HKU Researcher Professor Zhongxing HUANG was awarded China's Excellent Young Scientists Fund 2023

Prof. Zhongxing HUANG

Department of Chemistry

Prof. Zhongxing HUANG, a member of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), has been honored with the 2023 Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau). This prestigious award is bestowed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, operating under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). The Excellent Young Scientists Fund is an esteemed annual grant that aims to provide support to exceptional young scientists. This grant enables recipients to further their research endeavors and advance in their chosen areas of expertise.

This year, only 25 projects out of the entire Hong Kong and Macau region were selected to receive funding, making the competition remarkably competitive and exclusive. Dr. Huang's project focuses on asymmetric catalysis using a new class of dinuclear zinc catalysts. Over three years, his team achieved desymmetric hydrosilylation of mono- and disubstituted malonic esters, accessing all-carbon quaternary stereocenters, tertiary alkyl halides, tertiary alcohols, and other functionalized motifs with high stereoselectivity. Further examination of new catalysts and reaction paradigms will be carried out to investigate the asymmetric transformations of more dicarbonyl and active methylene compounds. These projects include the synthesis of chiral amino acids via asymmetric decarboxylation, desymmetric transformations of malononitrile, and construction of axial chirality and resolution methods using the dinuclear zinc catalysts. We applaud Dr. Huang's accomplishments and eagerly anticipate the further scientific breakthroughs that will arise from his work.

More information can be found at this website: https://www.miragenews.com/eight-hku-scientists-win-chinas-2023-excellent-1083285/