Faculty Profile - University of Houston
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Faculty Profile

Jeremy MayJeremy May

Professor
Department of Chemistry

Office: SERC, 5011
Contact: jmay@uh.edu - 832-842-8808

Education: Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 2006; B.S., University of Utah (Cum Laude), 2000

Postdoctoral Fellow, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Website

Synthetic Organic Chemistry & Methods Development

Figure 1The goal of the May group is to make molecules of interest and utility. This goal encompasses the development of powerful synthetic methodologies as well as their application to the synthesis of complex molecules. For example, chemical transformations using transition metal catalysts that stabilize carbene and ylide-like intermediates are sought to form densely functionalized bonds of great utility to the synthetic chemist and to do so with chemo- and stereoselectivity. Furthermore, cascade reactions allow for a variety of bond forming and bond breaking events to occur in one reaction setup, thus providing significant chemical transformation with high efficiency. Target molecules, such as those shown below, are principally complex natural products that exhibit a challenging architecture and intriguing biological properties. Other targets include molecular recognition motifs for directed chemical reactions or molecular biology applications. These compounds have value for therapeutic target identification, pharmaceutical development, protein sequencing, and chemical biology.

Training in the lab includes education in the fields of organometallics, organic synthesis, reaction development, mechanism elucidation, natural product chemistry, structural elucidation, scientific writing, and other skills necessary for the practice of chemistry in an academic or commercial environment.

  • 2014 - NSF CAREER Award
  • 2012 - Teaching Excellence Award
  • 2005–2008 - NIH/NCI Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)
  • 2004 - Bristol-Myers Squibb Graduate Fellow
  • 2003 - American Chemical Society Organic Division Graduate Fellow
  • 2002 - Abbott Labs Fellow
  • 2001 - NSF Graduate Fellowship Honorable Mention
  • 2000 - Graduated cum laude
  • 2000 - American Institute of Chemists Undergraduate Award for Outstanding Senior
  • 2000 - Elected to Phi Beta Kappa
  • 1999 - Kennecott Copper Corporation Scholarship
  • 1999 - Elected to Phi Kappa Phi
  • 1999 - Pfizer Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship
  • 1999 - Elected to Golden Key National Honor Society
  • 1999 - Mack Thomas Rozelle Scholarship
  • 1998 - Leon Watters Memorial Award
  • 1996 - National Merit Scholarship