PhD Student - SynTech CDT
Henrique is a PhD student in the SynTech CDT supervised by Profs. Jonathan Goodman and Alexei Lapkin, also working in collaboration in the Innovation Centre in Digital Molecular Technologies (iDMT). The goal of his project is foster the digital transition in chemical industry through data-rich experimentation, automation, and AI. The current focus is to predict reaction selectivity with different levels of molecular context: large chemical databases, or high-throughput datasets generated in-house. He is also exploring how data-rich experiments can help understand complex chemical systems and reduce environmental impact for dataset generation.
He got his Bachelors in Chemistry from the University of Campinas - UNICAMP in Brazil. During his studies he worked on total synthesis of natural products under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ronaldo Aloise Pilli. Whilst in his undergrad he helped organising the Olympic School of Chemistry (EOQ), where he prepared around 200 high-school students from 2011 to 2016 to national level scientific competitions. The Virtual Chemistry Tournament was another project, where he prepared original problems for high-school students bridging advanced topics. From 2013-2016 he helped increase the number of participants in 80% and reach from 16 to all 26 states (and the federal district) of Brazil. From 2016-2018, Henrique pursued a degree in Engineering at ESPCI Paris. During that time, he did an internship in a biotech company in Lyon and a research project at the ESPCI. He worked with Amadine Guérinot, Janine Cossy and Ondine Picot in Ni-catalysed enantioselective transformations. Upon returning to Brazil, he got his Masters in Organic Chemistry from UNICAMP under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Julio Cezar Pastre. He worked on applying flow chemistry for green chemistry and synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles.