I am a postdoctoral fellow engaged in research at the intersection of polymers, physical organic chemistry and data science. I currently work on the design of highly strained monomers that endow materials with on-demand reactivity and development of strategies for AI-guided optimization of frontal polymerizations. Previously, I created bifunctional catalysts that mimic design elements found in enzymes, built open-source reactors for visible-light photochemistry, created organic chemistry curricula that introduced cutting-edge research to teaching labs and studied carbon tunneling in organic reactions using DFT.
My research is supported by the American Chemical Society through the Arthur C. Cope Postdoctoral Fellowship in Organic Chemistry. I am also a recipient of the One-U Responsible AI Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowship, which has provided me with non-financial support as I develop my research program in AI and chemistry.
Research interests
Can we design polymers that match the performance of current plastics but have diverse functionalities and end-of-life options?
How do we design materials that merge the best properties of biopolymers and synthetic polymers?
How do we best leverage sparse data to guide experimental chemistry efforts?
Which AI/ML methods actually help chemists and how do we make them accessible to experimentalists?
What is required to discover catalysts that unlock fundamentally new reactivity?
How do we achieve selectivity by enhancing reactivity rather than suppressing it?
Which synthetic strategies remain out of reach, why haven't they been examined, and what catalysts might make them possible?
AI-guided polymer design and synthesis.
Foldamer catalysis, Photochemistry and Chemistry Education.
Computational studies of heavy atom tunneling in organic reactions.
2025
Bifunctional Catalysis of Aldol Reactions by Foldamer Dihydrazides: Assessment of Conformational Preorganization
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2025, 147, 37, 33932-33943
Dual Activation Modes Enable Bifunctional Catalysis of Aldol Reactions by Flexible Dihydrazides
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2025, 147, 4, 3731–3739
2024
Energy-Transfer Photocatalytic (E)→(Z) Isomerization of 2-Nitrocinnamaldehyde Using an Inexpensive, 3-D Printed Photoreactor Monitored by ¹H NMR Spectroscopy and Computational Modeling
Journal of Chemical Education 2024, 101, 9, 3949–3957 – ACS Editors’ Choice
2023
Radiometallation and Photo-Triggered Release of Ready-to-Inject Radiopharmaceuticals from the Solid Phase
Chemical Science 2023, 14, 5038–5055
2021
Versatile Open-Source Photoreactor Architecture for Photocatalysis Across the Visible Spectrum
Organic Letters 2021, 23, 13, 5277–5281
2020
Catalytic Intramolecular Conjugate Additions of Aldehyde-Derived Enamines to α,β-Unsaturated Esters
Organic Letters 2020, 22, 11, 4568–4573
2019
Tunneling by 16 Carbons: Planar Bond Shifting in [16]Annulene
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2019, 141, 13, 5286–5293
Wisconsin Photoreactor Platform
An open-source architecture for low-cost, high-performance photoreactors for synthetic organic chemistry. The reactors are modular, can be produced for under 200 USD and are compatible with a wide range of commercial LEDs.
Taught 2 sections of Organic Chemistry I, delivering 6 × 1-hour lectures per week to ~500 undergraduates (1 semester).
Developed, implemented and taught 3 new Advanced Organic Chemistry Laboratory experiments focused on synthetic photocatalysis (4 semesters).
Led weekly Organic Chemistry I & II Lab and discussion sections (6 semesters).