Former Group Members
Former Group Members
This page is under construction. As we get our act together, please send us info if you are a former member. We would love to know what you're up to right now!
Graduate Students
Jim Ciszewski
Since receiving his PhD, Jim has worked with the US Environmental Protection Agency and as a postdoc with David Vicic at University of Hawaii at Manoa. Currently, he is at The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville, VA.
Thesis: "Carbene Complexes, Bis(imido) Complexes, and Titanium Alkyne Hydroamination Catalysts", Ph.D. 2004
Shannon Harris
Shannon began her graduate career working with Prof. Kim Dunbar at MSU. When Prof. Dunbar moved to Texas A&M, Shannon spent a brief time in our laboratory where she did some of the seminal titanium hydroamination studies in our group.
Bala Ramanathan
Bala has done postdoctoral work with both Prof. Melanie Sanford and Prof. Mitch Smith. He also worked for Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals as a senior scientist. Currently he is working for J&J Pharmaceuticals.
Thesis: "Role of Titanium Imidos in C–N Bond Formation: Mechanism and Synthesis of Pyrroles and Secondary Allylic Amines", Ph.D. 2007
Sameer Patel
Sameer received his M.S. degree working with us and did outstanding work in studying the synthesis and properties of a class of hydrazido(2–) titanium complexes. He is currently the President of Spartan Consulting Inc.
Sanjukta Das (née Banerjee)
Thesis: "Titanium-Catalyzed Additions of Substituted Hydrazines to Alkynes: Catalyst Design, Mechanistic Studies, and Applications to Heterocycle Synthesis", Ph.D. 2008
Kapil Lokare
Thesis: "Synthesis, Structure, and Applications of Metallacyclic Alkylidene Complexes of Molybdenum and Tungsten", Ph.D. 2008
Doug Swartz
Doug is currently an Assistant Professor at West Liberty University.
Thesis: "Development of Titanium Pyrrolyl Hydroamination Catalysts and Uranium Pyrrolyl Complexes", Ph.D. 2009
Supriyo Majumder
Supriyo did a postdocs with Prof. Kay Brummon at University of Pittsburgh and with Prof. Edwin Vedejs at University of Michigan. Formerly Supriyo worked at AMRI Singapore and at Jubilant Chemsys Ltd. Currently Supriyo works as a Senior Scientist in the catalysis division at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPLC), one of he largest public sector Oil and Gas companies in India and a forturne 500 compoany.
Thesis: "Synthesis of Heterocycles Using Group-4 Metal Catalyzed C–N Bond Formation", Ph.D. 2009
Rami Batrice
Rami explored some chromium nitrido chemistry in our group and is currently a graduate student with Prof. Morris Eisen at Technion in Israel.
Nick Maciulis
Nick was instrumental in the development of the Ligand Donor Parameter project and is currently a graduate student at Indiana.
Steve DiFranco
Steve explored the chemistry of Mo(IV) complexes with hydrazines, looking at N-N bond cleavage reactions. He also made many of the Cr(VI) nitrido complexes with the LDP project.
Thesis: "Pyrrolide Supported Molybdenum(IV) Mediated Bond Cleavage Reactions and Electronic and Steric Ligand Parmeterization using a Chromium(VI) Nitrido Platform". Ph.D. 2013
Amila Dissanayake
Amila used titanium multicomponent coupling chemistry in the synthesis of heterocyclic cores like isoxazoles, pyrroles, and 2-aminopyridines. In addition, he discovered the first catalyst capable of the multicomponent coupling between monosubstituted hydrazines, alkynes, and isonitriles, which generated pyrazoles in a single step. Currently, Amila is working as a postdoc in Plant and Soil Sciences at Michigan State.
Thesis: "Titanium-Catalyzed One-Pot Multicomponent Coupling Reactions for Direct Access to Heterocycles". Ph.D. 2013
Cody Pasko
Cody used multicomponent coupling to investigate the synthesis of various pyrroles through a design of experiment type approach. Cody is now working for Johnson Matthey Pharma.
Thesis: "Design and Optimization of Pyrrole Syntheses from Titanium-Catalyzed Multicomponent Coupling Intermediates" M.S. 2016
Nick Boersma
Tanner McDaniel
Tanner worked on using multicomponent coupling to develop the synthesis of substituted quinolines for use as proteasome inhibitors in attempts to combat multiple myeloma. He also worked to demonstrate the application of LDP parameters towards high valent catalysts. Currently, Tanner is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Prof. Clark Landis.
Tanner moved to Dow in May 2020.
Thesis: "Applications and Optimization of Titanium Catalysis" Ph.D. 2017
Brennan Billow
Brennan worked on using the ligand donor parameter as a tool to develop understanding of high valent metals. He also started work on understanding electronic structure and reactivity relationships for uranium compounds. Currently, Brennan is working at Sherwin-Williams R&D in Twin Cities Area.
Thesis: "Investigations of High Valent Metals Using the Ligand Donor Parameter" Ph.D. 2018
Kelly Aldrich
Kelly is working at Xcel Energy’s nuclear facility on Prairie Island.
Thesis: "An Exploration of Mid- to High-valent Transition Metal Complexes for Application to Catalysis" Ph.D. 2019
Zhilin Hou
Zhilin is with Odyssey Therapeutics in Ann Arbor.
Thesis: "Explorations of Heterocycles and metal complexes as drug candidates and investigations of ligand effects in titanium catalysis." Ph.D. 2022
Hannah Barr
M.S. 2022
Linquing Mo
Thesis: "Evaluation of Donor Abilities of Neutral Ligands to Vanadium(V) Nitrides". M.S. 2022
Seokjoo Lee
Seokjoo is working with AMPAC Fine Chemicals as Process Scientist III.
Thesis: "Investigations in titanium-catalyzed and mediated bond forming reactions". Ph.D. 2023
Rashmi Jena
Rashmi is working with intel.
Thesis: "Elucidation of structure-property relationships of f-block elements and investigating the impact of ancillary ligands on high-valent metal catalysis.". Ph.D. 2024
Postdoctoral Associates and Visiting Professors
Dr. Yanhui Shi: Professor at Xuzhou Normal University
Dr. Changsheng Cao: Professor at Xuzhou Normal University
Dr. Yahong Li: Professor at Suzhou University
Dr. Baohan Xie: Currently working for the American Chemical Society.
Prof. Douglas Armstrong: Doug worked with us as a visiting Professor from Olivet Nazarene University
Dr. Eyal Barnea: Eyal is a researcher at TAMI in Israel
Dr. Dushanthi Hoole: Dushy is currently acting as an instructor in the department.
Dr. Ross Bemowski: Researcher at Sigma Aldrich Pharma
Dr. Amrendra Singh: Amrendra is now a professor at IIT Indore
Dr. Guangtu Wang:
Undergraduate Students
(Incomplete List! If you worked with us as an undergrad, please and let us know what your up to! I'd like to include as many as possible of the people who worked with us over the years.)contact us
Angie Turnas
Evgeny Katayev: Evgeny worked with us as an undergraduate and went on to get his Ph.D. with Jonathan Sessler at University of Texas Austin. He did postdoctoral work with Kay Severin (EPFL) and Burkhard König (U. of Rogensburg). Now he is a professor at Techische Univ. in Chemnitz.
Adam J. Keith
Christopher Hall
Kevin Gipson
John Roberts: John graduated from Northwestern University with his Ph.D. in organic chemistry and now works for Dow Corning in Midland, MI.
Jake Claes
Michael Costa: Michael moved with his wife to the Dallas area.
Yvonne DePorre: Yvonne is headed to U. of Michigan for graduate school.
Danielle Eppen
Kaylee Laudick
Arturo Aguirre: Arturo is headed to graduate school in Iowa for medicinal chemistry.
Bailey Bajorek: Bailey has taken a job with Honeywell UOP in the catalysis division of the research department.
Evan Beaumier: Evan chose the chemistry program at Minnesota for his graduate studies. He will be working under the guidance of Dr. Ian Tonks.
Caitlin "Stinky" Bouchey: Caitlin has also moved on to the chemistry program at Minnesota for graduate studies.
Carl Conti: Carl worked locally at XG Science, Inc. before deciding to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Florida.
Neil Heberer: Neil went on to study organic chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign
Zongyao Wang: Zongyao will be moving on to graduate school.
Mihai Big
Ethan Ohlrich
Issac Beattie
Some Older Group Pictures
Summer of 2009. From left to right: Steve DiFranco, Amila Dissanayake, Dr. Supriyo
Majumder, Aaron, Dr. Doug Swartz, Rami Batrice, and Nick Maciulis
Group picture from Summer of 2005. From left to right: Sanjukta Banerjee, Supriyo
Majumder, Bala Ramanathan, Doug Swartz, Kapil Lokare, and Sameer Patel. Aaron showing
reluctance at getting his picture taken was removed from his office for the photo.
Bala, Sameer, Sanjukta, and Supriyo in the old laboratory in 2005.
Kapil, Sameer, and Doug doing...something in the old laboratory.
Some other photos: The Sup in the box
Doug somehow irritated his dry box until it wasn't going to take anymore crap from
him.
How Aaron found the fridge in the lab one day in 2008. He assumes Kit did it.
Dr. Wang's best attempt at an angry face...
Dr. Wang modeling the lucky shirt