Jinbo Hu, was born in Cixi, Zhejiang province on February 9, 1973. He obtained his B.S. degree from Hangzhou University in 1994, and in 1997 he received his M.S. degree from Shanghai Institute of Metallurgy, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He did his Ph.D. work during 1997-2002 at the Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California (USC) in USA. Druing 2002-2005, he did his postdoctoral work at Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute in USC. He has been a Research Professor at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), CAS since early 2005. Currently, he serves as the Head of the CAS Key Laboratory of Organofluorine Chemistry at SIOC. He was selected in the“Hundreds-Talents program”of CAS in 2005, and evaluated as "A" (top 20%) three years later. His research interests are in selective fluorination methodologies and fluorinated materials, especially the unique fluorine effects in the organic chemical reactions as well as in the organofluorine materials. He has published more than 80 scientific papers and book chapters. His honors and awards include: NSFC Outstanding Young Scholar (2008); RSC Fluorine Prize (2009); Chinese Chemical Society Young Scholar Award (2007); Air Products Young Faculty Excellence Award (2005).
The Unique Fluorine Effects in Fluorinated Carbanion Chemistry and Their Applications
Organofluorine substances play crucial roles in many fields such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, functional materials and military-related applications. Currently, 25% of pharmaceuticals and 40% of agrochemicals in the global markets contain fluorine, and many high-tech materials also contain fluorine. Professor Jinbo Hu developed several new concepts, new reagents and reactions through the study of fluorinated reactive intermediates. His major research achievements include: (1) proposed the "negative fluorine effect" new viewpoint, based on which he studied the chemical reactions of fluorinated carbanions and developed several strategies to tackle the negative fluorine effect; (2) developed several novel organofluorine reagents and reactions, especially the efficient di-, monofluoromethylation as well as fluoroolefination reagents and reactions, which have been successfully used many times by others; (3) systematically studied the hard and soft nature of alpha-fluoro carbanions for the first time, and provided very useful guidance for the design and prediction of nucleophilic fluoroalkylation reactions--this work was praised by Professor Kenji Uneyama (a famous Japanese fluorine chemist) as "an important basic contribution to fluorine science". The whole research work includes 60 scientific publications and 10 patent applications. Professor Jinbo Hu was the recipient of "RSC Fluorine Prize" in 2009.
