
Website | Home URL |
Division | Organic |
Title | Faculty Professor |
Specialties |
|
o.gutierrez@g.ucla.edu | |
Office | Young Hall 4015 |
Office Phone | TBD |
Lab | Young Hall 2107 |
Office Lab | TBD |
Short Biography
Osvaldo was born in Mexico and raised in Sacramento, California. He attended Sacramento City College (2001-2006) and transferred to UCLA in 2006 where he worked as an undergraduate at the laboratories of Prof. Houk where his research focused on the use of quantum mechanical calculations to study organocatalysis. He obtained his B.S./M.S. in 2009 and completed his Ph.D. in 2012 (UC Davis) under the guidance of Prof. Tantillo. From 2012-2016 he worked as a postdoc with Prof. Kozlowski at the University of Pennsylvania where he used computational and experimental tools to study transition metal-catalyzed processes. In 2016 he started his independent position at the University of Maryland College Park and promoted to Associate Professor in Summer 2021. In the Fall 2021, he moved to Texas A&M University where his research combined computational and experimental approaches to advance our understanding of iron- and photo-catalyzed reaction mechanisms. In Fall of 2024 he was promoted to Full Professor at Texas A&M and then moved to UCLA in January 2025 as Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and as the inaugural UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center (CRSC) Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) STEM Senior Faculty Director. In addition to research interests, Osvaldo is involved in a series of initiatives to increase diversity in STEM including serving as president of the Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering (ADSE) and organizer of the annual Young Researchers Conference (YRC) and Breaking Barriers Through Chemistry (BBTC).
Research Interests
Our group combines computational and experimental approaches to advance our understanding of open-shell organic/organometallic reaction mechanisms with a focus Fe-catalyzed multicomponent radical cross-couplings and (metallo)photoredox-catalyzed carbon-carbon bond formations. In turn, this information is used to guide the design of new sustainable, catalytic, and asymmetric transformations that can be adapted by the organic, organometallic, and bio(in)organic in the synthesis of medicinally active compounds. Graduate students will learn how to apply state-of-the-art computational methods, organic and inorganic synthesis, and advanced spectroscopic methods.
Honors & Awards
- Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), 2025
- Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, 2021
- Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN) Talented 12, 2020
- ACS Division of Organic Chemistry Academic Young Investigator, 2020
- NIGMS Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award, 2020
- Nathan Drake Faculty Fellow, University of Maryland, 2019
- CMNS Board of Visitors Junior Faculty Award, University of Maryland, 2019
- NSF CAREER Award, 2018
- University of Chicago Rising Stars in Chemistry, 2015
- Dow BEST Symposium Travel Award, 2013
- UC MEXUS Collaborative Grant, University of California-Davis, 2012
- UCD & Humanities Graduate Research Award in Chemistry, University of California-Davis, 2012
- R. B. Miller Graduate Fellowship, University of California-Davis, 2012
- David and Ruth Volman Graduate Fellowship, University of California-Davis, 2012
- Dolores Cannon Southam Award for Excellence in Research, University of California Los Angeles, 2009
- Whitman Summer Research Fellowship, University of California-Los Angeles, 2008
- Scrubs Unlimited Summer Research Fellowship, University of California-Los Angeles, 2007
Representative Publications
[ Selected Publications ]
- Liu, L.; Aguilera, M. C.; Lee, W.; Youshaw, C. R.; Neidig, M. L.;# Gutierrez, O., Science 2021, 374, 432-439. “General method for iron-catalyzed multicomponent radical cascades-cross-couplings.” [LINK]
- Peng, Q.; Hwang, M. U.; Renteria-Gomez, A.; Mukherjee, P.; Young, R. M.; Qui, Y.; Wasielewski, M. R.; Gutierrez, O.; Scheidt, K. A. Science 2024, 385, 1471-1477. “Photochemical phosphorus-enabled scaffold remodeling of carboxylic acids.” [LINK]
- Maity, Tapas.;* Rentería-Gómez, Á.;* Gutierrez, O., ACS Catal. 2024, 14, 13049–13054, “Stereoselective Fe-catalyzed Decoupled Cross-couplings: Chiral vinyl oxazolidinones as effective radical lynchpins for diastereoselective C(sp2)-C(sp3) bond formation” [LINK]
- Masson-Makdissi, J.;* Lalisse, R. F.;* Gutierrez, O.;# Levin, M. D., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 17719-17727. “Evidence for Dearomatizing Spirocyclization and Dynamic Effects in the Quasi-Stereospecific Nitrogen Deletion of Tetrahydroisoquinolines” [LINK]
- Targos, K.; Gogoi, A. R.; Rentería-Gómez, Á.; Kim, M. K.; Gutierrez, O.;# Wickens, Z. K. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 13689-13696. “Mechanism of Z-Selective Allylic Functionalization via Thianthrenium Salts” [LINK]
- Youshaw, C. R.; Yang, M.-H.; Gogoi, A. R.; Rentería-Gómez, Á.; Liu, L.; Morehead, L. K.; Gutierrez, O., Org. Lett. 2023, 25, 8320-8325. “Iron-Catalyzed Enantioselective Multicomponent Cross-Couplings of a-Boryl Radicals” [LINK]
- Sar, D.; Yin, S.;* Grygus, J.;* Rentería-Gómez, Á.;* Garcia, M.; Gutierrez, O., Chem. Sci. 2023, 14, 13007-13013. “Expanding Chemical Space of Enol Silyl Ethers: Catalytic Dicarbofunctionalization Enabled by Iron Catalysis” [LINK]
- Renteria-Gomez, A.; Guerrero, M.;* Ramirez-Lopez, M.;* Gutierrez, O., Org. Lett. 2023, 25, 7440-7445. “Regioselective Fluoroalkylarylation of Enamides Enabled by an Iron-Catalyzed Multicomponent Radical Cross-Coupling Strategy” [LINK]
- Lee, W.; Zhou, J.; Gutierrez, O., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 16126-16133. “Mechanism of Nakamura’s Iron-Catalyzed Asymmetric Cross-coupling Reaction: The Role of Spin in Controlling Selectivity.” [LINK]
- Yuan, M.; Song, Z.; Badir, S. O.; Molander, G. A.; # Gutierrez, O., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 7225-7234. “On The Nature of C(sp3)-C(sp2) Bond Formation In Nickel-Catalyzed Tertiary Radical Cross-Couplings: A Case Study Mechanistic Study of Ni/Photoredox Catalytic Cross-Coupling of Alkyl Radicals and Aryl Halides.” [LINK]
For a complete list of all publications, see: https://www.gutierrezlabs.com/publications