With this CAREER Award, the Chemistry Synthesis program is supporting the research of Professor Kian Tan of Boston College. Professor Tan will be applying his expertise in the area of catalysis towards the development of site and enantioselective reactions. The focus is to develop organic catalysts that recognize specific functional group motifs. The selectivity of the catalysts will be achieved by developing catalysts that incorporate a substrate-binding site. Similar to an enzyme, the organic catalyst uses binding of a substrate to the catalyst to properly orient the desired functional group near a catalytic residue, yet achieves this goal with a much smaller structure. The first part of the proposed research focuses on catalysts that recognize 1,2- and 1,3-diols. Upon identifying the catalysts, they will be applied to the functionalization of polyfunctional molecules. In the second part, catalysts will be developed that exploit the use of binding selectivity in order to control site-selectivity. Inherently less reactive sites on molecules could be functionalized in preference to more reactive sites. These types of transformations will allow for potentially more efficient syntheses of complex molecules.
Professor Tan will also initiate an educational program that promotes chemistry education at the high school level. The program involves providing content specific mentorship to new high school teachers (0-3 years experience). Improving teachers content knowledge and ability to relay complex information will provide a better education for generations of high school students. The program will include both high schools in the Boston area and will also be made available to Boston College graduates who are pursuing careers in chemistry education. Improving the teaching quality at the high school level will not only aid those students who go on to pursue a scientific career, but will also help make the public more scientifically literate. Furthermore, the research developed in this proposal will have a direct impact on the pharmaceutical, fine chemicals, and agricultural industries, which will improve the quality of life of the greater public community.
