Professor Jan-E. Bäckvall, Stockholm University, Sweden, celebrates his 70th birthday on December 7th, 2017.
His research ranges from palladium-catalyzed oxidative carbocyclizations, dynamic kinetic resolution, and organometallic transformations on to directed evolution.

Jan-Erling Bäckvall, born 1947 in Malung, Sweden, obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, in 1975. After postdoctoral work from 1975 to 1976 with K. B. Sharpless, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA, he joined the chemistry faculty at the Royal Institute of Technology in 1976. He was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at Uppsala University, Sweden, in 1986. In 1997, Bäckvall moved to Stockholm University, where he is currently Professor of Organic Chemistry.

Bäckvall is chairman of the Editorial Board of Chemistry – A European Journal and a member of many editorial advisory boards (e.g., Journal of the American Chemical Society, Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry, Tetrahedron, and ChemCatChem). On the occasion of his birthday, Chemistry – A European Journal made all papers Bäckvall published in the journal free to read until January 2018.

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Selected Publications

• J. L. Henry, D. Posevins, B. Yang, Y. Qiu, J. E. Bäckvall, Highly Selective Olefin-Assisted Pd(II)-Catalyzed Oxidative Alkynylation of Enallenes, Chem. Eur. J. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201701654
• B. Yang, Y. Qiu, T. Jiang, W. D. Wulff, X. Yin, C. Zhu, J. E. Bäckvall, Enantioselective Palladium-Catalyzed Carbonylative Carbocyclization of Enallenes via Cross-Dehydrogenative Coupling with Terminal Alkynes: Efficient Construction of α-Chirality of Ketones, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 4535. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201612385
• Nicolas Gigant, François Quintin, Jan-E. Bäckvall, Preparation of Tetrasubstituted Olefins Using Mono or Double Aerobic Direct C–H Functionalization Strategies: Importance of Steric Effects, J. Org. Chem. 2015, 80, 2796–2803. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.joc.5b00148
• Oscar Verho, Anuja Nagendiran, Eric V. Johnston, Cheuk-wai Tai, Jan-E. Bäckvall, Nanopalladium on Amino-Functionalized Mesocellular Foam: An Efficient Catalyst for Suzuki Reactions and Transfer Hydrogenations, ChemCatChem 2013, 5, 612–618. https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.201200247
• J. E. Bäckvall, Modern Oxidation Methods, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany 2010. ISBN: 9783527323203
• Krisztián Bogár, Belén Martín-Matute, Jan-E Bäckvall, Large-scale ruthenium- and enzyme-catalyzed dynamic kinetic resolution of (rac)-1-phenylethanol, Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2007, 3, 50. https://doi.org/10.1186/1860-5397-3-50
• Julio Piera, Andreas Persson, Xisco Caldentey, Jan-E. Bäckvall, Water as Nucleophile in Palladium-Catalyzed Oxidative Carbohydroxylation of Allene-Substituted Conjugated Dienes, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 14120–14121. https://doi.org/10.1021/ja075488j
• José Daniel Carballeira, Patrik Krumlinde, Marco Bocola, Andreas Vogel, Manfred T. Reetz, Jan-E. Bäckvall, Directed evolution and axial chirality: optimization of the enantioselectivity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa lipase towards the kinetic resolution of a racemic allene, Chem.Commun. 2007. https://doi.org/10.1039/b700849j
• Ann-Britt L. Fransson, Yongmei Xu, Karin Leijondahl, Jan-E. Bäckvall, Enzymatic Resolution, Desymmetrization, and Dynamic Kinetic Asymmetric Transformation of 1,3-Cycloalkanediols, J. Org. Chem. 2006, 71, 6309–6316. https://doi.org/10.1021/jo060002n
• Attila Horváth, Jessica Benner, Jan-E. Bäckvall, Enantiocontrolled Synthesis of 3-Pyrrolines from α-Amino Allenes, Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2004, 15, 3240–3243. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.200400211
• J. Bergman, J. E. Bäckvall, Base-Induced Reactions of 3-(α-Haloacyl)Indoles), Tetrahedron Lett. 1973, 14, 2899. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-4039(01)96276-8
• J. Bergman, J. E. Bäckvall, J. O. Lindström, Synthesis and Reactions of some 3-(2-Haloacyl)Iindoles, Tetrahedron 1973, 29, 971. https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-4020(73)80047-X

 

Also of Interest

• Interview: Catalysis, Enzymes, and Transition Metals in Organic Chemistry,
  Vera Koester, Jan-Erling Bäckvall,
  ChemViews Mag. 2015.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/chemv.201500054
  Jan-Erling Bäckvall, Stockholm University, speaks about his research and trends in organic chemistry
• Special Birthday Issue: On the occasion of Jan Bäckvall’s 70th birthday all papers he published in Chemistry – A European Journal are available free to read until January 2018.
• Professor Bäckvall’s webpage