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.[citation needed]
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 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.[citation needed]
Fellowships and awards
Banwell has been awarded numerous Fellowships and Awards including;
Elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 2002: Conference Chair, 2002 Southern Highlands Conference on Heterocyclic Chemistry. (2002)
2018 awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia for "distinguished service to science education as an academic, author and researcher, particularly in the field of synthetic organic chemistry, to scientific institutes, and as a mentor of emerging scientists".
Representative publications
Austin KA, Banwell MG, Loong DT, Rae AD, Willis AC (March 2005). "A chemoenzymatic total synthesis of the undecenolide (−)-cladospolide B via a mid-stage ring-closing metathesis and a late-stage photo-rearrangement of the E-isomer". Org. Biomol. Chem. 3 (6): 1081–8. doi:10.1039/b417685e. PMID15750652.
Banwell MG, Lupton DW (January 2005). "Exploiting the palladium[0]-catalysed Ullmann cross-coupling reaction in natural products chemistry: application to a total synthesis of the alkaloid (±)-aspidospermidine". Org. Biomol. Chem. 3 (2): 213–5. doi:10.1039/b415977b. PMID15632959.
Banwell MG, Hungerford NL, Jolliffe KA (August 2004). "Synthesis of the sialic acid (−)-KDN and certain epimers from (−)-3-dehydroshikimic acid or (−)-quinic acid". Org. Lett. 6 (16): 2737–40. doi:10.1021/ol049048y. PMID15281757.