Faculty
Professor Zuowei Xie is a member of The Chinese Academy of Sciences and The Hong Kong Academy of Sciences. He is also a Fellow of Chinese Chemical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry. Prof. Xie is a Chair Professor and Dean of Shenzhen Grubbs Institute at SUSTech. Prof. Xie’s main research interests center around organometallic, main group chemistry and boron-containing drugs with the focus on catalytic B-H bond functionalization, (super)carboranes, metallacarboranes, low-valent boron chemistry, small molecule activation, homogeneous catalysis, and the development of new boron-containing drugs for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). Prof. Xie has made important contributions to carborane chemistry by developing a general strategy for catalytic selective cage BH functionalization and synthetic methods for the synthesis of supercarboranes. He has co-authored over 360 papers, and his works have been highlighted many times in C&EN. Some of Prof. Xie's research results have been written into many Chinese and English textbooks, including the international authoritative chemistry textbook "Inorganic Chemistry" written by Housecroft and Sharpe, as well as "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry" and "Advanced Inorganic Structural Chemistry". Prof. Xie received several prestigious awards including the State Natural Science Prize (2008), The Croucher Award (2003), the Chinese Chemical Society Yao-Zeng Huang Award in Organometallic Chemistry (2010), Hong Kong Research Grants Council Inaugural Senior Research Fellowship Award (2020), and Humboldt Research Award (2022) among others.
Education
1990 Ph.D., a joint PhD program between Technische Universit?t Berlin/Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences
1986 M.Sc., Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences
1983 B.Sc., Hangzhou University (now Zhejiang University)
Professional Chronology
Since 2022 Chair Professor, SUSTech
2013-2022 Choh-Ming Li Professor of Chemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2006-2012 Chair Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2002-2006 Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
1998-2002 Associate Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
1995-1998 Assistant Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
1991-1995 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Southern California
1990-1991 Research Associate, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS
Awards
2022 Humboldt Research Award
2020 RGC Senior Research Fellow
2010 Chinese Chemical Society Yao-Zeng Huang Award in Organometallic Chemistry
2008 State Natural Science Prize
2003 The Croucher Senior Research Fellowship Award
2001 National Outstanding Youth Investigator Award
Representative Works：
1. Zuowei Xie. Cyclopentadienyl-Carboranyl Hybrid Compounds: A New Class of Versatile Ligands for Organometallic Chemistry. Acc. Chem. Res. 2003, 36, 1-9.
2. Zaozao Qiu, Shikuo Ren, and Zuowei Xie. Transition Metal-Carboryne Complexes: Synthesis, Bonding, and Reactivity. Acc. Chem. Res. 2011, 44, 299-309.
3. Jian Zhang and Zuowei Xie. Synthesis, Structure, and Reactivity of 13- and 14-Vertex Carboranes. Acc. Chem. Res. 2014, 47, 1623-1633.
4. Zaozao Qiu and Zuowei Xie. A Strategy for Selective Catalytic B–H Functionalization of o-Carboranes. Acc. Chem. Res. 2021, 54, 4065-4079.
5. Fangrui Zheng, Tsz Hin Yui, Jiji Zhang and Zuowei Xie. Synthesis and X-ray Characterization of 15- and 16-vertex closo-Carboranes. Nat. Commun. 2020, 11, 5943.
6. Hangcheng Ni, Zhenpin Lu, and Zuowei Xie. Transition-Metal-Free Cross-Coupling Reaction of Iodocarboranes with Terminal Alkynes Enabled by UV Light: Synthesis of 1-Alkynyl-o-Carboranes and Carborane-Fused Cyclics. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 18661-18667.
7. Ruofei Cheng, Jie Zhang, Huifang Zhang, Zaozao Qiu, and Zuowei Xie. Ir-Catalyzed Enantioselective B?H Alkenylation for Asymmetric Synthesis of Chiral-at-Cage o-Carboranes. Nat. Commun. 2021, 12, 7146.
8. Hanqiang Wang, Jie Zhang, Jingting Yang and Zuowei Xie. Synthesis, Structure and Reactivity of Acid-Free Neutral Oxoborane. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 19008-19012.
9. Yik Ki Au, Jie Zhang, Yangjian Quan, and Zuowei Xie. Ir-Catalyzed Selective B(3)-H Amination of o-Carboranes with NH3. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 4148–153.
10. Shimeng Li, and Zuowei Xie. Visible-Light-Promoted Nickel-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling of Iodocarboranes with (Hetero)Arenes via Boron-Centered Carboranyl Radicals. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 7960–7965.