2010 is already 1 month old, I realized that the last entry was months ago. I was probably too busy, too comfortable or simply too lazy to update the webpage. Anyway, many things have happened since the last entry and therefore this update will be rather “concentrated”.
Let’s start with some old “news” on group members:
Sometimes [...]

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On 30th June 2009, the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY has been conferred upon my very first graduate student Han Yuan. During her candidature, she has always worked very hard and demonstrated an excellent attitude towards science, which has already led to 10 publications (!), and more are in preparation. She has been a great [...]

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Some results of our former honours students Wu Jiang, Chew Ying Xia and Lee Li Juan have been published or just accepted by Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, Inorganica Chimica Acta and Organometallics. In addition, Basu’s 3rd paper has just been published in European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry in a special NHC issue, while his 4th [...]

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It is lunar new year and lots of water has flown down the Kallang River since the last entry. Many things have happened as well. A new semester has started and heavy teaching duties have kicked in. Last year, I spent the whole of November at the National Taiwan University as a visitor (see previous [...]

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In November 2008 I visited the chemistry department of the National Taiwan University (NTU) as part of our NUS-NTU interdepartmental exchange program that started in early 2007. After touching down at the Taoyuan International Airport on the 3rd of November, I was welcomed by administrative officer Emilie Hui-Chen Hsu and a young and talented postdoctoral [...]

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Our paper “Solvent-controlled selective Synthesis of a trans-configured Benzimidazoline-2-ylidene Palladium(II) Complex and Investigations of its Heck-type catalytic activity” (J. Organomet. Chem. 2005, 690, 3854-3860) has been recognised as a ‘top 50′ most cited article from Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, as published 2005-2008.
In addition, Basu’s and Han Yuan’s papers below ranked 3rd (January-March 08) and 2nd [...]

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A new academic year has started and with it comes the usual yearly change in our research team. Our 5 honours students have successfullly graduated and, except for Hong Lee, all have left the group to venture into new areas. Hong Lee is pursueing his PhD degree as a member of our the group. All [...]

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Our Merlion collaborative project with Prof Christophe Darcel from “Sciences Chimiques de Rennes” is the only chemistry project selected for the year 2008 by the French Embassy in Singapore. With this award both teams will receive funding for overseas travels to setup a collaboration.

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Han Yuan’s 7th paper entitled “Ag(I) and Pd(II) Complexes of a 1,3-Dibenzhydryl Substituted Benzannulated N-Heterocyclic Carbene: Unexpected Rearrangement, Structures and Catalytic Studies” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Organometallic Chemistry and is already available online. It features Desmond as co-author as well.

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Students who want to join our team for their final year project, should ask themselves the following questions:
1. Am I really interested in synthetic chemistry, which combines the classical areas of organic and inorganic chemistry?
2. Am I willing to work hard in the lab and learn new things to achieve the objective of the project?
3. [...]

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