Past Seminars & Events

Professor Eric Anslyn
Department of Chemistry
University of Texas at Austin

Synthesis and Sequencing of Abiotic Polymers, Information Encoding and Sequence Selective Hybridization

Professor Daniel Huh
Department of Chemistry
University of Rhode Island

Managing Spin Coherence in Molecular Qubits

Molecule-based quantum metal complexes offer a promising and chemically tunable platform for quantum information science yet controlling electron spin coherence in molecular systems remains a central challenge. This seminar will describe the development of a new class of molecular qubits derived from low-valent group 4 metals (Ti, Zr, and Hf). By systematically manipulating metal identity and ligand environment, these studies probe how electronic structure and orbital character influence electron spin decoherence in inorganic complexes. Comparative studies across related metal platforms reveal how subtle changes in molecular structure govern quantum coherence and relaxation pathways. Together, these results highlight design principles for improving spin coherence in molecular systems and illustrate how molecular inorganic chemistry can contribute to the development of next-generation quantum materials.

Daniel Huh

Dan Huh was trained as a classical violinist for 16 years and initially pursued a career in music, majoring in violin performance at the University of San Diego. His path changed after experiencing undergraduate research with Prof. Christopher J. A. Daley, where he developed model complexes for carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase and inorganic platforms for nitric oxide sensing. After obtaining his B.A., Dan then completed an M.S. at Illinois State University with Prof. Lisa F. Szczepura, studying luminescent rhenium metalloclusters. He then earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Irvine with Prof. William J. Evans, studying f-element chemistry. Dan subsequently conducted postdoctoral research with Prof. Ian A. Tonks at the University of Minnesota before joining the University of Rhode Island as an Assistant Professor.

Hosted by Professor Ian Tonks

Professor Scott Miller
Department of Chemistry
Yale University

Comparative Catalysis

At the dawn of asymmetric catalysis, most organic chemists viewed highly selective catalysts as rare needles to be found in haystacks. Decades later, excellent catalysts are still hard to define, and to develop. Yet, progress in the field has been rapid, and it is now often possible to find more than one type of catalyst that is effective for a given enantioselective reaction. When that happens, are the catalysts similar? Are similar functional outcomes born of mechanistic homology? Or are there generally multiple mechanistic scenarios that can lead to highly selective catalysts for the same reaction? What lessons for catalyst design may be extracted from comparative studies of this nature? This lecture will present the results of comparative studies of catalysts that are often viewed as privileged to peptide-based catalysts that have been advanced to catalyze similar reactions.

Scott Miller

Scott J. Miller received his B.A. (1989), M.A. (1989) and Ph.D. (1994) from Harvard University, where he worked with David Evans as a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow. Subsequently, he traveled to the California Institute of Technology where he was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow with Robert Grubbs until 1996. For the following decade, he was a member of the faculty at Boston College, until joining the faculty at Yale University in 2006. In 2008, he was appointed as the Irénée du Pont Professor of Chemistry, and in 2023 as a Sterling Professor of Chemistry. At Yale, he served as Chair of the Chemistry Department from 2009-2015, and as the Divisional Director for Science from 2015-2017. Professor Miller’s research program focuses on asymmetric catalysis. His group employs strategies that include catalyst design, the development of techniques for catalyst screening, and the application of new catalysts to the preparation of biologically active agents. Several current interests are (a) the selective functionalization of complex molecules, (b) the exploration of analogies between synthetic catalysts and enzymes, (c) the discovery of effective antibiotics despite increasing resistance, and (d) the engineering of the biosynthetic apparatus for nonextant bond-formation. Scott Miller’s awards and honors include: National Science Foundation CAREER Award (1999), Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2000), Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2000), Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society (2004), Yoshimasa Hirata Memorial Gold Medal of Nagoya University (2009), National Institutes of Health MERIT Award (2011), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012), American Chemical Society Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2016), Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2016), Max Tishler Prize, Harvard University (2017), Fellow of the American Chemical Society (2018), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Invitational Fellowship for Research (2019), Member, National Academy of Sciences (2020), Remsen Award, Maryland Section of the American Chemical Society and Johns Hopkins University (2023), Philadelphia Organic Chemistry Club Allan Day Award (2025), Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis of the American Chemical Society (2026). In 2024, he was also awarded the Wasserman Prize for Excellence in Teaching Undergraduate Chemistry at Yale University, and in 2026, the Dylan Hixon ‘88 Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Natural Sciences, Yale College Professor Miller has served in number of capacities for public and private organizations. For example, he recently completed terms on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the Advisory Council for Center for Scientific Review, both convened by the Director of the National Institutes of Health. He now serves as Editor-in- Chief of The Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Hosted by Professor Courtney Roberts

Professor Scott Miller
Department of Chemistry
Yale University

Asymmetric Catalysis at the Interface of Small Molecules and Enzymes

Asymmetric catalysis has advanced rapidly as a discipline as a result of powerful modalities. Transition metal complexes, organocatalysts and biocatalysts have all played critical roles. Probably critical from the start, and in all three of these approaches to the field, noncovalent interactions are now appreciated to play a decisive role as determinants of selectivity. Peptide-based catalysts have also proven to be a central platform for the systematic study of multifunctional interaction arrays as determinants of selectivity in a wide variety of reactions. Design of new catalytic functionalities has been central to expanding the list of selective reactions and mechanistic paradigms that operate amidst the plethora of selectivity-defining interactions that are now signatures of peptide-catalyzed processes. This lecture will focus on some of the newest developments with peptide-based catalysts, with the goal of placing the work in the broad context of catalysis most generally.

Scott Miller

Scott J. Miller received his B.A. (1989), M.A. (1989) and Ph.D. (1994) from Harvard University, where he worked with David Evans as a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow. Subsequently, he traveled to the California Institute of Technology where he was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow with Robert Grubbs until 1996. For the following decade, he was a member of the faculty at Boston College, until joining the faculty at Yale University in 2006. In 2008, he was appointed as the Irénée du Pont Professor of Chemistry, and in 2023 as a Sterling Professor of Chemistry. At Yale, he served as Chair of the Chemistry Department from 2009-2015, and as the Divisional Director for Science from 2015-2017. Professor Miller’s research program focuses on asymmetric catalysis. His group employs strategies that include catalyst design, the development of techniques for catalyst screening, and the application of new catalysts to the preparation of biologically active agents. Several current interests are (a) the selective functionalization of complex molecules, (b) the exploration of analogies between synthetic catalysts and enzymes, (c) the discovery of effective antibiotics despite increasing resistance, and (d) the engineering of the biosynthetic apparatus for nonextant bond-formation. Scott Miller’s awards and honors include: National Science Foundation CAREER Award (1999), Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2000), Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2000), Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society (2004), Yoshimasa Hirata Memorial Gold Medal of Nagoya University (2009), National Institutes of Health MERIT Award (2011), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012), American Chemical Society Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2016), Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2016), Max Tishler Prize, Harvard University (2017), Fellow of the American Chemical Society (2018), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Invitational Fellowship for Research (2019), Member, National Academy of Sciences (2020), Remsen Award, Maryland Section of the American Chemical Society and Johns Hopkins University (2023), Philadelphia Organic Chemistry Club Allan Day Award (2025), Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis of the American Chemical Society (2026). In 2024, he was also awarded the Wasserman Prize for Excellence in Teaching Undergraduate Chemistry at Yale University, and in 2026, the Dylan Hixon ‘88 Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Natural Sciences, Yale College Professor Miller has served in number of capacities for public and private organizations. For example, he recently completed terms on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the Advisory Council for Center for Scientific Review, both convened by the Director of the National Institutes of Health. He now serves as Editor-in- Chief of The Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Hosted by Professor Courtney Roberts

Professor Scott Miller
Department of Chemistry
Yale University

Asymmetric Catalysis in Structurally and Mechanistically Complex Molecular Environments

This lecture will describe recent developments resulting from our efforts to develop catalysts for asymmetric reactions, in particular for the preparation of densely functionalized, stereochemically complex structures. Over time, our foci have been on enantioselectivity, site- selectivity and chemoselectivity. In much of our current work, we are studying issues of enantioselectivity as a prelude to the extrapolation of catalysis concepts to more complex molecular settings where multiple issues are presented in a singular substrate. Complex natural products, for example, will be presented as quintessentially complex scaffolds for catalytic modification. Many of the catalysts we have studied are peptide-based, and as such have relied on selectivity that may be traced to decisive multivalent interactions between catalysts and substrates. These mechanistis themes, and their associated ambiguities – especially in light of catalyst or substrate conformational dynamics – will figure strongly in the lecture. Finally, several interesting collaborations – often unanticipated by us – will be discussed.

Scott Miller

Scott J. Miller received his B.A. (1989), M.A. (1989) and Ph.D. (1994) from Harvard University, where he worked with David Evans as a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow. Subsequently, he traveled to the California Institute of Technology where he was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow with Robert Grubbs until 1996. For the following decade, he was a member of the faculty at Boston College, until joining the faculty at Yale University in 2006. In 2008, he was appointed as the Irénée du Pont Professor of Chemistry, and in 2023 as a Sterling Professor of Chemistry. At Yale, he served as Chair of the Chemistry Department from 2009-2015, and as the Divisional Director for Science from 2015-2017. Professor Miller’s research program focuses on asymmetric catalysis. His group employs strategies that include catalyst design, the development of techniques for catalyst screening, and the application of new catalysts to the preparation of biologically active agents. Several current interests are (a) the selective functionalization of complex molecules, (b) the exploration of analogies between synthetic catalysts and enzymes, (c) the discovery of effective antibiotics despite increasing resistance, and (d) the engineering of the biosynthetic apparatus for nonextant bond-formation. Scott Miller’s awards and honors include: National Science Foundation CAREER Award (1999), Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2000), Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2000), Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society (2004), Yoshimasa Hirata Memorial Gold Medal of Nagoya University (2009), National Institutes of Health MERIT Award (2011), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012), American Chemical Society Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2016), Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2016), Max Tishler Prize, Harvard University (2017), Fellow of the American Chemical Society (2018), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Invitational Fellowship for Research (2019), Member, National Academy of Sciences (2020), Remsen Award, Maryland Section of the American Chemical Society and Johns Hopkins University (2023), Philadelphia Organic Chemistry Club Allan Day Award (2025), Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis of the American Chemical Society (2026). In 2024, he was also awarded the Wasserman Prize for Excellence in Teaching Undergraduate Chemistry at Yale University, and in 2026, the Dylan Hixon ‘88 Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Natural Sciences, Yale College Professor Miller has served in number of capacities for public and private organizations. For example, he recently completed terms on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the Advisory Council for Center for Scientific Review, both convened by the Director of the National Institutes of Health. He now serves as Editor-in- Chief of The Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Hosted by Professor Courtney Roberts

Alison Campbell Brewer
Eli Lilly

Process Development and Scale-Up of a PI3Kα- Selective Inhibitor

This seminar will describe the development of an improved process for preparing hundreds of kilograms of a PI3Kα- selective inhibitor to support clinical trials. The evolution of the synthetic route and key process improvements made to position the asset for commercialization, including the elimination of problematic solvents and reagents, a 40-fold reduction in ruthenium loading for a key asymmetric reduction, and suppression of epimerization will be covered.

Alison Campbell Brewer

Alison Brewer received a B.S. in biochemistry from Lafayette College in 2004 and a PhD in inorganic chemistry in 2009 from the University of North Carolina under the supervision or Professor Mike Gagné. She spent two years as an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin with Professor Shannon Stahl. Alison joined the process chemistry group at Lilly in 2011 where she supported the development of a number of portfolio assets and was instrumental in establishing a high-throughput chemistry screening platform in process development. Alison currently serves as the scientific team lead for the Small Molecule Commercialization team, supporting development strategies for late-phase small molecule assets. late-phase small molecule assets.

Hosted by Professor Jessica Lamb
Sponsored by Gassman Funds

Professor Carol Hall
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
North Carolina State University

Computational Design of Peptides as Detectors, Sensors and Drugs

We describe our efforts to develop an efficient computational algorithm that searches for peptides that bind strongly and selectively to specific biomolecular targets, and to use that algorithm in the design of peptide- based detectors sensors, and drugs. The algorithm, PepBD, is an iterative procedure that involves as many as 100,000 sequence mutation moves and/or peptide backbone conformation moves to arrive at the peptide sequence and conformation that has the lowest binding energy to the target. The top scoring peptides are then further evaluated by performing explicit-solvent atomistic simulations of the peptide–target complex to determine their binding free energies. We describe the application of this method to three projects: design of peptides to bind to Cardiac Troponin I, a heart attack biomarker, (2) design of peptides to block the action of the toxins secreted by C- difficile bacteria in the large intestine, and (3) design of peptides to capture specific microplastics in the environment.

Carol Hall

Professor Carol K. Hall is the Worley H Clark, Jr, Distinguished University Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University. She received her B.A. in physics from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. After postdoctoral training in the Chemistry Department at Cornell and a brief period as an economic modeler at Bell Laboratories, she joined the Chemical Engineering Department at Princeton University in 1977 as one of the first women to be appointed to a chemical engineering faculty in the U.S. In 1985 she joined the Chemical Engineering Department at North Carolina State University. Hall’s research focuses on applying statistical thermodynamics and molecular-level computer simulation to topics of chemical, biological or engineering interest. Current research topics include protein aggregation, multipolar colloids, peptide design, and remediation of microplastic pollution. The author of over 325 publications, she is a recipient of the AIChE 2015 Founders Award, the 2019 John M Prausnitz Award from the PPEPPD Thermodynamics Conferences, and 2020 AIChE Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement by a Woman Chemical Engineer. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Hall was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2005 and served as its Home Secretary from 2019 to 2023.

Hosted by Professor Sapna Sarupria

Professor Amanda Morris
Department of Chemistry
Virginia Tech

From Catalysis to Drug Delivery: Photodynamic Responses in MOFs

Metal–organic frameworks offer a unique platform for controlling chemical reactivity through precise structural and electronic design, yet their behavior under photoexcitation remains incompletely understood. This talk explores how photoinduced metal–ligand bond dynamics in MOFs can be deliberately harnessed to enable function rather than failure. Using Fe-carboxylate frameworks such as MIL-101(Fe) as a model system, we demonstrate that ligand-to-metal charge- transfer excitation transiently weakens metal–carboxylate bonds, generating short-lived coordination vacancies that can participate in catalytic reactions. Time-resolved vibrational and electronic spectroscopies reveal that the lifetime of these photodissociated states can be tuned over orders of magnitude through linker functionalization, directly influencing photocatalytic behavior, including carbon dioxide reduction. Extending this concept beyond catalysis, we show that larger photoinduced structural changes can be leveraged for controlled framework exfoliation and cargo release, enabling light-triggered drug delivery and photodynamic therapeutic applications. Together, these results establish photodynamic bonding as a general design principle for MOFs, illustrating how excited- state coordination chemistry can be programmed to drive reactivity, transport, and on-demand material response across energy and biomedical contexts.

Amanda Morris

Amanda Morris is a Professor of Inorganic and Energy Chemistry and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Virginia Tech. She received her BS from Penn State University, her PhD from Johns Hopkins University, and completed postdoctoral training at Princeton University. Her research program focuses on understanding light–matter interactions in molecular and extended materials, with particular emphasis on how excited-state processes govern catalysis, charge transport, and structural dynamics in metal–organic frameworks. Morris’s work spans photocatalysis for energy conversion, photoinduced coordination chemistry, and light-triggered material responses, combining electrochemistry, spectroscopy, and time- resolved techniques. She is a recipient of numerous honors, including an NSF CAREER Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and a Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Award. Morris serves as an Associate Editor of Chemical Physics Reviews and as an American Chemical Society Expert in Sustainable Energy. She is active in community leadership, serving as the Chair of the Inorganic Division of the American Chemical Society and the chair-elect of the InterAmerican Photochemical Society.

Hosted by Professor Gwendolyn Bailey

Michael Tracey, Ph.D.
Research Fellow
Science and Technology
Cambrex Charles City

Technology Transfer and Process Development of Step 2 for Danicopan

Danicopan is a first-in-class oral Factor D inhibitor used as add-on therapy for patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria who experience extravascular hemolysis. This presentation follows Step 2 of the commercial synthesis, an N-Boc deprotection, from initial technology transfer through validation and commercial manufacturing at Cambrex Charles City, one of the largest small-molecule API sites in the world. The transferred process used solvents and unit operations that were not well suited for large-scale manufacturing. Applying green chemistry principles, the team completed an acid and solvent screen that replaced problematic solvents and simplified the workup. Spike, fate, and purge studies, Design of Experiments, and Proven Acceptable Range studies fully characterized the process and established Normal Operating Ranges and in-process controls to support validation. The optimized process delivered 1,319 kg of the intermediate across 29 batches with high purity and yield. Attendees will see a practical case study of a common reaction transformed into a greener, faster, and more robust manufacturing process.

Michael Tracey

Michael Tracey grew up in Minnesota and received his BS in chemistry from Denison University (Ohio). He returned to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota and under the direction of Professor Richard Hsung where he investigated the synthesis and reactivity of allenamides and ynamides. Michael then moved on to a post-doctoral position at Stanford University with Professor Barry Trost. Staying in California, Michael joined the Process Research and Development group at Theravance in South San Francisco. In 2008, he moved to the Chemical Development group at Cambrex Charles City (Iowa) where he is a Senior Research Fellow who has worked on 30+ projects that were transferred to production scale ranging from 0.5 kg to >1000 kg.

Hosted by Professor Alexander Grenning

Professor Sapna Sarupria
Department of Chemistry
University of Minnesota

Formulations for Biologics: A Tango Between Biomolecules and Solvent Governs Stability

Development and distribution of biological formulations – including therapeutic proteins, vaccines, and gene therapy products – is bottlenecked by the cold chain requirement, which preserves these formulations at refrigerated temperatures. To alleviate the need for cold storage, small molecule excipients can be added to formulations to improve temperature stability. However, this process is iterative, time-consuming, and expensive. We leverage computer simulations to elucidate the molecular-level details of excipient mechanisms, contributing to a more information-driven approach to excipient selection. Our studies highlight that molecular systems behave not because of strong interactions, but because of weak, solvent-mediated effects that affect the thermodynamics and dynamics of the system. In this talk, I will show how coordinated solvent and biomolecular interactions modulate the molecular stability and self-assembly of biomolecules. I will demonstrate how understanding molecular mechanisms can enable rational design of formulations and developing descriptors that can unify the broad range of mechanisms through which excipients affect biomolecular stability. Lastly, I will describe novel computational approaches developed in our lab that enable computationally feasible studies of stability of virus capsids in various excipient solutions. In my talk, I will highlight and discuss the key results from this work collectively pushing the frontiers of rational design of formulations for stable biologics.

Sapna Sarupria

Dr. Sapna Sarupria is an associate professor in the department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMN). Before joining UMN in Fall 2021, she was an associate professor in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Clemson University. She received her Master’s from Texas A & M University, her Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and was a postdoctoral researcher in Princeton University. Her research focuses on developing and applying molecular simulations to study materials relevant to health and energy. She received the NSF CAREER award, ACS COMP Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, Clemson’s Board of Trustees Award of Excellence and the CoMSEF Impact Award. She is the co- founder of the NSF-funded Institute of Computational Molecular Science Education (I-CoMSE), co-organizer of virtual seminar series “Statistical Thermodynamics and Molecular Simulations (STMS)”, associate editor for LiveCoMS -- Living Journal of Computational Molecular Simulation, co- Director the NSF-funded National Research Traineeship program (NRT) Data-Driven Discovery and Engineering from Atoms to Processes (3DEAP), co-chair of 2028 Water Gordon Research Conference, and elected trustee of the not-for-profit Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering (CACHE).

Hosted by Professor Ilja Siepmann