17 November 2020
The Backer-KNCV Prize is awarded annually to the best PhD thesis in the field of organic chemistry defended in The Netherlands. The jury decided to award the 2019 Backer-KNCV Prize to Kananat Naksomboon for her PhD-thesis entitled ‘Bidentate ligand-promoted Palladium-catalyzed C-H olefination of aromatic compounds’. The study was conducted at the Synthetic Organic Chemistry Group at the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences under the guidance of Assoc. Prof. M.A. Fernández-Ibáñez.
Dr. Kananat Naksomboon obtained her PhD on 10th of October 2019 and her thesis describes new synthesis approaches for sulfur- and phosphor-containing ligands that in combination with palladium pre-catalyst species can form very effective catalysts for selectively functionalizing various aromatic molecules via C-H activation, opening up a wide range of possibilities for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and other fine chemicals. Kananat is currently a Researcher at NANOTEC in Thailand.
The Backer-KNCV Prize is awarded annually to the best PhD thesis in the field of organic chemistry that was defended in The Netherlands. Due to the Covid circumstances, the announcement of the prize has been severely delayed. The prize – first awarded in 1995 - comes with a donation of 2500 euros and the invitation to lecture on CHAINS (online this year).