Blum Laboratory
PASSION FOR UNDERSTANDING
HOW CHEMICAL REACTIONS WORK
Interdisciplinary microscopy at the cutting edge of mechanistic, organic, organometallic, materials, catalytic, and physical-organic chemistry at the University of California, Irvine.
Latest News:
2026
Aug 3: We are excited to have Jorge Luna from PicoQuant to install the automated stage! Looking forward to new experiments.
July 31: Group Alumni, Tristen Tagawa, is visiting our lab and giving a career presentation! Welcom back, Tristen!
Jul 13: Welcom new undergraduate Vincent Vega!
Jul 1: Congratulations to Pegah Honarmand for receiving WCC Lilly Emerging Talent Award!
June 1: Dr. Andrea Delledonne’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Postdoctoral Fellowship starts! His studies reveal mechanisms of organic chemistry in water.
May 21: Congratulations to Alexis Ravenscroft for receiving Outstanding Contribution to The Chemistry Department Award!
May 13: Congratulations to Sylvia Lou, recipient of Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship for Summer 2026!
Feb 11: Congratulations, Pat McShea, recipient of La Verne Noyes Fellowship!
Feb 9: Congratulations to Andrea Delledonne, recipient of Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Postdoctoral Fellowship!
Jan 29: We celebrate Pegah Honarmand and Alexis Ravenscroft advancing to candidacy. Congrats, Pegah and Alexis.
Jan 27: Welcome new graduate student, Emily Kish! Let’s crush some science.
Jan 14: We are honored that Dr. Derek Lowe highlighted Sylvia’s JACS paper in his blog in Science, In the Pipeline, “Farewell to Dibromoethane.”
Jan 13: We welcome Jorge Luna from PicoQuant for an upgrade of our microscope. New experiments await.
Jan 5: Congratulations to Sylvia Lou for identifying a lack of evidence supporting widespread use of 1,2-dibromoethane as an activator for zinc, now in JACS!
2025
Nov 30: Congratulations to Vy Pham for discovering polymer size–catalytic activity relationships using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, now in Chem. Eu. J.!
Sep 3: Congratulations to Sylvia Lou on publication of “Tetramethylethylenediamine Stabilizes Organozinc Surface Intermediates against Chemical Etching but Not against Protodemetalation,” now in Organometallics!
Aug 26: We enjoyed microscopy training day with Jorge Luna from PicoQuant.
Aug 22: Congratulations to Yiqing Zhang on publication of “Three-Phase Emulsions during Cross-Coupling Reactions in Water,” now in JOC!
Jul 28: Welcome new postdoctoral scholar Dr. Andrea Delledonne! He will be investigating properties of emulsion droplets in organic reactions.
Jun 4: Welcome visiting professor and Fulbright Fellow, Prof. Fernando López!
Jun 2: Congratulations to Pía López and Dr. Or Eivgi on publication of “Self-Assembly Methods Induce Different Individual-Polymer-Block Solvation Responses,” now in Chem. Eur. J.! Great to work with our collaborators on SAXS data, Nehal Idris and Prof. Joe Patterson.
May 19: Our lab is excited to demo PicoQuant’s new FlexLambda for acquisition of time-resolved fluorescence spectral information.
May 16: Jay Won presents at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. Go, Jay!
Apr 8: Congratulations to Alexis Ravenscroft for receiving an NSF GRFP honorable mention! Her work focuses on catalyst recycling using FLIM.
Mar 11: Pía López defends her PhD thesis. Way to go, Dr. López!
Feb 3: Welcome new PhD students Roee Dagan and Maxi Ledesma, who are discovering strategies for catalyst recycling and organic synthesis reaction sustainability using fluorescence microscopy!
Jan 17: Bri McWhorter hosted a scientific communication workshop at our group meeting, where we honed skills for sharing our data and experiments.
Jan 3: Congratulations to Martin Stang and Erin Hanada on publication of their JOCSynopsis, “Mechanisms of Activating Agents to Form Organozinc Reagents from Zinc Metal: Lessons for Reaction Design,” ACS Editor’s Choice!
2024
Dec 18: Congratulations to Dr. Martin Stang on publication of “Isolation and Characterization of Sulfonium-Ylide-Stabilized Palladium Carbenes,” now in Organometallics!
Dec 11: Martin Stang defends his PhD thesis. Go, Dr. Stang!
Nov 6: Congratulations to Pía López on publication of her Perspective, “Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) as a Tool to Understand Chemical Reactions and Catalysis” in ACS Catalysis!
Sept 14: Congratulations to Dr. Joe Kaplan on publication of gold redox aryl thiolation of alkynes, now in JOC!
Sep 3: Joe Kaplan defends his PhD thesis. Congratulations, Dr. Kaplan!
August 20: Group alum Erin Hanada receives a prestigious Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship. Congratulations on all your achievements, Dr. Hanada!
August 2: Congratulations to Pía López, recipient of a departmental Dissertation Fellowship! Go, Pia!
July 26: Hannah Peacock defends her PhD thesis. Congratulations, Dr. Peacock!
July 17: Congratulations to Hannah Peacock on publication of her studies, “Buildup and Consumption of Species in Emulsion Droplets during Aqueous Suzuki Coupling Correlate with Yield,” now in JOC!
July 17: Group alum Tony Garcia receives a prestigious UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. Go, Dr. Garcia!
June 16: Joseph Kaplan, Hannah Peacock, and Prof. Blum participate together in UCI’s 2024 Graduate Hooding Ceremony with friends, family, and colleagues. Congratulations soon-to-be-Drs. Kaplan and Peacock!
May 16: Congratulations to Yiqing Zhang for publication of her studies surfactant-dependent partitioning of organic reagents, now in JOC! This article was selected as an ACS Editor’s Choice article.
May 9: Congratulations, Alexis Ravenscroft, Outstanding 1st-Year Teaching Assistant!
May 9: Congratulations, Pat McShea, Gebel Awardee for sustainable chemistry research!
May 8: Welcome new PhD student, Pegah Honarmand! She will investigate catalytic polymerization by FLIM.
April 17: Congratulations to Hannah Peacock for her imaging characterization of Suzuki coupling under aqueous–organic conditions, now in ChemRxiv!
April 8: We watch the solar eclipse and a SpaceX rocket launch in the same week, enjoying science together.
April 1: Joe Kaplan starts his Dissertation Fellowship. He will investigate and develop heterocyclization reactions. Congratulations, Joe!
Mar 29: Yiqing Zhang receives the ACS Green Chemistry Pharmaceutical Round Table Travel Award! The award comes with the prestigious opportunity to be one of only a few student presenters at the Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. She will present her research on “Surfactant–Dependent Partitioning of Reagents in Sustainable Reaction Systems Characterized by Imaging.”Congratulations, Yiqing!
Mar 6: Congratulations to Yiqing Zhang for elucidating surfactant-dependent partitioning of organic reagents, now in Chemrxiv!
Jan 3: Hannah Peacock starts her Allergan Graduate Research Fellowship, thanks to the Allergan Foundation.