Laurel L. Schafer

Laurel’s research interests bridge the areas of organometallic and organic chemistry.  She has developed a new class of early transition metal complexes for use in selective carbon-nitrogen and carbon-carbon bond forming reactions of industrial relevance.  Applications in generated value-added products, such as pharmaceuticals and functional materials, from biomass derived starting materials is an emerging area of research focus.  These new catalytic systems build toward the minimization of waste and maximization of energy efficiency by using metals of low toxicity for sustainable approaches towards selective chemical transformations.