Location: SCL 160
Join Yale Chemistry for an Organic Chemistry Seminar with Zachary K Wickens, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Abstract: This seminar will describe our investigations into how organic radical ions–typically thought of as fleeting intermediates–can be tamed and exploited as a new family of organocatalysts and small molecule reagents. We identified selective generation of such species as a key hurdle stymying development of these systems. To address this problem, we have leveraged electrochemistry to develop new synthetic transformations driven by organic radical ions. Electrochemistry offers not only an environmentally benign approach to promote redox events but also substantially simplifies the study of these unusual systems by enabling the exclusion of byproducts from oxidation or reductive generation of the key radical ion promoters. This seminar will describe multiple new platforms for synthetic reaction development based on electrogenerated persistent organic radical ions.
About Zachary Wickens: Zach Wickens is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Zach initially grew up in Madison and then received his B.A. from Macalester College (2010) and his Ph.D (2015) from the California Institute of technology working with Robert H. Grubbs. Following doctoral studies, Zach was an NIH postdoctoral scholar in the lab of Eric N. Jacobsen at Harvard University. In 2018, Zach launched his independent career at UW–Madison where his group develops new approaches to generate and exploit reactive intermediates in organic synthesis using light and electricity.
This seminar is generously sponsored by the Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman Memorial Fund