Shuming Chen

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has published an article, "β3-Tryptophans by Iron-Catalyzed Enantioselective Amination of 3-Indolepropionic Acids," in Organic Letters. Her co-authors are Marisa Ih ’25 and collaborators from the University of Marburg, Germany.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen recently published the article “Total Synthesis of (−)-Rauvomine B via a Strain-Promoted Intramolecular Cyclopropanation” in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Her coauthors include Gabriel Negrao de Morais ’25 as well as collaborators from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has recently published an article, "Intermolecular hydrogen bonding behavior of amino acid radical cations," in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. Her coauthors are two current Oberlin students, Isabella Moppel ’25 and Barbara Elliott ’26.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has recently published two new articles along with Oberlin student coauthors. "Ni-Catalyzed 1,1- and 1,3-Aminoboration of Unactivated Alkenes" has appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society with coauthors including Gabriel Negrao de Morais ’25 and collaborators at Indiana University. "C5 methylation confers accessibility, stability and selectivity to picrotoxinin" was published in Nature Communications with coauthors including Anna Crowell ’23 and collaborators from Scripps Research and Corteva Agriscience.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has recently published three articles with Oberlin student coauthors. “Chemoselective Quinoline and Isoquinoline Reduction by Energy Transfer Catalysis Enabled Hydrogen Atom Transfer” was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition with Kyogo Nagashima ’24 and collaborators from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. “Pd/IPrBIDEA-Catalyzed Hydrodefluorination of gem-Difluorocyclopropanes: Regioselective Synthesis of Terminal Fluoroalkenes,” appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society with Zachary Cheng ’25 and collaborators from Renmin University of China. Most recently, “Nitrene-Mediated Enantioselective Intramolecular Olefin Oxyamination to Access Chiral γ-Aminomethyl-γ-Lactones,” was published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. with Clayton Ritter ’23 and collaborators in Marburg, Germany.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has recently published two papers. "Expedited synthesis of α-amino acids by single-step enantioselective α-amination of carboxylic acids" appeared in Nature Synthesis. Coauthors include Drew Dansby ’24 and collaborators from Marburg, Germany.  "Chemo-, Stereo- and Regioselective Fluoroallylation/Annulation of Hydrazones with gem-Difluorocyclopropanes via Tunable Palladium/NHC Catalysis" was published in Angewandte Chemie. Coauthors on this article include Hieu Nguyen ’25 and collaborators from Renmin University of China.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has recently published an article in ACS Catalysis, "Visible Light-Mediated, Diastereoselective Epimerization of Morpholines and Piperazines to More Stable Isomers." Co-authors include Elizabeth Rigby ’22 and collaborators from Yale University.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has been awarded a $55,000 grant by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for her project, "Probing Complex Post-Transition State Bifurcations in Reactions Between Boroles and Unsaturated Hydrocarbons". Professor Chen and her undergraduate research students will use both experimental and computational approaches to study mechanisms in this family of organic reactions.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen recently published an article, "Photochemical Dearomative Cycloadditions of Quinolines and Alkenes: Scope and Mechanism Studies," in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Coauthors include Sam Le ’22 as well as collaborators from UCLA, the University of Indiana, and the University of Munster, Germany.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen recently published an article in ACS Catalysis, "Cyclometalated Chiral-at-Ruthenium Catalyst for Enantioselective Ring-Closing C(sp³)–H Carbene Insertion to Access Chiral Flavanones." Co-authors include Peter Choi '23 and collaborators in Marburg, Germany.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen recently published a paper in Nature Communications, "Selective skeletal editing of polycyclic arenes using organophotoredox dearomative functionalization." Co-authors on the article include Cassie Davies ’24 and collaborators from UCLA and the University of Arizona.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has recently published a paper in ACS Catalysis: "Visible Light-Mediated, Highly Diastereoselective Epimerization of Lactams from the Most Accessible to the More Stable Stereoisomer." Co-authors include Cassie Davies '24 and collaborators from Yale University.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen co-authored a research article in Nature Chemistry with Professor Eric Meggers' research group at the University of Marburg, Germany. This collaborative experimental and computational study reveals that non-covalent interactions, such as π–π stacking, hold the key to stereocontrol (control over three-dimensional shapes of molecules) in a novel synthesis of chiral α-amino acids catalyzed by ruthenium and iron complexes.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen and Anthony Gao '21 published two research articles on transition-metal catalysis: "Mechanism and Selectivities in Ru-Catalyzed Anti-Markovnikov Formal Hydroalkylation of 1,3-Dienes and Enynes: A Computational Study" in the Journal of Organic Chemistry; and "Catalytic α-Deracemization of Ketones Enabled by Photoredox Deprotonation and Enantioselective Protonation" in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The latter work was published in collaboration with Professor Eric Meggers' research group at the University of Marburg, Germany.