Tuesday, April 28, 2015
1:00 pm—2:00 pm
El Camino College
Distance Education Conference room, Library 166
16007 Crenshaw Blvd.
Torrance, CA 90506
“A Few of My Favorite Rings”
Prof. Vy Dong
University of California, Irvine
Abstract: The presentation is tailored to cater to divergent audiences and is divided into four parts. The first part serves to introduce the field of Organic Chemistry to fresh undergraduate students, as well as to people from other walks of natural/physical sciences who are not familiar with this branch of chemistry. The second part deals with the concept of Chirality and explains how certain molecules can exist as both “left” and “right” handed entities, exhibiting different physical and chemical characteristics, although they have the same molecular formula/composition. This leads to the third part which elaborates on how these chiral entities can differ in their biological properties, with special focus on why this knowledge is vital in the design of safe drugs in the realm of medicine. Prof. Dong then transitions into the final part, which describes her research on the design of novel catalysts and the synthesis of ring structures.
Biography: Vy Dong was born in Big Spring, Texas and spent early childhood in west Texas before moving with family to Anaheim, California. She graduated magna cum laude from UC Irvine where she majored in chemistry and completed an honor’s project with Larry Overman. After graduation, she joined David MacMillan’s group at UC Berkeley, and then moved with his group to Caltech to complete her doctoral studies. Her Ph.D. thesis featured variants of the zwitterionic-Claisen rearrangement and a total synthesis of erythronolide B. As an NIH postdoctoral fellow, Vy pursued training in organometallic and supramolecular chemistry with Robert Bergman and Kenneth Raymond at Berkeley. She began her independent academic career at the University of Toronto, where she was promoted with tenure and named the Adrian Brook Professor. After six years in Canada, Vy returned to the United States to assume a professorship at her alma mater, UC Irvine. Professor Dong’s research team is interested in new reaction methods, enantioselective catalysis, and natural product synthesis.
Directions: Convenient Parking is in Lot H, and is $3. For directions and a campus map, please go to http://www.elcamino.edu/about/directions.asp.