Prof. Rob Hinkle's Research in Chemistry at William & Mary

Scroll down for a brief overview of Research in the Hinkle Lab, but also See:

1. Current Research on polyynes and alkyne-Prins cascades via oxacarbenium  ions.

2. Student Co-workers (current and some previous)

3.  About Prof. Hinkle : brief bio and CV

4. Previous research on Algal Biofuels and Hypervalent Iodine

Research in the Hinkle Lab at William & Mary

We are interested in creating new reactions and studying reactive intermediates. In particular, we create novel molecules using oxocarbenium ion and iodonium ion intermediates in cascade, or domino reaction sequences. These complex processes involve a number of discreet organic transformations in which the individual reactions must take place in a specific order for the overall reaction to afford products in reasonable yields (see Alkyne-Prins Cascades" in the Current Research tab). In essence, one reaction (domino) must fall (react) before the next reaction can proceed, and so-on. We are also collaborating with Prof. Doug Young on making simple polyynes and analyzing their biological activity (see "Polyynes and Biological Activity" in the Current Research tab".

For more information on Prof. Hinkle, see the page entitled "Information About Prof. Hinkle"  and "Prof. Hinkle's CV." To see more details about what we're studying at the present time, please visit our "Current Research" heading. For older chemistry that we are no longer pursuing, please click on the "Previous Research" heading.

Anyone interested in working in the lab should make an effort to talk to current students at the poster session on the first Friday afternoon of each semester. If you find the work interesting, contact Prof. Hinkle by email (rjhink@wm.edu). Just make sure to put "research interest" in the subject line of the email! Also, anyone who wants to work in the lab for credit will need to Register for and complete the safety portions of Chem. 195 before doing any work in the lab. Even volunteers who just want to shadow an experienced lab student, but not perform research for credit need to contact Prof. Hinkle and go through the same Chem. 195 process for our records. The Chem. 195 link leads you to a Docusign document. Prof. Hinkle will be automatically notified once Laboratory Director, Jeff Molloy, has verified that you've completed the safety training.