Yiming Wang

The Wang group will develop new catalysts, conditions, and reagents for organic synthesis.  Investigations will focus on the development of methods for the activation and functionalization of unreactive but widely available carbon sources, as well as the stereoselective formation of weakly polarized carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds under functional group tolerant and operationally simple catalytic conditions.  Non-noble transition metal activation of hydrocarbons and ion pairing control of regio- and stereochemical outcome will be pursued as strategies for selective transformations of value to the synthesis of compounds of interest to the biomedical or materials sciences.  Tools of physical organic chemistry and computational investigations will be applied to uncover mechanistic insights for rational optimization of chemical transformations.