Professor Rychnovsky's research focuses on developing new methods to form carbon-carbon bonds and to introduce stereogenic centers. For example, we are investigating the Prins cyclization reaction, in which a new ring is formed along with a carbon-carbon bond and up to three new stereogenic centers. The potential of this reaction is further enhanced by our recent observation that carbon nucleophiles will participate and trap the penultimate carbenium ion. The use of carbon nucleophiles leads to a rapid increase structural complexity.
He came to UC Irvine in 1995 after a faculty position at the University of Minnesota. Previously he was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University and Yale. Among his many distinctions he is fellow of the American Chemical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award.
Ph.D., Columbia University, 1986
B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1981