Strategic Applications of Chemical Theory and Computations to Organic Synthesis and Material Science

A significant number of the most powerful synthetic reactions and materials known today involve compounds that are complex – large in size, complicated in structure, and often exhibiting bewildering flexibility & variability.  In many cases, virtually nothing is known or understood about how the structures of these compounds lead to function.  Our group is at the forefront of expanding the reach of theory towards these systems.  Our research program spans organic, inorganic, and materials chemistry, from homogeneous catalysis to aqueous metal clusters to solid state oxide semiconductors.  Our goals are to create new hypotheses, clarify mysteries, elucidate predictability from erraticism, and ultimately, to transform the way chemical research is enhanced by theory.  We collaborate with dozens of leading research groups around the world towards these goals. In this seminar, the latest discoveries into the mechanisms and selectivities of Lewis-Base enantioselective processes as well as amorphous metal oxide semiconductor will be presented.