María de Lourdes Guadalupe Sansores Paredes wins the KNCV-Backerprijs 2024
The KNCV-Backer Prize is awarded annually to the best PhD thesis in the field of organic chemistry that was defended in the Netherlands. The Committee consisted of Marthe Walvoort (Chair), Bauke Albada, Ronald Tennebroek, Rienk Eelkema and Peter Fodran, experts in a wide range of disciplines within the organic chemistry field.
In total, 16 theses were submitted this year. They were judged based on the scientific quality and their contributions to the field, the impact of the research on science and society, and the clarity and structure of the thesis. The jury was impressed by the quality of all theses. After extensive deliberations, the jury has decided to award the 2024 KNCV Backer prize to Maria Sansores-Paredes for her PhD titled ‘Metal-ligand cooperativity at nickel p-complexes for the stabilization of reactive intermediates and hydrogenationcatalysis’. The study was conducted at the University of Utrecht under the guidance of Profs. Marc-Etienne Moret and Bert Klein Gebbink.
Hydrogenation of alkenes and alkynes is one of the reactions taught in the introductory organic chemistry courses. The textbook catalyst for this transformation is the Lindlar catalyst, which is a poisoned dispersion of palladium on an inorganic support material. In her dissertation, Dr. Sansores-Paredes developed a nickel-based catalyst supported by a pincer ligand that enables this reaction. Broadly speaking, the replacement of precious rare transition metals with their more common congeners is highly sought after due to its implication in sustainability.
The catalyst that Dr. Sansores-Paredes developed utilises an underexplored mode of activation of molecular hydrogen in which the metal cooperates with the ligand. While this mode lends the title to the thesis, Dr. Sansores-Paredes demonstrated in her thesis that this cooperation can be explored in other transformations as well.
The thesis of Dr. Sansores-Paredes reads like a great novel. In six experimental research chapters, she unfolds the various aspects of Ni-pincer complexes. The jury was especially impressed by her work on the nickel-catalyzed Z-selective semihydrogenation of alkynes.
The scientific quality of the thesis is further reflected by several high-impact publications including one in Angew Chem Int Ed and one in Nature Chemistry. The findings of each chapter are thoroughly supported by NMR studies, computational chemistry, X-ray crystallography and, where applicable, kinetic measurements. Furthermore, the thesis is also visually pleasing with consistent use of colours, well-crafted text and high-quality schemes and figures.
The outstanding quality of the synthetic work, the clearly written thesis, and the impact the results will have on the field of catalytic hydrogenations in organic chemistry convinced the jury to declare this thesis as the winner of the 2024 KNCV-Backer prize.
