Ken Tanaka
Biography:
Ken Tanaka obtained his B.Sc. (1990), M.Sc. (1993), and Ph.D. (1998) from the University of Tokyo. He joined Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation in 1993 and had been working as a post-doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1999–2001). He moved to the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology as an associate professor in 2002 and was promoted to a full professor in 2009. In 2014, he moved to the Tokyo Institute of Technology as a full professor. His research is focused on novel transition-metal-catalyzed reactions and their application to organic synthesis. He received the Mukaiyama Award from the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan in 2012 and the CSJ Award for Creative Work from the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) in 2017. He has served on the International Advisory Board of the European Journal of Organic Chemistry since 2021.
Keynote presentation:
Gold-Catalyzed Cascade Reactions
Gold-catalyzed sequential cyclization reactions of C-C multiple bonds are useful transformations for the synthesis of complex polycyclic hydrocarbons from simple diynes and enynes. We have developed various gold-catalyzed cascade reactions based on the sequential formation of the same or different active species. In this talk, I will present the recent results of our research group in this field.