Ramesh Giri
Professional Appointments and Affiliations
Professor of Chemistry
Office
433 Chemistry Building
Education
Postdoc, University of California
Berkeley/University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2012
PhD, The Scripps Research Institute, 2009
MPhil, University of Cambridge, UK 2003
MSc, Tribhuvan University, Nepal 1998
Honors and Awards
NIH Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award (MIRA) (R35), 2019
National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, 2016
Theme Chemistry Journals Award, 2016
Myron Rosenblum Endowed Fellowship, Brandeis University, 2006
Monbukagakusho: MEXT, Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT), Japan, 2002
Research
The Giri lab works at the interface of organic, organometallic, inorganic and material chemistry, and is interested in developing novel organic reactions and materials based on the first row late transition metals (Fe, Co, Ni and Cu). These reactions and materials have extensive applications in areas ranging from the development of new materials, renewable fuels and electrocatalysts, and diversification of existing drugs to the step-economic and cost-effective synthesis of complex molecules, natural products and pharmaceuticals. Our research is currently tailored to develop new catalytic pathways for alkene difunctionalization, protodecarboxylation, decarboxylative functionalization, photoredox catalysis, C-H activation, fluorination and trifluoromethylation. Our group also synthesizes organometallic complexes that either function as intermediates to study reaction mechanisms or serve as electrocatalysts for fuel cell applications.
Selected Publications
Basnet, P.; KC, S.; Dhungana, R. K.; Shrestha, B.; Boyle, T. J.; Giri, R. "Synergistic Bimetallic Ni/Ag and Ni/Cu Catalysis for Regioselective g,d-Diarylation of Alkenyl Ketimines: Addressing b-H Elimination by in situ Generation of Cationic Ni(II)-Catalysts" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018 , 140, 15586–15590.
Gokhale, R.; Thapa, S.; Artyushkova, K.; Giri, R.; Atanassov, P. "Fully Synthetic Approach towards Transition Metal-Nitrogen-Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysts" ACS Appl. Energ. Mater. 2018, 1, 3802–3806.
Basnet, P.; Dhungana, R. K.; Thapa, S.; Shrestha, B.; KC, S.; Sears, J. M.; Giri, R. "Ni-Catalyzed Regioselective b,d-diarylation of Unactivated Olefins in Ketimines via Ligand-Enabled Contraction of Transient Nickellacycles: Rapid Access to Remotely Diarylated Ketones" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018 , 140, 7782–7786.
Giri, R.; Brusoe, A.; Troshin, K.; Wang, J, Y.; Font, M.; Hartwig, J. F. "Mechanism of the Ullmann Biaryl Ether Synthesis Catalyzed by Complexes of Anionic Ligands: Evidence for the Reaction of Iodoarenes with Ligated Anionic CuI Intermediates" J. Am. Chem. Soc.2018, 140, 793–806.
Shrestha, B.; Basnet, P.; Dhungana, R. K.; KC, S.; Thapa, S.; Sears, J. M.; Giri, R. "Ni-Catalyzed Regioselective 1,2-Dicarbofunctionalization of Olefins by Intercepting Heck Intermediates as Imine-Stabilized Transient Metallacycles" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017 , 139, 10653–10656.
Thapa, S.; Kafle, A.; Gurung, S. K.; Montoya, A.; Riedel, P.; Giri, R. "Ligand-Free Copper-Catalyzed Negishi Coupling of Alkyl-, Aryl- and Alkynylzinc Reagents with Heteroaryl Iodides" Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 8236-8240.
Giri, R.; Lan, Yu.; Liu, P.; Houk, K. N.; Yu, J.-Q. “Understanding Reactivity and Stereoselectivity in Palladium-
Catalyzed Diastereoselective sp3 C–H Bond Activation: Intermediate Characterization and Computational Studies” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 14118.
Giri, R.; Yu, J.-Q. “Synthesis of 1,2-and 1,3-Dicarboxylic Acids via Pd(II)-Catalyzed Carboxylation of Aryl and Vinyl C–H Bonds” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 14082.
Giri, R.; Maugel, N.; Li, J.-J.; Wang, D.-H; Breazzano, S. P.; Saunders, L. B.; Yu, J.-Q. “Palladium-Catalyzed Methylation and Arylation of sp2 and sp3 C–H Bonds in Simple Carboxylic Acids” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 3510.
Giri, R.; Chen, X.; Yu, J.-Q. “Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Iodination of Unactivated C–H Bonds under Mild Conditions” Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2005, 44, 2112.