Gregory Dake

Biography

 B.Sc.(Hons.), British Columbia (1992); Ph.D. Stanford University (Barry M. Trost, 1998); Postdoctoral, Columbia University (Gilbert Stork, 1998-1999). 2010 Science Undergraduate Society Teaching Excellence Award 2012 University of British Columbia Killam Teaching Prize 2013 University of BC Sustainability Teaching and Learning Fellow 2016 Associate Head, Undergraduate Affairs

Research Interest

My research program is directed towards the creation, understanding and application of methods within organic synthesis. Catalysis. Our group has a long-standing interest in catalysis within synthetic organic chemistry. Students interested in catalysis and synthesis have the opportunity to work within the CREATE Sustainable Synthesis Industrial program. For example: • CREATE Sustainable Synthesis: the construction of medicinally relevant heterocycles using transition metal catalysis • Ligand Design: collaboratively with Professor Derek Gates, we have designed a set of chiral, phosphaalkene (two-coordinate P) ligands (PhAk-Ox, PhAk-phen-Ox, PhAk-pyr-Ox) for use in catalysis and macromolecular chemistry. • DMAP catalyzed cyclizations to form tetrahydroxanthones • Metal Catalyzed Annulation: Pt(II), Ag(I), Au(I) catalyzed cyclizations onto alkynes. High yielding, mild, multibond forming processes to form complex heterocycles. Molecule Synthesis. We are always interested in the total synthesis of natural products and natural product-like molecular structures. Examples: cladionamides, fawcettidine, nitiol, fasicularin • Function Oriented Synthesis: at times it may be appropriate to construct simpler analogs of natural products to examine bioactive mechanisms and/or medicinal chemistry. Projects such as this are typically collaborative with other researchers. Students trained in synthetic organic chemistry think deeply about the relationships between molecular structure, chemical reactivity and reaction mechanism. Thus, they are typically well poised to pursue a number of avenues of scientific inquiry in academia and industry later in their careers.