About Prof. Tsui

Biosketch

Gavin Chit Tsui (徐哲) received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in Canada with Prof. Mark Lautens, O.C. He then joined the research group of Prof. Benjamin List (Nobel laureate) at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Germany as a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow. Gavin was a recipient of the Humboldt-Bayer Postdoctoral Fellowship (2013), Thieme Chemistry Journals Award (2016) and Asian Core Program Lectureship Awards (Taiwan 2019, Japan 2018, Korea 2017, Singapore 2017). In 2015, he started his independent career at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) as an Assistant Professor. He has been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure since 2022.

Professional positions

  • 2022-present: Associate Professor with tenure, Department of Chemistry, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Hong Kong
  • 2015-2022: Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Hong Kong

Education and training

  • 2013-2015: Postdoc (with Prof. Benjamin List, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021), Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Germany
  • 2011: Visiting scholar (with Prof. Tamio Hayashi), Kyoto University, Japan
  • 2008-2013: Ph.D. (with Prof. Mark Lautens, Officer of the Order of Canada), University of Toronto, Canada
  • 2006-2008: Research Chemist in pharmaceutical companies, Merck & Co., Inc. and NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Canada
  • 2004-2006: M. Sc. (with Prof. William Tam), University of Guelph, Canada
  • 2000-2004: Honours B. Sc., University of Guelph, Canada

Honours and awards

  • ACP Lectureship Award (Korea 2017, Singapore 2017, Japan 2018, Taiwan 2019)
  • Thieme Chemistry Journals Award
  • Humboldt-Bayer Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers
  • Boehringer Ingelheim Award of Excellence in Organic or Bio-Organic Chemistry 
  • JSPS Summer Program Fellowship
  • Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship
  • The Society of Chemical Industry Student Merit Award 

Experiences

Teaching:
  • Synthetic Methods in Organic Chemistry (CUHK postgrad.)
  • Physical Organic Chemistry and Aromatics (CUHK undergrad. 3rd year) 
  • Basic Chemistry for Engineers (CUHK undergrad. 1st year)
  • Organic Chemistry I (PNU, Korea, undergrad. 2nd year)
  • Chemical Science Course – Applied Chemistry Adv. I (Osaka University, postgrad.)
Lecturer for summer courses:
  • Science Academy for Young Talent (CUHK)
  • Summer Institute (CUHK)
  • HK SciFest (HK Science Museum)
  • The 12th Lau Oi Wah Memorial Science Lecture Series (CUHK)
  • Lectures on Modern Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry)
  • How Nobel Prizes are Won (CUHK)
Others:
  • Outreach program with local secondary school
  • Guest appearances on TV programs: History Channel (Canada) and Lokalzeit (Germany)
  • Synfacts and Organic Synthesis contributor (Toronto)
  • Science fair judge (Super Expo-Sciences Bell, Quebec)

Invited lectures, conference contributions, visiting professorship, editorial, advisory board

Conferences:
  • 23rd International Symposium on Fluorine Chemistry (23rd ISFC), Quebec, Canada (2023) – invited
  • 16th International Symposium for Chinese Organic Chemists (ISCOC-16), Beijing (postponed to 2023) – Invited
  • 8th Asian Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ACCC8), Organometallic Symposium, 2022, Taipei/virtual – invited
  • 15th International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia (ICCEOCA 15) (2022 virtual), Hong Kong – invited
  • Pacifichem 2020, Hawaii, USA (2021 virtual) – invited
  • XXIX International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry, Shanghai, China – invited
  • 5th International Conference on Organometallics and Catalysis, Hong Kong (2022 virtual) – invited
  • 14th International Symposium on Organic Reactions, Yokohama, Japan (2020) – invited
  • 9th Lingnan Organic Chemistry Conference, Guangzhou, China (2019) – invited
  • 14th International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia, Niseko, Japan (2019) – invited
  • 9th Junior International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia, Busan, South Korea (2019) – invited
  • 27th International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry Congress, Kyoto, Japan (2019)
  • Gordon Research Conference on Heterocyclic Compounds 2019, Newport, USA
  • 102nd Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, Quebec, Canada – invited
  • International Conference on Fluorine Chemistry ’19 Himeji, Himeji, Japan – invited
  • 2nd National Organic Radical Chemistry Symposium of China, SUSTech, Shenzhen, China – invited
  • 2nd Manchester-Shanghai-Hong Kong Trilateral Symposium on Chemistry Frontiers, CUHK, Hong Kong – invited
  • 18th Tateshina Conference on Organic Chemistry, Nagano, Japan – invited
  • 14th International Kyoto Conference on New Aspects of Organic Chemistry (IKCOC-14), Kyoto, Japan
  • 13th International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia (ICCEOCA-13), Bangkok, Thailand – invited
  • 15th International Symposium for Chinese Organic Chemists (ISCOC-15), Taipei, Taiwan – Invited
  • 15th National Fluorine Chemistry Conference (中国化学会第十五届全国氟化学会议), Shanghai, China – Keynote
  • XXII International Conference on Organic Synthesis (ICOS), Florence, Italy 
  • 22nd International Symposium on Fluorine Chemistry (ISFC), Oxford, UK 
  • 16th Belgian Organic Synthesis Symposium (BOSS), Brussels, Belgium
  • The 4th International Conference on Organometallics and Catalysis (OM&Cat), Taipei, Taiwan
  • The 101th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, Edmonton, Canada
  • ​​Asian Core Program: “ICCEOCA-12/ARNCEOCA-3”, Xi’an, China – invited
  • HK-SIOC Symposium (沪港合成化学前沿论坛及香港科技青年座谈会), Shanghai, China.
  • ​​The 16th International Meeting on Boron Chemistry (IMEBORON), Hong Kong – invited
  • The 19th IUPAC International Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis (OMCOS), Jeju, Korea 
  • The 100th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, Toronto, Canada 
  • The 14th International Symposium for Chinese Organic Chemists (ISCOC), Singapore – invited
  • Asian Core Program: “ICCEOCA-11/ARNCEOCA-2”, KAIST, Daejeon, Korea – invited
  • ​The 3rd International Conference on Organometallics and Catalysis, Seoul, Korea
  • Asian Core Program: “ICCEOCA-10/ARNCEOCA-1”, Kaohsiung, Taiwan – invited
  • 16th Tateshina Conference on Organic Chemistry, Nagano, Japan – invited
Invited lectures/visits:
  • University of Freiburg, Germany (2023)
  • University of Basel, Switzerland (2023)
  • University of Strasbourg/LIMA Laboratory (Mulhouse and Strasbourg), France (2023)
  • Department of Applied Chemistry, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan (2019)
  • Department of Materials Engineering Science, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan (2019)
  • Department of Nanopharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Life Science and Applied Chemistry, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan (2019)
  • Department of Material Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan (2019)
  • Department of Chemistry, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan (2019)
  • Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea.
  • Pusan National University, Busan, Korea.
  • University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
  • Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
  • East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
  • Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
  • South University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) of China, Shenzhen, China.
  • POSTECH, Pohang, Korea.
  • Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea.
  • Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
  • Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
  • National University of Singapore, Singapore.
  • Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP), Lanzhou, China.
  • Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (中国科学院上海有机化学研究所), Shanghai, China.
  • University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
  • Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
  • Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
  • Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
Visiting Professor/Lecturer:
  • Osaka University, Osaka, Japan (2019)
  • Pusan National University, Busan, Korea (2016)
Editorial/Advisory Board:

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