Tobias
Tobias was born in 1975 in Lübeck, Germany. He received his undergraduate education in Braunschweig, Germany, Bordeaux, France, Lausanne, Switzerland, and Stanford, US, and received a master of science from Braunschweig University in 1999. He has done undergraduate research with Prof. Barry M. Trost at Stanford, obtained his PhD working with Prof. Erick M. Carreira at ETH Zurich in 2004, and was a postdoc with Prof. Robert H. Grubbs at Caltech. In 2006, Tobias was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard and promoted to Associate Professor in 2010. His research program is based on synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry. The Ritter lab currently focuses on fluorination chemistry for late-stage functionalization of complex natural and unnatural products and bimetallic transition metal redox catalysis.
EDUCATION
2004 Ph.D. Organic Chemistry, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
1999 M.S. Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany
APPOINTMENT
2015–present Director at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany
2015 – 2017 Visiting Professor, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
2012 – 2015 Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
2010 – 2012 Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
2006 – 2010 Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
2011–present Scientific Founder, Scifluor, MA, USA
2010–present Chemist, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, MA USA
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry; development of new synthetic methods based on transition metal catalysis; synthesis of biologically active natural and unnatural products.
AWARDS
2013 RSC Fluorine Chemistry Prize | 2013
Klung-Wilhelmy-Weberbank Preis, Berlin, Germany | 2012
Popular Science Brilliant 10 Award | 2011
Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award | 2011
BASF Catalysis Award | 2011
Roslyn Abramson Award for Excellence in Teaching Undergraduates | 2010
AstraZeneca Excellence in Science Award | 2010
Amgen Young Investigator Award | 2010
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship | 2010
NSF Career Award | 2010–2015
Air Force Young Investigator Award | 2010–2013
Eli Lilly Grantee Award | 2010–2012
Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award | 2009
Massachusetts Life Science Center Young Investigator Award | 2009–2011
Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research | 2008–2011
Milton Fund Award, Harvard Medical School | 2008
Thieme Chemistry Journals Award | 2007
Postdoctoral Fellowship (DAAD) | 2004–2006
Kekulé-Scholarship of the Fond der Chemischen Industie e.V. | 2000–2002
Winterfeld Award – Towards the Total Synthesis of Teretifolione B | 2000
Fellowship of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation | 1998–1999
Scholarship of the Swiss National Science Foundation | 1997–1998
Scholarship of the European Union | 1997
Scholarship of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation | 1996–1999
INVITED LECTURES
2016
Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH R&D LGCR / Chemistry FF Frankfurt am Main, Germany | GSK External Lecture, GlaxoSmithKline Medicines Research Centre, Stevenage, UK | EFMC-ISMC 2016 XXIV EFMC, International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry, Manchester, UK | 57th GECO Conference Basque, France | Institute of Organic Chemistry RWTH Aachen University, Aachen 2016 | ECHC 2016 - XXVII European Colloquium on Heterocyclic Chemistry, 2016 | Actelion Chemistry Lectures, Basel, Switzerland 2016 |19. Steinheimer Gespräche des Fondsfür den Hochschullehrernachwuchs, Bad Homburg 2016 | Organic Chemistry Colloquium in SS 2016 Kaiserslautern 2016 | Colloquium Summer Semester from GDCh Ostverband Köln-Leverkusen, 2016 | Boehringer-Ingelheim, Ingelheim am Rhein 2016 | GDCh Lecture, University Duisburg-Essen 2016| Planck-Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Mülheim, | UCB Super Network Conference 2016 London| MPI Dortmund 2016 | Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim, | Max-Planck-Institut for Chemical Energy Conversion, Mülheim, | PAC Symposium, Leiden, Netherlands, 2016 | 9th CaRLa Winter School 2016 Lecture, Heidelberg, Germany | Heterocyclic and Synthesis Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry at the Institute of Cancer Research, Chelsea, London, 2016.
2015
Pacifichem 2015, Honolulu, USA | The Automn 2015 meeting of the French Chemical Society-Organic Chemistry division, Paris, France | IKCOC-13, Kyoto, Japan | DGCh Lecture, Bochum University, Germany | 5th Annual Symposium of organic Chemistry, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid “UAM” 2015 | Erdtman Lecture 2015, Sweden | BASF, Chicago, IL | UCSD, San Diego, CA | Northwestern University, Chicago, IL | University of Michigan | Wane State University, Detriot, MI | Argonne Labs, Argonne, IL | University of Colorado, Boulder, CO | Floriday Heterocyclic Conference, Speaker, Gainesville, Florida, USA | ACS Winter Fluorine Conference, Presenter
2014
China/Europe| Nankai University, China | Peking University, China | SIOC | WuXi | Shanghai | Roche Pharmaceuticals, Basel Switzerland | Novartis, Basel Switzerland, | UCB, Brussels, Belgium | Firmenich, Geneva, Switzerland |Philadelphia organic Chemistry Club| ICOM 2015, Fukuoma, Saporo, Hokkaido Univeversity, Japan | Gordon research Conference Speaker/Discussion Leader, Salve regina University, USA | Brock University, St Catherines, Ontairo, Canada| McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontairo, Canada |University of Souther California | Brock University | University of Utah, Salt Lake city, UT | Swiss Chem Society, Frybourg Switzerland | Syngenta, Switzerland | Brussels, Belgium | University of British Columbian
2013
Nagoya University, Japan | University of Tokyo, Jap
an | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY | University of Ottawa, Canada | MIT | ACS National Meeting, New Orleans | University of Texas Austin | University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas | Stanford | Sloan Kettering, New York | 15th Brazilian Meeting on Organic Synthesis, Sao Paulo
2012
Yale University | University of Oregon | Columbia University, New York | University of California, San Francisco | The Padwa Lecture, Columbia University | Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis | ACS National Meeting, San Diego | National RSC Meeting, Warick, UK | ANORCQ Conference, Caen, France | École Nationale Supérieure de Chemie de Paris, Paris, France | DuPont, Wilmington | GlaxoSmithKline, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina | University of Toronto | ISACS 7, Edinburgh, UK | Belgian Organic Synthesis | Symposium, Leuven, Belgium | Dreyfus Foundation, New York | Meyers Symposium, Colorodo State University | Klung-Wilhemly-Weberbank Lecture, Berlin, Germany | Merck, Rahway
2011
Winter Flourine Conference, St. Pete Beach | Dow Chemicals, Midland | Merck, Boston | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany | Sanofi–Aventis, Frankfurt, Germany | Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim, Germany | University of Munster, Germany | Hoffman–La Roche, Nutley | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign | ACS National Meeting, Anaheim | Genentech, South San Francisco | Theravance, South San Francisco | University of California, Berkeley | RSC Organic Symposium, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom | Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom | University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom | GlaxoSmithKline, Stevenage, United Kingdom | Syngenta, Bracknell, Berkshire | University of Minnesota | California Institute of Technology | Annual Graduate Student Symposium, University of Buffalo | High Throughput Chemistry & Chemical Biology Gordon Research Conference | Heterocycles Gordon Research Conference | BASF Catalysis Award, BASF, Germany | Organic Reactions and Processes Gordon Research Conference | Natural Products Gordon Research Conference | Medicinal Chemistry Gordon Research Conference | University of California, Los Angeles, Crump Institute | ACS National Meeting, Denver | Dow Corning, Midland, Michigan | GlaxoSmithKline, Philadelphia | Princeton ACS Meeting, Princeton | Harvard University | Boston College | New Jersey Biotechnology Chemistry Consortium | Northeastern University, Boston | ETH Zürich, Switzerland
2010
University of California, Irvine | University of California, Los Angeles | Boston University, Novartis Lecture | Dartmouth University | Bristol Myers Squibb, Wallingford | Bayer AG, Berlin, Germany | Bayer AG, Wuppertal, Germany | Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany | ACS National Meeting, San Francisco | Johnson & Johnson, La Jolla | University of California, San Diego | The Scripps Research Institute | Amgen, San Francisco | University of Wisconsin–Madison, Eli Lilly Young Investigator Lecture | Merck, West Point | Merck, Rahway | Northeastern Regional Meeting, American Chemical Society | Weizmann Institute, Israel | Tel Aviv University | Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Mordecai and Rivka Rubin Lecture | Pfizer, Groton | ICIQ Summer School, Tarragona | Gordon Research Conference, Stereochemistry | American Chemical Society, National Meeting, Boston | Bayer CropScience | ORGCHEM-Weimar | AstraZeneca, Waltham | University of California, Santa Barbara | Amgen, Thousand Oaks | McGill University, Canada | Pacifichem
2009
University of Puerto Rico | University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth | Sepracor | Bristol-Myers Squibb | NSF workshop on Organic Synthesis and Natural Products Chemistry | Rising Organic Chemists in Catalysis (ROCCAT) | Amgen, Cambridge | Eli Lilly and Company | Abbott Labs | University of Pennsylvania | Princeton University | ETH, Lausanne
2008
Gordon Research Conference: Heterocycles | Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center