The 7th Mechanism and Synthesis Forum (MAS Forum) was successfully held on July 18^th at the Tsinghua Chemistry Building. The MAS Forum is a series of academic lectures established by the Center of Basic Molecular Science (CBMS), Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University. Prof. Chao-Jun Li from McGill University gave a presentation entitled “Mechanistic Enroute Towards Cross-Dehydrogenative Couplings of Alkanes”.

Prof. Sanzhong Luo delivered the opening speech. Profs. Jin-Pei Cheng, Yan-Mei Li, Bi-Jie Li, Ming-Tian Zhang and other faculties attended the lecture.

Prof. Chao-Jun Li was awarded the Mechanism and Synthesis Forum medal byProf. Jin-Pei Cheng, the founder of CBMS, at the beginning of the talk.

The construction of C-C bond is one of the most important research fields in organic synthesis. The cross-dehydrogenative coupling reaction (CDC) developed by Prof. Li and his group provides an efficient, environmentally friendly, and atom-economic way for the construction of C-C bond. Prof. Li gave an introduction of the research work of his group focused on CDC in recent years. The presentation was very inspiring and the audience has learnt a lot.

After the presentation, Prof. Li had a friendly conversation with the audiences. Many faculties and students actively expressed their ideas. The presentation ended successfully in applause.

Chao-Jun Li is professor (E.B. Eddy Chair) of Organic Chemistry at McGill University, Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Green/Organic Chemistry and Co-Director at FQRNT Centre for Green Chemistry and Catalysis. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Science), the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC), the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the European Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the US National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award (1997), a United States Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2001), and the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Award (2010). He has published >460 peer-reviewed articles and 7 books. His research has been cited widely in the literature (>42,000 times, h-index=100) and was featured as one of the top 20 Canadian Chemistry Discoveries in the past century by Canadian Chemical News in 2007. He was on the list of the Thomson Reuter’s Highly Cited Scientists (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017).