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Ramesh Giri

Professor of Chemistry
Ramesh Giri

Giri

Professional Appointments and Affiliations

Professor of Chemistry

Office 

433 Chemistry Building

rkg5374@psu.edu

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. 20181, 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" JAm. 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.2018140, 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. 201554, 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. 2012134, 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. 2008130, 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. 2007129, 3510.

Giri, R.; Chen, X.; Yu, J.-Q. “Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Iodination of Unactivated C–H Bonds under Mild Conditions” Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 200544, 2112.