Title: Total Synthesis of Complex, Bioactive Natural Products
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Christopher Vanderwal received a B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry (1995) and an M.Sc. degree in Chemistry (1998) from the University of Ottawa. He then moved to the Scripps Research Institute for doctoral studies in the group of Professor Erik Sorensen. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 2003, Chris joined the group of Professor Eric Jacobsen at Harvard University as a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral associate. In 2005, Chris began his independent academic career at the University of California, Irvine.

In 2011, Chris was promoted with tenure to Associate Professor and was named a UCI Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow, and in 2013, he was promoted to Professor of Chemistry, and he was recently appointed Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Chris’s group focuses on the synthesis of complex natural products, including alkaloids, terpenoids, and polyhalogenated secondary metabolites. They develop target-specific but potentially broadly applicable methods en route to the natural product goals, and frequently engage in post-synthesis collaborative experiments to investigate biological activity of the target and synthetic analogs.