Dr. Joel Karty, assistant professor of chemistry, is currently attending the 229th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in San Diego, California. This morning he presented a paper entitled “Contributions by resonance and inductive effects toward the acidity of X=CH-Y-H (X,Y=CH2, NH, O)” in a session of the Physical Organic Chemistry division.
The paper deals with resolving a long-standing controversy in Organic chemistry over why certain types of molecules are more acidic than others. To resolve the conflict, Dr. Karty pioneered a methodology based on theoretical calculations using a series of model compounds.
Dr. Karty’s work has been well-received in the discipline, and has resulted in student-coauthored publications in the Journal of Organic Chemistry (2004) and the flagship publication of the ACS, the Journal of the American Chemical Society (2003).
Earlier in the week, two of Dr. Karty’s research students (Rachel Naumann and Geoffrey Lynn) presented results of their research at the meeting.