Maurizio Benaglia

was born in Bergamo in 1966.

In 1991 he obtained his Laurea in chemistry, at the University of Milan, Italy, working on the stereoselective 1,3 dipolar cycloadditions of nitrones to chiral allyl ethers.
In 1994 he completed his doctoral studies on the stereoselective synthesis of β-lactams through condensation of imines to titanium, tin and β-boron enolates of pyridylthioesters, under the supervision of prof. Mauro Cinquini, at the University of Milan.
In 1995, he was the recipient of a N.A.T.O./CNR postdoctoral fellowship and joined the group of prof. Jay. S. Siegel, at the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department of UCSD, University of California, San Diego where he worked for two years on the stereocontrolled synthesis of supramolecular structures, like double helicates, racks, and grids, useful intermediates for the construction of not trivial topological structures.
In 1997 he moved back to Milan, where he worked as postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Organic and Industrial Chemistry, University of Milan, developing the stereoselective synthesis of polymer supported small organic molecules.
In 2000 he became assistant professor at Department of Organic and Industrial Chemistry, University of Milan and in 2006 associate professor at the University of Milan.
In 2006 he was promoted to Associate Professor at the University of Milano.
After obtaining the habilitation in 2013, he was promoted in 2015 to Full Professor in Organic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, University of Milano, Italy.

Awards

In 2001 he won the "Giacomo Ciamician" Medal of the Italian Chemical Society.
He has been author of one 50 most cited papers in 2003-2006 years (awarded by Elsevier).
He has been author of one 50 most cited papers in 2006-2009 years (awarded by Elsevier).
He has been author of one of the 20 most cited papers in Organic Letters in 2006-2009 years (awarded by ACS, highlighted in Synfacts 2007).
He has been author of an ACS Editor Choice article (Org. Process Res. Dev. 2016, 20, 2-25 [Link]).
He has been author of a paper highlighted in Synfacts 2018 (Synthesis. 2018, [Link]).
In 2014 he has won the award “Innovation in research”, given by National Consortium of Italian University C.I.N.M.P.I.S.
In 2019 he was awarded with the “PIERO PINO” MEDAL by the Organic Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society.

He has been invited plenary speaker at al 9th Meeting on Stereochemistry (Praga, 2001), 5th Spanish Italian Symposium on Organic Chemistry (Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 2004), “Organocatalysis Symposium” held by Ernst Schering Foundation (Berlin, Germany, 2007), German-Italian-Austrian-French Symposium (Goslar, Germany, 2011), Bilateral Symposium Italy-China, (Padova, Italy, 2014), International Translational Chemistry Conference (Caparica, Lisbon, Portugal, 2015), GIC (Gruppo Interdivisionale Catalisi) (Bressanone 2016), 20th ESOC (European Symposium on Organic Chemistry) (Cologne, Germany July 2017), The First International Conference on Symmetry (Barcellona, Spain, September 2017), FROST (Frontier Organic Synthesis and Technologies) (Budapest, Hungary, September 2017), PBS International Conference - (Barcellona, Spain, December 2018), Flow Chemistry Europe Conference - (Cambridge, UK, February 2019, WCCE Int. Conference - (Bruxelles, Belgium, June 2019)

He has been invited speaker in different International Schools, like the Summer School on Organic Synthesis "A. Corbella" e WISPOC (Winter School of Physical Organci Chemistry).
He has been invited participant to the European Network COST Action: ORCA-Organocatalysis CM0905 (2009-2014)

He has been the Director of the international school (2014-2017): ISOS – International Summer School on Organic Synthesis "A. Corbella", held every year in June at Gargnano (BS), Italy.

He is Co-founder and Director of the international school (2017-present) ISPROCHEM – International School of Process Chemistry held every year in May in Palazzo Feltrinelli, Gargnano (BS), Italy.

He has been Editor of the Wiley books "Recoverable and recyclable catalysts" (2009), "Catalyst Immobilization: Methods and Applications" (2020) and editor of the book "Organocatalysis - Stereoselective Reactions and Applications in Organic Synthesis” (DeGruyter, 2021).
He is member of the editorial board of “Molecules” (open access, MDPI journals) and Guest editor of two special Issues on Immobilized Catalysts and on Enabling Technologies – Flow chemistry.

Since 2014, he is member of the Advisory Board of the start up DexLeChem (Berlin, Germany).
He is author of more than 220 publications on scientific international journals, including four patents, twelve review articles and ten book chapters H Index : 45 .

Teaching activities

Course: Organic Chemistry I for the Bachelor degree of Industrial Chemistry
Lab class of organic chemistry II for the Bachelor degree of Industrial Chemistry
Course: Catalytic Methodologies in Organic Chemistry for the Master degree in Chemical Sciences and for Industrial Chemistry
Courses for the Doctorate School in Chemical Science and the Doctorate Course in Industrial Chemistry
Course: literature seminars for the Doctorate School in Chemical Science and the Doctorate Course in Industrial Chemistry

He has been tutor or supervisor of eleven PhD thesis (and other five currently going), more than 90 thesis for bachelor and Master degrees in chemistry or industrial chemistry.

Maurizio Benaglia is the Coordinator of the Master in Process Chemistry applied to Acrive Pharmaceutical Ingredients, organized by the Department of Chemistry of the Universtà degli Studi di Milano.

Funding

  • Coordinator of the project REEMIX 2021-2023 (Recycling of Rare Earth Elements recovered by E-waste) financed by Regione Lombardia (Regional HUB to support the transition towards circular economy)
  • Coordinator of the MSCA 2018 (Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions) ITN-EID (European Industrial Doctorate) project TECHNOTRAIN (784.500 euro budget) (2018-2022)
  • National Coordinator of the project PRIN 2017 "Unlocking Sustainable Technologies Through Nature-Inspired Solvents - NATUREChem" (607.700 euro budget (2019-2021)
  • Grant by Cariplo Foundation: "Biodegradable polymers with controlled macromolecular architecture as new polyfunctional agents for 19F MR imaging" 2011-2013 budget: 410.000 euro
  • Grant by Cariplo Foundation: "Multifunctional hybrid materials as novel chiral recyclable catalysts for one-pot, multi-step synthesis of structurally complex molecules" 2011-2014 budget: 350.000 euro
  • Grant by MIUR - FIRB "Futuro in Ricerca 2010 Multifunctional hybrid materials for the development of sustainable catalytic processes" 2012-2016 budget: 326.200 euro (with Alessandra Puglisi)
  • Unit coordinator of a Project financed by Regione Lombardia: "Semilavorati nutraceutici e tecnologici fermentati per il miglioramento nutrizionale e sensoriale di prodotti da forno tradizionali e gluten-freeԮ 2016 budget: 1.000.740 euro; 410.000 for University teams
  • Unit coordinator of a Project Young Researchers in Biomedical area financed by Cariplo Foundation: "In vivo and in vitro imaging of pro-thrombotic events in brain ischemic injury: focus on mannose-binding lectin and beta2 glycoprotein I". 2015 budget: 250.000 euro

Funding by:

  • Laboratori Alchemica: budget 20.000 (2015)
  • Wiz Chemicals: budget 20.000 (2014-2015)
  • Zach Systems: budget 80.000 euro (2012-2015)
  • ZaCh Systems: budget 40.000 euro (2011-2012)
  • Versalis (ENI polimeri): budget 20.000 euro (2012)
  • Ferrania Technologies: budget 60.000 euro (2010-2012)
  • Past collaboration (2003-2009) with Oxon, Sipcam and Dani Instruments.