Steven Cummings

Background

About Steven Cummings

As a new faculty at Howard University, I will be preparing the lab for research into synthesizing novel organic materials. These materials will be intended to open up a new class of organometallic compounds, for which I will investigate their physical and electronic properties in addition to their catalytic potential. I earned a PhD from Purdue University in Inorganic Chemistry under the direction of Dr. Tong Ren. I synthesized a variety of diruthenium organometallic compounds to study their efficacy for incorporation into spintronic oriented devices. I then worked with Dr. Chris Reed at the University of California, Riverside where our work culminated in the synthesis of the strongest pure Brønsted acid, a perfluorinated carborane. This acid allowed us to isolate the proton disolvate of carbon dioxide. I then joined the Stokes lab with Dr. Ben Stokes at the University of California, Merced. We successfully developed a novel hydrogenation method employing water to reduce alkenes, alkynes and a varitety of heteroatom and protecting functional groups. Further research was carried out to gain an understanding of the mechanistic pathway.