Organizers: Neil Strotman, Director, Catalysis and LCS, Merck; Brad Gates, Principal Research Scientist I, AbbVie

Earth-abundant metal catalysis is touted for its inherent sustainability, and the advantages of low toxicity and minimal environmental impact versus heavy metal catalysis.  What is often overlooked is the diversity of transformations which can be affected by earth-abundant metals, beyond those of their precious metal counterparts.  Earth-abundant metals, by virtue of their placement on the periodic table, have access to more oxidation states, and can often participate in one electron chemistry.  This opportunity for more numerous catalytically relevant oxidation states for a given metal allows for greater variety in chemical transformations.  This highly active field of research continues to grow and evolve as new catalyst systems succeed in not only supplanting less abundant metals with greener alternatives, but in offering novel reactivity giving rise to greater chemical space.

Organizers: Amy Dounay, Colorado College; Jozef Stec, Marshall B. Ketchum University 

Innovative green chemistry approaches have been applied toward all stages of drug discovery research, from the initial medicinal chemistry design to the discovery and manufacturing-scale production of new medicines. Many contemporary efforts in manufacturing of pharmaceuticals aim to be sustainable, environmentally responsible, and fiscally sound, which altogether result in an increased global access to essential medicines and it closely aligns with the WHO’s vision to live in a disease-free world. This symposium is aimed at providing diverse chemists across academe and industry with highly practical knowledge and accessible green chemistry tools to implement into drug discovery and development process at every level in every place. The central theme of this symposium will be showcasing recent developments and innovations in designing green approaches to synthetic medicinal chemistry and manufacturing processes to address current and future global challenges in drug discovery and development.

Organizers: Megan Shaw, Sr. Scientist, Merck; Kevin Maloney, Director, Merck

Traditionally, chemists have relied on the use of organic solvents as the primary reaction medium for both academic research and the development of industrial processes. While offering desirable attributes with respect to solubilizing organic compounds and promoting reactivity, organic solvents contribute heavily to overall waste generation, have negative implications for the environment and often derive from finite resources. This session will outline the largely untapped potential of conducting chemistry in water by demonstrating that, not only does water provide a green and sustainable alternative to organic solvents, it can offer distinct advantages with respect to reactivity, cost efficiency and waste generation. Successful strategies which overcome the commonly perceived challenges of low solubility and stability of organic/organometallic molecules in water will be discussed and the exciting opportunities arising from the use of enzymes, catalysts ideally suited to an aqueous environment, in organic synthesis will be highlighted.

Organizer: Joseph Sabol, Principal-Consultant, Chemical Consultant

More than 35 Gt of carbon dioxide (10 Gt as carbon) from industrial processes is produced each year, with about half accumulating into the oceans and on land and about half retained in the atmosphere. Atmospheric carbon dioxide has risen from 280 ppm in 1800 to 410 ppm in 2019, with the majority coming from human-derived activity. Adverse consequences from lowering the pH of the oceans and warming the atmosphere from trapping infrared radiation are well documented and unabated release of carbon dioxide will exacerbate existing environmental concerns. Unless a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emission is met with world-wide acceptance, rising concentrations, including an increasing rate of emission, are inevitable. Proposals to treat carbon dioxide as waste and inject into deep wells are met with skepticism and daunting engineering challenges. Planting massive forests will take decades to make a significant impact in. In the spirit of “systems-inspired design” this symposium proposes to address viable industrial processes that can re-use “waste” carbon dioxide as a raw material into process streams. Speakers are sought to present concepts and practices that demonstrate viable scale-up processes that use carbon dioxide as a raw material and eliminate waste discharge into the atmosphere.

Organizers: Jason Stevens, Senior Research Investigator II, Bristol-Myers Squibb; Jared Piper, Pfizer

Identification of expedient and resource-efficient synthetic routes and the implementation of an optimal combination of catalysts and reagents for an organic transformation are key endeavors that exemplify green chemistry in practice. This session will focus on in silico techniques that look to deliver synthetic efficiency, atom economy and minimize waste production. Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and predictive analytics (PA) that harness powerful algorithms to improve synthetic routes or chemical reactions from first principles will comprise the majority of the session, as well as what is needed to get started on this important and growing topic in the chemical sciences.