The Daily Bulletin

Please join the Chemistry Department for the seminar "Controlling Reactivity through Mechanism-Informed Catalyst Design," presented by C. Rose Kennedy, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Rochester, on Thursday, March 10, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Science and Mathematics Complex 151.

Seminar Abstract
"Accessing C(sp3)-rich structures is essential for development of biomedically relevant molecules because three-dimensional complexity correlates with diversity of screening libraries and with a candidate molecule’s probability of success in the drug-discovery pipeline. The goal of research in the Kennedy group is to develop and apply mechanistic insights to discover catalytic transformations that achieve convergent assembly of abundant molecular building blocks and create new C(sp3) sites. This research at the organic–inorganic nexus is enabled through synthetic method development; structural and mechanistic study of catalytically relevant organometallic species; and state-of-the-art computational methods. Case studies will be discussed from two complementary approaches that seek to (1) design functional ligands for transition metals to modulate chemo- and regioselective activation of amide functional groups and (2) leverage a traceless external stimulus to alter the reaction coordinate energy profiles of elementary organic reactions."