Congratulations to Demyan for being selected as a 2026 Sloan Research Fellow! These highly prestigious awards are given to scientists “whose creativity, innovation and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of leaders.”
Click here for Sloan Foundation announcement
Click here for Rutgers news article
Click here for Rutgers-Newark news article
Onwards and upwards for the Prokopchuk group!
We were thrilled to have two articles in the C&E News highlighting our recent C-H activation research published in JACS !
In September, Associate Editor Brianna Barbu broke the story with an elegant summary of our findings in “Chemists finally know why palladium beats nickel at C-H activation“, describing our detailed analysis into why Pd is often better at breaking the C-H bonds of alkanes.
In November, Assistant Editor Fionna Samuels gave a shout-out to our work in “Fascinating Findings of 2025“.
We were honored to see our work highlighted in Nature Synthesis by Eric Piechota, a Senior Editor at the journal. Thank you for recognizing the importance of our recently published JACS paper describing a quantitative comparison of Ni vs. Pd in C-H activation reactions!
Coverage of our DOE award was highlighted by two news sources:
“Department of Energy funds Rutgers—Newark professors for sustainable energy research” Daily Targum, March 31, 2025. Written by Gianna Puglisi. https://dailytargum.com/article/us-department-of-energy-grants-2-rutgers-newark-professors-funding-to-advance-sustainable-energy-research-20250401
“Department of Energy Announced $1.6 Million in Funding for Two Rutgers-Newark Scientists” Rutgers-Newark School of Arts and Sciences, March 14, 2025. Written by Carrie Stetler. https://sasn.rutgers.edu/news/department-energy-announced-16-million-funding-two-rutgers-newark-scientists
Congratulations, Dr. Karagiannis!
Ageliki is PhD #2 coming out of the Prokopchuk lab, and she has opened the doors to some amazing Mn chemistry.
Demyan has received the NSF CAREER Award, a 5-year research grant which “supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”
This award is a reflection of the tireless work from current and former group members in developing so many cool molecules and reactions. We are incredibly excited to see where the science takes us. Onwards and upwards!!
The Prokopchuk Lab will receive a three-year US Department of Energy research grant to continue its research into “supercharged” organometallic redox agents! This program will build on results published in 2022 and 2024. Congrats to Ageliki and Viani for laying the groundwork in this exciting area of chemistry!!
Congratulations to David for receiving the inaugural SASN Teaching Assistant Award!! This campus-wide competition recognizes David’s excellence as a TA for the Organic Chemistry and Advanced Inorganic Chemisty courses. Read more here.
Congratulations to Lirong for receiving the 2024 Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship!!! The DF will enable her to fully focus on completing her research projects and thesis in the 2024-2025 academic year.
The Prokopchuk group has its first newly minted PhD!! Bhumika successfully defended her thesis titled “Controlling the Movement of Protons and Electrons with Amine-Functionalized CpN3 Ligands Coordinated to Iron.” Congratulations!!!
