Martin Banwell

Martin Gerhardt Banwell (born 24 November 1954) is an organic chemist specialising in biotransformations and natural product synthesis.

His research interests involve the enzymatic preparation of organic molecules as synthons or building blocks for complex natural products. This technology/methodology is then applied to the synthesis of complex marine natural products from the Great Barrier Reef.

Career history

Martin received a BSc at Victoria University of Wellington in 1976, and an Honours, 1st Class from the same institution in 1977; his doctorate in 1979 is also from Victoria University, under the direction of Brian Halton.

Banwell relocated to Ohio State University between 1979–1980 to undertake a post-doctoral fellowship before taking on the role of Senior teaching Fellow at the Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Adelaide until 1981.

Banwell then returned to New Zealand taking the role of Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Auckland until 1986, when he returned to Australia to take a similar role at the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Melbourne. In 1995, as an Associate Professor he moved to the Australian National University as a Senior Fellow. He was promoted to full professor in 1999.

Banwell has also previously been a guest at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zürich, Switzerland. Currently Prof. Banwell is a Foreign Visiting Researcher at Hiroshima University, an Asia-Pacific Representative, Advisory Board to the International Society for Heterocyclic Chemistry, a Chemistry Consultant for CSIRO Molecular Science and Member, Australian Research Council College of Experts.

Banwell currently serves on the editorial boards for several journals such as Tetrahedron.

Publications To date Prof. Banwell has published 206 peer reviewed articles, 6 patents, 1 review and 1 non-refereed publication.

Fellowships and awards

Banwell has been awarded numerous Fellowships and Awards including;

Representative publications