"Synthetic Photochemistry Employing Continuous Flow Techniques"
Dr. Shawn Collins (U. de M.)

Synthetic photochemistry has experienced a tremendous resurgence in interest. Photochemistry is viewed as a “green” strategy for organic synthesis, and new developments in photocatalysis employing visible light, as well as enabling technologies like continuous flow techniques, have all likely contributed to renewed interest in exploited photochemical activation as a tool in synthesis. The development of new Cu-based heteroleptic photocatalysts, their uses in synthesis and comparison with existing UV light-mediated reactions will be discussed.

Shawn K. Collins was born in 1974 and raised in Val d'Or, Québec. He obtained a B.Sc. (Honours) degree from Concordia University in 1996 while working with Professor Ozzie S. Tee. He completed his doctoral dissertation in 2001 with Professor Alex G. Fallis at the University of Ottawa. After an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Larry E. Overman (University of California, Irvine), he joined the faculty at Université de Montréal in September 2003 as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2009 and to Full Professor in 2015. Professor Collins's research group is interested in the development of novel synthetic methods, particularly involving catalysis, photochemistry and continuous flow methods.  

He is the guest of Dr. Pat Forgione