Yuyang Dong

Yuyang was born and raised in Tianjin, China. He developed his passion for chemistry starting in high school and proceeded to represent China to compete in the 45th International Chemistry Olympiad, in which he earned the top score worldwide in 2013. He then moved overseas to pursue his undergraduate study at UC Berkeley, where he started his journey in organometallic chemistry by studying the electronic structure and reactivity of low-coordinated first-row transition metal complexes in the Tilley group. During his graduate study in the Betley group at Harvard University, he developed a series of C–H bond functionalization reactions catalyzed by transition metal-stabilized ligand-based radicals. His thesis work on the electronic structure-based approach to C–H bond functionalization catalyst design was recognized by the 2022 IUPAC-Solvay International Award for Young Chemists. Following his PhD study, Yuyang joined the Buchwald lab as a postdoctoral associate and developed various enantioselective olefin hydrofunctionalization reactions enabled by copper hydride catalysts. Yuyang began his independent career at Colorado State University in the Summer of 2023, focusing on transition-metal catalysis enabled by electronic structure design.