Published as part of the Cluster Silicon in Synthesis and Catalysis
Martin Oestreich is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Technische Universität Berlin. His appointment
was supported by the Einstein Foundation Berlin. He received his diploma degree with
Paul Knochel (Marburg, 1996) and his doctoral degree with Dieter Hoppe (Münster, 1999).
After a two-year postdoctoral stint with Larry E. Overman (Irvine, 1999–2001), he
completed his habilitation with Reinhard Brückner (Freiburg, 2001–2005) and was appointed
as Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
(2006–2011). He also held visiting positions at Cardiff University in Wales (2005)
and at The Australian National University in Canberra (2010). Martin Oestreich’s research
focuses on silicon in synthesis and catalysis, the theme of the present SYNLETT Cluster.
His early work centered on the use of silicon-stereogenic silicon reagents in asymmetric
catalysis, and his laboratory continues to employ them as stereochemical probes in
mechanistic investigations. His research group made fundamental contributions to catalytic
carbon–silicon bond formation with nucleophilic and, likewise, electrophilic silicon
reagents, and Martin Oestreich is probably best known for his work in silylium-ion
chemistry. Recent accomplishments of his laboratory include Friedel–Crafts-type C–H
silylation, transfer hydrosilylation, and kinetic resolution of alcohols by enantioselective
silylation.
