Research

The rise in global population has dramatically increased the need for sustainable chemistry. As synthetic chemists, it is imperative that we develop green methods for the production and degradation of the molecules that we use everyday, from agrochemicals and plastics to pharmaceuticals, dyes, and fragrances. One of the best ways to enable this goal is the design of catalysts. Yet, the discovery of novel catalysts can be cost and time intensive and oftentimes serendipity is still paramount to discovery. In the Ackerman-Biegasiewicz Lab, we explore the activity of earth-abundant, readily assembled catalysts via high-throughput experimentation, developing analytical tools to gain holistic information about reactions.