Ashraf Ghanem

Talk Title: Chirality post COVID

Professor Ashraf Ghanem studied Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart, Germany where he conducted his master’s degree (MSc) with Prof. Franz Effenberger. In 1999, he joined the group of Prof. Rolf D. Schmid and Uwe Bornscheuer at the Institute for Technical Biochemistry, University of Stuttgart, Germany. In 2000, he was awarded a Scholarship from the German Research Council (DFG) to conduct his PhD with Prof. Volker Schurig at the University of Tuebingen, Germany. In 2002, he received his PhD and joined the group of Prof. Paul Muller at the University of Geneva, Switzerland as post doctoral fellow. In 2004, he was appointed Scientist and Head of the Biomedicinal Chemistry Unit, KFSHRC, Saudi Arabia. In 2008, he was appointed Pfizer research fellow/Lecturer at ACROSS with Prof. Paul Haddad, School of Chemistry, University of Tasmania. In 2010, he was awarded the Australian Endeavor and the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Awards at the Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan with Prof. Nobuo Tanaka and Prof. Tohru Ikegami. In 2011 he returned to Australia and was appointed AProf. at the University of Canberra. In 2012, he received the Discovery translation award from ANU connect and the ACT gov. for developing high potential commercial projects in Australia. In 2014, he received the Australia Endeavor Research Award at NIMS, Tsukuba, Japan. In 2015, he commercialized a dirthodium complex (patent 2014903620) sold worldwide by STREM USA. In 2016, He was awarded the innovation connection grant followed by $7M CRC-P on dry blood spot from the Australian government. In 2018, he was awarded Australia Award in Chemistry (RACI Citation) for the advancement of the profession. In 2020, he was awarded the Theo Murphy grant award from the Australian Academy of Science to organize the 2021 JSPSAAA (Catalysing Australia–Japan science and innovation (eventsair.com)) and his name appeared on the list of top 2% in his field worldwide for three consecutive years 2021-2023. He is a Fellow and past president of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) ACT, President of the Japan Society for Promotion of Science in Australia (JSPSAAA) and the Head of the Chirality group in Canberra (www.chiralitygroup.com). Ghanem’s research interests lie in the area of asymmetric and enantioselective catalysis and analysis.  His work on lipase, dirhodium catalysis and chiral analysis has been well cited worldwide. He has more than 100 international publications. He teaches into Organic Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry at UC and has strong passion to promote science in schools. He is well known with his Crystal growing competition and the Slime experiment inspiring kids to think Science.