To kick off Halloween weekend, the Engle lab put their pumpkin carving skills to the test, in an evening filled with cider, pizza, and pumpkin-flavored everything. You can be the judge which group member’s pumpkin took the cake (err… pie).

With three papers appearing in J. Am. Chem. Soc. in the past two months, the Engle lab has had a lot to celebrate. Check out a few of selected photos for recent celebratory lunches and dinners. Work hard, eat hard… words to live by. Awesome job, team!

In a manuscript that appears in today’s online version of J. Am. Chem Soc., Zhen, Tian (May), and Kin describe a new method to carry out β,γ-vicinal dicarbofunctionalization of 3-butenoic acid derivatives using a directed nucleopalladation strategy. Of special note, May becomes the first undergraduate student to co-author a paper in the Engle group. Way to go, team! Click here for a link to the paper.

(not pictured: Kin)

Members of the Engle lab took the short trip north to UCLA’s conference center in Lake Arrowhead, CA, where despite the steady rain, everyone enjoyed a series of posters, talks, a good meals.

UCSD senior Miranda Sroda joins the Engle Lab to pursue her passion for organic chemistry and catalysis research. A native of Green Bay, WI, and Santa Barbara, CA, Miranda has previously worked as a summer research student with Prof. Javier Read De Alaniz at UCSB and at Apeel Sciences. Welcome aboard, Miranda!

Congratulations to Kin, John, and Zhen on the group’s newest paper, “Catalytic, Regioselective Hydrocarbofunctionalization of Unactivated Alkenes with Diverse C–H Nucleophiles,” which appeared online today in  J. Am. Chem. Soc. This reaction accomplishes a “homo-Michael” γ-selective addition of carbon-based nucleophiles to alkenyl carbonyl compounds. Click here for a link to the article.