Former Postdocs

  • Dr. Frederick Meece – currently working as a medicinal chemist at Evestra Inc.

Former Doctoral Students

  • Dr. Roberto Napoleon Silva Villatoro (Ph.D. 2024) – currently a Post-Doc in Dr. Mary Watson's lab at the University of Delaware
    Dissertation Title: Adventures in Catalysis: Development of Transition Metal-Catalyzed Reactions for C-X Bond Formations and High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry Tools for Probing Catalytic Reaction Mechanisms
  • Dr. Melissa Cadena (Ph.D. 2022) – currently a senior scientist in Organic Chemistry at AbbVie
    Dissertation Title: Mechanistic Studies and Development of Novel Palladium Catalyzed Methods Towards Functionalized Building Blocks
  • Dr. Nicholas Clanton (Ph.D. 2020) – current Assistant Director of the Voelcker Preclinical Pharmacology Core for Accelerated Drug Discovery
    Dissertation Title: Leveraging Natural Product Scaffolds for Drug Discovery and Development
  • Dr. Charissa Munteanu (Ph.D. 2019) – Dissertation Title: Discovery and Development of New Metal Catalyzed Methods to Key Building Blocks in Organic Synthesis
  • Dr. Ana Cristina Parra Rivera (Ph.D. 2018) – currently a research scientist at J-Star Research in New Jersey
    Dissertation Title: New Metal-Catalyzed Methods for Enabling Step Efficient Syntheses of Biologically Relevant Molecules
  • Dr. Marie El Arba (Ph.D. 2018) – currently a Professor of Instruction at Trinity University
    Dissertation Title: Metal-Catalyzed Transformations of Stereodefined Enol Triflates and Their Derivatives
  • Dr. Robynne Neff (Ph.D. 2017) – currently a process development senior scientist at Amgen in California
    Dissertation Title: The Development of the Alkynyl Heck Reaction Towards the Synthesis of Allenes
  • Dr. Hector Aguilar (Ph.D. 2013) – currently a Professor of Instruction at UTSA
    Dissertation Title: Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Isoxazole Molecules Able to Induce Stem Cell Differentiation
  • Dr. David Babinski (Ph.D. 2013) – currently a principal research chemist at AbbVie
    Dissertation Title: Synthesis of Stereodefined Acetoacetate-Derived Enol Triflates and Their Synthetic Utility
  • Dr. Ian Crouch (Ph.D. 2013) – currently a research scientist at J-Star Research in New Jersey
    Dissertation Title: Palladium-Catalyzed Elimination Reactions of Stereodefined Enol Triflates

Former Master's Students

  • Kristina Marques (2015)
  • Amanda Nolan (2014)
  • Francisco Ruiz (2013)
  • Ray Still (2013)

Former Undergraduate Students

* indicates graduation from the Honor’s College

  • Joshua Belfield (2022-2024) – Chemistry major
  • Seth Brown (2022-2024) – Chemistry major
  • Jonathan Allen (2021-2022) – Chemistry major
  • Samuel Goen (Summer 2021)
  • Valeria Stevens (Summer 2021)
  • Noor Al Chaabawi (2020-2022) – Biology major
  • Joseph Nieto (2020-2022) – Kinesiology major
  • Megan Thompkins (2020-2022) – Microbiology and Immunology major
  • Cody Phillips (2020-2021) – Biology major
  • *Taylor Spiller (Spring 2019-Spring 2021) – Chemistry major
    Most Distinguished Organic Chemistry Student; currently graduate student at the University of Michigan
  • *Christian Strong (Spring 2019-Spring 2021) – Top Scholar Chemical Engineering major
    2020 Barry Goldwater Scholarship recipient; currently graduate student at Caltech
  • *Emerson Thomas (Spring 2019-Spring 2020) – Biochemistry major
    currently medical student at the University of Incarnate Word
  • Acasia Lanzaderas (2019-2020) – Biochemistry major
  • Shanel Watkins (2019-2020) – Chemistry major
  • Ashley Banfield (2019-2020) – Chemistry major
  • *Dat Le (2018-2019) – Biochemistry major
  • *Trang Le (2018-2019) – Biochemistry major
  • Julie Contreras (2018-2019) – Biochemistry major
  • Savanah Kemberling (2018–2019) – Biochemistry major
  • Elizabeth Garcia (2017-2018) – Chemistry major
  • Eli Ortiz (2018–2019) – Biochemistry major
    currently a graduate student at UT Austin in Dr. Mike Krische’s group
  • *Sara Dibrell (2015-2018) – Top Scholar Biochemistry major
    2018 Barry Goldwater Scholarship recipient; NSF Graduate Research Fellowship recipient; currently a graduate student at Caltech in Dr. Sarah Reisman's group
    Honors Thesis Title: Discovery and Development of Na1.7 Antagonists for the Therapeutic Treatment of Chronic Pain
  • Yazel Nava Valdez (Summer 2015) – Biotechnology Engineering major from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey
  • Ana Maldonaldo (2014-2015) – Chemistry major
  • *Jack Hachem (2013-2014) – Biology major
    Honors Thesis Title: Investigating Rat C6 Glioblastoma Cell Differentiation with Novel Small Molecules
  • *Charissa Munteanu (2013-2014) – Biochemistry major
    Honors Thesis Title: Pd-Catalyzed Reactions of (E)- and (Z)-Enol Triflates to Form Alkynes
  • Chris Bemben (2010–2011) – Chemistry major
  • Josh Mijares (2010–2011) – Chemistry major
  • Kristina Marques (2012) – Chemistry major
  • Galyn Lacewell (2011–2012) – Biology major
  • Marie El Arba (2011–2013) – Chemistry major
  • *Ana Cristina Parra Rivera (2011-2013) – Chemistry major
    Honors Thesis Title: Discovery and Development of New Small Molecules that Induce Cardiogenesis in Stem Cells
  • *Jesus Jimenez (2011–2013) – Biology major
    Honors Thesis Title: Development of Novel 4-Aminoquinolines as Therapeutic Agents for the Treatment of Leishmaniasis
  • *Shane Appel (2011-2013) – Biology major
    Honors Thesis Title: Generation of Novel Small Molecules that Induce Neurogenesis in Stem Cells
  • Robynne Neff (2009-2012) – Chemistry major
  • Timothy Dreier (2010-2011) – Chemistry major
  • *Margie DeYoung (2009-2011) – Chemistry and Biology double major
    Honors Thesis Title: Generation of Novel Small Molecule Libraries for Drug Discovery