Members

Members

Picture of Jessica Sampson

Jessica Sampson, Ph.D.

Manager, High Throughput Experimentation Facility

Jessica Sampson earned their Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Caltech in 2019. There, they worked with Theo Agapie on olefin polymerization catalysis and ligand design. She subsequently pursued postdoctoral research on C-H activation  methodology and base-metal cross-coupling with Brad Carrow. Jessica started as the manager of the High Throughput Experimentation Facility at the University of Delaware in 2021.

Don Watson, Ph.D.

Donald A. Watson received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Irvine in 2004. He studied stereochemical problems in palladium-catalyzed transformations under Larry E. Overman. From 2004-2006, Donald then moved on to study zirconium-based catalysts for asymmetric intramolecular hydroaminations under Robert G. Bergman at the University of California at Berkeley. Donald then moved onto a postdoc position with Stephen Buchwald studying metal catalyzed processes for C-F bond formation. Donald then took a position at University of Delaware in 2009 and has since conducted independant research.

 

Mary P. Watson, Ph.D.

Mary Watson earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California at Irvine in 2006 under the direction of Prof. Larry E. Overman studying Pd(II)-catalyzed asymmetric allylic imidate rearrangements. From 2006-2009 Mary studied as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in Prof. Eric N. Jacobsen’s reasearch group. During her time in the Jacobsen group, she developed a nickel-catalyzed method for olefin arylcyanation via activation of C-CN bonds. In 2009 she joined the University of Delaware and has since been conducting independant research.

 

Students

Student Contributors

Jackson Burns

Jackson Burns is an undergraduate student at the University of Delaware studying chemical engineering and computer science. Jackson designed and maintains Crow, the software used by the HTE center  for retrieval, processing, and interpretation of HTE data.  He has  also been a member of the Don Watson lab since 2018, where he researches the applications of computer science to Heck-type cross-coupling reactions. Jackson hopes to pursue a Ph.D in scientific computing with a focus in chemistry and engineering.