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Robert Perkins, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Chemistry


Courses Taught

CHEM 2410 Organic Chemistry 1, CHEM 2420 Organic Chemistry 2, CHEM 4505 Inorganic Chemistry Lab

Education

Washington University in St. Louis, Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, 2016
Washington University in St. Louis, A.B. in Physics and Chemistry, 2011
Postdoctoral Fellow, Pfizer Chemical Research and Development, 2016-2018

Research Interests

Our group seeks to design unique and sustainable organic synthetic reactions, using electrochemistry as a tool for forming reactive intermediates via both oxidative and reductive single electron transfers. Through the generation of radical intermediates and the manipulation of oxidation states of nonprecious metal catalysts via electrochemistry, we seek to develop and optimize new and efficient routes to bond formation while minimizing reagent waste. Our goals are to develop these synthetic tools and to demonstrate their applicability towards the discovery and synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant core scaffolds.

A key educational objective of our group is to provide a valuable research experience to undergraduate students. Students in the group will develop broadly applicable synthetic skills as well as a unique and increasingly valuable skill set in electrochemical synthetic techniques. Our work is heavily focused on optimizing reactions via mechanistic understanding of both productive and unproductive reaction pathways, providing many opportunities to form connections between mechanistic organic chemistry fundamentals learned in organic lecture courses and real chemical systems.