On the morning of April 26, 2025, at the invitation of School of Chemistry and Materials Science (SCCMS), Prof. Xinqiang Fang, Professor of Fujian Institute of Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences (FISM), gave an academic presentation titled “Challenges and Opportunities-Catalytic Transformations Based on Multi-Site Carbonyl Molecules” through an offline meeting (Room 226,  Huaxing Building). The presentation was attended by some faculty members, graduate students and undergraduates.

Mr. Fang Xinqiang, researcher, group leader and doctoral supervisor of Fujian Institute of Materials and Structures, Chinese Academy of Sciences, received his bachelor's degree from Department of Chemistry, Ludong University in 2002, master's degree from University of Science and Technology of China in 2005 (supervised by Academician Liu Youcheng), and doctoral degree from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009 (supervised by Research Fellow Li Chaozhong and Academician Liu Youcheng). In September 2013, he was awarded the “Hercynian Hundred Talent Program” as a senior researcher of the “Hercynian Institute of Science and Technology”. In September 2013, he was introduced to Fujian Institute of Materials and Structures, Chinese Academy of Sciences (FIMS) as a “Hundred Talents Program of Hercynian Academy”. In 2015, he was selected by the Ministry of Organization of the Communist Party of China (MOOC) for the Overseas High-Level Talents Program, in the same year, he was selected by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for the 100-Talents Program and the Fujian Province 100-Talents Program, and in 2023 he was selected by the Fujian Province for the Provincial High-Level Talents (Class A). He has published more than 70 papers in J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Nat. Commun. and ACS Catal. and has been invited to write a chapter of English monograph, and has presided over over more than 20 projects at national and provincial levels, etc. Currently, he serves as a member of the youth editorial board of Organic Chemistry in China and an editorial board member of Discover Chemistry, a journal of Nature Springer. He is currently serving as a young editorial board member of China Organic Chemistry and an editorial board member of Discover Chemistry under Nature Springer.

The transformation of carbonyl molecules is one of the core and cornerstones of organic synthetic chemistry, but the reaction of carbonyl molecules with multiple reaction sites faces difficulties such as selective modulation and development of new reaction modes, which limits the development of this field. In order to solve the above difficulties, our group has carried out in-depth research on the highly selective transformation of multi-site carbonyl molecules, and actively explored the new strategies, new systems and new modes, including: (1) systematic study of the highly regioselective kinetic splitting of 1,3-diketones, proposed the “group addition - kinetic splitting” strategy and solved the -Kinetic splitting problem. The study includes: (1) systematic research on the highly regioselective kinetic splitting of 1,3-diketones, proposed the strategy of “group addition - kinetic splitting” and solved the difficulties in the universal splitting of ketones and quaternary carbonyl molecules, and summarized the empirical law of ketone carbonyl activity order for the first time; (2) systematic study of the highly selective tandem cycloadditions and asymmetric transfer hydrides of 1,2-diketones, and set up the related research system; (3) developed several new research systems such as multi-location esters based on the rearrangement of ester molecules, polarity flipping, alkynyl-allyl substitution, and so on. allyl substitution, etc., of which alkyne-allyl substitution has become a current research hotspot; (4) the application of the above new reactions has realized the asymmetric synthesis of 22 natural products/drug molecules.

After the report, Prof. Fang Xinqiang had an in-depth discussion and exchanges with the related teachers and students, and gave detailed answers to the concerns of the online teachers and students, which benefited everyone a lot, and the report was a complete success.