Ramesh Giri was born in Chitwan, Nepal. He worked with Professor Sarbajna M. Tuladhar in natural products isolation and graduated with an MSc in 2000 from Tribhuvan University. After teaching for two years at the same university, he joined Professor Jonathan B. Spencer’s laboratory at Cambridge University, UK, where he studied oxidoreductase enzymes in the biosynthesis of butirosin antibiotics and earned an MPhil in 2003. In 2004, he moved with Professor Jin-Quan Yu, first to Brandeis University and then to the Scripps Research Institute, where he pursued research in the development of palladium-catalyzed C-H activation reactions and graduated with a PhD in 2009. In June 2009, he joined the Hartwig group for postdoctoral studies, where he is currently working on the mechanism of copper-catalyzed amination reactions.

Zheng Huang was born in Zhejiang Province, China. He went to Nankai University in Tianjian and received his BS and Master degrees in chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Xianhe Bu. In 2004, he moved to UNC-Chapel Hill, where he worked with Prof. Maurice Brookhart on catalytic tandem alkane metathesis. In 2009, he joined the Hartwig group as a postdoctoral fellow and is currently studying N-H bond activation by transition metal complexes. In his free time, Zheng enjoys jogging and reading history books.

Lisa Julian was born and raised in Irvine, California. She earned her BS in Chemistry from UCI in 2001, and then left sunny southern California to pursue her doctoral studies with Professor Bill Roush at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She completed the total synthesis of natural product 13-deoxytedanolide and graduated with a PhD in 2005. After spending three years in industry as a medicinal chemist, she returned to academics and joined the Hartwig Group to learn about organometallic chemistry. She is an NIH post-doctoral fellow and is currently studying the rhodium-catalyzed hydroamination reaction. For fun, Lisa enjoys running, playing tennis, and fine dining.

Hiroyuki Morimoto was born in 1981 in Hiroshima, Japan, and spent his early years in Shizuoka. He entered the University of Tokyo in 2000 and joined Prof. Masakatsu Shibasaki’s group in 2003. Hiroyuki continued graduate course study under the supervision of Prof. Shibasaki, and earned a PhD degree in 2009 based on the study of direct catalytic asymmetric Mannich-type reactions of ester equivalent donors using novel lanthanum-based asymmetric catalysts. In the same year, he joined the Hartwig group where he is now studying the synthetic methodologies based on transition metal catalysis. In his spare time, Hiroyuki enjoys walking and cooking.

Alexey Sergeev was born in the romantic city of White Nights, Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg, Russia) in 1977. He obtained his Diploma degree at Saint-Petersburg State University in 1999. In the same year joined the group of Prof. Irina Beletskaya at Moscow State University, where he studied palladium-catalyzed C-N bond forming reactions. After completiing his PhD thesis at the end of 2004, he worked as a research chemist in IRIX Neva in Saint Petersburg. In 2006, Alexey started his postdoctoral studies with Prof. Matthias Beller at Leibniz Institut fuer Katalyse in Rostock (Germany), where he was engaged in various topics of organometallic chemistry: from reductive carbonylation and hydroxylation of aryl halides to the chemistry of dioxocomplexes of palladum and phosphine ligand synthesis. In 2009, he joined the group of Prof. Hartwig at the University of Illinois to study the activation of C-O bonds and the application of transition metal catalysis for biofeedstock conversion. In his spare time, Alexey enjoys art photography, walking, traveling, and reading.

Eric Simmons was born in Nashua, NH, in 1981, and grew up in Portland, ME. In 2004, he received his BA in Chemistry and Spanish from Tufts University, where he performed undergraduate research with Prof. Marc d'Alarcao. That fall he began his graduate studies with Prof. Richmond Sarpong at the University of California at Berkeley, working on the total synthesis of icetexane and cortistatin natural products utilizing an enyne cycloisomerization reaction. After completing his PhD in 2009, Eric began postdoctoral studies with Prof. John Hartwig at the University of Illinois, working in the area of C-H activation. In his free time, Eric enjoys listening to music, traveling, and occasionally going for a run.

Levi Stanley was born in Bismarck, ND, in 1979, and spent his early years in Washburn, ND.  He received his BA in chemistry from Augustana College (SD) in 2001. In 2002 he began his graduate studies with Professor Mukund Sibi at North Dakota State University, where his work focused on the development of catalytic, enantioselective dipolar cycloadditions and applications of chiral relay ligands and templates in enantioselective catalysis. He completed his PhD in 2007 and joined Professor John Hartwig’s group at the University of Illinois to complete postdoctoral studies in the area of transition metal catalysis. Levi’s studies in the Hartwig Group involve the development and application of iridium-catalyzed allylic substitution reactions. In his free time, Levi is likely to be found on one of the many fine golf courses in the Champaign-Urbana area.

Hideaki Yamamichi was born in 1981 and spent his early years in Hiroshima, Japan. He received his PhD degree from Hiroshima University in 2009 under the supervision of Prof. Yohsuke Yamamoto with a thesis titled "Synthesis, Structure, and Isomerization of Group 15 Element Compounds Bearing a Rigid Tridentate Ligand." In the same year, he joined the Hartwig Group and is studying rhodium-catalyzed hydroamination, hydrogenation, and hydrosilylation.