Joseph Derosa, PhD

Joe graduated magna cum laude from the City College of New York (CCNY) in 2015, where he carried out research with Prof. Mark R. Biscoe on stereospecific palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. Eager to fuel his passion for transition metal catalysis, he pursued his graduate studies at Scripps Research as one of Prof. Keary M. Engle’s first graduate students. His thesis work consisted of the exploration of nickel-catalyzed 1,2-difunctionalization reactions with alkene starting materials, which marked some of the earliest reports of directed, non-conjugated alkene difunctionalization with nickel catalysts. After the completion of his graduate work, he served a three-year appointment as an Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Jonas C. Peters at Caltech, where he conducted research in the realm of electrocatalysis, specifically involving proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) mediators for inorganic and organic applications. In the summer of 2023, he joined the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University. His research interests exist at the interface of organic synthesis, organometallic chemistry, and electrochemical methods. In his spare time, Joe enjoys hiking, reading graphic novels, and pursuing his quest to discover the world’s greatest cheeseburger.

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Joe is incredibly passionate about mentoring students and fostering the growth and development of their creativity and chemical intuition. Over the past several years, he has had the pleasure to serve as a mentor to many students from a variety of educational backgrounds. 

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Joe's Mentees Before Boston University:

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• Mark N. Boulous (Undergraduate Researcher; UCSD), December 2015 to May 2017. (Scripps Research)

• Daizy M. De La Torre (High School Student; LSSI Program), May 2016 to August 2016. (Scripps Research)

• Annabelle L. Cantu (Undergraduate Researcher (SURF); CSU Long Beach), May 2016 to August 2016. (Scripps Research)

• Vincent A. van der Puyl (Undergraduate Researcher (SURF); UCSD), May 2017 to August 2018. (Scripps Research)

• Roman Kleinmans (Visiting Masters Student; WWU Münster), September 2018 to March 2019. (Scripps Research)

• Jonas Baumgärtner (Visiting Masters Student; ETH Zurich), May 2022 to November 2022. (Caltech)