Laurel L. Schafer

Associate Professor

Office: A227
Office Phone: (604)-822-9264
Lab(s): A223 / A219/A215
Lab Phone(s): 822-8296

FAX: (604)-822-2847
Email: schafer@chem.ubc.ca

Curriculum Vitae: B.Sc. University of Guelph (1993); Ph.D. University of Victoria (D.J. Berg, 1999); NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship University of California - Berkeley (T.D. Tilley, 1999-2001); NSERC University Faculty Award (2001); Boehringer Ingelheim Young Investigator Award for Organic Synthesis (2004); A.P. Sloan Fellow (2007); Humboldt Research Fellow (2010).

Organometallic/Organic: Development of Early Transition Metal and Lanthanide Reagents for Organic Synthesis: i) Preparation of new amidate metal complexes for applications in catalytic hydroamination, C-C bond forming reactions and the synthesis of biodegradable polymers. ii) Fundamental reactivity studies of metal-mediated and catalyzed organic transformations to formulate new strategies for reagent/catalyst optimization. iii) Development of a class of modular, N,O chelating ligands (amidates), including chiral ligand syntheses, for applications in asymmetric catalysis. iv) Development of tandem reaction sequences for the synthesis of highly functionalized small molecules and heterocycles.

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Research/Teaching Interests

My research interests bridge the areas of organometallic and organic chemistry where we prepare discrete early transition metal and lanthanide complexes for use in the atom-economic, catalytic synthesis of amines. In particular, we are interested in new approaches for the synthesis of chiral ligands for early transition metal and lanthanide complexation suitable for enantioselective transformations.

Our group has developed specialized expertise in the exploitation of easily prepared and modular amidate ligand sets. Upon complexation, the unique electronic characteristics of these ligands promote the formation of very electrophilic metal centers that display promising reactivity in both C-N (hydroamination), C-C (the direct alkylation of amines) bond formation and the ring-opening polymerization of lactones.

There are three general areas of catalysis research:

1) New N,O Chelated Organometallic Complexes for
Group 4 and Lanthanide Mediated Hydroamination Catalysis

2) New N,O Chelated Organometallic Complexes for the direct alkylation of amines (the hydroaminoalkylation reaction).

2) New N,O Chelated Organometallic Complexes for the catalytic synthesis of biodegradable polymers via ring-opening polymerization of lactones.

The fundamental research of the organometallic chemistry of these new complexes provides the foundation for the program. The motivation is the application of these complexes toward small molecule organic chemistry, in which elucidation of mechanistic detail is a key focus. Researchers involved in this work will become trained in a wide range of synthetic skills. The organometallic portions of the projects will demand development of air-sensitive handling techniques while the applications portion will build organic chemistry laboratory skills. The focus on enantioselective methodology will ensure familiarity with chiral techniques (e.g. determination of optical purity, chiral resolutions).

ACCEPTING GRADUATE STUDENT APPLICATIONS FOR 2009

*Photo credit: Janis Franklin/UBC Media Group, UBC Faculty of Science