Classically, the practice of chemical synthesis has focused on building hydrocarbon scaffolds while concurrently introducing oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon functionality. The speaker and her group have discovered and commercialized palladium/sulfoxide catalysts for allylic C—H functionalizations, iron(PDP) catalysts for aliphatic C—H hydroxylations, and manganese phthalocynine catalysts for intramolecular C(sp3)—H aminations. These catalysts proceed with unprecedented levels of reactivity and tunable selectivities in complex molecule settings, without the need for directing groups. Site-selectivity rules have been delineated based on the physical organic properties of C—H bonds (electronic, steric, and stereoelectronic) that have proven general across a variety of aliphatic C—H functionalization reactions. Using these novel transition metal catalysts which have been validated late stage C—H oxidation, i.e. direct introduction of oxidized functionality into C(sp3)—H bonds of molecule scaffolds, as a powerful approach for streamlining synthetic sequences and directly diversifying natural products, including complex peptides. In this lecture, the speaker aims to provide an overview of these areas in addition to current advances in chemoselective and asymmetric C—H oxidations.
About the speaker
Prof M. Christina White received her BA in Biochemistry from Smith College in 1992 and her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1998. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, she joined the faculty there in 2002. In 2005, she joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is currently the Professor of Chemistry.
Prof White’s research interest focuses on the development of highly selective C—H functionalization methods for streamlining the process of complex molecule synthesis which aim to develop highly selective oxidation methods, similar to those found in Nature, for the direct installation of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon functionalities into allylic and aliphatic C—H bonds of complex molecules and their intermediates.
Prof White received numerous awards including the NSF CAREER Award (2006), the Eli Lilly Grantee Award (2007), the Pfizer Award for Creativity in Organic Chemistry (2008), the AstraZeneca Excellence in Chemistry Award (2008), the Roche Excellence in Chemistry Award (2009), and the Merck Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (2013). She was also an elected fellow of the UIUC Center for Advanced Study (2006), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (2014).
For attendees’ attention
The lecture is free and open to all. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.
