‘Everything that depends on the action of Nature is by nature as good as it can be’ Aristotle 384-322BC
Organic chemistry is a game of chess. You know the rules but its not always easy to find a way to conquer the King! In our Lab we would like to reinvent the way of thinking..we are not inventing new rules but instead we look carefully how a ChessMaster (aka Nature) is playing!
Alexandros L. Zografos (Alex) was born in Athens, Greece. He graduated as a Chemist (1996) from the National University of Athens and received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the National Technical University of Athens (2001), working with Professor Olga-Igglessi Markopoulou in the synthesis of biologically active quinolones.
From 2003 to 2004 he was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Phil S. Baran at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (USA), where he completed the total syntheses of sceptrin and ageliferin alkaloids. In 2004, he moved to the Chemistry Department of Athens University working as a post-doctoral fellow with Professor Athanasios Yiotakis and Dr. Dimitris Georgiadis in the total synthesis of abyssomicin C and related natural products. In 2006 he moved back in the US working as senior researcher at Columbia University in New York City under the supervision of Professor Scott A. Snyder, where he completed the total synthesis of several members of resveratrol polyphenolic natural products. One year later, he returned in Greece to work with Dr. Dionysios Vourloumis as a member of the project “exploration of RNA components by the synthesis of small molecules”.
In 2008 he was appointed at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki where currently he is Full Professor of Organic Chemistry.
His main research interests include the exploration of synthetic strategies towards complex natural structures. In his main focus is how nature is working and he is persistent of using biomemetic methods to access a target.
Apart from science, Alex enjoys long walks, inspirational talks, biking and travelling and of course playing with his daughter!