His research interests at Colorado State will focus on the thermodynamics of nanoscale self-assembly processes in block copolymer composite materials and their applications in a variety of environments, including polymer-based photovoltaics, bio-enzymatic fuel cells, chemical and biological sensing devices, targeted chemical delivery, and hydrogel-based shape memory materials.

The design and study of new catalysts and catalytic processes with applications for pharmaceutical, natural product and industrial chemical synthesis.

Intrinsically recyclable polymers; renewable monomers and sustainable polymers; precision (stereoselective, chemoselective & living) polymer synthesis; Lewis pair polymerization; new polymerization methodology; transition-metal, main-group & organic catalysis; biomass conversion to fuels, chemicals & materials.

Bioinorganic, Bioorganic, Physical Organic Chemistries, with focuses on characterization of menaquinone metabolism and ihibition of electron transport in tuberculosis bacteria, vanadium containing anti-diabetic and anti-malarial compounds, microemulsion drug-membrane interaction studies, copper (II) amyloid-beta and peptide complexation studies, and spectroscopic techniques including 1D and 2D NMR, EPR, fluorescence and IR.

Organic synthesis, organometallic chemistry.

Molecular recognition, self-assembly, development of novel biological recognition motifs, construction of synthetic receptors for small molecules of biological interest, design of catalytic peptides.

Synthetic chemistry, development of new catalytic reactions, transformation of renewable and abundant resources into value-added products, catalytic asymmetric processes.

organic chemistry, catalysis, polymer science

Teaching Responsibilities: General Chemistry Problem Solving in General Chemistry Introductory Seminar in Chemistry

Predictions and designs of new reactions, reagents, and catalysts are tested through close collaboration with experiment. Guided by mechanistic investigation we develop tools to design more selective catalysts for asymmetric synthesis and renewable energy applications. Group members explore these areas using techniques in quantum chemistry, statistical modeling and data-mining alongside laboratory work.

Organic and biological chemistry, new synthetic methodology, synthesis of chemically and biologically interesting natural products and study of their molecular mechanisms of action, study of enzymatic reaction mechanisms and development of therapeutic agents.

Alkaloid chemistry, natural product isolation, characterization, synthesis and biosynthesis, chemical ecology, plant-insect interactions.

Synthesis of natural products of biomedical significance and development of synthetic methodology for the construction of complex target molecules, design and synthesis of active site activated irreversible enzyme inhibitors, asymmetric synthesis of of alpha-amino acids, mechanism of action studies on anti-tumor drugs and antibiotics, oxidative cleavage and cross-linking of DNA, total synthesis and biogenesis of mycotoxic indole alkaloids from fungi, taxol biosynthesis, design and synthesis of antibiotics for drug-resistant microbial diseases, molecular biology and protein bioichemistry.