Tynchtyk Amatov

Tynchtyk Amatov is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at New York University Abu Dhabi, affiliated with the Division of Science. His research focuses on catalysis, natural product synthesis, medicinal chemistry, and nucleic acids chemistry, with a particular emphasis on sustainable methodologies and applications in chemical biology. Prior to NYUAD, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung with Benjamin List and at LMU Munich under Thomas Carell, exploring origin-of-life chemistry and radical mechanisms.

Amatov holds a BSc and MSc from Lomonosov Moscow State University and a PhD from Charles University in Prague/IOCB Prague under Ullrich Jahn. His work bridges synthetic organic chemistry and prebiotic chemistry, addressing questions about early Earth molecular systems through radical-based synthetic strategies.

His current research emphasizes developing new catalytic systems for natural product synthesis and exploring prebiotic pathways for nucleic acid formation. He teaches courses such as Chemophobia, Inorganic Chemistry, and Advanced Organic Chemistry at NYUAD.

Notable contributions include discoveries in homolytic bond activation mechanisms and prebiotically plausible RNA nucleotide synthesis pathways. The Amatov Lab at NYUAD continues to advance sustainable chemical methodologies and origin-of-life studies.