For the second straight year, the Engle lab hosted a group of high school teachers from across the United States through the MJ Murdock Charitable Trust – Partners in Science Program. The Partners in Science Program provides opportunities for high school teachers to work with investigators in academic labs or in labs associated with other non-profit institutions to bring the knowledge and experience back to classroom, promoting hands-on science education. Members of the Engle lab explained our group’s research, organized a series of hands-on activities, and even coaxed a few brave teachers into the glovebox.

The Engle lab is pleased to usher in 2017 by welcoming its newest postdoc, Sri Krishna Nimmagadda. Sri originally hails from Chirala, India, and completed his Ph.D. with Jon C. Antilla at the University of South Florida, where his research focused on the catalytic asymmetric synthesis using chiral phosphoric acids and alkaline earth metal phosphate complexes.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! To wind down an awesome 2016, the Engle lab held its annual holiday party, which featured far too much tasty food (ranging from kimchi fried rice to egg nog fudge to Popeye’s “Christmas” chicken), a white elephant gift exchange, and games late into the evening. Throughout the night, Hermione was quick to remind everyone that it was her birthday party too!

The editorial boards of Synlett, Synthesis, and Synfacts have selected Keary as a 2017 Thieme Chemistry Journal Awardees. Individuals in this category are promising young professors at the beginning of their career, and every year a few are chosen for this award as a gesture of encouragement. Congrats to the whole team on this recognition of everyone’s hard work!

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!