Don Coltart obtained his Master’s degree from the University of Manitoba, under the supervision of Professor James L. Charlton, and he then joined the research group of Professor Derrick L. J. Clive at the University of Alberta, where he obtained his Ph.D.  His postdoctoral work was conducted at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as an NSERC, AHFMR, and CRI Scholar, under the supervision of Professor Samuel J. Danishefsky.  Don began his independent career at Duke University in 2004 and moved to the University of Houston in 2012.  His research group studies the development of methods for asymmetric carbon–carbon bond formation, the application of those methods to the total synthesis of structurally complex biologically active natural products, and the study of those compounds in biological systems.

Uyen Huynh was born and grew up in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.  As an undergraduate, she worked under the supervision of Professor Jefferey Coffer at Texas Christian University, and earned B.S. degree in Chemistry in 2009.  She began graduate studies in inorganic chemistry under the supervision of Professor Bradley Holliday at University of Texas at Austin, and graduated with Master of Arts in Inorganic Chemistry in 2010.  Uyen then taught as an adjunct chemistry instructor at San Jacinto College.  Currently, she is pursuing her PhD degree at University of Houston in the Coltart Group. Her current research involves asymmetric α-alkylation of acyclic ketones using ACC hydrazones.

Thien Nguyen was born and raised in Danang, Vietnam.  He received his B.Sc. degree in chemistry from Science University (Vietnam) in 2008 and M.Sc. degree in Advanced Spectroscopy in Chemistry from Helsinki University (Finland) in 2011.  He joined Professor Coltart’s group in 2012 and currently studies the alkylation/functionalization of ketone via azoalkene species.   

Ettore J. Rastelli was born and raised in Oklahoma, and carried out his undergraduate training at the University of Arkansas under the supervision of Professor Nan Zheng.  Upon completion of his Honors BS degree in 2012, he began graduate studies at the University of Houston under the mentorship of Professor Don Coltart.

Maulen Uteuliyev was born and raised in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.  He received his B.Sc. degree in chemistry from Pavlodar State University (Kazakhstan) in 2006.  In 2009, Maulen spent a year working on Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydroboration in the lab of Professor James Takacs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  In 2010, he continued to pursue his M.Sc. degree under the direction of Professor Douglas Grotjahn at the San Diego State University in San Diego where he focused on N-heterocyclic carbene catalysis.  In 2012, he joined the group of Professor Don Coltart at the University of Houston as a Ph.D. student.  His current research in Coltart laboratory focuses on α-alkylation/functionalization of ketones via activated hydrazones and oximes.

Md. Nasir Uddin was born in Bangladesh.  Upon completion his BS (honors) (2009) and masters in physical chemistry (2011) from the University of Dhaka, he joined the University of Houston in 2012 and started working in the Coltart research group.  His current research involves the asymmetric a-alkylation of ketones using chiral N-amino cyclic carbamates (ACC).

Ngoc Truong is originally from Boston, Massachusetts and moved to Houston, Texas where she earned a B.S. degree in Chemistry at the University of Houston in 2010.  She worked in the petroleum industry for two years, and then she joined the Coltart research group in 2012.  She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Houston.  Her current research focuses in the area of methodology development for soft enolization on thioesters as a mild and operationally simple alternative to hard enolization, and rhodium catalyzed hydroacylation.

Andrew A. Bolinger was born in Colorado.  He completed his BS degree in 2013 at Colorado Mesa University under the supervision of Dr. Joseph L. Richards.  He joined the Coltart group in 2014 where he studies organic methodologies related to umpolung alkylation via azo compounds.

Sabrina Aderibigbe was born and raised in the Commonwealth island of Dominica. As an undergraduate at the University of Utah she received training under the supervision of Dr. David P. Goldenberg as a sophomore, whilst during her senior year she received training under the supervision of Dr. Jon D. Rainier. In the interim of completing her B.S in Chemistry and Biology in 2015 she worked as a sugar chemist at Bard Access Systems.  She is currently pursuing graduate studies at the University of Houston under the supervision of Professor Don Coltart.

Kyle Elmore was born and raised in Houston, Texas. As an undergraduate, he worked under the supervision of Dr. Don Coltart at the University of Houston, performing research on soft enolization as well as total synthesis. He graduated from U.H. with his Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry in 2015. He is currently working toward his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Don Coltart at the University of Houston. He has an interest in methodology development and the total synthesis of natural products.