Friday, October 30, 2009

Scott Phillips, pen state university


Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, 2008-

Research Fellow, George Whitesides Group, Harvard University, 2006-2008

Developed new materials and detection platforms with applications in
medicine, drug development, and less-industrialized nations.

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Matthew Shair Group, Harvard University, 2004-2006

Designed, synthesized, and analyzed the behavior of beta-strand and beta-sheet mimics.
Determined the energies associated with amino acid interactions in beta-sheets.
Developed chemical hosts to recognize peptide guests sequence-selectively in
water.

Education

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2004
boss Paul A. Bartlett

Designed, synthesized, and analyzed the behavior of beta-strand and beta-sheet mimics.
Determined the energies associated with amino acid interactions in beta-sheets.
Developed chemical hosts to recognize peptide guests sequence-selectively in
water.

B.S., California State University, San Bernardino, 1999

research area:

Chemistry for Resource-Limited Environments

We are using organic chemistry to create autonomous diagnostics--that is, diagnostic devices that provide all of the functions typically obtained with instruments i.e., (selectivity, sensitivity, quantitative measurements, and clearly displayed information), but using only organic reactions on a piece of paper. Our goal is to devise chemistry that forms the basis for exceedingly simple and disposable diagnostics devices. These systems will be useful in the developing world, emergency rooms, and other applications requiring portable and inexpensive devices for detecting disease or pollution. Projects in this area include: (i) Developing new reagents and strategies for signal and target amplification; (ii) developing new reactions for activity–based detection; and (iii) developing new strategies and new reagents for stabilizing biomolecules.


Designing Living Materials

We are developing materials that respond to external signals by changing shape, function, and/or surface properties. This work can be extended to developing materials that grow, and possibly divide. One aspect of this work includes the design and synthesis of environmentally–friendly plastics.


Unconventional Reaction Methodology

As the price of crude oil continues to rise, so too will prices of bulk chemicals derived from oil. We are developing reactions that use CO2 as an inexpensive carbon source (in place of oil) for making bulk chemical building blocks.

A second program in this area focuses on reaction networks that are self-perpetuating, the simplest of which is an autocatalytic reaction (where a molecule makes more of itself). We plan to expand autocatalytic behavior into more complex reaction networks, with the goal of developing systems that provide useful function and/or byproducts.



Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Donald A. Watson, University of Delaware



Donald A. Watson was born in California in 1976. He received his BS in Chemistry from UC San Diego in 1998. During his undergraduate years, he worked in the laboratories of Professors K.C. Nicolaou and Emmanuel Theodorakis, working on natural products synthesis.

He completed his PhD in Organic Chemistry at UC Irvine in 2004, working under the direction of Professor Larry E. Overman. His dissertation work focused on stereochemical problems in palladium catalyzed transformations.

From 2004 to 2006 he was a NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratories of Professor Robert G. Bergman at UC Berkeley. During this time he developed zirconium-based catalysts for asymmetric intramolecular hydroaminations. He then moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as to take a position as a Postdoctoral Associate in Professor Stephen L. Buchwald's laboratory, where he studied metal catalyzed processes C-F bond formation.

He joined the Chemistry and Biochemistry faculty at the University of Delaware as an Assistant Professor in July 2009.

1. Bimetallic Complexes for Remote Substrate-Directed Catalysis.

2.New Methods for the Preparation of a-Chiral Amines.

3. Electrocatalysts for the Reduction of CO2 to Methanol.

Publications:
pending

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Bischler-Napieralski reaction

reagent: pocl3
solvent: mecn, benzene, toluene, dcm, dmpu.
temp: rt - reflux
time: several hours.

not a nice and clean reaction. usually low yielding because of the strong acidic condition.
the product imine is sometimes not stable.

some milder conditions:
1. pph3/ccl4/reflux
2. Tf2O

a nice link:

http://www.organic-chemistry.org/namedreactions/bischler-napieralski-reaction.shtm