Timmie Professor of Chemistry at Emory University. Al’s research interests have encompassed heterocyclic chemistry, alkaloid synthesis, tandem organometallic chemistry, and organic photochemistry. Among other awards, he has been the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship, an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, a Senior Award in Heterocyclic Chemistry from the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemists and an ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award. He served as the Chairman of the Organic Division of the ACS and as President of the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry. He is currently one of the Associate Editors of the Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Dr. Donald Poirier received his basic training in organic chemistry (PhD at Université Laval) and subsequently specialized in medicinal chemistry and endocrinology (Post-doctorat at CHUL - Research Center). Professor at Université Laval since 1991, he is interested in the development of inhibitors of steroidogenic enzymes and antitumor agents for the treatment of different diseases (breast, prostate and leukemia cancers, endometriosis, osteoporosis and Alzheimer). He is especially interested in different aspects of organic chemistry (synthesis, solid-phase synthesis, new methodologies, NMR analysis, etc.) and medicinal chemistry (SAR and QSAR analysis, molecular modeling, biological assays, etc.) related to steroid research. He has published 204 scientific publications and 9 patent applications.

Prof. Florence Popowycz got her PhD with Prof. Pierre Vogel in 2003 from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) after working on mannosidase inhibitors. After a 1-year post-doctoral stay in Geneva, she moved to Lyon where she holds now a full professor position at the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA). Her main interests are devoted to the development of new synthetic methodologies and its applications to heterocyclic scaffolds. Dr. Popowycz has authored more than 45 manuscripts and 6 patents.

Prof. Stephen Pyne received his BSc (Hons) at Adelaide University (top first class) and his PhD in 1979 from the Australian National University. After postdoctoral research fellowships at Purdue University (with P. Fuchs) and Harvard (with E.J. Corey) he was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Wollongong in 1985. In 1998 he was appointed to Professor. He won the A.J. Birch Medal for excellence in Organic Chemistry Research, from the Organic Division of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute in 2012 and the Archibald Ollé Prize for Chemical Literature in 2015. He has published more than 290 journal publications in the areas of natural product synthesis, asymmetric synthesis, natural products, fullerene and medicinal chemistry.

Dr. Stéphane Quideau obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994. He started his independent career at Texas Tech University. In 1999, he moved back to France at the University of Bordeaux. He was nominated junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) in 2004, and promoted Full Professor in 2005. He received the Acros Prize from the French Chemical Society, the Henri Labbé Prize from the French Academy of Sciences, and the Scientific Prize of the Groupe Polyphénols Society. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Recent Advances in Polyphenol Research (Wiley) and has published more than 120 scientific articles.

Dr. Thomas Rosenau received his doctorate from Dresden University of Technology, Germany, and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA, and his habilitation in organic chemistry from BOKU University Vienna, Austria. He is currently professor at BOKU University, holding the Chair of Wood, Pulp and Fiber Chemistry and heading the Division of Chemistry of Renewable Resources. He is also adjunct professor of fiber science at Shinshu University, Japan and adjunct professor at the Johan Gadolin Process Chemistry Center at Abo Akademi Turku, Finland. Dr. Rosenau has published more than 310 scientific articles, several book chapters, and 14 patents.

Vincent Rotello is the Goessmann Professor of Chemistry and University Distinguished Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He joined UMass in 1993, and received the NSF CAREER, Cottrell Scholar and Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar awards, the Sloan Fellowship, and the Langmuir Lectureship, the RSC Bioorganic Lecturer, and is a Fellow of the AAAS and the Royal Society of Chemistry (U.K.) He is also the Editor in Chief of Bioconjugate Chemistry. His research program focuses on engineering the interface between hard and soft materials, with > 480 peer-reviewed publications to date.

Dr. Shaik Anwar received his Master’s (2002) in Chemistry from the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India. He worked as a medicinal chemist (2002–2003) with Aurigene Discovery Technologies, Bangalore, India. He, then moved to the University of Hyderabad to pursue his Ph.D. with Prof. M. Periasamy working on amino alcohols, amino naphthols, and amines. He carried out his postdoctoral work with Prof. Kwunmin Chen for nearly four years (2009–2013) at NTNU working on the design and synthesis of Organcatalysts for applications in Monocyclic, Bicyclic, and Spirocyclic skeletons. Since 2013, he is working as a faculty in Chemistry Division at Vignan’s Foundation for Science, Technology, and Research-VFSTR, Vadlamudi, Guntur. His research interests include Asymmetric organocatalysis, Spirocycles, and Fused heterocycle synthesis.

Professor William Tam received his B.Sc. at the University of Hong Kong in 1990 and his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto (Canada) in 1995. He was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at the Imperial College (UK) and at Harvard University (USA). He joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) in 1998 and is currently a Full Professor. Professor Tam has received several awards in research and teaching, and has published four books and over 120 scientific publications.

Bela Torok (PhD, University of Szeged, 1995) completed his postdoctoral training (with George Olah) at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles He has held faculty appointments at Michigan Technological University and the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he is currently a Professor of Chemistry. He was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (with Richard Schrock) in 2011/12. His awards include the Young Scientist Award by the International Association of Catalysis Societies or the M.J. Collins Award. He has published over 170 papers and several book chapters and two books. His main research focus is on the design of new green chemistry processes for the synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Ramon Rios was born in 1974 in Barcelona. In 1996 he got his Bachelor Degree from University of Barcelona. In 2000 he obtained his PhD degree under the supervisión of Prof. Albert Moyano working in the study of the Pauson Khand reaction with electron deficient enynes. After several postdoc and research stages with Prof. Greg C. Fu (MIT, BOSTON, 1999), Prof. Patrick Walsh (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 2001), Prof. Benjamin List (Max Plank, Muelheim an der Ruhr, 2004-2006), Prof. Armando Córdova (University of Stockholm, Stockholm, 2006-2007) and Prof. Jose Mª Alvarez-Pez (University of Granada, Granada, 2007); and an industrial experience (J.C. Uriach S. A., Barcelona, 2002-2004). He was awarded with an ICREA Junior Academia in 2008. He began his independent career as a ICREA Researcher in 2008 in University of Barcelona. In august 2012 he became Reader in Organic Chemistry in the University of Southampton. He have been visiting Professor in Nagoya Institute of Technology (Japan) and Sungkyunkwan (SKKU) University (South Korea). He is author more than 115 papers, 13 chapters in chemical books, and 1 patent. He has edited a book about the Pauson-Khand reaction, and one about organocatalysis. In total he has more than 4600 citations and Idh = 41. He was also editor of Asymmetric Organocatalysis (Ed. Versitas).His research interests are the development of new asymmetric methodologies based in Organocatalysis and/or Organometallic Chemistry.

Dr. Caichao Wan received his doctoral degree from Northeast Forestry University in China. Now he takes up an academic position at Central South University of Forestry and Technology as an associate professor. His research interests include carbohydrates, supramolecular chemistry and sol-gel chemistry as well as electrochemistry and environmental sciences. Dr. C. Wan has published more than 50 scientific papers and 2 books. He is a member of editorial boards of two chemical journals and also serves as a reviewer for more than 30 journals (like Advanced Materials and Journal of Materials Chemistry A).

Professor Xi-Sheng Wang received his B.S. degree in 1999 from Jilin University and his Ph.D. degree in 2005 in Chemistry from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. After two and a half years’ postdoctoral research at Kyoto University and then three years’ research experience as a research associate at the Scripps Research Institute, he took his current position as a professor at the department of chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China in 2011. His research interest resides in the field of fluorine chemistry and transition-metal catalysis. He has published over 50 research papers in internationally renowned chemistry journals. He is an awardee of 2015 National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, 2014 Thieme Chemistry Journal Awards, 2013 “The Hundred-Talented Program” of CAS (2017 Excellence for Final Evaluation).

Lin Xu received his PhD degree in Chemistry from the East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST, Shanghai) in 2012 under the supervision of Professor Xuhong Qian. Subsequently, he joined the East China Normal University (ECNU, Shanghai) as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 2014. Since 2015, he started his postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge. His research interests focus mainly on the fluorescent sensing and supramolecular self-assembly.

Dr. Jinying Yuan received her B.Sc from the Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1987, and received her Ph.D. in the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, USTC in 2000. After two years postdoctoral research at the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, she joined the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University in 2002, where she became a full professor in 2011. Her research interests are focused on methodology of polymer synthesis, organic synthesis, and stimuli-responsive materials. She has published more than 120 scientific publications.

Dr. Zhan-Hui Zhang received his Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry at Nankai University, China. He stayed as a visiting researcher at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Presently, he is a professor at Hebei Normal University and head of a Research group for green chemistry. His current research interests include the development of new green solvents, new reagents, and catalysts in organic synthesis. He has published more than 100 scientific papers. Dr. Zhang has served as an Editorial Board Member of Arkivoc, Current Organocatalysis, and Current Organic Synthesis. As a reviewer, he has also served for more than 60 SCI journals and won the "Top peer reviewer" in 2018.

Fengzhi Zhang received his first degree at Lanzhou University, and Ph.D from the University of Nottingham. After several years post-doctoral work at Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, he then took up an academic position at Zhejiang University of Technology supported by “Zhejiang Provincial 1000-Talent Program”. His research interests include the electroorganic synthesis, hypervalent iodine chemistry, and their synthetic applications.

Dr. Zhdankin obtained his Ph.D. and Doctor of Chemical Sciences degrees from Moscow State University in Russia. He worked for several years in University of Utah as a senior research associate. Currently he is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Dr. Zhdankin has published more than 300 scientific papers and 5 books. He is an Associate Editor of Resource-Efficient Technologies (Elsevier), Scientific Editor of Arkivoc, and a member of editorial boards of four chemical journals.

Dr Guowei Deng received his Ph.D. at Technical Institute of Physical and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences(China)in2014, and now heis an Organic Chemistry Associate Professor in the College of Chemistry and Life Science, Institute of Functional Molecules, Chengdu Normal University. His research work mainly focus on the design and preparation of conjugated organic molecules, especially their application in the field of organic electro-optic materials and sensor. He has published over 40 papers in these field.

Dr. Rojalin Sahu currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. She has received her Master degree from Utkal University, Vanivihar and her PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.

Dr. Aniket P. Sarkate is presently working as an Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Technology, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. He has more than 10 years of research experience in synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry particularly in the synthesis and molecular modeling of molecules having biological and commercial importance. He has published more than 70 research papers in the international journals. He has received research grant from the different funding agencies like UGC, RGSTC and AICTE. He is currently working on the different targets in anticancer and antimicrobial drug discovery.

Prof. Dr. Zeynel Seferoğlu is an Organic Chemistry Professor in the department of Chemistry, Gazi University, Ankara-Turkey. He has about 20 years of academic experience of research in Organic Chemistry, DNA-small molecules interactions, the design and synthesis of organic functional fluorescence dyes/molecules and their applications as DNA probes, solar cells, OLEDs, NLO materials, molecular switches and sensors. He has also interest and experties in the synthesis of polycyclic aromatic compounds and their applications for cancer treatment. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers and edited one book chapter.

Dr. Wani graduated from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India in 2013. Worked as an FCT- postdoctoral fellow with Prof. A. Sobral group from 2013-2016 in the field of organic and medicinal chemistry at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. In fall 2016, Dr. Wani moved to the University of Texas, USA and worked with Dr. K. Tsuchikama’s group at Texas Therapeutics Institute, Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, UTHealth on the development of non-traditional antimicrobial agents and strategies combating multi-drug resistance. In fall 2017, Dr. Wani was appointed as assistant professor in Chemistry Department, Faculty of Sciences, University of Jeddah, KSA, where he is currently working. Dr. Wani continues to work on the development of new molecules and novel strategies to combat microbial infections at the interface of chemistry and biology. He has many international publications, book chapters, and a book, besides many international and national honours and awards to his credit. Dr. Wani is working hard to advance the organic and medicinal chemistry field with new questions and pertinent issues of 21 st century.