The discovery of catalysts is of great importance to the practice of modern synthetic chemistry, both to improve upon the existing catalog of chemical transformations and to generate new modes of reactivity. Research in our group will focus on the discovery of novel methods for the efficient and selective synthesis of small molecule scaffolds. We will primarily achieve this goal through the design and development of new catalysts, thereby enabling us to realize new synthetic bond disconnections and allowing us to control some aspect of selectivity in these reactions (e.g., enantio-, diastereo-, chemo-, regio-, and/or site selectivity). The catalysts and methods developed in the group will be applied to the synthesis of biologically active and other structurally interesting molecules.
