Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), linear polysaccharides found near the cell membrane as proteoglycans and free oligosaccharides, play important roles regarding cell functions. GAGs have been implicated as potential biomarkers in many diseases like cancer and kidney related diseases and are used as therapeutics for many types of ailments. Because they are highly sulfated, complex GAGs have been analyzed with reverse polarity capillary electrophoresis (CE) and negative mode mass spectrometry.

Breaking symmetry to generate asymmetry, commonly termed desymmetrization, is a remarkably powerful strategy for building molecular complexity. Successful implementation of this strategy holds the potential to forge multiple stereogenic centers in a single step. In fact, stereocenters can also be created away from the reaction site. 

The Chemistry Department is now accepting applications for Chemistry Learning Assistants (CLAs) for the Fall 2025 semester. CLAs are the individuals who rotate during recitation sessions and help answer student questions. CLAs also perform a variety of other activities which include hosting exam review sessions, holding office hours, constructing supplementary study resources, and creating short content videos.

The simulation of the optical spectra of chiral compounds is among the most challenging problems in all quantum chemistry.  Solvation, temperature (molecular vibrations), electron correlation, and more all play pivotal roles in the quantitative – and sometimes even the qualitative – accuracy of theoretical models of such properties. In this lecture, we will explore the significance of each of these components and the current state of the art in quantum chemical models of linear and non-linear chiroptical spectroscopies.

Interactions between molecules govern the structure of liquids, molecular solids, and biomolecules, and they dictate how drugs bind to proteins.  However, the fundamentals of how molecules interact are hard to extract from experiments on such complex chemical environments.  This talk will describe how computational quantum chemistry can provide deeper insight into drug binding, solute-solute interactions in solvent, and the lattice energies of molecular solids.  In addition, the speaker’s contributions to educational outreach in computationa

Given that carboxylic acid derivatives and alcohols are abundant in a wide range of building blocks and complex molecules, catalytic diversification of these functional groups is highly sought-after.  To this end, recently employing a deoxygenative approach for modifying these oxygenated species has gained momentum.  However, to date, asymmetric variants of these methods have been underdeveloped and often require precious metal catalysts.  This presentation will include our efforts addressing these challenges.  The Kim Group at C