G.richard Stephenson

Biography

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School Positions:

Professor of Synthetic & Pharmaceutical Chemistry; Chair, Chemistry Organic MSc Examination Board; Chair, CHE Industrial Advisory Panel; CHE Employability Director, CHE NSS Champion; and a member of the CHE Special Circumstances Panel, CHE Promotions Committee, CHE Athena Swan Committee and CHE Executive.

Download Richard's CV here (PDF format)

The Stephenson group works in the field of synthetic organic chemistry and methodologies for enantioselective synthesis. Our targets are functional molecules with a variety of applications including functionalised calix[n]arenes and multi-cavitands as novel receptors and switchable NLOphores, helicenes for use in Two Photon Circular Dichroism (TPCD), bioactive compounds targeting neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and as potential anti-cancer leads by the inhibition of ubiquitin ligase, and novel reagents for cellulose derivatisation for biocomposite applications. Current projects in the group also focus on the concept of double/multi-kinetic resolution (multi-KR), and asymmetric ‘click’ chemistry, and the applications of these new concepts in the synthesis of tetrathia[7]helicenes (multi-KR) and hexaazahelicenes (our ‘click’ helicenes). International collaborations play a significant part in our work; with photophysics experts at the University of Leuven for nonlinear optics (NLO) and TPCD, with laboratories in subSaharan Africa in the ‘Open Lab Africa’ project, and with three research groups at the South University of Science and Technology of China (SUSTech)  as part of the UEA-SUSTech Split-Site PhD Programme.

Dr G. Richard Stephenson, FRSC, CChem, SFHEA, started his career as a Research Fellow at the Australian National University (Canberra) and a Senior Research Fellow at Girton College, Cambridge, before moving to UEA, first as a Royal Society University Research Fellow, and then as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader. In 2000, Stephenson was Visiting Professor at the Université de Caen; in 2001, Invited Professor at Université Paris VI; and in 2003, he was Invited Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain. Stephenson held a Visiting Fellowship at the Australian National University in 2006, and was UEA’s lead investigator in the ‘Innovative Synthesis: Chemistry and Entrepreneurship’ (IS:CE-chem) and ‘Academy-Industry Chemistry-Channel’ (AIcc) EU Interreg IVA projects (2009-2015), which together have contributed 2.5 million euros of ERDF funding to the Organic Sector in the School of Chemistry and supported 15 PhD students in the Science Faculty at UEA. Stephenson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Selected Publications

Stephenson, G. Richard; Doulcet, Julien.
Kinetic resolutions of tetrathia[7]helicene derivatives by (–)-sparteine mediated enantioselective lithiation.
Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 18677-18689
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201502958

Stephenson, G. Richard; Doulcet, Julien.
Novel Asymmetric Formylation of Aromatic Compounds: Enantioselective Synthesis of Formyl 7,8-Dipropyltetrathia[7]helicenes.
Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 13431-13436)
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201501627

Bew, Sean P.; Stephenson, G. Richard; Rouden, Jacques; Ashford, Polly-Anna; Hiatt-Gipson, Glyn D.: Bourane, Manuel; Charvet, Agathe; Dalstein, Virginie M. D.; Jauseau, Raphael; Hiatt-Gipson, Glyn D.; Martinez-Lozano, Luis A
Bioinspired, Base- & Metal-free, Mild, Decarboxylative Aldol Activation of Malonic Acid Half Thioesters Under Phase-Transfer Reaction Conditions.
Adv. Synth. Catal. 2015, 357, 1245-1257
DOI: 10.1002/adsc.201400915

Bew, Sean P.; Stephenson, G. Richard; Rouden, Jacques; Godemert, I.; Seylani, Haseena; Martinez-Lozano, Luis A.
Gaining an insight into reactivity differences between malonic acid half thioester (MATH) and malonic acid half oxyesters (MAHO).
Chem. Eur. J. 2017, 23, 4557–4569
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201605148

Tinson, Ryan A. J.; Hughes, David L.; Ward, Leanne; Stephenson, G. Richard

Unusual Nucleophilic Addition of Grignard Reagents in the Synthesis of 4-Amino-pyrimidines.

ACS Omega, 2018, 3, 8937-8944

DOI:  0.1021/acsomega.8b01137

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