Eric Nacsa
Professional Appointments and Affiliations
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Office
426 Chemistry Building
University Park, PA 16802
Email: nacsa@psu.edu
(814) 863-1339
Education
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University, 2019
PhD, Columbia University, 2015
BSc, Harvey Mudd College, 2010
Honors and Awards
NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (NIGMS R35 MIRA), 2024–2029
NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award, 2024–2029
ACS PRF New Doctoral Investigator, 2022–2023
NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship (F32), 2017–2019
Arun Guthikonda Memorial Graduate Fellowship, Columbia University, 2013
Harvey S. Mudd Merit Scholarship, Harvey Mudd College, 2006–2010
Research
Our group is primarily interested in addressing important challenges in synthetic organic chemistry. In particular, we will seek new, general strategies to prepare complex, biologically active compounds or substructures from the simplest possible feedstocks. This work involves designing new reactions, catalysts, and reagents, and is driven by mechanistic hypotheses and investigations. Furthermore, we seek to harness new reactivity principles in organic chemistry to develop enabling tools for chemical biology, identify scalable approaches to renewable organic feedstocks, and prepare organic polymers with improved functionality.
Recent Publications
Han, J.; Piane, J. J.; Gizenski, H.; *Nacsa, E. D. “An Electrochemical Design for Catalytic Dehydration Enables a General Platform for Carboxylic Acid Substitution at Room Temperature: Amidation, Esterification, and Thioesterification.” Org. Lett. 2025, 27, 1923–1928.
Barney, J. L.; Wolfram, A. J.; Litvak, R.; *Nacsa, E. D. “A General Amino–(Hetero)Arylation of Simple Olefins with (Hetero)Aryl Sulfonamides Enabled by an N-Triazinyl Group.” ACS Catal. 2025, 15, 2139–2149.
Babcock, D. J.; Wolfram, A. J.; Barney, J. L.; Servagno, S. M.; Sharma, A.; *Nacsa, E. D. “A Free-Radical Design Featuring an Intramolecular Migration for a Synthetically Versatile Alkyl–(Hetero)Arylation of Simple Olefins.” Chem. Sci. 2024, 15, 4031–4040.
Haines, C. A.; Han, J.; *Nacsa, E. D. “An Electrochemical Design for Catalytic Dehydration: Direct, Room-Temperature Esterification without Acid or Base Additives.” Synlett 2024, 35, 1733–1738.
Han, J.; Haines, C. A.; Piane, J. J.; Filien, L. L.; *Nacsa, E. D. “An Electrochemical Design for Catalytic Dehydration: Direct, Room-Temperature Esterification without Acid or Base Additives.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 15680–15687.