About the Speaker:

Bio:

Spencer was born and raised in the small Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. In 2012, he completed his B.Sc. with Honours in Chemistry at the University of Prince Edward Island with a minor in Physics. In 2012, Spencer joined the group of Juan (Tito) Scaiano at the University of Ottawa as a Ph.D. student. His research in the Scaiano group focused on developing metal-free alternatives for visible-light photoredox catalysis, developing new mechanistic tools for characterization of photochemically-initiated chain reactions, and using heterogeneous semiconductors to catalyze photoredox transformations. After graduating from Ottawa in 2017, Spencer joined the lab of Larry Overman at the University of California, Irvine, as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow. Spencer’s research in the Overman lab focused on utilizing tertiary alcohols as radical precursors for the alkylation of medicinally relevant heterocycles and developing a Lewis acid catalyzed 1,4-radical addition reaction. In 2019, Spencer joined Oklahoma State University as an assistant professor, where he is interested in exploring new reactivity regimes in photoredox and cobalt catalysis.

Research: