Wesley Bernskoetter
Assistant Professor:
Chemistry
Phone: 401 863 3385
Wesley_Bernskoetter@brown.edu
Research in the Bernskoetter lab focuses on the use of inorganic and organometallic complexes to address challenges relevant to our planet's growing energy concerns. Our initiatives employ techniques from synthetic organic and inorganic chemistry to study highly reactive molecules capable of mediating difficult chemical transformations.
Biography
Prof. Bernskoetter received the B.Sc. in Chemisty from Benedictine College, Atchison, KS in 2002 and the Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cornell University in 2006. He came to Brown after two years as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where he worked with Prof. Maurice Brookhart. Prof. Bernskoetter's previous research has focused on dinitrogen functionalization and carbon-hydrogen bond activation. His current interest are in the use organometallic chemistry to address challenges relevant to global energy concerns.
Interests
(1) Carbon Dioxide Functionalization. As world-wide petrochemical reserves increase in scarcity, chemists must endeavor to find renewable and economical alternatives to fossil fuel carbon sources. Carbon dioxide, a primary by-product of fossil fuel combustion, offers huge potential as a renewable carbon feedstock, yet has been under-utilized industrially due to its high thermodynamic stability. Our laboratory seeks to develop organometallic catalysts which convert CO2 to commercially significant chemicals.
(2) Petroleum Utilization and New Drug Discovery Techniques. The combustion of most fossil fuels for their energy content is an inefficient and environmentally damaging use of our scarce petroleum resources. Improved stewardship of our non-renewable carbon resources (i.e. crude oil) depends on our ability to convert these saturated hydrocarbons to value-added chemicals in an environmentally responsible process. Our investigations strive to develop transition metal promoted techniques to efficiently utilize alkane resources as precursors to desirable commodity chemicals. These methods are also employed to establish new techniques in the discovery of pharmaceuticals and other biologically active compounds.
Degrees
PhD, Cornell University
Awards
2006 Tunis Wentink Thesis of the Year Award; Cornell University
Affiliations
American Chemical Society
Member of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry
Curriculum Vitae
Download Wesley Bernskoetter's Curriculum Vitae in PDF Format
