Chemistry Seminar - Melanie Sanford

About this event

5:30 PM to 6:30 PM - Palamountain Hall Davis Auditorium: Please join us as we welcome Professor Melanie Sanford (University of Michigan) as Skidmore's 2026 Distinguished Scholar in STEM. Professor Sanford will present a talk on her laboratory's research in organic chemistry entitled "New Synthetic Methods for Carbon–Fluorine Bond Formation: From Fundamental Science to Applications."The talk will be held on Wednesday, November 11, at 5:30 pm, in Davis Auditorium. Professor Sanford will be introduced by Assistant Professor of Chemistry Daniel Brandes, who can be reached with questions about the event. This lecture is open to the public. Biography: Melanie S. Sanford is currently the Moses Gomberg Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees at Yale University in 1996 where she carried out undergraduate research in the laboratory of Professor Bob Crabtree. She pursued graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology working with Professor Bob Grubbs. Following postdoctoral work at Princeton University with Professor Jay Groves, she joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in the summer of 2003 as an Assistant Professor of chemistry. She was promoted to associate professor in 2007, to full professor in 2010, and to Moses Gomberg Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry in 2016. Professor Sanford has won a number of awards, including the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, the Sackler Prize, the Blavatnik Award, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and the ACS Award in Organometallic Chemistry. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the ACS. She has trained more than 100 graduate students and post-docs. Research in the Sanford group aims to develop and interrogate the mechanisms of new chemical reactions that enable the production of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and fuels in a more efficient and environmentally friendly manner.