Contributors to the Organic Chemistry Frontiers Emerging Investigator Series 2025

---

Abstract

The Organic Chemistry Frontiers Emerging Investigator Series highlights the best research being conducted by scientists in the early stages of their independent careers. This profile features the emerging investigators who contributed to this series in 2025. Each contributor was recommended as carrying out work with the potential to influence future directions in organic chemistry. Congratulations to all the researchers. We hope you enjoy reading their work.

---

Guang-Jian Mei received his BS from Zhengzhou University in 2011 and his PhD from Peking University in 2016 under the supervision of Prof. Chuang-Chuang Li/Zhen Yang. In the same year, he joined Jiangsu Normal University as an Associate Professor in the research group of Prof. Feng Shi. In 2018, he moved to the National University of Singapore for postdoctoral research under the guidance of Prof. Yixin Lu. In 2021, he returned to Zhengzhou University to begin his independent academic career and was promoted to Professor in 2023. His current research focuses on asymmetric catalysis and molecular machines.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4QO02318H

Website: https://www.x-mol.com/groups/mei_guangjian

Jola Pospech obtained her BSc and MSc from the University of Göttingen, studying under Prof. Lutz Ackermann. After completing her PhD at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT) in Rostock in the group of Prof. Matthias Beller in 2015, Jola joined the team of Prof. David Sarlah at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2017, she became an independent research group leader at LIKAT and was promoted to associate group leader in 2022. Her research interests include organic photoredox catalysis and photo-mediated functional group transfer, in the context of synthetic and physical organic chemistry.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5QO00683J

Websites: https://www.pospechlab.eu/; https://www.catalysis.de/en/research/catalytic-functionalization

Joshua P. Barham was born in Watford, UK. He received his industry-based PhD in 2017 from the University of Strathclyde/GSK Collaborative PhD programme. His postdoctoral studies in Japan at National Institute AIST and the University of Shizuoka specialized in flow chemistry. He started his independent career with a Sofja Kovalevskaja Award in 2019 at the University of Regensburg, Germany. In 2022, he was selected for an ERC Starting Grant which was funded through UKRI as an EPSRC Frontier Research Guarantee Research Grant. In 2024, he was appointed Reader at the University of Strathclyde and Adjunct Professor at the University of Regensburg. His group investigates photo-, electro-, photoelectrochemical and continuous flow organic synthesis.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5QO00149H

Websites: https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/persons/joshua-barham-2/; https://www-oc.chemie.uni-regensburg.de/barham/j_barham.php

Manuel Plaza finished his BS in Chemistry and Master studies at the University of Oviedo in 2014. In 2018, he completed his PhD in Synthesis and Chemical Reactivity at the same university under the supervision of Prof. Carlos Valdés. Subsequently, he undertook postdoctoral training in photochemistry for three years with Prof. Thorsten Bach at the Technical University of Munich. In 2021, he moved back to the University of Oviedo, where he started his independent career as a Margarita Salas group leader. Currently, he is a Ramón y Cajal Assistant Professor at the same university. His research focuses on the development of photochemical cross-coupling reactions and photobiocatalytic processes.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5QO00258C

Website: https://theplazagroup.es/

Simon Pascal earned his MSc from the University of Rennes and his PhD in chemistry in 2014 at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France). Under the supervision of Dr Chantal Andraud and Dr Olivier Maury, he developed near-infrared chromophores for nonlinear optics, with applications in defense, imaging, and optoelectronics. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Geneva, he expanded his expertise in charged dyes within Prof. Jérôme Lacour's group, synthesizing functionalized cationic helicenes and exploring their (chir)optical properties.

In 2016, he joined the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), first at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center of Marseille (CINaM) and, since 2023, at the CEISAM institute in Nantes. His research focuses on the design of polymethine and quinone-derived dyes, macrocycles, and coordination oligomers, with optical properties from the visible to the near-infrared. His current work emphasizes near-infrared photosensitizers for energy production.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5QO00801H

Website: https://www.univ-nantes.fr/simon-pascal-1

Tatsuhiko Yoshino received his PhD in 2014 from the University of Tokyo for his studies on homogeneous metal catalysis and organic synthesis under the guidance of Professor Masakatsu Shibasaki and Professor Motomu Kanai. After working in the Professor Matthew W. Kanan's group at Stanford University, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor at Hokkaido University in 2015. He was then promoted to a Lecturer in 2018 and to Associate Professor in 2021. In 2024, he moved to Kyoto University as a Hakubi researcher and then became an Associate Professor there. His current research interests are in metal-catalyzed C–H functionalization reactions, asymmetric catalysis, and hypervalent iodine chemistry for novel organic reactions.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5QO00355E

Website: https://shuyu.kuchem.kyoto-u.ac.jp/top_en/

Wanxiang Zhao received his PhD degree from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2014. From 2014 to 2017, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of Utah. In March 2017, he joined the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Hunan University, where he is currently a Professor and PhD Supervisor at the State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics. Since joining Hunan University, his research has focused on organic boron chemistry, particularly on the efficient construction and high-value transformations of organoboron compounds.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4QO02278E

Website: https://grzy.hnu.edu.cn/site/index/zhaowanxiang

Xiao-Hui Yang was born and raised in Hebei Province, China. She received her BS degree from Jiangsu Normal University in 2010, and her PhD in 2015 from Nankai University under the supervision of Professor Qi-Lin Zhou. From February 2016 to September 2020, she pursued postdoctoral research at UC Irvine, working with Professor Vy M. Dong. In late 2020, she returned to China and joined Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) as a tenure-track professor to establish her independent research group. She was promoted to tenured full professor in January 2024. Her research group focuses on asymmetric catalysis, organometallic chemistry, organic synthetic methodology, as well as physical and computational organic chemistry.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5QO00926J

Website: https://www.x-mol.com/groups/Xiaohui_Yang

Xiaoqiang Huang received his BS (2013) and MS (2015) from Peking University under the supervision of Prof. Ning Jiao. He completed his PhD at the University of Marburg in 2019 supervised by Prof. Eric Meggers, followed by postdoctoral research in Huimin Zhao's lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2021, he began his independent career as a tenure-track principal investigator at Nanjing University, where he was promoted to tenured full professor in 2026. His research group focuses on integrating chemocatalysis and biocatalysis for asymmetric synthesis, with specific interests in photobiocatalysis and electroenzymatic synthesis.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5QO00470E

Website: https://www.x-mol.com/groups/huang_xiaoqiang?lang=en

Xingxing Wu received his Master's degree from East China Normal University under Prof. Junliang Zhang and completed his PhD with Prof. Yonggui Robin Chi at Nanyang Technological University. He then worked as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Christof Sparr at the University of Basel. Since 2022, he has established a research group at Guizhou University. His research interests include catalyst-controlled construction of heteroatom-stereogenic centers (e.g., N, S, P), functionalization of inert C–H bonds via small-molecule catalysis, and preparation of (chiral) functional molecules for green pesticide development.

EMI article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4QO02193B

Website: https://gpabl.gzu.edu.cn/2024/0722/c19837a225831/page.htm

---