Abstract:

Abstract:  

Species of plants within the Salvia genus of the Lamiaceae family are found on nearly every continent and are renowned for their applications in traditional medicine. These plants possess a variety of chemical constituents that can be divided into several groups, the largest of which are the abietane diterpenoids. The first part of the dissertation describes the abietane diterpenoid known as plebeianiol A and details our synthetic endeavor to elucidate the structure of this natural product. 

Abstract:

This thesis defense is composed of two main parts. The first half discusses my efforts to investigate the selectivity and motion of individual molecular catalysts in polymer networks through the use of single-molecule fluorescence microscopy. The second half discusses my chemical education research for the transition of existing curriculum to Argument-Driven Inquiry.

Abstract:

Abstract: 

Hydrofunctionalization is a powerful tool to add fragments across unsaturated building blocks to furnish more complex structures and introduce new stereocenters. My PhD studies have focused on Rh and Cu-catalyzed hydrofunctionalization to build both carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds in a stereoselective and regioselective manner. With careful pairing of transition-metals and ligands, we successfully accessed chiral α,α-disubstituted-α-amino acid precursors, chiral cyclopropyl phosphines and N-arylated pyrazole motifs.