Research in the Gilbertson lab is focused on scientific problems dealing with global climate change and CO2 utilization. Our projects involve the integration of active-type (AT) and passive-type (PT) ligand-based reduction principles and motifs for small molecule activation. These projects are synthetic-inorganic in nature specifically aimed at the homogeneous reduction of CO2 into useable feedstocks and fuels. These projects involve the synthesis of coordination compounds composed of earth abundant metals and ligands with reaction directors and redox active sites engineered into both the primary and secondary coordination sphere.