Student's Bio
Afan Atif is a Junior majoring in Chemistry. He worked with Professor Nathan Schley to study the utility of computation in guiding reaction chemistry and catalyst design. Some of the chemistry investigated could be used in pharmaceutical applications. Over the summer, he investigated the hydrosilylation of cyclohexyl ethers and found that computation could predict the distribution of the products. Thus, the reactant could be modulated to achieve a desired product. After seeing the utility of computations, he decided to change projects to the synthesis of bicyclopentyl phosphines, where computation would be even more significant. He is currently investigating and synthesizing a set of bicyclopentyl phosphines which can increase the efficiency of heterogenous iridium catalysts.