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Paul Chirik Recipient of ACS Award in Organometallic Chemistry
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
Wednesday, Sep. 02, 2026Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, has been named the recipient of the 2027 American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in Organometallic Chemistry. This year’s national awardees, selected for outstanding achievements in chemistry, were announced this week by the ACS.
Chirik is a leading expert in the application of catalysis to challenges in sustainable chemistry. He called the award an “exceptional honor” for his lab.
The ACS recognized Chirik for his research in earth-abundant metal catalysis and his group’s mission to understand how the chemistry of iron, cobalt, and nickel can be controlled to promote important reactions in catalysis. This research feeds a host of applications ranging from drug discovery and synthesis to chemically recyclable plastic to new carbon-neutral fuels. …
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Summer Series: Papers We Love with Paul Chirik
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
Tuesday, Jun. 30, 2026The Princeton Department of Chemistry publishes nearly 300 journal papers each year. Some of them make quite a stir. Others glide along under the radar with citations that ebb and flow based on whether a particular field is in play. Still others lodge themselves in their authors’ minds as representative of a lab’s greater mission.
This summer, we’re highlighting papers in this third group; the ones that were magical, even formative in a faculty member’s research program.
Like this one from Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry and Department Chair Paul Chirik: Ligand Field Sensitive Spin Acceleration in the Iron-Catalyzed [2+2] Cycloaddition of Unactivated Alkenes and Dienes, which appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) in March 2024 under authors Hanna Cramer, Coralie Duchemin, Carli Kovel, Junho Kim, Matthew Pecoraro, and Paul Chirik.
Enjoy our brief Q&A below.
Why is this paper important to you?
This paper revealed why the iron catalysts we have studied for nearly 20 years are so special. One reaction they promote is the 2+2 cycloaddition of alkenes with alkenes or alkenes with dienes to form cyclobutanes (’squares’). These reactions are forbidden under thermal conditions, and we had shown some time ago that iron catalysts with redox-active pyridine(diimine) ligands on them were unique in promoting cyclobutane formation. These reactions are important because they are a straightforward route to unique fuels and chemically recyclable plastics that can’t be made any other way. This is even more remarkable when you think about the petrochemical industry and scores of academic labs that had been studying the reactions of alkenes and dienes with metal catalysts for decades!
In this paper, my postdoc at the time, Hanna Cramer, made several variants of the iron catalyst to see how changes to the structure made cyclobutane formation go faster or slower. By doing this along with isotopic labeling experiments and DFT calculations, she figured out why the iron catalysts are special. …
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EarthWeek Chemsplainer: Paul Chirik on how plastic is not your enemy
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
Thursday, Apr. 23, 2026Paul Chirik shifts into high-energy mode when the subject of plastic arises, as it so often does these days. For Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry and a longtime researcher on methods that could dramatically improve chemical recycling, Earth Day provides an opportunity to introduce another perspective, one that focuses on the benefits of plastic and the real issue that lies behind its accumulation: better recycling methods.
Here, in celebration of both Earth Day and real solutions, is Chirik’s take on what we should know about plastic.
Q: A recent Earth Day theme was “Planet vs. Plastics.” Does that strike you as hitting the wrong note?
A: Absolutely. I would say that plastic has done far more good for the planet than bad. For example, your car is filled with various plastics. The idea is that the lighter you make trucks, cars, airplanes, ships—anything that moves—the more energy you save. The key recognition here is that the energy you save is the equivalent of energy discovery. So, if you save a barrel of oil on a more efficient car, you discover a barrel of oil that you didn’t have before. Plastic has enabled that hundreds of thousands if not millions of times since its widespread adoption in the 1950s. …
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Chirik Lab’s Tianyi Zhang Wins Jacobus Fellowship, among University’s Most Prestigious Honors
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
Thursday, Apr. 16, 2026Tianyi Zhang, a fourth-year graduate student in the Paul Chirik Group, has been named a 2026-27 Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellow, acknowledging outstanding performance and professional promise through one of Princeton University’s highest honorifics.
Zhang was selected for his research in organometallic catalysis. His thesis title is Understanding Spin and Oxidation State Modulation in Organometallic Iron Catalysis.
Zhang is one of four grad student Jacobus Fellows announced by the Graduate School this month.
Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor in Chemistry, said Zhang came to his lab four years ago with an encyclopedic command of chemical literature and broad experience from his undergraduate research. He was able to immediately take on challenging work at the core of the lab’s mission: developing iron compounds to break and functionalize C–H bonds in organic molecules. …
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In Partnership with the NIH: The Chirik Lab and Organic Synthesis
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025The functionalization of carbon–hydrogen (C-H) bonds so crucial to catalysis is a complex chemical process with many challenges. Improving its efficiency has huge ramifications for medicines, energy needs, and the sustainability of the nation’s products and technologies.
That goal has been at the heart of the Paul Chirik Lab’s nearly decade-long partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The funding seeks to enhance routes to C–H functionalization that advance organic synthesis.
This functionalization allows chemists to convert a specific C-H bond in a molecule—typically unreactive and useless to catalysis—into a more useful bond without undergoing numerous chemical steps. One of the biggest sustainability savings for a chemist is the elimination of steps in the lab that take time, reduce yield, generate waste, and cost more.
Chirik says the NIH partnership has been essential to his lab’s work.
“Great research costs money. It requires resources. The biggest resource we have is the support of the researchers – our postdocs and graduate students. You have to have people in the lab doing these experiments, making these molecules, making these discoveries,” says Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry. “Our partnership with the NIH allows us to attract the greatest scientists from around the country and around the world into our labs to do this work. Without it, it couldn’t be done.” …
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Chirik Group Develops Catalyst for Electronically Controlled C–H Functionalization
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
Thursday, Dec. 07, 2023The Chirik Group is chipping away at one of the great challenges of metal-catalyzed C–H functionalization with a new method that uses a cobalt catalyst to differentiate between bonds in fluoroarenes, functionalizing them based on their intrinsic electronic properties.
In a paper published this week in Science, researchers show they are able to bypass the need for steric control and directing groups to induce cobalt-catalyzed borylation that is meta-selective.
The lab’s research showcases an innovative approach driven by deep insights into organometallic chemistry that have been at the heart of its mission for over a decade. In this case, the team drilled down into how transition metals break C–H bonds, uncovering a method that could have vast implications for the synthesis of medicines, natural products, and materials.
And their method is fast – comparable in speed to those that rely on iridium.
The research is outlined in “Kinetic and Thermodynamic Control of C(sp2)–H Activation Enable Site-Selective Borylation,” by lead author Jose Roque, a former postdoc in the Chirik Group; postdoc Alex Shimozono; and P.I. Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, with former lab members Tyler Pabst, Gabriele Hierlmeier, and Paul Peterson…
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Chirik/BMS Study Reinforces Utility of Cobalt for C-C Cross-Coupling
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
Thursday, Jul. 27, 2023Continuing in its mission to uncover new reactivities with first-row transition metals, the Chirik Lab releases a landmark study on carbon-carbon bond formation using cobalt that underscores its utility in the synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant molecules.
The mechanistic study—one of the first of its kind for this little-understood catalyst—builds on the promise of metal complexes as more sustainable, less expensive alternatives to precious metals like palladium that have traditionally served these types of reactions.
As part of their work, researchers uncovered a rarity for metal complexes that can make C-C bonds: the formation of “high-spin” cobalt alkoxides, key intermediates along the pathway to product. They reveal this compound as the cobalt resting state during catalytic cross-coupling…
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Paul Chirik Named Chair of Princeton Chemistry
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2023Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, has been appointed Chair of the Department of Chemistry for a term of four years beginning on July 1. He succeeds current Chair Gregory Scholes, the William S. Tod Professor of Chemistry, who has held the post since July of 2020.
Professor of Chemistry Robert Knowles will serve as associate chair.
Chirik is a leading expert in the application of catalysis to challenges in sustainable chemistry. He has been with Princeton Chemistry since 2011, serving most recently as associate chair.
“I’m honored to take on this position because it’s a service role,” said Chirik. “One of the motivations for me is to give back to the Department, which has been such a great place for me scientifically and personally. This is a world-class chemistry department. The level of science we do here is just phenomenal, and the reason for that is the people. And by the people I mean the faculty, obviously, but also the postdocs and graduate students and undergrads and the staff.” …
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Postdoc Q&A: The Chirik Lab’s Connor MacNeil
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
Monday, Mar. 20, 2023When Connor MacNeil first came to Princeton Chemistry in the fall of 2019 as a Visiting Student Research Collaborator (from the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada), he worked with the Chirik Lab. Those four months with Chirik—“He is a P.I. I would have followed to Alaska”—were not enough for MacNeil, so he returned in the fall of 2020 to pursue postdoctoral work. Today, MacNeil looks forward to a new post in discovery process chemistry at Merck after a formative career at Princeton Chemistry. On the eve of his departure, here are MacNeil’s thoughts on the academic experience.
Your next step is with Merck?
Yes, I’m taking on a new role in the Discovery Process Chemistry (DPC) group at Merck, West Point, PA. The group operates at the interface of discovery chemistry, or medicinal chemistry and process chemistry. I’m working at an early point in the drug development pipeline and thinking about how to develop processes that can be scaled up for clinical studies …
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Paul Chirik Honored as AAAS Fellow
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, has been named a 2022 Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the most distinctive honors in the scientific community.
Chirik was selected for establishing the field of catalysis using Earth-abundant elements and demonstrating its impact on sustainable chemistry
Honorees are chosen each year for their efforts on behalf of the advancement of science and its application in service to society, according to the announcement released today by the AAAS. The honor confers lifelong membership in the AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the prestigious Science family of journals …
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Princeton’s Paul Chirik Awarded $1M for Green Chemistry Research
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
July 21, 2022Princeton Chemistry’s Paul Chirik is among the first chemists in the nation to receive funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s new “exploration phase” grants in support of green chemistry.
Once considered an oxymoron, green chemistry has enjoyed a new vigor in recent years as chemists take up the banner to find chemical solutions for everything from closed-loop recycling to the replacement of toxic catalysts in industrial processes …
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Chirik Lab Synthesizes Ammonia from N₂-Derived Nitride
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
March 24, 2022The Chirik Lab reports room-temperature, photocatalytic ammonia synthesis from a N2-derived terminal molybdenum nitride, using photodriven, proton-coupled electron transfer that allows for H2 as the terminal reductant. This has not been accomplished before.
Building on a 2021 Nature Chemistry proof-of-concept paper in which the Chirik Lab reported that the irradiation of iridium hydride complexes with visible light enabled formation of weak X-H bonds, lead author Sangmin Kim took the strategy to the next level, synthesizing ammonia from the catalytic hydrogenation of the N2-derived nitride for the first time by using a molybdenum nitride compound …
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Chirik Leads Princeton Team in DOE Upcycling Project
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
September 13, 2021The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded new funding to a team of Princeton chemists and engineers led by Paul Chirik as part of its investment in national technology solutions to reduce plastic waste.
The Chirik team received funding for their project “Chemically Recyclable Polyolefins,” which seeks to expand foundational research on a polyolefin Chirik discovered earlier this year called oligocyclobutane …
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Princeton Chemists Discover a Key to Greener Food Production
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
June 30, 2021One of the main goals before scientists today is de-coupling food production from carbon. In part, this means finding a way to produce fertilizer through carbon-free ammonia synthesis. Can it be done without Haber-Bosch?
Paul Chirik has taken an important step towards this possibility with a unique, fundamental approach to the synthesis of chemical bonds. He and the researchers in his lab use visible light to drive the formation of weak element-hydrogen bonds, which lie at the heart of the challenge because they are so difficult to make …
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Discovery by the Chirik Group that may Revolutionize Plastics Recycling
By Mary Cummings-Jordan
WHYY Radio Times Regional Roundup
February 22, 2021In this WHYY Radio Times Regional Roundup interview by Mary Cummings-Jordan, Paul Chirik discusses the discovery by the Chirik Group of a new molecule, (1,n’-divinyl)oligocyclobutane, informally referred to as “the polymer of squares,” that may prove to be a game-changer in the recycling of plastics.
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Chirik Discovers “Transformative” Route to Recyclable Plastics
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
January 25, 2021As the planet’s burden of rubber and plastic rises unabated, scientists look to the promise of closed-loop recycling to reduce trash. Researchers from Princeton University’s Department of Chemistry have discovered a potentially game-changing new molecule with vast implications for fulfilling that promise.
A team of scientists led by Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, reports in Nature Chemistry that this molecule connects in a very unusual way: as a repeating sequence of squares, which allows the process to go backwards under certain conditions. In other words, the molecule can be “zipped up” to make a new polymer for use in plastic, and then unzipped — depolymerized — back to its pristine state, ready to be used again …
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Chirik Wins ACS Catalysis Award
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
August 20, 2020Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, has received the Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis, one of 60 national awards administered this month by the American Chemical Society (ACS) for 2021.
The Somorjai Award recognizes outstanding theoretical, experimental, or developmental research resulting in the advancement of understanding or application of catalysis. It was established by the ACS Board of Directors in 2002, and is supported by the Gabor A. and Judith K. Somorjai Endowment Fund …
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Presidential Postdoc Fellow to Join Chirik Lab
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
May 26, 2020The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce that Jose Roque has been awarded a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, one of sixteen such fellowships awarded annually throughout Princeton University in disciplines spanning the sciences and humanities. Roque will join the Chirik Group.
Roque is completing his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, College of Chemistry this spring under Richmond Sarpong, who earned his own Ph.D. at Princeton in ‘00 under Martin Semmelhack. An organic chemist who works in natural product total synthesis and reaction development, Roque anticipates initiating his research here in September.
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A Chemist Comes Very Close to a Midas Touch
By Hillary Rosner
Oct. 15, 2012In a lab in Princeton University’s ultra-sleek chemistry building, researchers toil in a modern-day hunt for an elusive power: alchemy.
Throughout the centuries, alchemists tried in vain to transform common metals like iron and lead into precious ones like gold or platinum. Today, Paul Chirik, a professor of chemistry at Princeton, has managed a new twist on the timeworn pursuit …
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Bezdek’s research on ammonia’s chemical bonds has applications for environment, industry
By The Office of Communications
Princeton University
Wednesday, Apr. 17, 2019Curiosity about the natural world and practical concerns guided Máté Bezdek’s research into the chemical bonds of nitrogen and hydrogen that make up ammonia.
Earlier this year, Bezdek was named one of the four winners of the Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship, Princeton University’s top honor for graduate students. The fellowships support their final year of study at Princeton and are awarded to one Ph.D. student in each of the four divisions (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering) whose work has exhibited the highest scholarly excellence. The Jacobus Fellows were honored at Alumni Day ceremonies in February.
Bezdek, a doctoral student in inorganic chemistry who came to Princeton in 2014, earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Calgary. His dissertation, “Interconversion of Ammonia with Its Elements by Molybdenum Complexes: Fundamental Investigations,” has implications for the development of environmentally friendly fuels using ammonia. Bezek has been a graduate student in the lab of Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry. …
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Bezdek wins Jacobus Fellowship, Princeton’s top graduate student honor
By Denise Valenti
for the Office of Communications
Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019Máté Bezdek, a fifth-year graduate student in the Chirik lab is one of four graduate students named as winners of the Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship, Princeton University’s top honor for graduate students. The fellowships support their final year of study at Princeton and are awarded to one Ph.D. student in each of the four divisions (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering) whose work has exhibited the highest scholarly excellence.
Bezdek’s research explores the fundamental thermochemistry associated with the making and breaking of bonds between nitrogen and hydrogen atoms, especially where the nitrogen atom is bound to a transition metal catalyst. A principal component in most modern fertilizers, ammonia (NH3) is hydrogen-rich and has many attractive properties as a transportable and carbon-neutral fuel.
Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, said Bezdek’s work has the potential to be groundbreaking. “It already has changed the way people think about chemical bonds, and I think that’s a really impressive accomplishment because the modern concept of the chemical bond has been around for over 120 years,” Chirik said. “That fundamental discovery will translate into all kinds of applications that I don’t think even we can envision right now.”
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Weakened bonds liberate hydrogen and new insights for coordination chemistry
By Tien Nguyen
Department of Chemistry
Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016New findings from Princeton University provide an initial step towards developing a reaction to convert ammonia gas into hydrogen gas, a promising and clean burning alternative fuel. Ammonia (NH3) is an attractive source for hydrogen (H2) because it’s much easier to transport and store.
According to the study published in Science, the team found that when ammonia is attached to a special molybdenum-based compound, its bonds were weakened and released hydrogen gas under gentle heating. “It’s a way of generating hydrogen that takes advantage of the bond weakening phenomenon and serves as a proof of concept,” said lead author Máté Bezdek, a graduate student in the Chirik lab….
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Paul Chirik appointed Andlinger Center’s Associate Director for External Partnerships
By Brenda Mikeo
Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment
Wednesday, Jul. 08, 2015Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, has been appointed associate director for external partnerships of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment as of July 1.
In this position, Chirik will be responsible for establishing and maintaining a broad spectrum of external partners. His primary role will be to lead Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership, which enables transformational innovations in the fields of energy and environment through close collaborations between academic experts and industry leaders.
Chirik succeeds Lynn Loo, the Theodora D. ’78 and William H. Walton III ’74 Professor in Engineering, and Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Loo is stepping down after four years, having successfully launched the program and established strong relationships with a diverse set of E-ffiliates corporate members …