My colleagues and I have studied a variety of problems in organic chemistry. We have developed new methods for accomplishing problematic organic transformations, studied the mechanisms of these and other methods with an emphasis on understanding the origin of stereoselectivity, and have applied our methods to the synthesis of complex natural and unnatural products. More recently, in collaborative research, we have studied the rational design and synthesis of inhibitors for biochemical processes including bacterial membrane modification and bacterial colony formation, and the synthesis of molecules to probe the mechanistic requirements for energy transfer in geometrically constrained acene dimers. The common theme of this research is the design and study of molecules for a specific function, whether it be a chemical, biological, or photophysical functions.
keywords
Organic synthesis, methods development, the application organic synthesis to solve problems in medicine, biology, and energy
CHEM 3451 - Organic Chemistry for Chemistry and Biochemistry Majors
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020 / Spring 2021
Covers bonding, acidity, reaction mechanisms, nomenclature of organic compounds; stereochemistry; structure and reactions of aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids and derivatives. Department enforced corequisite: CHEM 3361 or CHEM 3321. Degree credit not granted for this course and CHEM 3311.
CHEM 5311 - Advanced Synthetic Organic Chemistry
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019 / Fall 2020
Lect. Surveys synthetic transformations emphasizing important functional group transformations and carbon-carbon, bond-forming reactions. Required of all organic chemistry graduate students. Department enforced prerequisite: one year of organic chemistry or graduate standing.
CHEM 6901 - Research in Chemistry
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2019 / Fall 2019 / Spring 2020 / Spring 2021 / Fall 2021 / Spring 2022
May be repeated up to 15 total credit hours.
