Group News

June 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Lupita Aguirre for successfully defending her dissertation! She will be heading to the University of California-Los Angeles as a Post-Doc in the Gutierrez lab!
Congratulations to our undergraduate Raquel on starting her internship at BMS!

​​​​May 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Danniel Arriaga on his dissertation defense! Next, he will be heading to the University of Wiscosin-Madison as a Post-Doc in the Cooper lab!
Congratulations to Danniel A. on winning the Professor Manuel P. Soriaga Graduate Fellowship!
Congratulations to Lupita A. on winning Thomas J. Hairston '71 Memorial Graduate Scholarship in Chemistry! 
Congratulations to Deigo E. S. on winning a Teaching Assistant Award!
Congratulations to Seokmin K. on his TAMU Departmental Travel Award!

​​​April 2025
Congratulations to our Post-Doc Raja Sk who will be starting his new job as a Post-Doc in the Campos lab at Columbia University!

​​March 2025
We are excited to welcome undergraduate researcher Emma Conrey to the lab!
Congratulations to Dr. Jeanette Piña on her dissertation defense! Next, she will be heading to Savannah River National Lab!

​February 2025
Congratulations to Jeanette, Lupita, Levi, Hai, and Michael on their recent publication in Chem. Eur. J.!

January 2025
We are excited to welcome two new undergraduate researchers: Leia Bowden and Michelle Dickey!
Congratulations to Han-Hsiang, Seokmin, Cheng-Chun, and Raja for their recent publication in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.!

December 2024
We are excited to share that our book chapter titled "Advances in Lithium Metal Sources: Synthesis and Applications." has been published in Science of Synthesis Knowledge Updates. 
The group is excited to welcome fourth year graduate student Jacob Grygus to the lab! He is coadvised along with Prof. Osvaldo Gutierrez.

November 2024
We are excited to share our article "Development of a Highly Selective Synthesis of 4-Substituted Tetrahydroquinolines: Substrate Scope and Mechanistic Study" pre-print available on ChemRxiv now!
The group is excited to welcome Seung Hoon Lee who is a visiting scholar from POSTECH in Korea to the lab!

October 2024
Congrats to Raquel and Han-Hsiang for their recent publication in Org. Synth.!
The group is excited to have six new first-year graduate students joining the lab: Griffin Batson, Ben Brekke, 
Kyangzi Calderon Cerquera, Diego Elizalde Segovia, Nilay Patel and Chung-En Su!

July 2024
The group is excited to have Ben Brekke, an incoming first-year grad student, for the summer!
We welcome our new post-doc Ravinder Kaur!
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June 2024
We are excited to share our article "Functionalization of Pyridines at Remote Synthetic Landscapes via Undirected Metalation and Capture" pre-print available on ChemRxiv now!
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April 2024
We are excited to welcome our new postdoc, Dr. Dang Ho Binh!
Check out Prof. Thomas at Rising Stars in Organic Synthesis, Session 3!
So excited to share that our Welch grant has been renewed!!! Time for more research!!!
Congratulations to Danniel A. on his 2024 Thomas. J. Hairston Memorial Graduate Scholarship in Chemistry Award!
Congratulations to Han-Hsiang H. on his TAMU departmental travel award!
Congratulations to Alexis L. on her TAMU department Senior Organic Award!
Congratulations to Lupita S. A. on her 2024 Eastman Chemical Upper-Level Teaching Award!
 
March 2024
The Thomas Group is headed to ACS Spring 2024 in New Orleans, LA! Make sure to stop by our presentations and poster sessions!
Congratulations to Jeanette P. on her 2024 ACS Bridge Travel & Professional Development Travel Award!
Check out our collaborative work with the Campos Group (Columbia) and Gutierrez Group (TAMU) on Cyclopropenimine-Mediated CO2 Activation for the Synthesis of Polyurethanes and Small-Molecule Carbonates and Carbamates published in Angew. Chem., Int. Ed.!
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February 2024
Congratulations to Lupita, Levi, and Alexis on their Design and Synthesis of Dialkylarylphosphine Urea Ligands and their Application in Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions publication in Helv. Chim. Acta.!
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November 2023
Our recent ozone solubility publication was highlighted in "Some Items of Interest to Process R&D Chemists and Engineers" in Org. Process Res. Dev. 2023.
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October 2023
The group is excited to welcome first-year graduate students: Wentao Cen, Shu-Kai Chen, and Daniel Sarna!
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September 2023
More by our ozone team, Effect of Solvent on the Rate of Ozonolysis: Development of a Homogeneous Flow Ozonolysis Protocol published in J. Org. Chem.!
Our recent publication on the capture of primary ozonides was featured in "Some Items of Interest to Process R&D Chemists and Engineers" Org. Process Res. Dev. 2023, 27, 1535-1545 and "Transition Metal-Free syn-Dihydroxylation via Interrupted Ozonolysis​" Synfacts 2023, 19, 1043.
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July 2023
We are excited to welcome summer graduate students: Ramy Yousef and Addie Barnes!
Congratulations to graduate student, Danniel Arriaga, for being a 2023 ACS recipient of the Leadership in the Promotion of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Respect Award!
Check out our paper "Solvent Effects on the Rate of Ozonolysis: Development of a Homogeneous Flow Ozonolysis Protocol” available on preprint in ChemRxiv!
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June 2023
We are excited to share our paper "Capturing primary ozonides for a syn-dihydroxylation of olefins" published in Nature Chemistry!
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May 2023​
We are delighted to share that our paper "Breaking the tert-Butyllithium Contact Ion Pair: A Gateway to Alternate Selectivity in Lithiation Reactions" has been accepted at JACS!
We are excited that our NSF CAREER got accepted, more method developments are to come!
Congratulations to one of our graduate students, Jeanette Piña, for being selected for the 2023 Merck Research Award for Underrepresented Chemists of Color!
- TAMU College of Arts and Sciences Highlight 
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April 2023
Congratulations to one of our graduate students, Danniel Arriaga, for being selected for the 2023 GRC Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority Fellowship Program! Stop by his poster if you are going to the Heterocycles GRC this year!
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March 2023
We are excited to welcome our new post-doctoral researcher Dr. Raja Sk joining us soon this semester!
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February 2023
Congratulations to one of our undergraduate researchers, Alex Sung, for his accepted summer internship at Bristol Meyers Squibb (BMS)!
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January 2023
We are excited to welcome two undergraduate researchers: Raquel Gonzalez and Ryan Grove!
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October 2022
Check out our paper "Constructive Ozonolysis: Capturing Primary Ozonides" available on preprint in ChemRxiv.
We officially welcome two first-year graduate students: Cheng-Chun Chen and Dillion Chen!
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September 2022
Excited to share our work, "Breaking the tert-Butyllithium Contact Ion Pair: A Gateway to Alternate Selectivity in Lithiation Reactions" available on preprint in ChemRxiv.
We are delighted to welcome undergraduate researcher Jasmine Torres!
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August 2022
Make sure to read our first publication "Preparation of Highly Reactive Lithium Metal Dendrites for the Synthesis of Organolithium Reagents" online on J. Am. Chem. Soc.! 
Check out the C&EN article "New form of lithium reacts 20 times as fast as powdered metal" which highlights our first publication!
Our first publication was also covered by ChemistryViews "Lithium Metal Dendrites as a Highly Reactive Lithium Source" check it out!
We are excited to welcome undergraduate researcher Alexis Lugo!
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July 2022
Check out our recent News & Views "Antibiotics the easy way" in Nature Synthesis!
Take a look at our recent publication "Preparation of Highly Reactive Lithium Metal Dendrites for the Synthesis of Organolithium Reagents" on ChemRxiv!
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March 2022
We are very excited to announce that Andrew Nguyen, senior undergraduate researcher, has accepted a job offer at Amgen! Congratulations Andrew!
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January 2022
We are delighted to welcome undergraduate researchers Hai Ly and Alex Sung!
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October 2021
We are proud to welcome three first-year graduate students: Leonel Jimenez, Han-Hsiang Hsu, Jeffrey Cragin!
We are excited to welcome undergraduate researcher Donghyun (Michael) Lee!
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August 2021 
We are excited to welcome summer graduate student Victoria Shearer!
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June 2021
We welcome summer undergraduate researcher Desirée Young!
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January 2021
We welcome undergraduate researcher Andrew Nguyen!
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November 2020
We officially welcome four first-year graduate students: Jeanette Pina, Danniel Arriaga, Lupita Aguirre, and Levi Litwiller!
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September 2020
Dr. Michael Crockett (Ph.D. from Boston College) joins the team as a post-doctoral researcher!
We also welcome undergraduate researchers Jonathan Cobb and Miguel Garcia!
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July 2020
The lab is officially open!
We welcome summer student Danniel Arriaga!​