Research

My research team’s interests lie in the general area of chemical synthesis. We are particularly interested in the discovery of new organic transformations and their application to the total synthesis of architecturally challenging and biologically important natural products. Our criteria for the development of a synthetic method may be summarized by three characteristics:

• • The reaction should achieve several structural modifications in a single synthetic operation: tandem or domino reactions are optimal;

  • The reaction should introduce a significant level of stereochemical complexity in a controlled fashion, and absolute stereocontrol should arise from a chiral source used in catalytic quantities;

  • The starting materials should be readily accessed, but be easily transformed into complex products. To meet these challenges, we engage in a full suite of tools in organic and organometallic chemistry.