Organic and Inorganic Chemistry 2026 Lectureship and Award Winners

What does being recognized by this award from Inorganic Chemistry mean to you?

As a freshman pursuing undergraduate degree in chemistry, I’ve been drawn to the field of inorganic chemistry — the idea that you can synthesize compounds that don’t exist in nature (often with vivid colors!) really sparked my interest. As a freshman, I pursued undergraduate research project that led to my first publication (as a co-author) in Inorganic Chemistry. Two decades later, I submitted the manuscript as a corresponding author from my own research group to Inorganic Chemistry, which felt like a full-circle moment.

Inorganic Chemistry continues to be a flagship journal in the field, bringing together a broad community of researchers, from bioinorganic to high-temperature solid-state chemistry. I’m truly honored to be recognized by this award. I also regularly incorporate examples from Inorganic Chemistry into my teaching, so this recognition feels especially meaningful and closely connected to my work.

What inspired you to pursue your field of research? How would you describe it to someone outside your field?

I’ve found that there is something really exciting about creating compounds that don’t exist in nature, but what truly pulled me in were diffraction methods. They let you “see” the spatial arrangement of atoms in a molecule or solid that you’ve just made. That techniques fascinated me from the start and still excites me today.

Once you know where the atoms are, as a synthetic chemist, you gain a kind of “superpower” — you can tweak or modify a structure and begin to tune its properties (at least to some extent!). I love that this field combines the thrill of discovery with the ability to rationally design materials to attain specific behaviors. To someone outside the field, I’d describe my work as figuring out how atoms are arranged in materials and then using that knowledge to design and synthesize (usually at very high temperatures, 800 deg. C or 1472 deg. F) new compounds with useful properties.

What would you say is the biggest opportunity and biggest challenge in your field of research currently?

I’d say the biggest challenge in solid state inorganic chemistry right now is bridging the gap between computational predictions and the complexity of real, synthesizable materials. While computational methods have advanced tremendously in recent years, the computational studies still do not fully grasp the complexities of real materials, that tend to have atomic disorder, vacancies, or other subtleties that experiments reveal. The biggest opportunity, though, is exactly the flip side: if we can better align theory and experiment, create a true feedback loop, and foster deeper collaboration, the impact on both computational and experimental advances could be enormous. Appreciating the fine details on both sides, like the subtleties of atomic disorder that experiments reveal and the predictive insights that computations provide, and cross-pollinating ideas could really push the field forward.

Why did you choose Organic Letters to publish your winning research?

Organic Letters has been one of my favorite journals since I started graduate school in 2010. I always felt that most synthetically useful and innovative reactions were published in Organic Letters. Beyond its prestige, the submission and editorial process is remarkably rapid and efficient, ensuring our work reaches a broad audience quickly. I am thrilled that our award-winning research was published here.

What inspired you to pursue your field of research? How would you describe it to someone outside your field?

The inspiration for our research program came from realizing that blockbuster drugs are enriched with heteroatom-containing functional groups. These heteroatom groups can affect the therapeutic profile of many pharmaceuticals. However, current approaches for installing these heteroatom groups often require harsh reaction conditions and the use of costly precious metals, making these protocols unsustainable. Our work features the use of light-activated reagents (1,3-dipoles) to install important heteroatom groups onto organic molecules under mild conditions, obviating the need for toxic or expensive precious metal catalysts.

What would you say is the biggest opportunity and biggest challenge in your field of research currently?

I believe the biggest opportunity in our field is to design impactful synthetic methods and retrosynthetic approaches rapidly and precisely using sophisticated data science tools. The biggest challenge in our field is the general public’s trust in science. I hope that researchers continue to publish reproducible and effective methods that reinforce public confidence in scientific progress.

Why did you choose OPR&D to publish your winning research?

The number one concern we had to address in the published work was rapidly developing options to scale the synthesis of a challenging structural motif. OPR&D felt like the instant choice since it prioritizes showcasing the highest calibre chemistry that not only works but can be readily and reliably scaled in an industrial setting.

What inspired you to pursue your field of research? How would you describe it to someone outside your field?

My biggest inspiration has always been curiosity, answering those never-satiated questions of why nature does what it does to make the world we live in. In this respect chemistry is truly the central science and working in drug discovery allows you to operate at the hub of a curiosity-driven enterprise that encompasses a myriad of other scientific disciplines. I describe what I do to others (especially my children) as a Lego-builder of atoms: harnessing organic chemistry involves obeying order, rules, logic but also feeds a lot of creativity that can lead you to highly innovative outcomes. Our job in drug discovery is ultimately to build ever more original and sophisticated Lego models to hopefully end up with the one that fits the best for the job we had in mind. But as all Lego-builders know, the work is never done, we can always make it even better….

What would you say is the biggest opportunity and biggest challenge in your field of research currently?

As a chemist I think you learn to not distinguish between the word challenge and opportunity, they are one in the same as far as making molecules is concerned. I think the biggest challenges and therefore opportunities in medicinal/organic chemistry right now entail branching out of traditional small molecule inhibitor space and into other areas such as chemical biology, biologic-small molecule conjugates and nanoparticle-derived modalities. This will in turn trigger a rapid expansion in the level of molecular creativity and intricacy demanded of the new generations of synthetic organic chemists entering the field.

What does being recognized by this award from Organometallics mean to you?

I’m so grateful that my group has been recognized with this award! I attend this symposium every single time I go to ACS Fall and have always been incredibly inspired by all of the previous winners so it is a huge honor to stand among them. This recognition is such a testament to the hard work and creativity of the team of researchers that I lead and I’m beyond grateful for everything they do in the lab.

What inspired you to pursue your field of research? How would you describe it to someone outside your field?

Ever since I was an undergraduate student, I’ve loved inorganic chemistry. The crystal structures, the colors, the challenging syntheses - I loved it all! I will admit that it took me a long time to love the field of organic chemistry. But when I saw the impact of using inorganic principles to solve organic problem choices that is when I knew I had found the field—organometallics--that interested me the most and I knew I needed to know a lot about both fields to make an impact.

I would describe the field of organometallics to an outsider as the best of both worlds of synthesis. In organic chemistry, there are a limited number of reactive intermediates that all transformations are based on - partial positive/negative charges, carbocations, carbanions, radicals, and a few more. When you introduce a metal to the mix, you get so many interesting mechanisms and possible intermediates due to the metal identity, oxidation state, coordination number, supporting ligands, etc but fewer problems to solve as there are a limited number of inorganic substrates. Organometallics combines the best parts or organic and inorganic chemistry by opening up the problem choices and the ways to solve them.

What would you say is the biggest opportunity and biggest challenge in your field of research currently?

I think sustainability is one of the biggest opportunities in my field. Many transition metal-catalyzed reactions that involve organometallic intermediates are adopted by industry. These catalytic reactions provide sustainable alternatives to reactions that usually involve stoichiometric reagents. Sometimes we need to discover how organometallic intermediates form and react before transferring them to catalysis which is a huge focus in my group. I think one of the biggest challenges in the field is also related to sustainability - many metals that organometallic chemists use are precious metals but, as a field, we are actively working on moving to more earth abundant metals.

Why did you choose The Journal of Organic Chemistry to publish your winning research?

We consistently select ACS journals for publishing our research due to their esteemed international reputation. The Journal of Organic Chemistry (JOC) is an ideal venue, featuring distinguished editors who appreciate the relevance of our work and provide access to a suitable scholarly audience for this Csp2-sp3 SMC methodology. In fact, choosing this journal has proven to be one of my best decisions.

What inspired you to pursue your field of research? How would you describe it to someone outside your field?

My father, a long-time cardiovascular disease patient, once called to share how proud he was that many of his medications were made by Pfizer—just because I worked there, he assumed I played a part in creating them! That moment reminded me why I was drawn to drug discovery: the chance to use organic chemistry to address real medical challenges.

To someone outside the field, I would describe drug discovery as a highly collaborative problem‑solving process. Chemists design and build molecules, test how they behave in biological systems, and refine them iteratively with the goal of turning scientific ideas into safe and effective medicines that can ultimately benefit patients.

What would you say is the biggest opportunity and biggest challenge in your field of research currently?

Drug discovery now encompasses a broader range than before. Advances in chemistry, biology, and technology have created new opportunities to tackle targets and modalities that were once out of reach. Yet the intricate nature of diseases and the rigorous requirements for turning promising research into safe, effective medications continue to pose the greatest challenges.