Science of Synthesis Welcomes David Sarlah as New Editorial Board Member
We are thrilled to announce that Professor David Sarlah from Rice University, USA, becomes a member of the Science of Synthesis Editorial Board with effect of October 1st, 2025.
David obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Ljubljana in his home country Slovenia before moving to the USA for undergraduate research in the labs of Prof. K. C. Nicolaou (Scripps) and Prof. Samuel Danishefsky (Columbia University). During his PhD in the Nicolaou group (finished in 2011) he worked on the total synthesis of complex natural products. David then returned to Europe to join Prof. Erick Carreira’s group at the ETH Zurich (Switzerland) as a postdoctoral fellow entering the field of asymmetric catalysis.
In late-2014, David moved to the USA again, starting his independent career at the faculty of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021. In 2024 he joined Rice University as Professor of Chemistry. The research in the Sarlah group spans from the synthesis of complex, biologically active natural products and the related chemical biology to methodology development.
Very recently, David has been honored by the ACS with the 2026 Elias J. Corey Award for Outstanding Original Contributions in Organic Synthesis by a Young Investigator.
Detailed Profile & Publications
David has already gained experience in working on Science of Synthesis as responsible editor for the Reference Library project on “Dearomatizations” to be published at the end of 2025.
We welcome Professor David Sarlah on the Science of Synthesis Editorial Board and look forward to a continued successful and inspiring collaboration with him!
