Dr. Ryan Stolley

As complicated as chemistry can be, really everything is constructed like LEGOs – pieces with limited sizes, shapes, geometries all come together to make the intricate and complex. Because of this, if you look around you, unless it grew from the ground, nearly everything you see has been designed from the atom up. Over the span of human history, we have built an understanding of the matter that comprises our universe and have become quite adept of combining the 100-odd elements into the materials of modern society. Specifically, in organic chemistry – the chemistry of life – we have even less available atoms and possible connections; and given the importance to our existence this field has a very strong grasp on the possible.

So, it is incredible to conceive that in the limited space of atomic composition and connectivity in organic chemistry, a group of relatively simple, diverse, and powerful group of atoms has eluded investigation. Research into frequently observed group of atoms, called functional groups, has a rich history and students in our lab will have the opportunity to expand on lessons of the past - applying classical reaction development techniques - and deriving new paradigms as we investigate this sandbox of fun new pieces of the universe

Our SRI stream will uncover new chemical reactions to build never before seen arrangements of atoms and use a variety of chemical, analytical and computational tools to uncover how these new groups of atoms behave; and to expand on this capability to build ever more complex molecules. In our lab students will learn the principles of organic chemistry and chemical experimentation and the instrumental tools for us to ascertain structure and function of organic molecules.