News
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By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryThursday, Jul. 27, 2023 Continuing 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…
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By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryTuesday, Apr. 18, 2023 Paul 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…
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By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryMonday, Mar. 20, 2023 When 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…
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By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryTuesday, Jan. 31, 2023 Paul 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…
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By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryJuly 21, 2022 Princeton 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…
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By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryMarch 24, 2022 The 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…
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By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistrySeptember 13, 2021 The 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…
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By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryJune 30, 2021 One 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…
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By Mary Cummings-JordanWHYY Radio Times Regional RoundupFebruary 22, 2021 In 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. Listen to the…
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By Wendy PlumpDepartment of ChemistryJanuary 25, 2021 As 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…