Speakers for BSOC 2025 will be announced soon !!
Below are our invited speakers for BSOC 2023 and their biographies.
Meet our Speakers
M. Kevin Brown received his undergraduate training at Hamilton College and his doctoral training at Boston College with Professor Amir H. Hoveyda. During his graduate training, he was involved in the early stages of the development of sulfonate NHC-Cu complexes, completing the first total synthesis of clavirolide C. For his work, he was awarded fellowships from the American Chemical Society Organic Division. After receiving his doctoral degree, Brown joined the research group of Professor E. J. Corey at Harvard University as an NIH postdoctoral fellow.
In 2011, he became a member of the chemistry faculty at Indiana University, where his independent research program has been directed toward the development of new methods and strategies in chemical synthesis with a special emphasis on alkene functionalization processes. He has received several awards such as the Novartis Early Career Award, CAREER award, Amgen Young Investigator Award, Sloan Fellowship, and a Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers. In 2021 he was promoted to full professor and named the James F. Jackson Professor of Chemistry.
Jen Heemstra received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine, in 2000. At Irvine, she performed undergraduate research investigating the folding of synthetic beta-sheet mimics, which instilled in her a love of supramolecular chemistry. She then moved to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she completed her Ph.D. in 2005 studying the reactivity of pyridine-functionalized phenylene ethynylene cavitands.
After a brief time in industry as a medicinal chemist, she moved to Harvard University to pursue postdoctoral research exploring mechanisms for templated nucleic acid synthesis. Jen began her independent career in 2010 and she is currently the Charles Allen Thomas Professor and Chair in the Department of Chemistry at Washington University in St Louis. Research in the Heemstra lab is focused on harnessing the molecular recognition and self-assembly properties of nucleic acids and proteins for applications in biosensing and bioimaging. In addition to her research, Jen is also actively engaged in science communication, outreach, and advocacy via her social media presence, and professional development seminars and workshops.
Outside of work, Jen enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons, as well as rock climbing, cycling, and running.
Francis Gosselin obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Université de Montréal in 2000 (Advisor: Professor William D. Lubell), and was a NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University (Advisor: Professor Paul A. Wender). He began his industrial career at Merck Frosst Canada and Merck Research Laboratories (2002-2010), and then joined Genentech in 2010 where he is now Head of Process Chemistry and External Science & Manufacturing.
Previous Speakers
2022: Tom Maimone, Stephen Fletcher, Danica Rankic, Cathleen Crudden, Philip Dawson.
2019: Regan J. Thomson, Scott J. Miller, Martin D. Eastgate, Jean-P. Lumb.
2017: Justin Du Bois, Chris Vanderwal, Abigail Doyle, Matt Francis, Louis-Charles Campeau.
2015: Albert Padwa, MG Finn, Laura Kiessling, Matt Sigman, Richmond Sarpong.
2013: Paul Wender, Suzanne Blum, Daniel Kahne, Neil Garg, Corey R. J. Stephenson.
2011: Ronald Breslow, Christina White, Sarah Reisman, Ivan Aprahamian.
2009: Helen Blackwell, Erick Carreira, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, Scott Snyder.
2007: Makoto Fujita, Amir Hoveyda, Barbara Imperiali, David MacMillan.
2005: Matthew Shair, Carolyn Bertozzi, Ben Feringa, John F. Hartwig.
2003: Richard R. Schrock, John L. Wood, Kevan Shokat.
David grew up near Philadelphia, PA as the eldest of four siblings in an Egyptian family with a strong love for teaching and education. He earned his B.Sc. at Boston College in 2006, studying peptide-catalyzed desymmetrization with Prof. Scott Miller. In 2011, he earned his PhD at Princeton University, developing medicinally relevant trifluoromethylations via photoredox catalysis with Prof. David MacMillan. And as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, he developed oxidative gold mechanisms for C-H activation with Prof. F. Dean Toste. In 2014, David joined the faculty of The Ohio State University. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2020 and Professor in 2022. He is currently the inaugural Harold and Betty Miller Professor of Organic Chemistry, as well as the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His team’s research on radical- and carbene- mediated C-H and C-O functionalization has been recognized with awards by the ACS, NIH, NSF, Lilly, Merck, Pfizer, and the Sloan Foundation. When not working alongside his awesome labmates, David enjoys running along the Scioto River, checking out Columbus‘ vibrant foodie scene, and planning future world travels with his wife and two young children.