About the Speaker:

Dave MacMillan was born in Bellshill, Scotland and received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Glasgow, where he worked with Dr. Ernie Colvin. In 1990, he began his doctoral studies with Professor Larry Overman at the University of California, Irvine, before undertaking a postdoctoral position with Professor Dave Evans at Harvard University in 1996. He began his independent career at the University of California, Berkeley in 1998 before moving to Caltech in 2000 as the Earle C. Anthony Chair of Organic Chemistry.

In 2006, Dave moved to Princeton University as the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Chemistry. He served as Department Chair from 2010–15, and is currently the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry. Dave shares the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Benjamin List “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis”.

About the Colloquium:

Title:

The Development of Asymmetric Organocatalysis and Metallaphotoredox

Abstract:

This lecture will first discuss the advent of organocatalysis in my laboratory. As part of this overview, we will highlight why organic catalysts have become widely explored in modern synthetic chemistry. This lecture will also discuss the application of visible light photocatalysis to the discovery or invention of transformations that will be conceptually or synthetically valuable (and sometimes, hopefully, both). We will describe why a healthy balance of reaction discovery and mechanistic understanding has been important to the development of a field of research that is now being widely adopted in both industrial and academic settings. In particular, we will discuss the application of photocatalysis to the development of new metallaphotoredox reactions involving copper, a development that we hope will have an impact on the discovery of new biologically relevant molecules. Finally, we will examine an exciting recent application of photoredox catalysis in my group; namely, the high-resolution μMap technology, which provides a powerful means to probe biological pathways at the subcellular level.