Hi, I'm Justin! 

Justin grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He pursued an undergraduate degree in chemistry with a minor in philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he explored the use of algae as a biosorbent for heavy metal removal from wastewater effluent. He then returned to Philadelphia to work with Daniel K. Kim at the Temple University. During his time at Temple, he developed strategies for accessing vicinal functionality through carbon–carbon bond-forming reactions using metallaphotoredox catalysis. After completing his Ph.D. in 2026, he joined the Ramirez Lab at the University of Minnesota in the summer of 2026. Outside the lab, Justin enjoys playing tennis, cooking, and spending time with his loved ones. 

Publications

• Chang, J. J.; Kumar, M.; Okamoto, M.; Vergara-Pimentel, E. S.; Kim, D. K. “Unified Hydrogen Atom Transfer Approach To Construct Vicinal Functionality.” Org. Lett. 2025, 27, 4417–4420.

• Samony, K. L.; Chang, J. J.; Kim, D. K. “Duality of Dioxonyl Radicals” SynPacts Perspective, 2025, 36, 1799–1807.

• Chang, J. J.; Kumar, M.; Kashatus, R. C.; Tomaselli, D. J.; Kim, D. K. Substitutive Approach Toward Heteroaromatic Amino Alcohols Accessed Through Dioxolanyl Radical Linchpin, Adv. Synth. Catal. 2026, 368, e70405.

Selected Awards

• Gemstone Honors College (2017–2021)

• University of Maryland Dean's List (2019)

Favorite Reaction(s)

• Corey-Chaykovsky Reaction