Dr David J Aitken

David studied Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, obtaining his BSc in 1983 and PhD in 1986. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at the ICSN in France (1987-89) he was appointed CNRS Researcher at the University Descartes in Paris, working on the preparation of cyclopropanes using aminonitrile chemistry. In 1998, he became Professor at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, where he set up a new group working on photochemical routes to cyclobutane β-aminoacids and the total synthesis of macrocyclic peptides containing β-aminoacids. In 2006, he became Professor of Organic Chemistry at Paris-Saclay. Research interests include the development of synthetic methodologies and the preparation of peptide-inspired molecular scaffolds of biological and therapeutic interest. He is currently
Director of the ICMMO research institute.