The 603^rd meeting of the Sydney University Chemical Society will be held on Wednesday
13^th October in Le Fèvre Lecture Theatre 2 of the Chemistry Building on the campus of the University of Sydney. The speaker will be Prof. Lew Mander from the Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University who is the 2004 Cornforth lecturer and who will present a lecture entitled:

Enabling Strategies for the Assembly of Complex Polycyclic Natural Products

Prof. Lew Mander

Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University

The research interests of the Organic Synthesis Group in the Research School of Chemistry are concerned generally with methods and strategies for the stereo-controlled synthesis of complex polycyclic natural products with a special focus on the gibberellin family of plant bio-regulators. The targets of interest have all possessed four or more rings involving bridged and caged structures, often with several quaternary centres. Because of these structural features, syntheses tend to be linear and require a large number of steps. However, through the judicious choice of key reactions and strategies, we have found it to be possible, inter alia, to build in degrees of convergency that allow more practical approaches to the construction of such molecules. The lecture will provide illustrations of these strategies by describing the total syntheses of a number of compounds including gibberellic acid, harringtonolide and the Galbulimima alkaloids.

Wednesday 13^th October at 5:30pm

Le Fèvre Lecture Theatre 2

Refreshments from 5:00pm