Princeton ACS Fall Organic Chemistry Symposium 2026

Zach Wickens is currently an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Zach received his B.A. from Macalester College (2010) and his Ph.D (2015) from the California Institute of Technology with Robert H. Grubbs. In his doctoral work, he discovered and studied new catalyst-controlled Wacker oxidation reactions. Following doctoral studies, Zach was an NIH postdoctoral scholar in the lab of Eric N. Jacobsen at Harvard University. In his postdoctoral studies, he developed a useful synthetic methodology to prepare chiral building blocks and introduced a potentially general framework to precisely control reactive ionic intermediates. In 2018, Zach launched his independent career at UW–Madison where his group develops new approaches to generate and exploit reactive intermediates in organic synthesis using light and electricity. His research has led to a range of important discoveries, including advancing strategies to exploit abundant nucleophiles in oxidative alkene functionalization, introducing powerful photocatalytic systems for challenging reductions, and pioneering the use of formate salts as sources of CO2•–.

Emily was raised in Sussex County, NJ and completed her undergraduate studies in chemistry at The College of New Jersey in 2007, performing research with Professor David A. Hunt. Upon graduation, Emily worked at PTC Therapeutics, then located in South Plainfield, NJ, for several months before joining Bristol Myers Squibb in 2008 where she supported the discovery of new medicines to treat metabolic diseases. In 2009, Emily returned to academics to obtain her Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Phil S. Baran at Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA. Her graduate research focused on unified approaches to the total synthesis of deterpenoid and related diterpenoid alkaloid natural products.

In 2014, Emily moved back to the east coast to re-join Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) within the Oncology Discovery Chemistry department in Princeton, NJ. She has participated in or co-led teams that have identified multiple clinical candidates for cancer immunotherapy. In 2019, she began supporting the first targeted protein degradation programs at BMS and has since taken on increasing responsibility in leading and shaping the strategy of the BMS induced proximity platform to support the discovery of ligand-directed degraders (LDDs), molecular glue degraders (e.g. CELMoDsTM), and other induced proximity approaches beyond degradation.  She is listed as an inventor on >20 published patents and patent applications and is a co-author on >20 publications. For this work, she has been recognized with the 2022 ACS DOC Industrial Early Career Investigator Award and the 2026 ACS WCC Rising Star Award.

Kay Brummond is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. She received a BS degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in 1985. She carried out her graduate studies at UNL and the Pennsylvania State University with Professor Ray Funk, earning her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Penn State in 1991. After working as a postdoctoral fellow with Robert K. Boeckman at the University of Rochester, she accepted a faculty position in the Department of Chemistry at West Virginia University in 1993. She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1999 at WVU and held an adjunct Associate Professor position in the Department of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences. She was honored by the Chemistry Department with the Outstanding Faculty Award in 1999. In 2001, Brummond joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh as an Associate Professor and was promoted to Professor in 2006. Brummond served as chair-elect and chair in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh from 2014 to 2017. She served as the Associate Dean of Faculty for the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh (2017–2023).

Brummond was recognized for her excellence in organic chemistry with the 2021 National ACS Award for Encouraging Women into the Chemical Sciences and her election to the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows in 2021. After serving on the Board of Editors (BOE, 2006–2014) and editing , Volume 91, Brummond was elected to the Board of Directors (BOD) for Organic Syntheses (OS) in 2022, a publication of reliable methods for the preparation of organic compounds.