This week marked the conclusion of Zoe’s summer “Pinternship”, a research internship initiative of the Pinhead Institute based in Telluride, Colorado. During her time with us, Zoe worked closely with Madison on catalytic alkyne functionalization, tackling real synthetic chemistry challenges with impressive focus and adaptability. She will be heading home to begin her senior year at Ouray High School — and to prepare for what promises to be a very busy ice climbing season. As a member of Team USA, Zoe is one of the top young ice climbers in the country, and her tenacity on the wall was clearly on display in the lab as well. We have loved having Zoe with us this summer and can’t wait to see what she accomplishes both in and out of the lab. Best of luck, Zoe!

We are delighted to share our new review article in Chemical Reviews in collaboration with the laboratory of Prof. Bing-Feng Shi at Zhejiang University! Enantioselective C–H functionalization has emerged as a next-generation synthetic paradigm—enabling direct modification of otherwise inert C–H bonds to build molecular complexity efficiently and with high stereochemical control. While precious metals have historically dominated this field, earth-abundant 3d transition metals (cobalt, nickel, iron, copper) are increasingly at the forefront, offering compelling advantages in cost, sustainability, and distinctive reactivity profiles.

In this review, we join forces with the Shi lab to survey the rapid progress in 3d metal-catalyzed asymmetric C–H functionalization through March 2025—covering both inner-sphere and outer-sphere mechanisms, chiral ligand design, mechanistic insights, and synthetic applications, as well as the key challenges and opportunities that remain.

Congratulations to co-authors Pu-Fan Qian, Jia-Heng Hu, Yan-Xuan Wu, and our undergrad intern Yuan Xu, who joined us in La Jolla for the summer, on this tremendous effort, and thank you to Prof. Shi and the entire Zhejiang University team for such a wonderful collaboration!

📄 Read the full review in Chemical Reviews: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemrev.6c00255