KECK FOUNDATION AWARD

U CHEMISTS MICHAEL GRÜNWALD, RYAN LOOPER, AND RODRIGO NORIEGA RECEIVED A $1 MILLION GRANT FROM THE W.M. KECK FOUNDATION, FUNDING STUDIES OF CURRENTLY UNPREDICTABLE ASPECTS OF THE PROCESS OF CRYSTALLIZATION.

The interdisciplinary team brings together expertise from diverse branches of chemistry: Grünwald in chemical theory, Noriega in spectroscopy, and Looper in medicinal chemistry. The group aims to create a set of tools to help other chemists select the crystal structures they want and produce them quickly and purely, leading to more accurate models and faster development of new pharmaceuticals and industrial materials. Rather than predicting the crystal structure favored by thermodynamics, this process instead follows crystallization pathways.

“The idea that thermodynamics might not accurately predict crystallization is quite controversial in the field,” says Looper. Rather than predicting the crystal structure favored by thermodynamics, this process instead follows crystallization pathways that are favored kinetically, essentially choosing the fastest one.

Continues Looper, “The Keck Foundation’s support of our research is essential to provide new evidence to convince scientists to think a different way.” <

This article is an abbreviated version of an @TheU article by Paul Gabrielsen. Longer versions of many of the articles in Catalyst can be accessed at chem.utah.edu.