Kass Research Group

Welcome to the Kass group website! We are primarily interested in the development and application of environmentally friendly Bronsted acid and base catalysts for organic reactions. Other projects include the development of non-coordinating cations, molecular recognition, and using HPLC to determine entantiomeric ratios.

Left to right:  Daneasha Zackery, Sofía Ramírez López, Dan Blechschmidt , Stephen Dempsey, Dr. Steven Kass, Casey Lee-Foss, Elijah Shore, Gabriella White, Alex Lovstedt

Group News

Congratulations to Dr. Stephen Dempsey!

February 15, 2023

Stephen Dempsey successfully defended his thesis: Evaluation and Development of Weakly Coordinating Cations and Their Application to Charge-Enhanced Base Organocatalysis.

Summer students arrive. Welcome Daneasha, Elijah and Gabriella!

June 9, 2022

Gabriella White (left) from Oxford University, England, Elijah Shore (middle) from Carleston College and Daneasha Zachery (right), year zero grad student of University of Minnesota, have joined the Kass group for 10 weeks as a part of the Lando/ NSF Summer Research Program. Welcome everyone

Congratulations to Dr. Ted Riegel!

January 4, 2022

Ted Riegel successfully defended his thesis: Charge-Enhanced Organocatalysts: Synthesis and Application Toward Symmertric and Asymmetric Reactions.

Congratulations to Dr. Curtis Payne!

June 11, 2020

Curtis Payne successfully defended his thesis: Charge-Enhanced Brønsted Acids: Catalyst Designs and Analytical Methods.

Congratulations to Dr. Jie Ma!

June 12, 2018

Jie Ma successfully defended his thesis entitled "Electrostatically Enhanced Phosphoric Acids and Their Applications in Brønsted Acid Catalysis." Congratulations Jie!

Congratulations to Dr. Yang Fan!

May 22, 2018

Kass group member Yang Fan successfully defended his thesis, "Electrostatically Enhanced Thioureas: Synthesis, Reactivity and Selectivity." Congratulations Yang!

Chemistry Catalyst 2016

August 24, 2016

The Kass group started off the fall 2016 semester by sharing our research with first-year graduate students at the departmental poster session and then heading to Minnehaha Falls for the Chemistry Catalyst 2016 picnic. 

Summer Lando student arrives. Welcome, Nilay!

June 13, 2016

Nilay Kanova from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, has joined the Kass group for 10 weeks as a part of the Lando/ NSF Summer Research Program. Welcome, Nilay!