Professor Eric Fillion
Eric Fillion received his BSc degree in biochemistry from the Université de Sherbrooke. After completing his MSc degree in medicinal chemistry at the Université de Montréal with Prof. Denis Gravel, he pursued his doctoral studies at the University of Toronto under the direction of Prof. Mark Lautens. From 1998-2000, he was an NSERC post-doctoral fellow in the laboratories of Prof. Larry E. Overman at the University of California, Irvine. In 2000, he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo, where he is currently a Professor of Chemistry. Since starting his independent career, Fillion has received the Early Research Award from the Government of Ontario, the Astra Zeneca Award in Chemistry, the Boehringer Ingelheim Young Investigator Award for Organic Chemistry, the Research Corporation Research Innovation Award, and the 2011 Canadian Society for Chemistry Merck Frosst Centre for Therapeutic Research Award. The Fillion group has developed a number of transition metal- and Lewis acid-catalyzed carbon-carbon bond forming methods; including enantioselective conjugate alkylation, alkenylation, and alkynylation reactions, as well as intramolecular Friedel-Crafts acylation and alkylation reactions. The synthesis of structurally diverse carbocycles and heterocycles using Lewis acid-catalyzed domino reactions of highly electrophilic alkylidenes was also reported by his laboratories. Most recently, his group has explored the stereoselective modification and functionalization of sp3-hybridized carbon centers by cleavage of unstrained carbon-carbon bonds, and the B(C6F5)3-promoted conjugate addition of alkyl-tricarbastannatranes.