Organic Chemistry Frontiers Blog

Position          Associate Professor

Postdoc          2014–2016  University of Texas at Austin

Education       2009–2014  University of California, Riverside          Ph.D.

                       2006–2008  Western Carolina University                   M.Sc.

                       2003–2006  Western Carolina University                   B.Sc.

ORCID            0000-0002-3256-5562                      Google Scholar

If I weren’t a scientist, I’d probably be a musician, specifically a composer/performer. My favourite instrument is the F horn.

I try to impress upon my students the value of creating and exploring their own research ideas and interests as students. Graduate school may not be the best compensated time, but it is the freest to explore new ideas.

If I could go back to graduate school, I would work with someone in the directed protein evolution field. Biocatalysis can do so many cool things that synthetic chemists are trying, but mostly failing, to replicate.

My favourite reaction is the Ireland-Claisen rearrangement. It helped me to solve a challenging product synthesis that I could not achieve through other means.

My favourite metal is molybdenum, even though we don’t work with it at the moment.

My favourite book is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I enjoy dystopian literature, although perhaps less as some of these works begin to feel more prescient than fictitious.

I enjoy listening to video game sound tracks. I find it helps to focus while I’m writing grant proposals or manuscripts.

I am happiest when I am surrounded by mountains.

My biggest goal as a researcher is to do something so off-the-wall that my group earns an Ig Nobel Prize.

Position          Professor

Education       2011–2014  Xiamen University                            Ph.D.

                       2008–2011  Xiamen University                            M.Sc.

                       2004–2008  Fuyang Normal University                B.Sc.

ORCID            0000-0003-3423-3390

What I look for first in a paper are insightful thoughts and challenges in the area.

If I were not an organic chemistry professor, I would be a historian or soldier.

In my spare time, I love playing games and sports with my two sons and traveling with my family.

The most difficult challenges I have faced were starting my independent research career and establishing an innovative and unique research program.

The first academic article I published in my independent research career is in Angewandte Chemie. This paper shaped the research interests of my group.

The most challenging work in my research is to achieve the asymmetric 1,3-dienylation of PADs with different carbon-based nucleophiles with high selectivity.

My advice for younger students is that hard work, persistence, strong will, and thinking more independently are key to success in their beginning research career.

An accomplishment I’m particularly proud of is that my students have become who they want to be after graduation.

The next goal of my research is to achieve structurally diverse conjugated dienes from PADs and to explore their further application in the synthesis of complex molecules with industrial needs.

Position          Associate Professor

Education       2014–2017  Northeast Normal University                Ph.D.

                       2012–2014  Northeast Normal University                M.Sc.

                       2006–2010  Jilin University                                      B.Sc.

ORCID            0000-0003-0201-6279

I published my first academic article in 2015 during my PhD studies in Nature Communications. This article demonstrates interesting and unpredictable N-centered radical addition to alkyne-initiated cascade transformations realizing animative muti-functionalization of alkynes.

The most challenging work about my research is to realize efficient asymmetric induction in NHC-catalyzed radical–radical cross-couplings.

In my spare time, I enjoy reading online novels.

My favorite science fiction novel is The Three-Body Problem.

The person who has had the greatest influence on my research career is my M.S. and Ph.D. supervisor Prof. Qian Zhang (Northeast Normal University). She was passionate about scientific research and was very inspiring.

The most important qualities of a role model are honesty, patience, and responsibility.

The most important thing I have learned is that opportunities are for those who are prepared.

I advise my students to keep enthusiasm and individual thinking about their research.

I lose track of time when discussing research progress and prospects with students.