My research group focuses on reactions and applications of organometallic compounds, fascinating hybrids between organic and inorganic materials.
Transition metals bind to organic ligands and act as channels through which electrons move.
As a result, bonds are created and broken in ways that are impossible for organic compounds or even main group organometallics. In the first area, we want to use metal complexes to bind to peptides and proteins and selectively cleave these biomolecules. This research is on the interface of biochemistry and organometallic chemistry. In the third area, we are probing the unique effects of water as a reaction solvent. In all three areas we study the origins of stereoselectivity in reactions.