Prof. Igor Larrosa from the University of Manchester, UK, was invited to give a speech entitled “Transition metal catalyzed C-H activation: reactivity, selectivity control and late-stage functionalization” at Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter(FJIRSM) on July 17, 2018. The intensive study of the cyclometallated ruthenium catalyst enabling late-stage directed arylation of pharmaceuticals was introduced in his speech, and hot discussion was conducted with related researchers at FJIRSM.

Igor was born in Barcelona, Spain. He received his undergraduate education at the Universitat de Barcelona (1999) where he also underwent M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies with Felix Urpi and Pere Romea. A fellowship from Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia supported three month's research in Professor Erick M. Carreira's laboratories at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. With a second fellowship he started postdoctoral research in Professor Anthony G. M. Barrett's group at Imperial College London, UK, were he was appointed group leader. In September 2007 he started his independent career as a Lecturer in synthetic organic chemistry at Queen Mary University of London, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2011 and to Reader in Catalysis in 2012. In 2014 Igor moved to the University of Manchester to take up the position of Professor of Organic Chemistry.