On 9 April 2010, at the invitation of Prof. Hong Liu, Prof. Solochonok from the University of Oklahoma visited Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica for academic exchanges and delivered an academic lecture titled ‘Self-Disproportionation of Enantiomers: A Manifesto’. The lecture focused on the progress and challenges in self-disproportionation of enantiomers. He firstly presented his new perception of ‘chiral annihilation’ as totally natural and general phenomenon leading to homochirality in certain areas of second-generation galaxies which can support the Earth-like form. He also demonstrated the recent breakthroughs his research team made in optical purification by AP-chromatography and sublimation.

The lecture intrigued a heated discussion among Prof. Soloshonok and the attendees. ‘I am highly impressed by SIMM and the great achievements it has made. This is one of my best academic visits in China, the academic thinking capability and English proficiency of students at SIMM are fantastic’, said Prof. Soloshonok. Finally, he expressed his willingness to cooperate with Prof Liu’s group.

Vadim A. Soloshonok is professor of Chemistry at the University of Oklahoma and is currently serving as Past-Chair of the Division of Fluorine Chemistry of ACS. His research interests focus on the asymmetric synthesis of chiral amino acids via Ni(II) complexes, and the phenomenon of self-disproportionation of enantiomers.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  (Source: Professor Hong Liu’ group)