Organic (Total) Synthesis: past, present, and future

On Tuesday 28 April 2026 the section welcomed Professor Ari Koskinen to the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren for a talk entitled 'Organic (Total) Synthesis: past, present, and future'. 

The era of natural product total synthesis arose at the beginning of the 20th century. As the number of natural product targets of increasingly complex molecular architecture rapidly increased in connection with the development of reaction theory, chemical reagents, and analytical and laboratory techniques, total synthesis of natural products was once considered the highest achievement of organic synthesis. Thus, the state of the art of organic chemical synthesis was often defined by the complexity of the target structures that could be produced in an efficient manner.

The value of total synthesis has been challenged many times, sometimes even claiming that the era of synthesis is over. Recent developments in machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, and laboratory automation are often quoted as challenging the need for total synthesis. In this brief talk Professor Koskinen will try to highlight the lifespan, present state, and future outlook of total synthesis. Will there be a need for total synthesis in the future?

As usual, the talk and was free to all and was followed by our usual social networking with drinks and light snacks.

Ari Koskinen received his M.Sc. (Chem. Eng.) in 1979, his Licentiate in Technology in 1982 and his Doctor of Technology in 1983 from the Helsinki University of Technology.

After postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley he accepted an appointment as a Project Leader in New Drug Development at Orion Corporation – Fermion, Finland where his research group was among the first in Scandinavia to adopt computer aided drug design as well as computerised database handling protocols in new lead identification. Returning to academia, he joined the University of Surrey as a lecturer in 1989 and was then appointed as Professor of Chemistry (especially Synthetic Organic Chemistry) at the University of Oulu, Finland in 1992, and transferred to the Helsinki University of Technology in 1999 (Aalto University since 2010) as Professor of Organic Chemistry.

Professor Koskinen is a member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters since 2003. He is the author or co-author of some 190 publications, 15 patents and three books. He retired from active academic work in October 2021, but as emeritus professor, he keeps his finger on the pulse of organic chemistry through activities in IUPAC (President, Division of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry) and EuChemS (past secretary, Division of Organic Chemistry). He is also a member of the RSC Belgium committee.

Ari's talk was videoed and you can enjoy it again either via the embedded video below or on our dedicated RSC Belgium YouTube Channel.