Synthetic Applications of Constrained Rings

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Hyun-Joon Ha

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Department of Chemistry

Professor Hyun-Joon Ha obtained his BS degree in Chemistry with honors in 1982 from Seoul National University, and his PhD in 1987 from Brown University under the direction of Professor David E. Cane. After a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, he returned to Korea in 1988, and accepted the position of senior research scientist at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). He was involved in the chemical approach for the development of new biologically active agrochemicals. In 1991, he joined the faculty of the Chemistry Department at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and is now a full department professor. During his tenure, he took university positions such as a Dean of General Affairs (2004–2006) and Dean of Natural Science (2013–2014). In 1993, he carried out research at the Chemistry Department of Cambridge University, U.K., as a short-term visiting scholar of Emmanuel College. Academically, he served as an organizer of numerous international symposia including ICOS-17, 11-ACC, IUPAC 46th General Assembly, and the 43rd IUPAC Congress, etc. He was elected as the 51st president of the Korean Chemical Society and served a two-year term from 2018–2019. His research interests include the exploitation of new methods in organic synthesis, aziridines and heterocycles, imines and iminium ions, asymmetric synthesis of biologically active molecules, and lipase-mediated reactions. He has been involved in aziridine chemistry with the industrial production of chiral aziridine-2-carboxylates, from which many nitrogen-containing cyclic and acyclic molecules are prepared in optically pure forms. He has recently become interested in medicinal chemistry for drug discovery, process development for pharmaceuticals, and the design and synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals. He has been a member of the Korean and American Chemical Societies and a fellow of IUPAC. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). Currently, he serves as an associate editor of Asian J. Org. Chem. from Wiley VCH. Prof. Ha has been awarded several honors, some of which are the ACP Lectureship Award, (ICCEOCA-6) from the Asian Core Program (ACP; 2011), the Sigma-Aldrich (Korea) Award (2012), and the Outstanding Research Award in Organic Chemistry (KCS; 2015). He holds several patents and has published over 170 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals and two books, including the recently edited “Synthe

Collection Overview

Organic molecules bearing constrained rings, including three-membered rings such as cyclopropane, oxirane, and aziridine, have high ring strain energy, which makes these molecules highly reactive with the release of their energy. Their synthetic potential results in ring-opening and transformations with release of stained energy in association with various internal or external atoms or molecules to diversify the parent molecules. However, the synthesis of constrained rings is relatively difficult due to their instability. However, recently developed methods enable us to have those small ring compounds as starting materials or advanced synthetic intermediates in a regio- and stereoselective manner.

This collection aims at the synthesis and utilization of organic molecules consisted of constrained rings, including three-membered rings in a regio- and stereoselective manner. More specifically, the articles in this collection features the synthesis of advanced synthetic targets in highly efficient manner, with control of reactivities and stereoselectivities and their efficient transformation toward valuable molecules.