Professor Julian West grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and received his undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia while completing undergraduate research with Prof. Glenn Sammis. He then completed his graduate studies with Prof. Erik Sorenson at Princeton University working on various photocatalytic reactions using Earth-abundant metals. After his graduate degree, he moved to the California Institute of Technology as an NIH and Resnick Postdoctoral Fellow to investigate inorganic chemistry and electrocatalysis with Professors Harry Gray and Brian Stoltz.

Julian is now an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Rice University where his group broadly work in catalysis design, developing new synthetic reactions, and cancer research. Some of his group's research interests include cooperative hydrogen atom transfer, azidation reactions, and applying vitamins (such as Vitamin B12) in photocatalysis. Julian has received early career awards as well such as C&EN's Class of 2024 Talented 12, CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research Award, and 2021 Forbes 30 under 20 - Science list.

For more information about Julian and his group: https://www.westchem.org/X: https://x.com/pushingarrows

Dr. Anna Davis recently received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Virginia while completing research with Prof. Michael Hilinski working on using vinylazarenes as dienophiles in Lewis acid-promoted Diels-Alder reactions as well as other projects within organic methodology. Over the years, she has gained a large following within the chemistry twitter sphere; actively promoting and creating a positive atmosphere for organic chemists across the globe. Be sure to follow Anna on X: https://x.com/radscientist_

Professor Sharon Neufeldt grew up in Tucson, AZ and earned her B.S. in Chemistry at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. She began her Ph.D. studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor working with Professor Melanie Sanford on the development of Pd-catalyzed C—H functionalization reactions. In 2013, she became the Cram Teacher-Scholar at UCLA. There, she undertook postdoctoral research with Professor K. N. Houk using DFT to study the mechanism and selectivity of transition metal-catalyzed C—H activation, while also teaching sophomore organic chemistry. In summer 2016 she moved to Bozeman, MT to begin her independent career and promoted to Associate Professor in 2023. She is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award (2019), a Thieme Chemistry Journals Award (2020), a Cottrell Scholars Award (2020), and an NIH NIGMS MIRA award (2020). For more information about Sharon and her research group: https://neufeldt-chemistry.com/ X: https://twitter.com/NeufeldtLab