William Collins
B. S. Chemistry
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology,
2003
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Biography
My interest in organic chemistry began when I participated
as a summer research assistant at my undergraduate institute,
the New Mexico Institute of Technology. My project under
Dr. Michael Heagy involved the design and synthesis of boronic
acid chemosensors for carbohydrate recognition. After a National Science
Fellowship Undergraduate Research Experience (NSF REU) in
2001 at the University of New Mexico with Dr. Patrick Mariano
studying photochemically induced macrocyclizations of phthalimides,
I gradually became more interested in synthesis and methodology.
My focus in synthetic organic chemistry was further cemented both in
the laboratory and classroom after I joined Dr. Alexander
Kornienko’s research group. For the last two years
of my undergraduate education I worked in his group on the
total synthesis of (+)-pancratistatin as well as the total
synthesis of several of the epimers of cyclophellitol. 1
My current project focuses on the expansion of the scope of
the Lewis base catalyzed asymmetric variant of the Passerini
reaction. Currently our goal is to investigate the diastereo-control
of our catalyst system in the presence of resident chirality
on either the aldehyde or isocyanide substrates. High levels
of double diastereoselectivity in this reaction has far reaching
implications, as the alpha-hydroxy carboxamides produced are
a common motif in many natural products being investigated
for therapeutic use.
Publications
- Kireev, A. S.; Breithaupt, A. T.; Collins, W. Nadein, O. N.; Kornienko, A. "Enantiodivergent Formal Synthesis of (+)- and (-)-Cyclophellitol from D-Xylose Based on the Latent Symmetry Concept. J. Org. Chem. 2005, 70, 742-745.
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