| Prof Kim Sung Gak
Visiting Professor
Nanyang Visiting Professor
Division of Chemistry & Biological Chemistry
School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences
College of Science
Email: SGKIM@ntu.edu.sg
Phone: (+65)65927765
Office: SPMS-CBC-05-01 |
| Education |
- PhD McGill University 1976
- BS Seoul National University 1969
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| Biography |
Professor Sunggak Kim studied chemistry at Seoul National Univ., where he obtained his B. S. in 1969. After he had served in Korean Army for two and half years, he went to Canada in 1972 to receive his graduate training at McGill Univ. in Montreal, where he did his Ph.D research with Prof. G. Just. He moved to Harvard in 1976, where he spent three years for postdoctral research with Prof. E. J. Corey. In 1979, he returned to Korea to join the chemistry faculty at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science. He was promoted to Professor of Chemistry at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 1986 and served as Dean of College of Natural Sciences at KAIST in 1994-1995. After his early retirement from KAIST, he joined Nanyang Technological Univ.(NTU) in Singapore in 2009.
Prof. Kim's research interests focus on the design and the development of new reactions and strategies with general utility in organic synthesis. Although he continues his interest in new synthetic methodologies utilizing carbenes, cations, and anions, his major research emphasis in recent years has been on the development of new free radical reactions. His achievements in this area included 1,n-rearrangements of Group IV elements, radical cyclizations, and free radical acylations. He is the author of 226 publications and one book, and has delivered over 100 invited lectures at universities and international conferences.
He has been a member of the Korean Chemical Society (KCS) and of the American Chemical Society. He was a vice president of academic affairs of KCS in 1998. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Bull. Korean Chem. Soc. (2006-2008) and is a member of Advisory Board of Synlett, Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn, and Chem. Soc. Rev. His major scientific awards include the KCS Award for Young Chemists (1985), the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies Award (1991), the Korea Science Prize in Chemistry (1994), and the KAIST Research Award (1997). |
| Research Interests |
Our research interests have been focused on the design and the development of new organic reactions, reagents, and strategies with general utility in organic synthesis and include four topics in recent years.
Free radical reactions have rapidly emerged as powerful tools for carbon-carbon bond formation. Our long-standing interests in this area had led to develop (i) new types of radical rearrangements, (ii) novel radical cyclizations, and (iii) the application of radical reactions to natural product synthesis. Our studies on the indirect radical acylation approach provided several new directions in inter-molecular radical reactions. Our group has been also working on the development of non-stannane- mediated radical reactions based on a-scission of alkylsulfonyl radicals. This project is exceedingly important for the application of radical reactions to the industrial process.
Enantioselective organic reactions using organophos-phonates and organosulfonates templates have been studied and are synthetically useful for the Friedel-Crafts reaction, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, and radical-mediated conjugate addition reaction.
Anionic cyclization of N-aziridinylimines is another area of chemistry currently under investigation. This fundamentally novel anionic approach is based on the previously developed radical-mediated consecutive carbon-carbon bond formation in our group and turned out to be very effective for the construction of quaternary carbon centers. This strategy is directed to develop highly efficient synthesis of natural products .
Transition metal-mediated organic reactions prove to be exceedingly powerful not only for the carbon-carbon bond formation but also for a variety of functional group transformations. Our studies on organometallic reactions aim to develop new synthetic methodologies using readily available cheap metal salts by controlling the reactivities via the modification of ligands. |
| Research Grant |
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| Current Projects |
- Studies on New Radical Reactions
| Selected Publications | - Meng, X. Kim, S. (2011). W(C))5 and Mo(CO)5-catalyzed cyclization of propargyl amide derivatives. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 9, 4429.
- C. H. Cho, S. Kim. (2005). b-Elimination of a Phosphonate Group from an Alkoxyl Radical-Intramolecular Acylation Using Acylphosphonate Derivatives as Carbonyl Group Acceptors. Can. J. Chem., 83, 917.
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