Associate Professor, University of Alabama (2005-present)
Assistant Professor, University of Alabama (1999-2005)
Post-Doctoral Associate, Yale University (John Hartwig, 1997-1999)
PhD, Stanford University (Bob Waymouth, 1998)
BS, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Reuben Rieke, 1992)

Kevin Shaughnessy was born in 1970 and raised in Trumbull, Nebraska. He earned his B.S. degree with honors and highest distinction from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1992. While at Nebraska, he worked with Reuben D. Rieke on developing Rieke zinc-promoted reactions. He then joined the group of Robert M. Waymouth at Stanford University, where he developed zirconocene-catalyzed carbometalation reactions. Upon completing his PhD (1998), he moved to Yale to work with John F. Hartwig on palladium-catalyzed enolate arylations and development of high-throughput screening assays. In 1999, he joined the chemistry faculty at The University of Alabama, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Chemistry. His research interests have focused on the development of catalytic methodologies in alternative solvents and understanding how these solvents affect fundamental organometallic reactivity.

Publication List

Graduate Students

W. Scott Brown

BS, Western Kentucky University (2001)

Scott is a native of Lewisburg, Kentucky, where he was raised on a Tobacco farm that he still works in his spare time. Scott earned his BS and MS degrees at Western Kentucky University. His master's research focused on the mechanism of directed ortho-metalation under the direction of Robert Holman. Scott joined the program at UA in fall of 2004. Since joining the Shaughnessy group that fall, Scott's research has focused on mechanisms and applications of cross-coupling reactions. Scott has been working to unravel the mechanism of Rh-catalyzed addition of boronic acids to aldehydes. He is also involved in our FMC Lithium funded project to explore the use of neopentylphosphines in Pd-catalyzed coupling reactions.

Lensey L. Hill

BS, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga (2004)

Lensey is a native of Tennessee and attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. While at UTC, Lensey did undergraduate research with Prof. Robert Mebane on applications of Rainey nickel and Prof. Greg Grant on the coordination chemistry of cadmium thiocrown ether complexes. Lensey came to UA in 2004 and joined the Shaughnessy group soon after. Lensey's work has focused on the development and application of new ligands to Pd-catalyzed coupling reactions. She has contributed to studies on the application of neopentyl phosphines to Pd-catalyzed coupling reactions. She has also structurally characterized a number of neopentylphosphine-palladium complexes both in solution and in the solid state.

J. Org. Chem., 2006, 71, 5117

BS, Gustavus Adolphus College (2004)

Matt grew up in Minnesota and attended Gustavus Adolphus College. While at GAC, Matt worked with Prof. Brian O'Brien on the synthesis and characterization of phosphorus analogs of phthalimide anions. Matt spent the summer of 2003 at UA as a SURP participant working in Prof. Joe Thrasher's lab. Matt returned to UA in 2004 after completing his degree at GAC. He joined the groups of Profs. Shaughnessy and Thrasher as a joint advisee. His work at UA has largely focused on the synthesis of novel flourine containing compounds.

Undergraduate Students

Strud is a native of Greensboro, AL. He is a chemistry major at UA, and has been accepted into the 2008 class of the UA School of Dentistry. Strud is also an officer in both the pre-dental society and the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society. Strud joined the Shaughnessy group in the summer of 2007. His research was focused on the use of phosphine-palladium allyl's as air-stable catalysts in C-N bond forming reactions.