Tel: (office) +82-42-350-2818, (lab) +82-42-350-2858
Location: (office) Room 4102 (Bldg. E6-4), (lab) Room 4119, 4120 (Bldg. E6-4)
Fax: +82-42-350-2810

Ph.D.: Organic Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology June, 2012 (Advisor: Professor Mohammad Movassaghi).
B.S.: Chemistry, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) February, 2006 summa cum laude (2nd out of 412)

Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, KAIST, 2019 – present
Assistant Professor: Department of Chemistry, KAIST, 2014 – 2019
Postdoctoral Associate: Department of Chemistry, Yale University, 2012 – 2014 (Advisor: Scott J. Miller)

Young Scientist Award, The President of the Republic of Korea (2022)
KCS-Wiley Young Chemist Award, Korean Chemical Society (2022)
Young Scientist Award, Korean Society of Organic Synthesis (2021)
Award for Departmental Services (2021)
Elected Member of Young Korean Academy of Science and Technology (2021)
Young Organic Chemist Award (2020)
Asian Core Program/ICCEOCA-14 Lectureship Awards (2019)
Hanseong Science Award (2019)
LINKGENESIS-Best Teacher Award (2019)
Junior Scientists Participation (JSP) Program Fellowship, 53rd Bürgenstock Conference (2018)
KAIST College of Natural Sciences Best Teaching Award (2018)
EWon Assistant Professorship (2018-2021)
Thieme Chemistry Journals Award (2018)
POSCO TJ Park Science Fellowship (2018-2019)
Asian Core Program/Advanced Research Network Lectureship Award (2016)
KAIST College of Natural Sciences Best Teaching Award (2016)
Kenneth M. Gordon Summer Graduate Fellowship in Organic Chemistry (2011)
EMD Serono Summer Graduate Fellowship (2010)
The Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies Scholarship (2006 – 2011)
GE Foundation Scholar-Leaders Scholarship (2002, 2005)
Gold Prize in the 6th Samsung Humantech Thesis Prize (2000)

The field of total synthesis of natural products has shown dramatic progress over the last century. Through the collective effort of the synthetic community, complex targets have been synthesized using inventive solutions, and those solutions have formed the basis for the development of new drugs and materials. With increasing expectations imposed on synthetic organic chemists, the role of total synthesis (i) as a driving force for the discovery of novel and efficient reactions, (ii) as a tool to enhance the understanding of biosynthetic machineries, and (iii) as a means for generating chemicals of extraordinary biological significance in substantial quantities will continue to grow.

With these goals in mind, our group is interested in the synthesis of complex natural products. Our targets would serve as an arena for the exploration of intrinsic reactivities of the molecules and the discovery of new transformations for a novel type of bond formation. Our pursuit of convergent and flexible synthetic approaches should enable access to not only a single target but various natural products with structural and biosynthetic relevance, or unnatural products with higher biological potency.

Natural products total synthesis
Methods development for novel type of bond formation
Development of chemical tools for biological studies

-Kang, G.; Han, S.* “Synthesis of Dimeric Securinega Alkaloid Flueggeacosine B: From Pd-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling to Cu-Catalyzed Cross-Dehydrogenative Coupling” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 8932.
-Lim, H.; Seong, S.; Kim, Y.; Seo, S.; Han, S.* "Biopatterned Reorganization of Alkaloids Enabled by Ring-Opening Functionalization of Tertiary Amines" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 19966.
-Lee, S.; Kang, G.; Chung, G.; Kim, D.; Lee, H.-Y.;* Han, S.* “Biosynthetically Inspired Syntheses of Secu’amamine A and Fluvirosaones A and B” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 6894.
-Seong, S.; Lim, H.; Han, S.* “Biosynthetically Inspired Transformation of Iboga to Monomeric Post-Iboga Alkaloids” Chem 2019, 5, 353.
-Jeon, S.; Han, S.* “An Accelerated Intermolecular Rauhut-Currier Reaction Enables the Total Synthesis of (-)-Flueggenine C” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 6302.