From the Back Cover

This volume represents one of the three edited by inviting a selection of young researchers participating to the European Young Chemist Award 2008. The other two volumes concern the two different areas of Nanotechnology/Material Science and Life Sciences and are respectively entitled ?Ideas in Molecular Sciences: Advances in Nanotechnology, Materials and Devices? and ?Ideas in Chemistry and Molecular Sciences: Where Chemistry Meets Life?.

This book contains the contributions of selected young chemists from the field of synthetic chemistry. The contributions are grouped under the following umbrella topics:

* Innovative processes in organic chemistry
* Predictive tools in organic chemical reactions
* Chemical reaction, sustainable processes and environment
* Organic synthesis and materials

This volume is an indispensable read for all organic, catalytic, natural products and biochemists interested in seeing what tomorrow?s chemistry will look like.

About the Author

Bruno Pignataro, born in Bologna in 1972, is Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Palermo. He received his degree in chemistry in 1995 from the University of Catania and his PhD in materials science five years later. He has helped establish a wide network of international collaborations and organized more than 10 meetings at national and international level, including coordinating the Young Chemists Group of the Italian Chemical Society and chairing the first editions of the European Young Chemist Award. He is a referee for several leading chemistry and materials journals, has more than 70 scientific publications and some 90 conference communications to his name, along with several invited lectures. Professor Pignataro's research interests focus on the related fields of the physical chemistry of molecular surfaces and soft nanotechnologies.