The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce that Christopher Sandford will be joining Dartmouth as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the Fall of 2021. Chris obtained his MChem from the University of Oxford (UK) in 2013, conducting research focused on bifunctional organocatalysis within the group of Prof. Darren Dixon. He then moved to the University of Bristol (UK) to work with Prof. Varinder Aggarwal FRS, where he investigated the functionalization of nucleophilic boronate complexes, obtaining his PhD in 2017. Chris next joined the laboratory of Prof. Matthew Sigman at the University of Utah as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, studying organometallic reaction mechanisms using a combination of electroanalytical techniques and modern data science methods. In 2020, he continued his postdoctoral fellowship at the Institut Català d'Investigació Química (ICIQ, Spain), joining Prof. Ruben Martin's research group to investigate the integration of electrocatalysis with nickel cross-coupling.
At Dartmouth, the Sandford group will focus on the development of new synthetic methodologies utilizing homogeneous catalysts. The group will exploit new tools in physical organic chemistry to study reaction mechanisms involved in catalysis, which will allow them to design new catalysts, optimize their structures, and apply their functions to key challenges in organic chemistry. The study of optimal catalysts in this manner will also facilitate the development of new sustainable strategies to forge important chemical bonds.
(https://faculty-directory.dartmouth.edu/christopher-sandford)