Group News

2019

• May – The collaborative research between the Kartika and Kumar groups at LSU, as well as the Milet group at University of Grenoble Alps, on the mechanistic study of indole addition to unsymmetrical silyloxyallyl cations has been published in The Journal of Organic Chemistry as a full article. Congratulations to everyone who contributed in this expansive work.
• April – Congratulations to graduate student Josh Malone and undergraduate chemistry major Courtney Toussel who published their work on the synthesis of tetrahydroindoles and related compounds in Organic Letters.
• February – The Kartika group welcome a new postdoc, Dr. Satish Philkhana. Satish completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2017 under the direction of Prof. D. Srinivasa Reddyat CSIR National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India. He earned his M.S. in Chemistry in 2011 at University of Pune, India, and B.S in Chemistry in 2009 at Andhra University, India. Prior to joining the Kartika group, Satish trained as a postdoc at Prof. Jennifer Golden at the School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin – Madison.
• January – First year graduate student, Isaac Dos Reis, joined the Kartika group. He earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry from SUNY Plattsburgh. Welcome to the group!

2018

• October – To further upgrade the instruments and equipment in the Organic Teaching Lab, Rendy’s second proposal to the LSU Student Technology Fee program was again selected for funding. The award was used to purchase 2 units of FT-IR, 1 unit of 60 MHz NMR, analytical balances, rotovaps, etc. Thank you LSU!
• September – Binod Nepal, Mirza Saputra (Ph.D. #3), and Nitin Dange (former postdoc) published their work on the enantioselective functionalization of enamides at the β-carbon in in Angewandte Chemie. This paper involved a collaborative effort with graduate student Pu Du in Prof. Revati Kumar’s lab at LSU. Big congratulations to everyone!
• August – The Kartika group was awarded with an R01 research grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM127649) to study new synthetic chemistries with oxyallyl and amidoallyl cations. Thank you NIH!
• April – As a crucial component to the modernization of Organic Teaching Lab at LSU, Rendy’s proposal to purchase 3 units of 60 MHz NMR was selected for funding by the LSU Student Technology Fee program. Thank you LSU!
• February – Alex Cleveland published his work on the chlorination of terminal epoxides using triphosgene-pyridine in The Journal of Organic Chemistry. Awesome work, Alex!
• January – First year graduate student, Fatimat Badmus from Nigeria, and sophomore chemistry major, Kristin Sobie from Ohio, officially joined the Kartika group. Welcome to the group, Fatimat and Kristin!

2017

• December – Dr. Mirza Saputra was hooded in the Fall 2017 Commencement Ceremony at LSU. Congratulations!

• November – Both 3rd year graduate students Josh Malone and Alex Cleveland passed their General Exams. They are now officially Ph.D candidates.
• October – Kartika Group Ph.D. #3! Many congratulations to Della for successful defense of her Ph.D. dissertation entitled “New Synthetic Reactions Towards Global Chlorination and Enamides Functionalization.” Della will move to San Diego State University for a postdoc position in Prof. Jeff Gustafson’s laboratory.
• September – Congrats to graduate students Josh Malone, Josh Van Houten, Moshood Ganiu, and Binod Nepal on their recent publication in The Journal of Organic Chemistry. They solved the problems on how to synthesize differentiated 1,4- and 1,6-dicarbonyl compounds under practical conditions, i.e. catalytic reactions at room temperature.
• August – Rendy started a new chapter in his career as a tenured Associate Professor of Chemistry.
• June – Alex Cleveland, Joshua Malone, and Mirza Saputra presented their research in the 45th National Organic Symposium at UC Davis.
• May – Mirza Saputra won the James Traynham Distinguished Graduate Student Award. This award is given to the top graduate student who has demonstrated excellence in both research and teaching in LSU Chemistry. Congratulations, Della!
• April – Mirza Saputra, Alex Cleveland, Josh Malone, and Nitin Dance (former postdoc) published their work on the alpha functionalization of 2-amidoallyl cations in Organic Letters. Congratulations!
• April – Rendy finally received his official tenure notification and will assume a position as an associate professor of chemistry with tenure, starting in August 2017.
• April – Rendy was rewarded with the 2017 LSU Alumni Association Rising Faculty Research Award.
• April – The Kartika group received a research grant from Louisiana Board of Regents through the RCS One-Year funding mechanism. Thank you BOR!
• March – First year graduate students, Moshood, Binod, and Joshua, have passed all six of the necessary Cumulative Exams. Congratulations!
• February – Rendy was named as the 2017 Outstanding Non-Tenured Professor in Natural and Physical Sciences for the LSU Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.
• February – Rendy received the 2017 LSU Rainmaker Award for Emerging Scholar in the Science, Engineering, Math, and Technology category.
• January – Three first year graduate students joined the Kartika lab: Joshua Van Houten from Louisiana, Moshood Ganiu from Nigeria, and Binod Nepal from Nepal. Welcome to the group!

2016

• September – After 5 long years, Rendy finally delivered his tenure presentation and discuss his research directions in Department of Chemistry at LSU.
• September – Jacob Stepherson successfully defended his Master’s thesis and will received his a M.S. degree in December. Jacob graduated from the Kartika group with 5 publications, including 2 first-authored papers! Congratulations Jacob!
• August – First year (soon to be second year) graduate students, Josh Malone and Alex Cleveland, just published their very first paper in Organic Letters. They addressed synthetic challenges associated with six-membered oxyallyl cations through new reaction conditions that readily tolerated the high humidity in South Louisiana. Congrats Josh and Alex!
• August – Rendy delivered a seminar in the highly prestigious Gordon Research Conference: Natural Products & Bioactive Compounds
• June – Jacob, Caitlan (PhD 2016), Thomas (BS 2015), and Jeff (BS 2015) published their latest work in Organic Letters, which describes a new synthetic method to access highly functionalized carbazoles using 2-silyloxypentadienyl cations as the key intermediate. Congratulations!
• May – Dr. Andres Villalpando and Dr. Caitlan Ayala were hooded in the Spring 2016 Commencement Ceremony at LSU. Congratulations!

• March – Rendy received the Distinguished Seminar Speaker Award from Albemarle Process Development Center.
• February – Congratulations to Dr. Caitlan Ayala for successfully defending her dissertation, entitled: “Contemporary Organic Transformations Enabled by Novel Cationic Processes.” Caitlan is Ph.D. #2 from the Kartika group!
• February – Congratulations to Caitlan, Jacob, Nitin (former postdoc), and Jeffrey (BS 2015) for the acceptance of their work in Organic Letters, which describes the novel reactivity of 2-silyloxypentadienyl cations towards regioselective nucleophilic addition. This paper marks the 10th publication from the Kartika Group.
• January – Two first year graduate students, Alex Cleveland and Josh Malone officially joined the Kartika group. Alex and Josh earned their B.S. degree in Chemistry from Tennessee Tech University (undergraduate research with Prof. Jesse Carrick) and SUNY Oswego (undergraduate research with Prof. Fehmi Damcaki), respectively, in Spring 2015. Both students started their graduate career at LSU in the Fall 2015. Welcome to the group, Alex and Josh!

2015

• December – A second year graduate student, Jacob Stepherson, published his latest research in Chemical Communications. This paper describes the development of a new reaction that generates synthetically important 1,4-diketone structural motifs.
• December – Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Ly Ngo for her graduation from LSU with a B.S. degree in Chemistry. She will be continuing her training as a post-baccalaureate researcher in the Kartika group for the next several months.
• December – Andres successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation, entitled “Synthetic methods Development Towards the Total Synthesis of Chlorosulfolipids.” He is the first Ph.D. graduate from the Kartika group!  Congratulations, Dr. Andres Villalpando!
• November – Caitlan has been awarded with the LSU Dissertation Year Fellowship. Congratulations, Caitlan!
• October – Nitin completed his postdoctoral training in the Kartika group. He has accepted a research position as the Marie-Curie Fellow in Prof. Yannick Landais at the University of Bordeaux, France. Congratulations, Nitin! We will sincerely miss you.
• September – Our invited SYNPACTS article on the reactivity of protected oxyallyl cations towards addition of indoles has been accepted to Synlett. This paper was co-authored by Jacob, Caitlan, and Nitin!
• August – Andres, Della, and Thomas (BS 2015) published a paper in Chemical Communications, which described a stereoselective method to chlorinate 1,3-diols.
• August – Della and Ly published their work in the Journal of Organic Chemistry, concerning the development of a new reaction towards formation of vinyl chlorides.
• July – Nitin, Jacob, and Caitlan published their work on the chemistries involving benzylic stabilized oxyallyl cations in Chemical Science.
• May – Congratulations to Jeffrey Henry and Thomas Tugwell for completing their undergraduate studies at LSU and earning a B.S. degree in chemistry. Both graduates will be continuing their study towards Ph.D. in organic chemistry: Jeffrey at the University of Notre Dame and Thomas at University of Pittsburgh.
• April – Jeffrey Henry was named as one of the recipients for the 2015 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award from the LSU College of Science. Congratulations, Jeff!
• April – Rendy received the 2015 Tiger Athletic Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Award.
• April – The Kartika group received a research grant award from the National Science Foundation (CHE-1464788) for the synthetic studies towards chlorosulfolipid natural products. Thank you NSF!
• April – Caitlan was awarded with highly prestigious Coates Research Scholar from the LSU Graduate School. Congratulations!
• January – Caitlan and Nitin published their new work in Angewandte Chemie, which described a direct nucleophilic addition to oxyallyl cation.
• January – Della and Jeffrey published a communication in Tetrahedron Letters, which investigated the mechanistic insight into the nucleophilic addition to pyridinium carbamate intermediate.
• January – First year graduate student, Jacob R. Stepherson joined the Kartika group.  Jacob attended the University of West Florida where he worked in the research laboratories of Prof. Timothy Royappa and Prof. Karen Molek and earned his B.S. in Chemistry in 2014. Welcome to the group, Jacob!

2014

• December – Rendy was awarded with Faculty Research Grant from LSU.
• September – The Kartika group received a PFUND research grant  from Louisiana Board of Regents (LEQSF-EPS(2015)-PFUND-395). Thank you BOR!
• August – Ly Ngo (chemistry major) joined the group as an undergraduate student researcher. Welcome to the Kartika group, Ly!
• August – Dr. Nitin S. Dange joined our group as a postdoctoral researcher. Nitin received his B.S. in Chemistry in 2003 and then M.S. in Organic Chemistry in 2005, both from University of Pune, India. He then pursued his graduate studies in organic synthesis under the guidance of Prof. Bor-Cherng Hong at National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan and successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation in 2012. Welcome to the group, Nitin!
• May – Jeffrey Henry (chemistry major) joined the group as an undergraduate student researcher. Welcome to the Kartika group, Jeff!
• May – Congratulations to Christopher Watson for completing his study for the B.S. degree in chemistry at LSU. He will be attending Texas A&M University to pursue his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry. Chris is the first Kartika group undergraduate alumnus!
• April – Christopher Watson was named as one of the recipients for the 2014 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award from the LSU College of Science.  Congratulations, Chris!
• January – Thomas Tugwell (chemistry major) joined the group as an undergraduate student researcher. Welcome to the Kartika group, Thomas!

2013

• November – Rendy and several organic graduate students organized the Louisiana Organic Chemistry Symposium at LSU. The symposium was attended by 90+ participants.
• March – Andres, Caitlan, and Chris published a paper in the Journal of Organic Chemistry, which concerned a new chlorination reaction using triphosgene-pyridine.
• January – Rendy received the Council on Research Summer Stipend award from LSU. Thank you LSU ORED!
• January – Mirza A. Saputra (Della) joined the Kartika group as a first year graduate student. Della came to LSU from Indonesia, where she performed her undergraduate research with Prof. Nanik Sitiaminah and earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry at Airlangga University in 2007. Della subsequently continued her study and earned a M.S. degree in chemistry at University Technology Malaysia. Welcome to the Kartika group, Della!

2012

• December – The Kartika group received a PFUND research grant from Louisiana Board of Regents (LEQSF-EPS(2013)-PFUND-310). Thank you BOR!
• August – The Kartika group moved to the brand new Chemistry and Materials Building at LSU.
• June – Caitlan and Andres published their first paper concerning chlorination of primary alcohols with triphosgene and triethylamine in Organic Letters.
• May – Christopher Watson (chemistry major) joined the group as an undergraduate student researcher. Welcome to the Kartika group, Chris!
• January – First year graduate students, Caitlan E. Ayala and Andres Villalpando joined the Kartika group. Caitlan pursued her undergraduate studies at Northern Illinois University and conducted undergraduate research under the direction of Prof. Victor Ryzhov and Prof. James Erman. She earned a B.S. degree in Chemistry with Summa Cum Laude in 2011. Andres attended Whittier College as a student-athlete in football, carried out undergraduate research in Prof. Ralph Isovitsch, and earned his B.S. degree in chemistry in 2011. Welcome to the Kartika group, Caitlan and Andres!

2011

• November – The Kartika group is finally open for business.
• August – Rendy began his academic career at Louisiana State University as a tenure-track assistant professor.