This is who we are

Armando was born in 1979 in Campobasso, Italy.
In 2003, he graduated in industrial chemistry at the Università di Bologna – Alma Mater Studiorum (Italy). Following a fellowship in 2004, he pursued a PhD in chemistry at the Università di Bologna – Alma Mater Studiorum in asymmetric organocatalysis, under the supervision of Prof. Paolo Melchiorre and the direction of Prof. Giuseppe Bartoli. In 2006, he spent a 9-month stay working with Prof. Karl Anker Jørgensen at the “Center for Catalysis”, Århus University (Denmark).

In 2008, he moved to Edinburgh (UK) to join Prof. Dave Leigh as a postdoc and, in 2009, he won a Marie Curie Intra European fellowship (SupramolOrganocat ) to work in the same group on a project at the interface of organocatalysis, supramolecular chemistry, and molecular motors.

In 2011, he then joined pharma industry with Dr. Reddy’s (Cambridge, UK), developing new, innovative and cost-efficient processes for APIs, using cutting-edge chemistry, ranging from biocatalysis to chemocatalysis, from organocatalysis to flow chemistry. At Dr. Reddy’s, he was also responsible for external collaborations for the UK Cambridge site.

During his career, Armando was responsible for international relationships and board member of ADI – Association of PhD candidates and holders of Italy (2006-2008), board member of EURODOC – European Council of doctoral candidates and young researchers (2007-2008), member of the Society of Chemical Industry Young Chemists’ Panel (2012-2016), Cambridge Pint of Science coordinator (2014-2016), and was also lead scientist at Dovetailed (2016).

Armando eventually returned to academia and to Italy when he was appointed associate professor in organic chemistry at the Università degli Studi dell’Aquila on 1st September 2017.

Currently Editorial Board Member of Tetrahedron Green Chem and Catalysts.

Fabio was born in 1982 in Narni, Italy. He earned a B.Sc. in Industrial Chemistry in 2005 under the supervision of Prof. Rosini and Prof. Righi with a thesis entitled “Betti’s Amines: synthesis, characterization and study of some properties”. In 2007, he earned a M.Sc. in Products, Materials and Processes for Industrial Chemistry in the group of Prof. Bartoli under the supervision of Prof. Paolo Melchiorre with a thesis on Organocatalytic Asymmetric Addition to α,β-unsaturated ketones through iminium-ion activation”.

In 2008, he started his doctoral studies in the same group under the supervision of Prof. Giuseppe Bartoli and Prof. Paolo Melchiorre focusing on Asymmetric Organocatalysis. During his PhD, he spent 8 months in Prof. Dr Rueping Group at RWTH Aachen University working on the design and synthesis of new Brønsted acids. In 2011, he earned his PhD in Chemical Sciences with an organic chemistry thesis entitled “Asymmetric Aminocatalisys: a modern strategy for molecules, challenges and life”.

In 2011, Fabio started his first postdoc in Prof. Dr Benjamin List group at Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung, where he worked on Brønsted and Lewis acid based organocatalysis and on the synthesis of new metal-free motifs for achieving ppm catalyst loading transformations.
After a research stay as a Cariplo Fellow at Pavia University in the group of Prof. Zanoni, working on the merging of organocatalysis and metal-catalysis, he joined the group of Prof. Lutz Ackermann at Göttingen University focusing mainly on asymmetric C-H activation using catalytic amounts of 3d transition metal based catalysts. While working on this research field, he developed a new family of chiral Brønsted Acids able to enantioselectively induce the protodemetalation of Cobaltate intermediates on high oxidation state.

In July 2020, he was appointed as fixed-term researcher (RTDa) at the Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, working on organocatalytic eco-friendly transformations and C-H activation.