2016年10月12日，英国布里斯托大学Varinder Aggarwal教授应元素有机化学国家重点实验室邀请作为南开大学有机化学讲座教授访问重点实验室。南开大学有机化学讲座是一个全天的系列学术活动。讲座教授在做学术报告交流之余还与重点实验室固定研究人员及研究生同学进行面对面的学术讨论。Aggarwal教授此次学术交流主要介绍了他们课题组提出并发展的流水线式组装合成（Assembly Line Synthesis）的概念。

在学术报告开始之前，周其林院士首先代表重点实验室向Aggarwal教授颁发了“南开有机化学讲座”的奖牌。Aggarwal教授的报告首先提出了流水线式组装合成的策略，然后详细讲述了如何利用他们发展的利用硼试剂的碳迁移反应实现这个策略的研究工作。他分别从硼的高效引入、碳迁移重排反应下的碳链延伸及有机硼化合物向其它常用官能团的转化等几个科学问题入手介绍了他们对若干天然产物的流水线式的组装合成过程。Aggarwal教授的工作提出了关于分子合成新的思路和视角，极具原创性和启发性。会后，重点实验室师生就报告中的一些细节问题及如何发挥此策略的巨大功用等问题和Aggarwal教授进行了深入讨论。

报告人简介：

Prof. Varinder Aggarwal received B.A. (1983) and Ph.D. (1986) degrees at Pembroke College, Cambridge, working with Prof. Stuart Warren. After two years of post-doctoral research with Prof. Gilbert Stork, he became a lecturer in Bath University in 1988. In 1991, he moved to Sheffield University and stayed until he moved to Bristol University in 2000. He has served in editorial board of OBC and in the international advisory board of Chem Comm. He is currently in the international advisory board of Chemistry, an Asian Journal and Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry. Among his honors are RSC Corday Morgan Prize and Medal (1999), RSC Green Chemistry Award (2003), RSC Reaction Mechanism Award (2004), Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award (2006-2011), RSC Stereochemistry Award (2009), Chemical Research Society of India Medal (2013), RSC Perkin Award (2013), Hind Rattan Award (2015), and Adolf Lieben Lectureship in Austrian Chemical Society (2017). He was elected as Fellow of Royal Society in 2012.