Morken Research Group
Organic Chemistry Research at Boston College
Synthetic organic chemistry has undergone a paradigm shift over the past 15 years with new metal-catalyzed transformations enabling bond formation in ways that chemists previously only dreamed about.
Realizing the impact that new catalytic asymmetric reactions will have on the continued evolution of organic synthesis, we have focused our research on the development of new processes and on studying their utility in complex molecule synthesis. Control of enantioselectivity is an overarching theme as adequate control of molecular shape is paramount in the design of effective therapeutics, materials, and commodity chemicals. Our progress towards these goals depends upon expertise in many areas of chemistry including organometallic chemistry, physical organic chemistry, and synthetic organic chemistry. Additionally, computational chemistry plays a central role in ligand design and in prediction of reaction outcomes.
Morken Research Group 2024
August 21, 2024
Congratulations to Mingkai, Matt & Hao for their work, Catalytic asymmetric synthesis of meta benzene isosteres, now out in Nature!
August 01, 2024
Today Mingkai successfully defended his PhD thesis and now leaves us for Prof. Geoff Coate's lab at Cornell as a Post-Doc. Congrats Dr. Zhang!
Summer outing!
July 02, 2024
Huge congratulations to Hao and Mike for the publication of Stereospecific Phosphination and Thioetherification of Organoboronic Esters in JACS, out today!
July 01, 2024
If you're interested in synthesising enantioenriched vicinal diborons from terminal alkenes, go check out our Org. Synth. prep by Chenpeng & Paul, checked by Matthieu Maciejewski in the Yoon Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison!
June 25, 2024
Congratulations to Nina and John for publishing on the non-directed activation and functionalisation of diboronic esters in ACIE! Great work!
June 13, 2024
Paul presented his previous work on the enantioselective Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling reaction, and his latest work on a migratory Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling reaction at the American Chemical Society Connecticut Valley Section Symposium on Applied Synthesis.
May 20, 2024
Today is Boston College's 2024 Commencement Ceremony, and Dr. Zinnia Kong completed her hooding ceremony!
May 08, 2024
Congratulations to Nina (Ningxin) Xu for passing her thesis defense! She's now working at Amgen in Cali.!
January 18, 2024
Congratulations to Zinnia (Ziyin) Kong for passing her thesis defense! She's now working at Relay Therapeutics in Mass.!
Morken Research Group 2023
December 13, 2023
Paul will be heading to Ulm, Germany in March 2024 as a Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (NESACS) Delegate to the JungChemikerForum der GDCh Spring Symposium!
December 12, 2023
Welcome to our newest members of the group Sarah, Jin Ook, Trevor, Ling, and Jared!!!
December 01, 2023
We were excited to host Professor Suginome to Boston College where he gave a fantastic seminar, and enjoy dinner together afterwards.
August 31,2023
Want to learn about the activation of enantiomerically enriched tertiary alkylboronic esters in cross-coupling reactions? Read our new paper on substrate plasticity enables group-selective transmetalation: catalytic stereospecific cross-couplings of tertiary boronic esters on JACS! Nice work Hao!
August 16, 2023
Read about the enantioselective synthesis of 1,2-diborylsilanes and subsequent site-selective cross-coupling on ACS Catalysis! Fantastic work Ziyin (Zinnia) and Weipeng!
July 27, 2023
Congratulations to Mingkai - the recipient of this year's Fall 2023 ACS graduate student symposium travel awards!
July 24, 2023
Read about the enantioselective construction of carbocyclic and heterocyclic tertiary boronic esters by conjunctive cross-coupling reaction on JACS! Nice work, Xuntong (Charlie) and Chenpeng!
June 24, 2023
It was great to have our former undergraduate Dr. Max Palkowitz back to BC for a short course in heterocyclic chemistry. Great to see you and fantastic course!!
June 15, 2023
Paul is an invited speaker for the Northeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in the "Enablement of Novel and Sustainable Cross-Coupling Methodologies for Increasing Saturation" section!
June 8, 2023
Congratulations to our second-year students Matt, John, Paul and Xieyang for passing their oral qualification exam!
May 22, 2023
Today is the Boston College 2023 Commencement Ceremony! Congratulation to Dr. Weipeng Hu, Dr. Peilin Xu and Dr. Alex Vendola (from left to right) who completed the hooding ceremony today!
May 4, 2023
Paul was selected as a student speaker at the American Chemistry Society Connecticut Valley Symposium on Applied Synthesis where he presented on his work into the enantioselective desymmetrisation of bis(boronic esters) by the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction (read here!)
April 26, 2023
A new paper by Hao Liang is now available on JACS today and is absolutely worth a read! Come and learn about a stereospecific transmetalation of alkylboronic esters to zinc!
April 6, 2023
Huge congrats to Mingkai and Paul for their new JACS paper on desymmetrization of vicinal bis(boronic) esters! Check it out!
Mar 15, 2023
Jasmin has received this year's John Kozarich Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship! Congrats!
Mar 12, 2023
Nina's abstract has been accepted and she will be presenting at this year's Gordon Research Conference: Organic Reactions and Processes in July! Congratulations and stay tuned!
Jan 25, 2023
Congratulations to Chenpeng and Chris for their paper getting accepted at JOC which shares some new electronically asymmetric ligands that enable palladium-catalyzed conjunctive cross-coupling!