Research

Organic Synthesis, Organometallic Catalysis

The overarching goal of our research program is the development of new approaches to organic synthesis. This can be accomplished in two ways:

1. Inventing new synthetic transformations
2. Developing new synthetic routes to interesting target molecules.

Specifically, we are harnessing and expand the emerging technology of C-H activation. In so doing, we intend to discover expedient, cost-effective, and routes to valuable commodity chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

A second goal of our work is the synthesis and analysis of macrocyclic complexes that can be use for biomedical imaging. This work involves chemical synthesis and analysis of host-guest interactions.  The ultimate goal of this research program is the development of a new molecular imaging platform that can be used to accurately diagnose a wide variety of diseases using the burgeoning technology of hyperpolarized xenon-129 MRI.