Asymmetric Organocatalysis in Natural Product Syntheses

Mario Waser was born in Steyr, Austria in 1977. After studying chemistry at the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) Linz, Austria, he finished his Ph.D. thesis in 2005 in the group of Prof. Dr. Heinz Falk, working on the synthesis of second-generation hypericin-based photosensitizers. After a postdoctoral stay in the group of Prof. Dr. Alois Fürstner at the Max-Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung (Mülheim, Germany), investigating the first total syntheses of iejimalide B and iejimalide A, he spent two years as a research and development chemist for DSM Linz. Since the summer of 2009 he has held the position of Assistant Professor at JKU Linz, where he is currently working on his habilitation. Dr. Waser’s main research interests are focused in the field of synthetic organic chemistry with a special emphasis on ammonium ylide-mediated (dia)-stereoselective reactions and the design of new tartaric acid-derived organocatalysts.