His research interests include Organophosphorus Chemistry and Main Group Chemistry. He has over 115 publications so far and is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore. N. N. Bhuvan Kumar was born in Cherukupalli, Guntur, India. After completing his B.Sc. from Nagarjuna University, he joined the School of Chemistry, University of Hyderabad, as a postgraduate student in the year 2000 and obtained his Master's degree in Chemistry. Currently, he is pursuing a Ph.D. on Organophosphonates under the supervision of Prof. K. C. Kumara Swamy. E. Balaraman was born in Kancheepuram, Chennai, India, in 1980. He received his M.Sc. in Chemistry from Vivekananda College [Madras University (2002)] and his Ph.D. degree in the areas of organophosphonates and modified BINOLs under the guidance of Prof. K. C. Kumara Swamy. Presently he is a postdoctoral fellow with Professors David Milstein and Ronny Neumann at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. K. V. P. Pavan Kumar was born in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), India, in 1979. He obtained his B.Sc. (Chemistry Honors) and M.Sc. (Chemistry) degrees from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Puttaparthi, A.P., India. He obtained his Ph.D. degree under the guidance of Prof. K. C. Kumara Swamy in October 2006. Presently he is working as a postdoctoral fellow in the area of hydroamination reactions using new titanium catalysts with Prof. Pierre Le Gendre at the Universite ´de Bourgogne, France.

An efficient and general method for the chemoselective synthesis of unsymmetrical gem‐diborylalkanes is reported. This method is based on a late‐stage desymmetrization through nucleophilic “trifluorination”, providing chiral gem‐diborylalkanes bearing a trifluoroborate group. The reaction offers a highly modular and diastereoselective approach towards the synthesis of gem‐diborylcyclopropanes. The utility of the gem‐diborylalkane building blocks was demonstrated by selective post‐functionalization of the trifluoroborate group. These functionalizations include inter‐ and intra‐ Pd‐catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions.

In this review, we emphasise the importance of the generation of α-boryl carbon-centred radicals and their utilisation in synthesis.

Ring the changes: A new photoassisted approach to give conformationally constrained N,O,S‐polyheterocyclic scaffolds of unprecedented topologies was achieved by intramolecular [4+4] and [4+2] cycloadditions of photogenerated o‐azaxylylenes (23 examples; see scheme). The precursors can be readily assembled by simple and high‐yielding reactions, thus making this a powerful synthetic method amenable to high‐throughput diversity‐oriented synthesis.

The diversity of products in the reaction of diethyl azodicarboxylate (DEAD)/diisopropyl azodicarboxylate (DIAD) and activated acetylenes with P III compounds bearing oxygen or nitrogen substituents is discussed. New findings that are useful in understanding the nature of intermediates involved in the Mitsunobu reaction are highlighted. X-ray structures of two new compounds (2-t-Bu-4-MeC 6 H 3 O)P (µ-N-t-Bu) 2 P + [(NH-t-Bu){N[(CO 2-i-Pr)(HNCO 2-i-Pr)]}](Cl-)(2-t-Bu-4-MeC 6 H 3 OH) (23) and [CH 2 (6-t-Bu-4-Me-C 6 H 2 O) 2 P(O)C(CO 2 Me)C-(CO 2 Me)CClNC(O)Cl] (33) are also reported. The structure of 23 is close to one of the intermediates proposed in the Mitsunobu reaction.