Niankai Fu, a postdoctoral researcher in organic chemistry, has been recognized for his “transformative” work by the New York Academy of Sciences and the Blavatnik Family Foundation as a finalist for the 2018 Blavatnik Regional Awards. Fu will receive a $10,000 prize and be honored with the other winners and finalists at the New York Academy of Sciences’ 15th Annual Gala in New York City on November 5.
The award committee cited Fu’s pioneering use of electroorganic synthesis - the synthesis of organic molecules in an electrochemical cell - to develop new reaction methodology and provide new synthetic routes to bioactive natural products & other value-added products.
“Electroorganic synthesis offers many benefits over traditional reagent-based transformations and is an emerging field in modern organic chemistry,” said Fu. “I aim to spend my career innovating in electroorganic synthesis and hope to inspire more research efforts in this area so that this technique could be employed more often in the synthetic community."
