The history of this laboratory can be traced back to 1956, when Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) was established. In 1960-70s, the organic chemistry division in the institute experienced drastic readjustment and almost ceased to operate. In 1983, the organic division was re-established and was eventually evolved into the Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Selective Synthesis in 1999. The laboratory was successfully upgraded to Key Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2008. The foundation of CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Function was officially announced in Dec. 2008.

Over half century, prominent chemists such as Prof. Baoren Wang, Prof. Mingqian Jiang, Prof. Zhi-Tang Huang, Prof. Yufen Zhao as well as honorary professor Dr. Tak-Hang Chan have worked in this laboratory and helped to advance our major research endeavors featuring “molecular recognition and selective synthesis”. Particularly, Prof. Huang pioneered the researches on both “Heterocycles synthesis with ketene aminals” and “Calixerenes” in early 1980’s in China, which has generated profound impacts in directing the research efforts in the laboratory. Since the beginning of this century, the laboratory has recruited young faculties via a number of talent-recruitment programs including the Thousand Talent Program initiated by the central government (1), the Thousand Young Talents Program (1)，One Hundred Talent Program of CAS (5) and Overseas Young Talent Program of ICCAS (2). Now we have 11 Research Professors with the total staff numbers of 30.

With mindset of excellence, we have made steady progresses in the field of molecular recognition and synthesis. Research works conducted in this laboratory have been well-recognized in both academia and industry over the country and the world. Four faculty members have been recently awarded the “National Science Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars”. Since 2010, the laboratory has published over 550 papers in the internationally reputed academic journals and has been issued more than 50 patents.

The Pursuit of Excellence and Continuous Innovation is our permanent tenet. Over the years, we have been and would continue, working cooperatively to build a world-leading research team in the field of molecular recognition, synthesis and function. We sincerely welcome you to join us!