Blog

Seminar: Prof. Ryan Shenvi

2017.11.14

Yesterday, Dr. Ryan Shenvi (hereinafter Ryan) of the US SCRIPPS Research Institute was invited to preside over the lecture at Waseda University.

His visit to Japan is actually to attend an international conference “ISONIS-11” at Awaji Island sponsored by the new academic field “Middle Molecular Strategy”. So, it is the first time for him to do a lecture in Japan. Ryan was the first graduate of Baran Lab and I was in my fifth year of post-doctoral year. He is one of the best students in the Baran laboratory. After serving as a postdoctoral fellow at Corey Laboratories, he was an Associate professor at the Scripps Research Institute and an Associate professor since 2014.

I went to picked him up at Handa Airport on the day and we were reunited for the first time in 10 years.

On that day, after eating ramen, we went drinking together. The next day we had a discussion from morning till lunch. After that, we had research discussion with students and other teachers.

After the lecture, he talked about reaction development by talking about natural product synthesis on Awaji Island. His talk concerning cobalt’s HAT reaction that has been conducted recently attracted everyone’s attentions. Iwasaki-san, the first Japanese postdoctoral researcher from Shenvi Laboratory and other Universities attended the lecture and the room gradually become full. This time he had lectures at Waseda University, Osaka University, and Awaji Island but will return to Japan next year because he has received the Lectureship Award from the Synthetic Organic Chemistry Society of Japan. Ryan, Thank you for the wonderful talk!