Author: Wade Downey

Great news from the University of Richmond, where our annual commencement resumed its pre-pandemic splendor and glamour. The Downey group lost three excellent students, swallowed up by graduation’s gaudy maw, but they’re all slithering on to better and brighter things:

We just got some great news.  Our manuscript describing the addition of indoles to nitrones was just accepted at The Journal of Organic Chemistry!  You can find the work of Zach Oracheff ’19, Helen Xia ’24, Chris Poff ’17, and

We have great news – our paper describing the one-pot synthesis of furans from simple ketones and silylalkynes is now published in Tetrahedron Letters.  You can find all the scintillating details at this link.  This work stemmed from a serendipitous

This summer, Danielle Confair ’16 finished up her Ph.D. work in the lab of Jon Ellman at Yale.  Not too shabby!  Our best wishes go out to Danielle as she moves on to industrial fame at Astra Zeneca in Waltham,

The University of Richmond returned to a real, if smaller, in-person graduation ceremony this year, just in time for the Downey group to lose four valued members.  We send our congratulations and best wishes to:  Claire Fuller, who will be

Fanfare and rejoicing!  Congratulations to our friend and past Downey group member Derek Obenschain, who now bears the title of doctor.  Derek completed his Ph.D. at the University of Washington under the guidance of an old friend of mine, Forrest

It’s been a challenging few months for sure as the world has battled the Covid-19 pandemic and the United States has struggled to come to grips with institutional racism.  We have a long way to go on both fronts, but

Kudos to Claire for winning this prestigious national award. Here’s the official press release, because Claire is now so important that she gets press releases.

Good news from here at the University of Richmond.  The excellent work of Grace Ann Robertson ’21, Matt Santa ’17, Kari Flicker ’18, and William Stith ’18 has produced a fine manuscript in Tetrahedron Letters!  Matt and Will began this

Well, it appears the aldol reaction just cannot get enough of the Downey group.  Through the work of several great students over many years, we may have polished off our work on the aldol reaction.  But maybe not!  You can