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College of Arts and Sciences

Seminar on Sustainable Chemistry  

Brad Carrow 320 picThe Rose Mercadante Chemistry and Biochemistry Seminar Series is pleased to present a seminar by Professor Brad Carrow of Princeton University entitled "Mechanism-driven Catalyst Design for Sustainable Coupling Chemistry".

The seminar will be held on Tuesday September 25, 2018 from 5:45 – 7:00 p.m. in the Helen Lerner Amphitheater, Science and Technology Center, Seton Hall University. Refreshments are available at 5:30 p.m.

Improving the sustainability of chemical synthesis will depend heavily on the development of new catalytic methods that occur with higher efficiency and selectivity, use simpler reagents, and proceed with lower energy demand. In this context, the presentation will focus on our recent efforts to create new ancillary ligands and metal catalysts that derive special properties from non-covalent interactions, such as London dispersion, to significantly improve their function. The manifestation of these forces within the catalyst coordination sphere has allowed us to turn on unusual elementary organometallic mechanisms, which in turn have allowed us to develop new carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bond forming reactions, including greener routes to fluoroaromatics, organic materials, and polyene subunits common in natural products.

Brad Carrow obtained his B.S. in chemistry from the Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2003. He received his in Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign following work in the labs of John F. Hartwig. After completing his graduate studies, he was a postdoctoral fellow and then an assistant professor in the labs of Kyoko Nozaki at the University of Tokyo. Since Fall 2013, he has been an assistant professor of chemistry at Princeton University conducting research that revolves around transition metal catalysis in the context of sustainable organic synthesis, polymer synthesis, and strong bond activation.

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry offers B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees with specializations in all areas of chemistry. Our unique research environment, including traditional full-time students and part-time students is designed to foster collaborations with industry and colleagues in other disciplines. The Rose Mercadante Seminar Series is named for Rose Mercadante, the departmental secretary for over 40 years, in honor of our alumni, her "boys and girls".