Introducing bis(oxazole) ligands to catalysis: novel bis(oxazole) ligands could be readily synthesized from isophthaloyl dichlorides and ethyl glycinate hydrochlorides or 6-aminoacetophenone hydrochloride. Their corresponding pincer palladium complexes proved to be extremely robust catalysts for Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling reactions, allowing the synthesis of biaryls under aerobic conditions with turn over numbers of up to 790,000 and turn over frequencies of up to 49,000h(-1). (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.