The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $575,000 project grant under its Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) program to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study the use of light in organic synthesis. Under this 3-year award effective July 1, 2024, Professor Tehshik Yoon and his team will design novel photocatalysts that can interact directly with small molecules to control how they react and form more complex products. The research aims to transform discovery in pharmaceutical...
This Project Grant award of $550,000 from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Chemistry, under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Federal Grant Program (CFDA 47.049), supports Professor Sarah Reisman of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in developing new catalytic reactions for the chemical synthesis of natural products. The research aims to advance the state-of-the-art in catalytic carbon-carbon bond formation and demonstrate how modern synthetic methods can...
This Project Grant award, funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049), supports Professor Stefan Bernhard of Carnegie Mellon University in developing data-driven, automated methodologies to study and control light-driven catalytic processes. The $575,000 award, spanning September 2024 to August 2027, aims to advance sustainable chemistry through new approaches to photocatalytic hydrogen generation from bio-based feedstocks like...
This Project Grant award of $350,000 from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) supports collaborative research by professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Colorado State University. The goal is to study new approaches to catalysis and electrochemistry for the synthesis of biaryl molecules, which are useful in polymers and agriculture. The researchers will use analytical and computational...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) provides $249,999 to Rowan University to support research on the development of photocatalytic conditions to generate cyclic compounds, heterocycles, and desulfonylation methods using aryl tosylates. The goal is to provide fundamental knowledge on visible-light-mediated, single-electron-transfer methods and resulting divergent mechanisms dependent upon photocatalyst selection....
Professor Kutateladze of the University of Denver will use a $575,000 National Science Foundation Project Grant from the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to further develop photoassisted approaches for the synthesis of complex heterocyclic molecules with potentially useful therapeutic properties. Over a three-year period from September 2023 through August 2026, his research aims to expand the synthetic photochemistry toolbox, specifically excited state intramolecular...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemistry awarded a $530,000 Project Grant to the University of California, Berkeley under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to develop new computer simulation models for studying light-driven chemical processes. The three-year grant, effective September 1, 2023, will enable the Neuscamman research group to create advanced tools for accurately simulating the movement of electrons and molecules in response to light...
This Project Grant award of $399,662 from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Chemistry, under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Federal Grant Program (CFDA 47.049), supports a research project led by Professor Gonghu Li of the University of New Hampshire. The project aims to design and synthesize new photocatalysts based on earth-abundant metals, such as copper and nickel, to transform carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals and fuels using visible light. This...
This Project Grant award, provided by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049), is supporting a collaborative research effort between Professor Yujie Sun at the University of Cincinnati and Professor Christopher Elles at the University of Kansas. The researchers are developing advanced photocatalysts that can be activated by near-infrared (NIR) light, which can penetrate deeper into media and tissues with minimal interference compared to...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences Federal Grant Program (CFDA 47.049) provides $740,202 to New York University (NYU) to study the interplay between photochromism and transition metal-catalyzed C-H functionalization to enable spatially controlled difunctionalization of organic molecules. The key objectives of the research are to: 1) employ easy-to-remove photochromic directing groups to facilitate selective C-H...
This Project Grant award, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemistry under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences grant program (CFDA 47.049), supports Professor Abigail G. Doyle at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in developing novel synthetic reactions that use visible light and photocatalysts to access high-energy, polar reactive intermediates. The $630,000 award will fund the development of several key transformations, including a desaturation reaction with complementary site selectivity, enantioselective C(sp3)-H oxidation reactions using data-driven catalyst discovery, a chemoselective cross-coupling platform for ester synthesis, and a catalytic deoxygenative alkylation of alcohols. These strategies will be applied to the synthesis of functional molecules with potential utility in medicinal, agrochemical, and polymer chemistry. The project aims to advance fundamental understanding of visible-light promoted reactions and the application of data science in catalysis. No subawards are planned under this grant, which runs from August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2027.