Nicholas D Chiappini

Dr. Nick Chiappini hails from the great state of NJ and completed his undergraduate education at Drew University, receiving a BA in Chemistry. He then moved to the West Coast to pursue his Ph.D in Chemistry at Stanford University in the research group of Prof. Justin Du Bois. He completed his PhD, focusing on the development of transition-metal catalyzed C-H amination reactions, in 2019 and then returned to NJ for his postdoctoral work at Princeton University. At Princeton, Dr. Chiappini worked with Prof. Rob Knowles developing novel visible light photochemical reactions of organobismuth complexes. Since 2022, Dr. Chiappini has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UNCW, where his group looks to marry together his expertise in transition-metal and photochemical organic synthesis with exciting new synthetic problems in organic-main group chemistry of elements like bismuth and silicon.

Education

B.A in Chemistry, Drew University
Ph.D in Chemistry, Stanford University
Postdoctoral work, Princeton University

Specialization in Teaching

Dr. Chiappini primarily teaches within the organic chemistry curriculum , including our introductory organic courses, CHM 211 and CHM 212, along with Advanced Techniques in Organic Chemistry (CHM312, CHML 312)

Research Interests

Broad field: Organic chemical methodology and reaction development
Leveraging the efficiency of hydrosilylation of alkenes to build carbon-element bonds from carbon-silicon bonds using both polar (2 e-) and also photoredox (1 e-) catalysis
Developing new synthetic routes to organobismuth compounds from non-classical precursors and their use in functionalizing small molecules
Studying fundamental oxidative and reductive organometallic reactivity of heteroleptic organobismuth compounds
C–H bond amination in new contexts using rhodium and other transition and non-transition metal catalysts

Professional Service

Dr. Chiappini is a member of the American Chemical Society, and is a regular peer reviewer for scientific articles at publications including The Journal of the American Chemical Society, Nature, Nature Chemistry, Organic Letters, Chem, Chemical Science, The Journal of Organic Chemistry, Organometallics, ACS Catalysis, and Angewandte Chemie among others. Additionally, he has served as a reviewer for the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund grant board.

He has also chaired discussion sessions at the Heterocycles Gordon Research Conference, held annually at Salve Regina University.

Community Engagement

Dr. Chiappini has worked with staff in the Mohin-Scholz community center to ensure a welcoming, safe environment for LGBTQ students in chemistry and at UNCW broadly.

Honors & Awards

NIH F32 Postdoctoral Research Scholar (Princeton University) - PI
ACS-PRF UNI666-11 (University of North Carolina Wilmington) - PI
NSF-2421363 (University of North Carolina Wilmington) - co-PI (with Winifred Johnson)