Downey Group

Greetings! I bring you the good news that our paper describing the synthesis of styrenes from two aldehyde starting materials has been published by The Journal of Organic Chemistry (Here’s a link). This work began with a chance observation that Grant

Congratulations to Downey group alum Adam T. Barnett ’15, who just defended his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Utah. We may not understand Adam’s research in materials science, but we do understand his excellence. Congrats, Adam!

Well, the secret is out. Chris Poff, UR ’17, recently graduated from Emory University, where he worked with Simon Blakey, with a Ph.D. in chemistry. Well done, Chris! Now Chris is off to Boston to make your favorite pharmaceuticals. You

Great news from the University of Richmond, where our annual commencement resumed its pre-pandemic splendor and glamour. The Downey group lost three excellent students, swallowed up by graduation’s gaudy maw, but they’re all slithering on to better and brighter things:

We just got some great news.  Our manuscript describing the addition of indoles to nitrones was just accepted at The Journal of Organic Chemistry!  You can find the work of Zach Oracheff ’19, Helen Xia ’24, Chris Poff ’17, and

We have great news – our paper describing the one-pot synthesis of furans from simple ketones and silylalkynes is now published in Tetrahedron Letters.  You can find all the scintillating details at this link.  This work stemmed from a serendipitous

This summer, Danielle Confair ’16 finished up her Ph.D. work in the lab of Jon Ellman at Yale.  Not too shabby!  Our best wishes go out to Danielle as she moves on to industrial fame at Astra Zeneca in Waltham,

The University of Richmond returned to a real, if smaller, in-person graduation ceremony this year, just in time for the Downey group to lose four valued members.  We send our congratulations and best wishes to:  Claire Fuller, who will be

Fanfare and rejoicing!  Congratulations to our friend and past Downey group member Derek Obenschain, who now bears the title of doctor.  Derek completed his Ph.D. at the University of Washington under the guidance of an old friend of mine, Forrest

It’s been a challenging few months for sure as the world has battled the Covid-19 pandemic and the United States has struggled to come to grips with institutional racism.  We have a long way to go on both fronts, but