Organic Chemistry Seminar

Chemistry is in a phase of expanding opportunities. Advances in experimental technologies are accelerating discovery and capabilities, while in silico developments allow chemical reactivity to be interrogated on timescales that rival or even outpace experiment. At the same time, emerging algorithmic tools enable complex connections within chemical data to be uncovered. As these tools continue to improve in speed, accuracy and scope, the ability to rationalize, predict and design chemical reactivity will only become more powerful.

These capabilities enable the identification of fundamentally new reaction principles beyond established reactivity paradigms, which will benefit efforts to address challenges in catalysis and synthesis. Over the past sixteen years, our group has worked at the interface of synthesis, catalysis and computational chemistry, uncovering reaction principles and translating mechanistic understanding into enabling synthetic strategies.

This lecture will highlight case studies ranging from unexpected reactivity to addressing challenges in synthesis and catalysis. Examples include revealing alternative elementary steps in catalytic cycles, predicting catalyst speciation and selectivity in homogeneous catalysis, implementing machine learning approaches for reactivity prediction in data scarce regimes, identifying stereodynamic reactivity that enables controlled stereomutation and developing orthogonal coupling handles guided by mechanistic insight.