The use of nucleophiles bearing chiral centres, the use of α,βthe more common sources for the control of asymmetry through Michael addition reactions. unsaturated systems with the chirality at the γ position and the presence of chiral ligands or other chiral mediators are Scheme 1 Enrique Dı ´ez-Barra (top, left) was born in Madrid, Spain in 1954. He received his bachelor of chemistry from the Universidad Complutense, where he also obtained his Ph. D. with M. C. Pardo, working on 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of azolium ylides in 1982. In 1985 he moved to Ciudad Real, Spain where he created the department of organic chemistry in the new Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. Alkylation and Michael addition under phase-transfer catalysis conditions have been his preferred topics. Enrique Dı ´ez-Barra is now Catedra ´tico of Organic Chemistry and is involved in a new objective: the synthesis of dendrimers. Sonia Merino (right) was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1971. In 1993 she received her bachelor of chemistry from the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, where she also obtained her Ph. D. in 1997 with E. Dı ´ez-Barra, working on phase-transfer-catalysed Michael additions. Sonia is now in Toulouse, France as postdoctoral fellow with Professor Jean Pierre Majoral. John Leonard (bottom, left) was born in Manchester, England in 1954. In 1979 he obtained his Ph. D. with R. Brown, working on biomimetic conversions of secologanin into chincona alkaloids. He spent two years working with G. Stork on the total synthesis of veratrum alkaloids. John is fellow of the RSC and Chartered Chemist, and now senior lecturer in organic chemistry. His research projects are the synthesis of the alkaloid manzamine-A and the development of new methods for asymmetric induction involving chiral lithium amide bases.