Professor Matthew Sigman, University of Utah

"Bringing Big Data Tools to the Analysis of Catalytic Reactions"

About the Seminar

Chemists are often guided by incredible intuition when predicting the outcomes of new chemical reactions.  This is based on wisdom and a fundamental understanding of reactivity.  However, while this approach drives the majority of reaction development in our field, the reality is that we rely significantly on optimizing reactions for a desired outcome.  While a routine process, optimization protocols can cause a considerable investment of time and do not always provide an adequate solution.  Therefore, we have aimed to develop a program that facilitates more rapid analysis of chemical reactions to reveal not only better systems, but also the underlying reasons for improved performance of either a substrate or catalyst in a given reaction.  The lecture will outline how we have put into practice a method that combines the foundational promise of physical organic chemistry with modern “big data” analysis tools to ultimately precisely predict the performance of new reaction components.

About the Speaker

Matt Sigman was born in Los Angeles, California in 1970.  He received a B.S. in chemistry from Sonoma State University in 1992 before obtaining his Ph.D. at Washington State University with Professor Bruce Eaton in 1996 in organometallic chemistry.  He then moved to Harvard University to complete an NIH funded postdoctoral stint with Professor Eric Jacobsen.  In 1999, he joined the faculty of the University of Utah where his research group has focused on the development of new synthetic methodology with an underlying interest in reaction mechanism.  His research program explores the broad areas of oxidation catalysis, asymmetric catalysis, and the relationship between structure and function in complex reactions.

Matt Sigman’s research efforts have been recognized by several awards including the Research Innovative Award sponsored by Research Corporation (2000), NSF CAREER Award (2002), the Pfizer Award for Creativity in Organic Chemistry (2004), the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award (2004), the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2010), and the University of Utah Distinguished Research Award (2011).  Additionally, he has been recognized for outstanding teaching at the University of Utah as highlighted by being named the University of Utah Distinguished Honors Professor (2008) and the Robert W. Parry Award (2009).  He currently serves on several editorial boards as well as an associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.