Joseph Bair was born in 1980 and raised in Folsom, CA. Having grown tired of excessive sunshine and mild winters, he moved to Utah where he obtained his BS and MS degrees in Chemistry from BYU while synthesizing and studying light-harvesting oligothiophene-ruthenium conjugates under Dr. Roger Harrison. Apparently winters were still too mild and organometallic chemistry wasn't for him, so in 2006 he moved to the University of Illinois to study chemical biology under Prof. Paul Hergenrother. During this time, Joe evidently saw the error of his ways because, after having completed his Ph.D. in 2011, he moved his family back to California to study organometallic chemistry with Prof. Hartwig. Joe enjoys sunshine, mild winters, and working and playing with his family in the outdoors.

Andreas Brück was born in 1980 in Evander, South Africa, and was raised in a suburb of Munich, Germany (German citizenship). He studied chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) from 2000-2005, completing with a diploma degree. Afterwards, he joined the group of Klaus Ruhland at the chair of inorganic chemistry at TUM, working on the intramolecular C-C single bond activation of biphenyl fragments in group 10 bisphosphinite complexes (diploma thesis), studies towards the synthesis of heterobimetallic complexes (group 7/9 metals), and the dynamic solution behavior of Rh-diene complexes (PhD work). After obtaining his PhD in spring 2009, he worked for one year in the group of Prof. Scherer at the University of Augsburg, Germany, synthesizing β-agostic alkyl- (Ni), amido- (Ti) and σ-silane (Ti, Zr) complexes for further investigation of the bonding properties by charge-density studies. In 2010, Andy joined Prof. Hartwig´s group as a DFG fellow to work on late-transition metal catalyzed coupling reactions.

Wenyong Chen was born in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province in China. Wenyong obtained his BS and MSc degrees in Soochow University. Then, he came to the United States in 2005 to pursue his Ph.D. degree under the direction of Prof. Lanny Liebeskind at Emory University. There, he worked on molybdenum mediated novel reactions development and the application in natural product synthesis. After obtaining his Ph.D. degree in 2010, Wenyong moved to the Hartwig lab so he could continue his interest in organometallic chemistry. He is currently studying iridium catalyzed asymmetric allylic substitution. Wenyong likes playing go (Weiqi) and reading for fun.

Shaozhong Ge was born in 1980 in Mengcheng, Anhui Province, P.R. China. He attended the University of Science and Technology of China and received his BS in polymer chemistry in 2002. Then, he continued his study at the Åbo Akademi University in Finland and obtained his master’s degree in organometallic chemistry under the supervision of Dr. Ove S. Andell in 2005. In the same year, he moved to the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, where he worked with Prof. Bart Hessen in the field of organo rare-earth metal chemistry and was awarded a PhD in 2009. In January 2010, Shaozhong joined Prof. Hartwig’s group at UIUC to study C-C bond formation reactions catalyzed by transition metal catalysts. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking and listening to traditional Chinese operas.

Ramesh Giri was born in Chitwan, Nepal. He worked with Professor Sarbajna M. Tuladhar in natural products isolation and graduated with an MSc in 2000 from Tribhuvan University. After teaching for two years at the same university, he joined Professor Jonathan B. Spencer’s laboratory at Cambridge University, UK, where he studied oxidoreductase enzymes in the biosynthesis of butirosin antibiotics and earned an MPhil in 2003. In 2004, he moved with Professor Jin-Quan Yu, first to Brandeis University and then to the Scripps Research Institute, where he pursued research in the development of palladium-catalyzed C-H activation reactions and graduated with a PhD in 2009. In June 2009, he joined the Hartwig group for postdoctoral studies, where he is currently working on the mechanism of copper-catalyzed amination reactions.

Zheng Huang was born in Zhejiang Province, China. He went to Nankai University in Tianjian and received his BS and Master degrees in chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Xianhe Bu. In 2004, he moved to UNC-Chapel Hill, where he worked with Prof. Maurice Brookhart on catalytic tandem alkane metathesis. In 2009, he joined the Hartwig group as a postdoctoral fellow and is currently studying N-H bond activation by transition metal complexes. In his free time, Zheng enjoys jogging and reading history books.

Nichole Litvinas was born in Alexandria, Virginia. She graduated with a BS in chemistry from the College of William and Mary where she pursued research in the lab of Dr. Robert Hinkle. There, she worked on developing zinc reagents for cross-coupling reactions with aryl iodonium salts and dabbled in complex molecule synthesis. Before graduating from college, she spent a summer in Bangkok, Thailand, working with Dr. Poonsakdi Ploypradith at the Chulabhorn Research Institute on the total synthesis of lamellarin natural products. In 2004, she moved to Stanford, California to pursue her PhD in organic chemistry under the direction of Dr. Justin Du Bois. After spending many years developing a metal-free method for the selective hydroxylation of aliphatic substrates, she moved to the Hartwig lab so she could learn more about organometallic chemistry. She is currently investigating methods for catalytic trifluoromethylation of aryl halides. For fun, Nichole enjoys yoga, art, and music.

Ben Partridge was born in 1985 and grew up in Birmingham, UK. In 2007, he graduated from the University of Bristol, UK, with a MSci in Chemistry with Industrial Experience. During this time he spent 12 months working for GlaxoSmithKline as a process chemist and conducted his final year project in the group of Prof. Ian Manners FRS synthesising novel metalla[1]ferrocenophanes. Ben stayed in Bristol for his PhD, under the supervision of Prof. Varinder Aggarwal, and worked on the formation of enantiomerically enriched tertiary boronic esters and their application in total synthesis. After graduating in 2011, he moved to Berkeley to join the Hartwig group as a postdoctoral researcher to learn about transition metal catalysis. He is currently working on C-H activation. Outside of the lab, Ben enjoys cooking, cycling and learning Italian.

Phong Pham was born in 1979 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Mid October 2010, Phong obtained his PhD degree at Princeton, where he studied carbon-carbon bond formation via catalytic electrophilic radical processes under Professor Dave MacMillan. In the same month as graduation, Phong, his wife, and his parents enjoyed driving from Princeton, NJ, to Urbana, IL, where he joined the Hartwig group. Phong has started his new organometallic chemistry work on palladium and copper catalysts applied to C–C couplings. Phong likes spending his free time traveling, taking pictures, and enjoying his wife’s culinary skills.

Jason Rohde was born in Parma, Ohio in 1976, and grew up in Brunswick, Ohio. In 1999, he graduated with a BS in chemistry from The Ohio State University, where he conducted research on chiral dendrimers in the lab of Prof. Jon Parquette. That fall he began graduate studies with Prof. Erik Sorensen at The Scripps Research Institute, working on natural product total synthesis. After completing his PhD in 2005, Jason began postdoctoral studies with Prof. Larry Overman at the University of California, Irvine, working on the total syntheses of the nankakurines and actinophyllic acid A. In 2007, he moved to Boston, MA, where he worked as a medicinal chemist at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (formerly Microbia Inc.) for four years. Having developed a solid training in the pharmaceutical industry, Jason decided to change directions and to pursue some training in organometallic methodology. In 2011, he began postdoctoral studies with Prof. Hartwig at the University of California, Berkeley. In his free time, Jason enjoys spending time with his growing family and playing various sports, such as basketball, softball, and most anything really.

Alexey Sergeev was born in the romantic city of White Nights, Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg, Russia) in 1977. He obtained his Diploma degree at Saint-Petersburg State University in 1999. In the same year joined the group of Prof. Irina Beletskaya at Moscow State University, where he studied palladium-catalyzed C-N bond forming reactions. After completiing his PhD thesis at the end of 2004, he worked as a research chemist in IRIX Neva in Saint Petersburg. In 2006, Alexey started his postdoctoral studies with Prof. Matthias Beller at Leibniz Institut fuer Katalyse in Rostock (Germany), where he was engaged in various topics of organometallic chemistry: from reductive carbonylation and hydroxylation of aryl halides to the chemistry of dioxocomplexes of palladum and phosphine ligand synthesis. In 2009, he joined the group of Prof. Hartwig at the University of Illinois to study the activation of C-O bonds and the application of transition metal catalysis for biofeedstock conversion. In his spare time, Alexey enjoys art photography, walking, traveling, and reading.

Andrey Solovyev was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia) in 1985. He obtained his undergraduate degree at the St. Petersburg State University where he performed synthetic studies towards analogs of steroids and triterpenoids. In 2006, he was a summer visiting student at the Bowling Green State University in Ohio where he worked in the group of Prof. Douglas C. Neckers on the synthesis of benzothiophenes. In 2007, Andrey started his graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh where he joined the group of Prof. Dennis P. Curran. In December 2011, he defended the PhD dissertation titled "Chemistry of N-Heterocyclic Carbene-Boranes". Since January 2012, Andrey is a postdoc at the LBNL working on metalloenzyme catalysis under the supervision of Prof. John F. Hartwig (University of California, Berkeley). He likes his project because it is a new challenging field and it allows him to acquire expertise in both transition metal chemistry and protein engineering. Outside the lab, he enjoys hiking and listening to classical music.

Jonathan Webb was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in 1983. In 2005 he graduated with a BS in chemistry from Mount Allison University, where he also received the nickname Sludgy. As an undergraduate his research interests were in the catalytic applications of boron. In the fall of 2005 he joined the Prof. Cathleen Crudden research group at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada to pursue graduate studies in heterogeneous catalysis and inorganic applications of boron as applied to energy storage challenges. His undergraduate and graduate research experience also included internships at the Los Alamos National Lab and the University of Utah where he worked on various projects with applications in catalysis. Jon completed his doctoral studies in the fall of 2011 and joined the Hartwig research group at UC Berkeley to pursue his passion for catalysis and mechanistic analysis. His current research interests are in the development of mild heterogeneous nickel catalyzed reduction reactions. In his spare time Jon enjoys being active in climbing, swimming and cycling as well as taste testing kraft brews.

Tyler Wilson was born in Sacramento, CA, but spent a majority of his youth growing-up in Idaho and Oregon. After a brief time studying soft-glass blowing at the Pacific Northwest College of Arts in Portland, Oregon, he enrolled in the chemistry program at Boise State University in 1999. He obtained a Bachelors of Science in 2004, conducting research on the synthesis of tertiary alcohols by alkyl group transfer from hypervalent silicates with Prof. Don Warner. Continuing an interest in main group chemistry, he next joined the laboratories of Prof. Scott E. Denmark at the University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign, where he obtained a Ph.D. in 2011. His doctoral research focused on the synthesis and applications of silyl ketene imines in Lewis base catalyzed, asymmetric carbonyl addition reactions. Having spent a significant amount of time investigating main group chemistry, he joined the Hartwig Group as a post-doctoral scholar in 2011, to study transition-metal catalyzed processes. His current research focuses on catalyst development for oxidative C-C bond cleavage of alkanes. In his spare-time, Tyler enjoys spending time with his wife, especially in the outdoors, where they cycle, hike and climb.