Award of the “Hildegard, widow of Leonidas Zervas” Prize by the Academy of Athens to Dr. Konstantinos Voreakos and Dr. Angelos Lelis, PhD graduates of the Department of Chemistry, and Nikolaos Skoulikas, graduate of MSc Program in Organic Chemistry from the Department of Chemistry
29/12/2024
On Thursday, December 19, 2024, during the Ceremonial Session of the Academy of Athens, Dr. Konstantinos Voreakos, Dr. Angelos Lelis, and Nikolaos Skoulikas were honored with the “Hildegard, widow of Leonidas Zervas” Prize, which is awarded for the best original research work in the field of Organic Chemistry. The prize-winning research, conducted at the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry of the Department of Chemistry at NKUA, specifically within the research group of Prof. D. Georgiadis, was published in September 2023 in the high-impact scientific journal Organic Letters under the title: “Diastereoselective Synthesis of Phosphinic Dipeptide Isosteres: Domino Chirality Transfer during a Stereocontrolled P-Michael Reaction.” The article addresses the resolution of a long-standing synthetic challenge in the field of phosphinic peptides, a class of pharmaceutically valuable compounds with applications in the development of Zn metalloprotease inhibitors. Specifically, it proposes a practical methodology enabling the diastereoselective synthesis of pseudodipeptidic units, characterized by operational simplicity, scalability and availability of starting materials. For more information on the study, visit the link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.orglett.3c02335.
All three awardees hold degrees in Chemistry from the Department of Chemistry at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and are also graduates of the postgraduate program “Organic Synthesis and its Applications in Chemical Industry.” Dr. Angelos Lelis and Dr. Konstantinos Voreakos completed their PhD theses in the same department under the supervision of Prof. D. Georgiadis, while Nikolaos Skoulikas is currently pursuing his PhD in the research group of the distinguished Professor of Organic Chemistry, Nuno Maulide, at the University of Vienna.
