Biography
I was born in My Tho, Vietnam, and lived there for 11 years before my family and I immigrated to the United States in 2008. I earned my B.S in Chemistry from the Texas A&M University in 2019, where I participated in undergraduate research in the group of Dr. Donald Darensbourg. When I’m not doing chemistry, I enjoy drawing, reading, and spending time with my friends. I chose Indiana University, beside its great graduate program and the friendly senior graduate students, because I want to push the edge of my comfort zone being far away from home. The areas of chemistry that interest me are organic and inorganic synthesis.
Research Project
My research involves the reactivity of high oxidation state iron complexes. Specifically, the reduction of iron nitrides using a boron transfer reagent, called bis(pinacolato)diboron (B2pin2). B2pin2 can be modified to include a “shuttle”, such as pyrazine, to facilitate the transfer of boron onto the terminal nitrogen of metal nitrides. I aim to understand the mechanism of this boryl transfer and identify new reaction pathways for metal nitride complexes which functionalize the nitrogen in these useful catalytic intermediates.
