#  Harunobu Mitsunuma delivers Merck-Banyu Leadership Award Lecture 

 





October 19, 2026

 

 

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On Friday, October 16, Harunobu Mitsunuma, Associate Professor at Kobe University, delivered his 2026 Merck-Banyu Leadership Award Lecture at CCB. The title of his lecture was entitled "Development of Catalyst Systems Enabling sp C-H Funcationalization Reactions." The Merck-Banyu Award was sponsored and administered by Merck Research Laboratories, USA, and the Banyu Life Science Foundation International, Japan. It was established in 2004 with the aim of encouraging young scientists, and is bestowed to a prospective Japanese chemist under the age of 40, who has been involved in outstanding research activities in the field of synthetic organic chemistry. The awardee takes part in a lecture tour of overseas research institutes.

**Abstract:**

Catalytic functionalization of sp C-H bonds is an attractive strategy for the rapid synthesis of sp3-rich molecules with high atom and step economy. However, conventional transition-metal-catalyzed C-H activation often requires harsh conditions or directing groups, limiting its application to complex, multifunc- tional molecules. Although hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) catalysis enables cleavage of OH X = 0 or NTF HAT catalyst Metal complex catalyst strong sp C-H bonds under mild conditions, controlling the reactivity and selectivity of then Ha resulting carbon radicals remains challenging.  
  
To address this issue, we developed a cooperative catalytic system consisting of a HAT catalyst for C-H activation, a transition-metal catalyst for selective bond formation, and a photoredox catalyst that electronically couples the two catalytic cycles. This ternary catalyst system strategy enables mild and selective sp C-H functionalization with broad functional-group tolerance and provides access to structurally complex molecules from simple hydrocarbon feedstocks. In this presentation, I will introduce new transformations enabled by these cooperative catalytic systems and discuss their potential applications in the synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant molecules.

**Pictures:**

 ![Eric Jacobsen](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/2026-10/IMG_4898JPG.jpg)

 

 ![Harunobu Mitsunuma ](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/2026-10/IMG_4905JPG.jpg)

 

 ![Harunobu Mitsunuma ](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/2026-10/IMG_4908JPG.jpg)

 

 ![Harunobu Mitsunuma ](/sites/g/files/omnuum7776/files/2026-10/IMG_4910JPG.jpg)

 



 

 

 



 

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