Welcome to the

Research

Overview

We are a group of computational physical organic chemists at the University of Houston. We enjoy our "screen-time." But even more so the chemical insights we get out of it.

A central theme of our work is recognizing the interpretive power of fuzzy chemical concepts (like aromaticity) in chemistry, and developing useful chemical strategies with them. We are sometimes organic chemists, sometimes photochemists, and other times supramolecular chemists. Right now, topics that catch our attention include light-responsive hydrogen bonds, organic photochemistry and proton-coupled electron transfer reactions, ground and excited-state reactivities and properties of polycyclic (anti)aromatic π-systems.

Gallery

People

Francisco Martins

Postdoctoral Associate

Said Jalife Jacobo

Postdoctoral Associate

Renan Viesser

Postdoctoral Associate

João Soares

PhD Student

Croix Laconsay

Postdoctoral Associate

Alumni

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TPOC Meetings

The Theoretical Physical Organic Chemistry (TPOC) meetings are a series of mini-online symposiums created for students and postdocs from research groups around the world to establish interactions and friendships at a critical stage of their career. Each meeting is one hour long, and two students or postdocs from different groups share their research. We meet on Zoom on the second Thursday every month at CDT 11am. All are welcome to join!

See schedule

Art

Art credit to LJK
Art credit to LJK
Art credit to JIW
Art credit to LJK
Art credit to LJK
Art credit to LJK

Judy i. wu

Judy grew up in Taiwan--an island as humid as Houston.
She earned a BS (2004) in Chemistry from Tunghai University, Taiwan, and
a PhD (2011) under Paul Schleyer, at the University of Georgia. In 2015, she began her independent career at the University of Houston,
Department of Chemistry. Currently, she is an Associate Editor for the
Journal of Physical Organic Chemistry. She has received an IUPAC
Young Chemist Award, an NSF CAREER Award, and an NIH MIRA award.
She was selected as a Sloan Research Fellow in 2020.
She enjoys long walks with her dogs, drawing, and writing from a cozy corner.