The program unites various modern and classical tools for the design of catalysts for new reactions with broad applications from enantioselective synthesis to energy related topics (fuel cells and batteries) to biological inspired reaction types (C-H functionalization, directed evolution). The goals are not only to enable the development of processes with the wide-ranging applications described above but ultimately to understand the guiding principles by which the performance of a particular catalyst or functional molecule is achieved. To accomplish this, the speaker and his research group have been integrating classical techniques of physical organic chemistry with a new set of methods to interrogate the complex relationship of structure to function.
The selective functionalization of Pd-alkyl intermediates requires a careful understanding of the dynamics of β-hydride elimination, migratory insertion, and transmetallation. The speaker and his research group have been interested in exploring palladium’s tendency towards facile β-hydride elimination, a means by which to transpose palladium to a desired position on a substrate for subsequent functionalization, empowering a number of useful C-H, C-O, and C-C bond-forming reactions.
About the speaker
Prof. Matthew S. Sigman received his BSc in Chemistry from Sonoma State University in 1992 and PhD from Washington State University in 1996. He began his career in Harvard University as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow from 1997 to 1999. He then became an Assistant Professor in the University of Utah and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2008. He is currently Distinguished Professor and Peter J. Christine S. Stang Presidential Endowed Chair of Chemistry there.
Prof. Sigman’s research focuses on the development of new synthetic methodology with an underlying interest in reaction mechanism. His research program explores the broad areas of oxidation catalysis, asymmetric catalysis, and the relationship between structure and function in complex reactions.
Prof. Sigman received numerous awards including the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award for Creative Works in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2017), the University of Utah Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Research Award (2011) and the ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2010). He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2011). He currently serves on the editorial advisory boards of The Journal of Organic Chemistry and ACS Catalysis, and is also an Associate Editor of Journal of the American Chemical Society.
For attendees’ attention
The lecture is free and open to all. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.
