Chemists Lay Groundwork for Countless New, Cleaner Uses of Methane

A research team led by Daniel J. Mindiola, Presidential Term Professor of Chemistry, has demonstrated the potential to use methane not as a fossil fuel but as a versatile chemical building block with which to make more complex molecules, such as pharmaceuticals and other value-added substances. The reaction also offers a way of taking advantage of the properties of methane without releasing greenhouse gases.

“Finding ways to use methane besides burning it as a fuel constitutes a practical approach to using this abundant gas,” says Mindiola, senior author on the paper. “Our method will hopefully provide inspiration to move away from burning our resources and instead using them more as a carbon building block to prepare more valuable materials.”

The study is published in Science.

Mindiola collaborated on the work with Kyle T. Smith, a graduate student in Mindiola’s lab and the paper’s lead author; Simon Berritt, director of the High Throughput Screening Center; Mariano González-Moreiras, a visiting scholar; Seihwan Ahn and Mu-Hyun Baik of Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; and Milton R. Smith III, a professor at Michigan State University who, together with Robert Maleczka, first discovered the chemical reaction known as carbon-hydrogen borylation upon which the current work builds.

Click here to read more.

Arts & Sciences News

Azuma and Hart Named Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professors of American History

Eiichiro Azuma specializes in Asian American and transpacific history, while Emma Hart teaches and researches the history of early North America, the Atlantic World, and early modern Britain between 1500 and 1800.

View Article >
Arts & Sciences Students Honored during 37th Annual Women of Color Day

Sade Taiwo, C’25, and Kyndall Nicholas, a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience, were honored for their work.

View Article >
Nine College Students and Alums Named Thouron Scholars; Will Pursue Graduate Studies in the U.K.

The Scholars are six seniors and three recent graduates whose majors range from neuroscience to communication.

View Article >
Irma Elo Named Tamsen and Michael Brown Presidential Professor in Sociology

Elo’s main research interests center on inequalities in health and mortality across the life course and demographic estimation of mortality. In recent years, she has extended her research to include predictors of cognition in high-, middle-, and low-income countries.

View Article >
Julia Hartmann Named Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor in Mathematics

She specializes in algebra and arithmetic geometry, a newer field that applies techniques from algebraic geometry to solve problems in number theory and co-developed the method of field patching.

View Article >
Holger Sieg Named Baird Term Professor of Economics

Sieg focuses his research on public and urban economics, as well as the political economy of state and local governments.

View Article >