Keynote Speaker

Professor Merlic obtained his B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of California, Davis in 1982 where he worked with Professor George Zweifel on acylsilane chemistry supported by a President's Undergraduate Fellowship. He received the Herbert A. Young Medal from the UCD College of Letters and Science at graduation. He completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry as a Hertz Foundation Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1988. After a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship at Princeton University he joined the faculty in the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1989.

Professor Merlic's research focuses on applications of transition metal organometallic chemistry to organic synthesis and extends from catalysis to synthesis of new chemotherapeutic agents. His most recent work focuses on copper, iridium and palladium catalyzed cross coupling reactions. He has received a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Petroleum Research Fund and various corporate sponsors.

He created award-winning Internet-based educational projects for course management and teaching spectroscopy in organic chemistry. These projects earned a MERLOT Award for Exemplary Online Learning Resources, a StudySphere Award of Excellence and a StudyWeb Excellence Award. In addition, for his in-class teaching he received a Hanson-Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching from the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.

Professor Merlic is very active promoting laboratory safety at UCLA and the University of California system. He serves as chair of the Department Safety Committee, chair of the UCLA Chemical and Physical Safety Committee, and member of the UCLA Safety Oversight Committee. At the University of California system level, he is the Executive Director of the UC Center for Laboratory Safety that has ongoing projects to improve laboratory safety policies, procedures, and training. Through the Center he also manages the Safety Training Consortium that provides safety courses to several dozen universities across the nation. He serves as a Board Member for the University of California Risk & Safety Solutions.