Rate My Professor Zhongxing Huang

Zhongxing Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, at the University of Hong Kong. He obtained his B.Sc. degree from Peking University in 2012, supervised by Professors Jianbo Wang and Yan Zhang. From 2012 to 2016, he conducted research in Professor Guangbin Dong's group at the University of Texas at Austin, earning his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2017. Subsequently, he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University from 2017 to 2019 under Professor Barry M. Trost. Huang joined the University of Hong Kong as an Assistant Professor in 2019 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2025.

Huang's research specializes in developing innovative catalytic strategies and paradigms for the enantioselective synthesis of bioactive molecules and useful synthetic building blocks. His laboratory identifies new transition metal and main group catalysts to enable efficient bond-forming reactions that avoid hazardous waste generation. The group also pursues catalytic and chemoselective conversions of biomass derivatives to fine chemicals with high atom economy. Core interests include methodology development, catalysis, green chemistry, and renewable energy conversion. Prominent publications feature Rhodium-Catalyzed Desymmetric Addition of Boronic Acids to Malononitriles (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2026), Enantioconvergent Deacylative Functionalization toward α-Quaternary Nitriles (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2025), Cobalt-Catalyzed Desymmetrization of Malononitriles via Enantioselective Borohydride Reduction (Nat. Chem., 2024), Modular and Diverse Synthesis of Amino Acids via Asymmetric Decarboxylative Protonation of Aminomalonic Acids (Nat. Chem., 2023), and Catalytic Reductive Desymmetrization of Malonic Esters (Nat. Chem., 2021). Earlier contributions include Transition Metal-Catalyzed Ketone-Directed or Mediated C-H Functionalization (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2015) and Catalytic Direct β-Arylation of Simple Ketones with Aryl Iodides (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013).

Huang has earned the Outstanding Young Researcher Award 2024, the Excellent Young Scientists Fund 2023 from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Chinese Chemical Society Young Chemist Award 2023. His advancements in asymmetric catalysis promote greener chemical processes with substantial influence on organic synthesis, environmental chemistry, and medicinal chemistry.