Today, Tanner and Zi-Yang (Nick) report a simple and practical method for N-alkylation of phosphinic (thio)amides using primary and secondary alcohols as the alkylating agents. The reaction is compatible with a wide variety of functional groups and employs a commercially available catalyst, Ru-MACHO, which was kindly donated to our lab from Takasago for the purposes of this study. Congrats to both authors, and special props to undergraduate co-first-author, Nick. This paper, which is now available online in Tetrahedron, is part of a special series celebrating Ryan Shenvi’s 2019 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award. Click here for a link to the paper.