Dr Tongxiang (Aaron) Lu

• B.S. in Chemistry, Nankai University
• M.S. in Organic Chemistry, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry, University of Georgia
• email: tongxiang.lu@chem.tamu.edu

Tongxiang grew up in Anhui, China, and graduated from Nankai University with a B.S. in Chemistry. In 2004, He attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to study polymer and organic chemistry. After obtaining his M.S. degree in 2007, he continued his Ph.D. study in computational chemistry at the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry at the University of Georgia. In 2011, he moved to Texas A&M University working as a postdoc in the Wheeler group. His research concentrates on organocatalyzed reactions, including investigations of the origin of enantioselectivity of N-oxide catalyzed alkylation reactions, the design of novel catalysts based on thiosquaramides, and the study of copper-free click reactions. Currently, he is working on a Kemp elimination reaction catalyzed by anion-π interactions.

Ben Rooks

• B.A. in Chemistry, New College of Florida

Ben was born in Gainesville, FL, and received his B.A. in Chemistry from New College of Florida in 2013. He is currently working as a Research Assistant in the Wheeler Group on the development of an automated computational protocol (AARON - Automated Alkylation Reaction Optimizer for N-Oxides) to predict the enantioselectivities of bipyridine N-oxide and N,N'-dioxide based organocatalysts for asymmetric allylations and propargylations.