Erik V. Van der Eycken is Full Professor Organic Chemistry and head of the Division Molecular Design & Synthesis, as well as head of the Laboratory for Organic & Microwave-Assisted Chemistry at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium. The main focus of his research is the investigation of the application of microwave irradiation in different domains of organic synthesis, i.e. synthesis of bioactive natural product analogues and heterocyclic molecules applying transition metal-catalyzed reactions (i.a. homogeneous and heterogeneous (nanoparticles) gold catalysis), C-H activation, multicomponent reactions (MCRs), post-MCR modifications, and solid phase organic synthesis. Also Flow Chemistry and Photoredox Chemistry have been recently addressed. He is presently author of >290 scientific manuscripts in peer reviewed journals and books and has an H-index of 44. Until now 32 PhD-students performed their research under his guidance. Dr. Upendra K. Sharma received his master degree from Guru Nanak Dev University in 2004 and his PhD degree (2011) in organic chemistry under the supervision of Dr. Arun K. Sinha at CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, India. Thereafter, he worked as Assistant Professor at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Jalandhar, India. Later on, he joined the research group of Prof. Dr. Erik Van der Eycken, LOMAC, University of Leuven, Belgium as a postdoctoral fellow and until now has published more than 50 research articles in reputed international journals as well as co-edited a Springer series book on Flow Chemistry of Heterocycles. Recently, he has been permanently appointed as Research Expert in LOMAC, Department of Chemistry, KU Leuven. His research interests include the development of new synthetic methods for biologically relevant molecules employing modern methods of synthesis viz. flow chemistry, MCRs, photoredox catalysis and transition metal-catalyzed C-H functionalizations.
