Prix Schläfli Chemistry Lecture 2026 EPFL

Aromatic compounds play a central role in organic synthesis, yet strategies for cleaving inert aromatic carbon-carbon bonds are still underdeveloped due to the unfavourable energetics of aromaticity disruption.[1] While for non-aromatic structures, alkene metathesis has become an indispensable tool for versatile carbon-carbon bond-forming and breaking reactions, methods to open aromatic compounds remained challenging and elusive.[2] In this lecture, the first examples of aromatic ring-opening metathesis will be discussed, demonstrating its feasibility and generality in the cleavage of a diverse range of aromatic rings, including tetraphene, naphthalene, indole, benzofuran and phenanthrenes. Furthermore, highly atroposelective transformations (up to > 99 : 1 e.r.) achieved with chiral Schrock-Hoveyda molybdenum alkylidene catalysts[3] will be disclosed.

The second part of the lecture is dedicated to the development of novel strained small-ring heterocyclic systems and exploration of their unique properties.

[1] C. Huck, D. Sarlah, Chem 2020, 6, 1589.

[2] A. Poater, M. C. D'Alterio, G. Talarico, R. Chauvin, Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2020, 30, 4743.

[3] A. S. Hock, R. R. Schrock, A. H. Hoveyda, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 16373.

[4] V. Hutskalova, C. Sparr, Nature 2025, 638, 697.