Elizabeth Papish

Elizabeth Papish

Professor
Director of Graduate Recruiting

Education

  • PhD, Columbia University, 2002
  • M.Phil, Columbia University, 2001
  • MS, Columbia University, 1998
  • BA, Chemistry, Cornell University, 1997

Research

We are interested in catalysis as applied to green chemistry. In particular, we make new catalysts for carbon dioxide reduction to form carbon monoxide in an NSF funded project. Carbon dioxide reduction is a key step in formation of liquid fuels from solar energy. This project aims to make carbon dioxide reduction more efficient and more sustainable through the design of new pincer ligands for transition metal catalysts. See our Chem. Commun. papers published in 2017 and 2018 (listed below) for more details. This work is collaborative with Jared Delcamp of the University of Mississippi and Edwin Webster of Mississippi State University.

Furthermore, my group has had a long-standing interest in catalysis of other challenging reactions including water oxidation, hydrogenation of challenging substrates (including CO2), and C-H activation.

In a separate project, we are using ruthenium complexes for light-activated anticancer studies. Our studies have shown that visible light can activate the ruthenium complexes and make toxic byproducts. This can be used to target cancerous cells. This project is collaborative with Yonghyun (John) Kim in Chemical and Biological Engineering. See our Inorg. Chem. 2017 paper (listed below) for more details.

  • New Projects – talk to Dr. Papish about this in person, as this work is in progress.  We are always coming up with new ideas and new uses for our ligands and complexes.  If you are a student interested in our group, stop by and ask what new projects we have recently started.
  • For more information on the above projects see our research page.

Selected Publications

Dr. Papish’s publication list