Ahmad Masarwa
Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer), Institute of Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
During his M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies, which were performed with Prof. Ilan Marek at the Technion, his research was focused on kinetic resolution, sigma-tropic rearrangements, carbometalation and the selective-cleavage of small, strained materials as a new entry to all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers. As an illustrative example, they have applied these methodologies to the preparation of the simplest, unnatural, enantiomerically enriched, saturated hydrocarbon possessing a quaternary stereogenic center ((S)-[2H1, 2H2, 2H3]-neopentane). Masarwa was awarded the IUPAC-SOLVAY International Award for Young Chemists and the ICS-Israel Chemical Society Prize for his Ph.D. thesis.
After his Ph.D. studies, Masarwa joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in 2013 as a Rothschild and VATAT postdoctoral scholar under the supervision of Prof. Richmond Sarpong. He had worked on the application of metal-catalyzed selective C–C/ C–H bond activations of carvone-derived pinene scaffolds. This methodology can be used to access enantiopure natural product cores, such as those found in phomactin A and suaveolindol, as well as anticancer compounds in the taxoid family.
Ahmad completed his postdoctoral stay in October 2015. After this time, he started as a visiting scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In July 2016, Masarwa started his tenure-track faculty position as an Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer) at the Institute of Chemistry of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Ahmad Masarwa Research Group
Organic and Organometallic Chemistry, Synthetic Organic Methodology Development, Chirality & Stereochemistry
Institute of Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
https://il.linkedin.com/in/ahmad-masarwa-b07a9886
Ahmad Masarwa
Ahmad Masarwa was born and grew up in Taibe, Israel. Then he moved to Haifa where he completed his undergraduate studies at the Technion- Israel Institute of Technology in Chemistry in 2005 (Cum lauda). In 2005 he joined the research group of Professor Marek as a M.Sc (Cum lauda) working towards the Enantioselective Preparation of Chiral Alkylidenecyclopropanes. In 2008, Ahmad started his PhD studies on the Selective Metal Mediated Carbon-Carbon Bond Cleavage of Strained Compounds: A New Approach to Enantiomerically Enriched All-Carbon Quaternary Stereocenters under the supervision of Professor Ilan Marek. During his studies at the Technion, Ahmad received several awards: e.g. Excellence in Teaching (Szego Prize for Excellent Instructor 2009 and for 2010), Excellence in studies and research (Jacobs Fellowship for Ph.D. students 2010-2011), Excellence in studies and research (Schulich fellowship and Prize for Ph.D. students 2012-2013), Excellence in Teaching (Schulich Prize for excellence in teaching 2011) and the ICS prize for outstanding Ph.D student (awarded by the Israel Chemical society 2012). In addition, Ahmad was awarded the prestigious Rothschild Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2013-2014), awarded by the Rothschild foundation for a post-doctoral position at the University of California, Berkeley with Prof. Sarpong where he is working in research on the chemical synthesis of bioactive molecules by applying C-C functionalization and cascade reaction processes.
Contact Information
Email: ahmadm@berkeley.edu
Experience
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
https://scholars.huji.ac.il/masarwagroup
Postdoctoral Scholar
UC Berkeley
Ahmad
was a post-doc at the University of California, Berkeley with Prof.
Sarpong where he was working in research on the chemical synthesis of
bioactive molecules by applying C-C functionalization and cascade
reaction processes.
Education
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Chemistry
Presentations & talks
Papers and Posters Presented at International Meetings and Symposia:
Posters and Talks Presented at National Meetings and Symposia:
- Towards the Enantioselective Preparation of Chiral Alkylidenecyclopropanes. Samah Simaan, Ahmad Masarwa, Philipe Bertus and Ilan Marek.The 13th IUPAC International Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis, July 17-22, 2005, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Towards the Enantioselective Preparation of Heterosubstituted Chiral Alkylidenecyclopropanes. Ahmad Masarwa, Amnon Stanger and Ilan Marek. The14th IUPAC International Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis, August 2-6, 2007, Nara, Japan.
- Enantiomerically Pure Alkylidenecyclopropane Derivatives as a New Access to Cyclobutenes Possessing Quaternary Stereocenters. Ahmad Masarwa and Ilan Marek. The 12th European Symposium on Organic Reactivity (ESOR XII), September 6-11, 2009, Haifa, Israel.
- Zirconocene-Mediated Ring-Opening of Alkylidenecyclopropane Derivatives. Ahmad Masarwa and Ilan Marek. The 9th International Symposium on Carbanion Chemistry (ISCC-9). July 20-24, 2010, Florence, Italy.
- Selective Metal Mediated Carbon-Carbon Bond Cleavage of Strained Compounds: A New Approach to Enantiomerically Pure All-Carbon Quaternary Stereocenters. Ahmad Masarwa and Ilan Marek. The 13th Belgian Organic Synthesis Symposium (BOSS XIII), July 15-20, 2012, Leuven, Belgium.
- Selective Metal-Mediated C–C Bond Activation of Strained Compounds: Application to Challenging non-Natural Product Synthesis. Ahmad Masarwa*. Ph.D. Thesis Essay: IUPAC, 2014.
- The 2nd HUJI-IISC Joint meeting on Modern Chemistry. April 13th, 2016, at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, (Invited Oral presentation).
- The 70th-78th Meeting of the Israel Chemical Society, February, 2005-2013, Israel, nine Posters.
- The 2nd National Graduate Student Symposium in Organic Chemistry. Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, October 5, 2010, Negev, Israel, (Invited Oral presentation).
- The 78th Meeting of the Israel Chemical Society, February, 2013, Israel, (Invited Oral presentation).
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem, March, 2013, Israel. (Invited Oral presentation).
- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, November, 2015, Israel. (Invited Oral presentation).
- Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, November, 2015, Israel. (Invited Oral presentation).
- Weizmann Institute of Science, 2015, Israel. (Invited Oral presentation).
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem, December, 2015, Israel. (Invited Oral presentation).
- Tel-Aviv University, December, 2015, Israel. (Invited Oral presentation).
Honors and Awards
- 2014: The IUPAC-SOLVAY International Award for Young Chemists.
- 2013-2014: VATAT Postdoctoral Fellowship for Outstanding Postdoctoral Scholar. Awarded by The Israel Council for Higher Education.
- 2013: Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship, Awarded by The Rothschild foundation (Yad Hanadiv).
- 2012: The ICS Prize for being an Outstanding Ph.D. Student. Awarded by The Israel Chemical Society.
- 2012: Schulich Award for Excellence in Teaching.
- 2011-2012: Schulich Fellowship and Prize for being an Outstanding Ph.D. Student.
- 2010-2011: Jacobs Fellowship for being an Outstanding Ph.D. student.
- 2010: Sandor Szego award for being an Excellent Instructor.
- 2009-2011: Schulich Fellowship and Prize for being an Outstanding M.Sc. Student.
- 2009: Sandor Szego Prize for being an Excellent Instructor.
- 2006-2007: Jacobs fellowship for being an Outstanding M.Sc. student.
- 2005: Cum laude B.A. degree.
- 2004: Technion-President’s Excellence Distinction.
- 2003: Technion-Dean’s Excellence Distinction.
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Asst. Prof. Ahmad Masarwa
Ahmad with his nephew
