The Engle lab celebrates two great years at Scripps with a custom ice cream cake showcasing some of the group’s chemistry. Thanks to everyone for their hard work getting the lab established during our first two years. Here’s to an exciting Year #3 ahead!
Congrats to the Class of 2017!
Huge congratulations to the Class of 2017! The Engle lab is incredibly proud of our recent college and high school graduates, who are moving on to incredible graduate and undergraduate programs around the world!
Undergrads/Visiting Undergrads
Mark Boulous (UCSD): TBD
Annabelle Cantu (CSULB): UCLA (Ph.D. in Chemistry)
Miranda Sroda (UCSD): UCSB (Ph.D. in Chemistry)
Joshua Turnbull (King’s College London): UC Berkeley (Ph.D. in Chemistry)
Zichen (Forrest) Wang (Nankai U): SIOC (Ph.D. in Chemistry)
High School Students
Daizy De La Torrey (Southwest High School): UC Berkeley
Jessica Xu (Maranatha Christian High School): MIT
Keary’s Former Mentees
Shao-Xiong (Lennon) Luo (Caltech): MIT (Ph.D. in Chemistry)
Maximilian Koy (Uni Stuttgart): WWU Münster (Ph.D. in Chemistry)
Josh Turnbull Featured on KCL Website
Engle lab alum Josh Turnbull is featured in an article on the King’s College London website, which discusses his summer studentship and upcoming plans for graduate school. Congrats on your successes Josh, and best of luck at Berkeley! Click here for a link to the article.
Miriam wins SOF Spring Travel Award
Congratulations to postdoc Miriam O’Duill on winning the competitive TSRI Society of Fellows Spring Travel Award to fund her recent talk at the ACS Spring National Meeting in San Francisco, CA.
For the press release, click here. Way to go, Miriam!
Bridges Program Visits TSRI
For the second year running, TSRI hosted a group of students and educators from the North San Diego County Bridges to the Future Program, an NIH-sponsored collaborative program among CSU San Marcos, Palomar College, and MiraCosta College. The goal of the program is to prepare students from underrepresented ethnic and racial groups at community colleges for seamless transition to four-year colleges. Keary kicked off the half-day visit with an overview of research in the Engle lab. Students then participated in a series of lab tours and hands-on activities with the Ward, Lamia, Romesberg, Sharpless, and Engle labs.
N-Alkylation of 2-Pyridones with Alkenes
In a manuscript appearing online today in Tetrahedron, John, Van, and Miranda report a new method to effect intermolecular N-alkylation of 2-pyridones using an alkene as the alkylating reagent. The reaction employs a directed nucleopalladation/protodepalladation strategy and functions with a range of 2-pyridones and related aza-heterocycles. Special congratulations to our undergraduate co-author, Miranda, who also just completed her undergraduate degree at UCSD! The manuscript is part of a special issue celebrating Prof. Ang Li’s 2017 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award. Click here for a link to the manuscript. Way to go, team!

(not pictured: Miranda)
Joe and Annabelle win 2017 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
Controlled Hydrochlorination of Alkynes with HCl
In the Engle lab’s first paper of 2017, the team of Joe, Annabelle, Mark, Miriam, Josh, Zhen, and Daizy describe a new catalytic method to effect regio- and stereoselective addition of HCl to alkynes using a directed nucleopalladation strategy. The paper appears today in the Just Accepted section of J. Am. Chem. Soc. Well done, everyone! Special congrats to the three undergraduate co-authors, Annabelle, Mark, and Josh, as well as Daizy, the Engle lab’s first-ever high school student co-author! Click here for a link to the paper.

(not pictured: Annabelle, Josh, and Daizy)
Forrest finishes his internship
The Engle lab bids farewell to Zichen (Forrest) Wang, who has completed his 6-month internship. After an inspiring and productive stay at Scripps, Forrest returns to Nankai University equipped with a group of lifelong friends, new chemistry knowledge, a refined appreciation for hamburgers, and improved laser tag skills.
Science Saturday at TSRI
As part of TSRI’s Science Saturdays program, The Engle group welcomed students from several San Diego area high schools to campus. Keary kicked off the morning with an opening lecture, titled “The Nuts and Bolts of Building Molecules,” and afterwards, the high school students in the audience made their way into various laboratories on campus for tours and activities. For a write-up, click here.
