Congratulations to Chris, Aerin, Gahan and Kenneth on their paper describing a photoredox-catalyzed chemoselective ketone reduction that just appeared in Tetrahedron Letters! We’re excited to be continuing to contribute to the vibrant field of photoredox catalysis.

Another summer research program is on the books. This marks the tenth summer of research for the Cannon Lab! We had a great time discovering new chemistry and then sharing it with our colleagues.

Congratulations to Cannon Lab alumnus Rachel Zhang ’23 for being awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation! Rachel will use the award to support her graduate studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Wednesday was the conference at the end of our summer research program. Another great summer of chemistry, colleagues, and sharing our work! Already can’t wait to continue our work in the Fall!

Jeff, Chris, and Ciara had a blast sharing our research at the 48th National Organic Chemistry Symposium at Notre Dame! It was great to meet new people, connect with old friends, and see a lot of inspirational chemistry over four days!

Professor Cannon was selected as one of eight 2022 Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholars! This award is in recognition of young faculty who are both excellent scholars and dedicated to undergraduate education. Special thanks to all of the Cannon Lab members past and present whose hard work is reflected in this award!

Yesterday was Occidental’s Summer Research Conference, hosted by our Undergraduate research center. It was a fun day to share our science with our friends and colleagues. Congratulations to all the Cannon Lab students who presented posters or gave talks!

Our work on the photoredox-catalyzed oxidation of anions to generate electrophilic radicals is published in The Journal of Organic Chemistry! This work generates 1,3-dicarbonyl and amidyl radicals by a stepwise proton-coupled electron transfer process for the functionalization of alkenes. The result is a highly atom-economical process for hydro-, amido-, and dialkylation of alkenes. We used experimental and computational mechanistic experiments to understand the role of the catalyst as an electron shuttle between starting material and product molecules.

After over a year of lab closures and limited access, the Cannon Lab is back at wet chemistry! We’re very excited to be back to making carbon-carbon bonds!

Our research in photoredox catalysis has been funded by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Science of the National Institutes of Health! The funds from this grant will support a number of research students and any supplies they need to conduct their research. The reactions studied under this grant will enable the use of visible light to conduct challenging carbon-carbon bond forming reactions.