Research at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution: Group 6 and 7 Complexes for CO2 Reduction

Abstract:

Carbon dioxide reduction is a key challenge in developing renewable energy systems. CO2 reduction has been examined extensively with late transition metals, frequently with diimine ligands and other redox-active ligands. Our group has been working, often in collaboration with other groups, to better understand CO2 reduction at group 7 and earlier transition metals, and also to break the paradigm of diimine ligands in catalysis. Another hurdle for CO2 reduction is to go beyond the 2-electron reduction products of CO and formate. We have been working towards finding catalysts capable of generating further reduced species such as methane, and our efforts in this area will also be discussed. Research at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs) is different than at schools with PhD students and postdocs, and many people who go into academia will get jobs at a PUI. Dr. Grice will discuss what enabled his success in applications to PUI faculty positions and in pre-tenure research projects at a PUI.

Biography:

Kyle Grice was born in Seattle, WA and grew up on Bainbridge Island, WA.

He obtained a B.Sc. in Chemistry with High Distinction and Departmental Honors in Chemistry and Humanities from Harvey Mudd College in 2005. He then attended the University of Washington (UW), where he worked in the laboratory of Professor Karen I. Goldberg, studying C-H bond functionalization with platinum complexes. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2010 from UW, and then moved to San Diego and started his postdoctoral research at the University of California at San Diego in the lab of Professor Clifford P. Kubiak, where he studied the catalytic reduction of carbon dioxide with homogeneous transition metal complexes. In 2013, he moved to Chicago to begin his current position as an Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at DePaul University.

His research at DePaul University is based on the study of inorganic complexes as catalysts for valuable reactions. His focus is on the selective and controlled transformation of strong bonds, but he is also very interested in metals in biology.

Check out his official faculty page at DePaul University.