The biennial Balticum Organicum Syntheticum (BOS) is an organic chemistry conference that rotates through Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, the three capitals of the Baltic States. The conference goals are:

  • to convey the excitement of synthetic organic chemistry as practiced in industry and universities worldwide;
  • to promote interactions between chemists of the Baltic States and other countries of the world to create links, collaborations, and common research projects in both, academic and industrial settings;
  • showcase the historical significance, architecture, and beauty of the Baltic States. With the participation of many Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian chemists, you will also become aware of the history, culture, language, and social framework of the Baltic States.

The first Baltic international conference on organic synthesis “Balticum Organicum Syntheticum” (BOS 2000) was held in Vilnius (Lithuania) in June of 2000. The vision of the inaugural organizer, late Professor Victor Snieckus, Queen’s University, Canada was that “The conference should follow several aims: to open a window to the West for the chemists of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; to create conditions for discussions between the chemists of the Baltic and the West and also for scientific contacts and collaboration at the academic and industrial levels; to provide an original, linguistic, and social program for participants and their associates.”

Two decades later, the scientific window to the West and the East is widely opened, but the excitement of discovering new secrets of Nature and of conveying it to colleagues worldwide remains. BOS organizer prof. Eugenijus Butkus Vilnius University, Lithuania: “If I was told nearly 20 years ago that the BOS conferences would become significant not only in the Baltics but internationally with nearly 10 Nobel laureates having participated, I would have said that this nice dream would never become a reality. Nowadays it has become true! The BOS conferences have inspired many young chemistry students, some of whom eventually became speakers at BOS and other international conferences!”

The BOS conferences are comprised of plenary lectures by a distinguished roster of Baltic and international speakers, and poster sessions held in a congenial atmosphere to stimulate discussion. We aim for a balanced program of academic and industrial speakers presenting fundamental and practical aspects of organic synthesis.

Previous BOS conferences

BOS2000-Vilnius, Lithuania
BOS2002- Vilnius, Lithuania
BOS2004- Riga, Latvia
BOS2006- Tallinn, Estonia
BOS2008- Vilnius, Lithuania
BOS2010- Riga, Latvia
BOS2012- Tallinn, Estonia
BOS2014- Vilnius, Lithuania
BOS2016- Riga, Latvia
BOS2018- Tallinn, Estonia
BOS2022- Vilnius, Lithuania

Each conference has seen outstanding scientists: Ryoji Noyori and Albert Eschenmoser in 2000, Barry Sharpless and Robert H. Grubbs in 2002, K.C. Nicolaou and David MacMillan in 2004, and Scott Denmark, Hisashi Yamamoto and Benjamin List in 2006, Dieter Seebach, John F. Hartwig and Ben Feringa in 2008, Akira Suzuki and Andre Charette in 2012, Ei-ichi Negishi and Shu Kobayashi in 2014, Jean Lehn in 2018 and many others.

BOS Conference Speakers (2000-2022)

BOS2022 (Vilnius)

Christophe Allais - Pfizer Inc., USA
Olivier Baudoin - University of Basel, Switzerland
Diane E. Carrera - Bolt Biotherapeutics, USA
Olafs Daugulis - University of Houston, USA
Patrick S. Fier - Merck & Co., Inc., USA
Vilius Franckevičius - Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Karl Anker Jørgensen - Aarhus University, Denmark
Romas Kudirka - Bolt Biotherapeutics, USA
Sébastien Lemaire - Janssen, Belgium
Dawei Ma - State Key Laboratory of Bioorganic & Natural Products Chemistry, China
Stefan Matile - University of Geneva, Switzerland
Andres Merits - University of Tartu, Estonia
Bill Morandi -ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Martin Oestreich - Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
Tobias Ritter - Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Germany
Antonia F. Stepan - F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Germany
Tehshik P. Yoon - University of Wisconsin, USA

BOS2018 (Tallinn)

Virgil Percec – University of Pennsylvania, USA
Huw Davies – Emory University, USA
Karl Scheidt – Northwestern University, USA
Rubén Martin - Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, Spain
Vytautas Getautis – Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania
Martin Maier – Tübingen University, Germany
Dzmitry Kananovich – Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Pavel Arsenyan – Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, Latvia
Véronique Gouverneur – Merton College, UK
Jean Lehn – University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study, France
Robert Grubbs – Caltech, USA
Antonio Togni – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland
Paolo Melchiorre – Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, Spain
Jeff Seeman – University of Richmond, USA
Martin Eastgate – Bristol-Myers Squibb, USA
Joshua Dunetz – Gilead Science’s, USA
Thomas Colacot – Johnson Matthey, USA
Cheng Yi Chen – Janssen Pharmaceutica, Switzerland
Laura Sirois – Genentech, USA

BOS2016 (Riga)

Riina Aav- Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Emily Balskus- Harvard University, USA
Suzanne A. Blum- University of California, USA
Inga Cikotiené -Vilnius University, Lithuania
Stephen Dalby- Merck Sharp Dohme, UK
Sheng Ding- University of California, San Francisco
Frank Glorius- University of Münster, Germany
Antonio Echavarren- ICIQ, Spain
Nuno Maulide- University of Vienna, Austria
Pavel Mykhailiuk- Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University, Ukraine
David Nicewicz- University of North Carolina, USA
Peter Nielsen- University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Per-Ola Norrby- AstraZeneca, Sweden
Sarah Reisman- Caltech, USA
Stefan Schunk- Grünenthal GmbH, Germany
Ryan Shenvi-The Scripps Research Institute
Brian Stoltz- Caltech, USA
John Sutherland- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge UK
Māris Turks- Riga Technical University, Latvia

BOS2014 (Vilnius)

Michael Krische – University of Texas at Austin, USA
Marek Chemliewski – Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
Stefan Abele – Actelion, Switzerland
Herbert Waldmann – University of Dortmund, Germany
Tom Rovis - Colorado State University, USA
Edvinas Orentas – Vilnius University, Lithuania
Olivier Dirat – Pfizer, UK
Marta Catellani – University of Parma, Italy
Eiichi Nakamura – University of Tokyo, Japan
Aigars Jirgensons – Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, Latvia
Bill Nugent – Vertex Pharmaceuticals, USA
Shu Kobayashi – University of Tokyo, Japan
Andras Horvath – Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Belgium
Asko Uri – University of Tartu, Estonia
Tomas Hudlicky – TDC Research Inc., Canada
Ilan Marek – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
Mats Larhed – Uppsala University, Sweden
Ei-ichi Negishi – Purdue University, USA

BOS2012 (Tallinn)

Mercedes Amat – University of Barcelona, Spain
Thorsten Bach – Technical University of München, Germany
Jeffrey Bode – ETH, Switzerland
Stephen Buchwald – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
André Charette – University of Montreal, Canada
Robert Dancer – Lundbeck A/S, Denmark
Richard Kellogg – University of Groningen, Netherlands
Oleg Kulinkovich – Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Petri Pihko – University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Akira Suzuki - Hokkaido University, Japan
David Tanner – Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Dirk Trauner – University of Munich, Germany
Jin-Quan Yu – Scripps Research Institute. USA
Carl Baxter – Merck, UK
David Blakemore - Pfizer, UK
Hans-Jürgen Federsel – AstraZeneca, Sweden
Rodney Parsons – Bristol Myers Squibb, USA
Chris Senanayake - Boehringer Ingelheim, USA
Robert A. Singer – Pfizer, USA
Balazs Volk – EGIS Pharmaceuticals Plc, Hungary
Peteris Trapencieris – Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, Latvia

BOS2010 (Riga)

Phil Baran - Scripps Research Institute, USA
Martin Burke - University of Illinois, USA
Peter Buehlmayer - Novartis, Switzerland
Prashant Deshpande - Bristol-Myers Squibb, USA
Alois Fürstner - Max Planck Institute, Germany
Klaus Ditrich – BASF, Germany
Amir H. Hoveyda - Boston College, USA
Louis Jungheim - Eli Lilly, USA
Robert Larsen - Amgen, USA
Margus Lopp - Tallinn Univ. of Technology, Estonia
Andrei Malkov - Loughborough University, UK
Istvan Marko - Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Andrew G. Myers - Harvard University, USA
Hans Reich - University of Wisconsin, USA
Peter Seeberger - Max-Planck-Institute, Germany
Edgars Suna - Latvian Inst. of Organic Synthesis
Dean Toste - University of California, Berkeley, USA
M. Christina White - University of Illinois, USA
Andrew Stamford - Merck & Co., Inc., USA
Tony Zhang - Eli Lilly, China

BOS2008 (Vilnius)

Jack Baldwin – University of Oxford, UK
Dieter Seebach – ETH, Switzerland
S. Tumkevicius – Vilnius University, Lithuania
William Roush – Scripps Research Institute, USA
Mike Pierce – Hoffman la Roche, Switzerland
Raymond Funk – Pennsylvania State University, USA
Jaan Pesti – Bristol-Myers Squibb, USA
Carl Decicco - Bristol-Myers Squibb, USA
Maria Kozlowski – University of Pennsylvania, USA
Pat Harran – University of Texas, USA
Ari Koskinen – Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Trevor Laird – Scientific Update, UK
Carl Bolm – Aachen University, Germany
Ben Feringa – University of Groningen, Netherlands
Artis Klapars – Merck & Co. Inc., USA
Jean-Marie Lehn – Louis Pasteur Université, France
Janusz Jurczak – Warsaw University, Poland
Paul Wender – Stanford University, USA

BOS2006 (Tallinn)

Ahmed Abdel-Magid – Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Res. Dev., USA
Magid Abou-Gharbia – Wyeth, USA
Alexandre Alexakis – University of Geneva, Switzerland
Scott Denmark – University of Illinois, USA
Alexander Domling – ABC Pharmaceuticals, Germany
Joel Hawkins – Pfizer, USA
Greg Fu – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Torbjorn Frejd – Lund University, Sweden
Minoru Isobe – Nagoya University, Japan
Tim Jamison - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Madeleine Jouille – University of Pennsylvania, USA
George Lahm – E.I. DuPont Crop Protection, USA
Benjamin List - Max-Planck-Institute, Germany
Nicholas Magnus – Eli Lilly, USA
Larry Overman – University of California at Irvine, USA
Tonis Pehk – Tallinn Technical University, Estonia
Dalibor Sames – Columbia University, USA
Erik Sorensen – Princeton University, USA
Edwin Vedejs – University of Michigan, USA
John Vederas - University of Alberta, Canada
H. Yamamoto – University of Chicago, USA

BOS2004 (Riga)

Janine Cossy - CNRS, France
Olafs Daugulis - University of Houston, USA
Jonas Duncia - Bristol Myers Squibb, USA
Dieter Enders - Aachen University, Germany
David Evans - Harvard University, USA
Rick Friesen - Merck Frosst, Canada
Joe Fortunak – AbbVie, USA
Tohru Fukuyama - University of Tokyo, Japan
Vladimir Gevorgyan - University of Illinois, USA
Paul Knochel - Ludwig-Maximillian’s-University, Germany
Steven Ley - University of Cambridge, UK
Mike Lipton - Pfizer, USA
David MacMillan - California Institute of Technology, USA
K.C. Nicolaou - Scripps Research Institute, USA
Elsa Reichmanis, Bell Laboratories, USA
Eriks Rozners - Northeastern University, USA
Gilbert Stork - Columbia University, USA
Robert Waltermire - Bristol-Myers Squibb, USA
Christina Moberg – KTH School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Sweden
Tom Selby – E.I. DuPont, USA

BOS2002 (Vilnius)

Edward Grabowski – Merck & Co., Inc., USA
Oleg Kulinkovich – Belorussian State University, Belarus
Michael Martinelli – Eli Lilly, USA
Larry Truesdale – Pfizer, USA
Rudolf Duthaler – Novartis Pharma AG, Switzerland
Erick Carreira – ETH, Switzerland
Vittorio Farina – Boehringer Ingelheim, USA
Henri Kagan – University of Paris, France
Linas Kudzma – Baxter Healthcare Corp., USA
Jan Backvall – Stockholm University, Sweden
Pat Confalone – Bristol-Myers Squibb, USA
Barry Sharpless - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Yogesh Sanghvi – Isis Pharmaceuticals, USA
Robert Grubbs – Caltech, USA
Shu Kobayashi – University of Tokyo, Japan
Don Hou – Rhodia Chirex, Inc., USA
Manfred Reetz - Max-Planck-Institute, Germany
Mieczyslaw Makosza – Warsaw University, Poland
Uno Maeorg – Tartu University, Estonia
Bill Bailey – University of Connecticut, USA
Ivars Kalvins – Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, Latvia

BOS2000 (Vilnius)

Ryoji Noyori, Nagoya University, Japan
Anthony Barrett - Imperial College, UK
Gerhard Beck - Aventis Pharma, Germany
Matthias Beller - Univ. Rostock, Germany
Armin de Meijere - Georg-August-University, Gottingen, Germany
Robert Young - Merck Frosst, Canada
Irina Beletskaya - Moscow State Univ., Russia
Romas Kazlauskas - McGill Univ., Canada
Ivar Ugi - Techical University München, Germany
Margus Lopp - Tallinn Tech. Univ., Estonia
Lauri Vaska - Clarkson Univ., USA
Eugenijus Butkus - Vilnius University, Lithuania
Edmunds Lukevics - Latvian Inst. Org. Synthesis, Latvia
Edwin Vedejs - Univ. of Michigan, USA
Albert Eschenmoser - Scripps Research Inst., USA & ETH, Zurich, Switzerland