Meet our Fellows: Emil Steinwendtner

MPS, Emil Steinwendtner
Home: IMC University of Applied Sciences
Host: Allegheny College
Study Program: Applied Chemistry

Hello,
My name is Emil Steinwendtner and I have been staying at Allegheny college in Meadville, PA for two months now, together with my colleague Hanna Humpel.
We are working in a small lab under Professor PJ Persichini III, who supports us with his mentorship, experience, and expertise.

My project deals with the synthesis of benzosultams. These heterocyclic derivatives of benzenesulfonamides are an extremely useful and versatile building block in pharmacy and some other fields. Benzosultams are used, for example, in the fight against HIV and diabetes, but also as sweeteners, chiral auxiliaries, or fungicides. My goal is to design an elegant one-pot synthesis in which first a boron heterocycle is formed, which then enters Sonogashira coupling with an alkyne and in concerted fashion performs a larock-type cyclization to form the final benzosultam.I have already succeeded in synthesizing the intermediate, isolating it and determining its identity.

Furthermore, I was able to develop personally and meet many people with completely different perspectives compared to my own. The Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation has enabled me to meet these people I would never have met otherwise, to see places I would never have seen otherwise, and to gain precious, unique experiences.
For example, we were able to travel to Niagara Falls and see it up close. An impression that will stay with me.