Prof. Zhang Xumu, Chinese American expert in organic chemistry, visited the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, on December 25, 2009. He delivered a lecture entitled “Recent Advance in Asymmetric Catalytic Reactions”. The lecture covered a wide range of areas, such as the controlled synthesis of the new series of organometallic complex, basic research on asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation, its industrial exploration and its application in pharmaceutical and so on.

Prof. Zhang graduated from the Department of Chemistry, Stanford University with doctor degree in 1992 and did postdoctoral research in the same university from 1992 to 1994. Currently, he is the life-long professor of organic chemistry of the Pennsylvania State University and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He has published more than 300 papers and obtained about 30 American and international patents.

Prof. Zhang has put forward the concept of “chiral toolbox” for the first time and was the first scholar from the mainland of China to win the Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society. He is also the founder and chief technical director of the Chiral Quest Inc., member of the International Committee on Green Chemistry, visiting professor of the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS, and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, Changjiang Scholar Professor at Wuhan University, supervisor of doctoral students of Wuhan University, head of the overseas cooperative group of homogeneous catalysis of the CAS and sponsor of the research plan of chiral technology of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.