Professor Ana Bahamonde (University of California, Riverside)

Title: "Beginning to understand light-mediated Ni catalysis using physical organic techniques"

Abstract: The Bahamonde group is interested in the development and mechanistic understanding of Ni- catalyzed processes that involve light-mediated steps—either to generate radicals that can be trapped enantioselectively or to promote C–heteroatom reductive eliminations at room temperature. Like other first-row transition metals, Ni participates in both one- and two-electron processes, resulting in broad and distinct reactivity while complicating our mechanistic understanding. To address this challenge, our research prioritizes gaining mechanistic insight as a foundation for rational catalyst and reaction design.

Biography: Ana was born and raised in the north of Spain. She obtained her B. Sc. in Chemistry at the Universidad de Oviedo in 2012. Subsequently, during her PhD she studied photoredox reactions promoted by organocatalysts at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) under the supervision of Paolo Melchiorre. Afterwards she moved away from her home country to work in the Sigman lab at the University of Utah as a postdoctoral researcher (2017-2020). During this time, she worked on Pd-catalyzed aza-Wacker reactions and the development of multivariate linear regression models to explain the rates of amide coupling reactions. Since 2020 she is an Assistant Professor at the University of California Riverside where her group uses a mechanistically guided approach to reaction development utilizing first row transition metals.