3/10/2023: Congratulations Ashley Dang-Nguyen on being selected to participate in the 2023 Corteva Agriscience Chemistry Scholars Symposium to be held at Corteva’s Global Headquarters in Indianapolis, IN May 17-19, 2023.

2/7/2023: Congratulations to Dr. Sean Toenjes, Bahar Heydari, Sam Albright, Ramsey Hazin, Maria Ortiz, Javier Piedrafita, and Prof. Gustafson on your recent publication regarding Ibrutinib selectivity in J. Med. Chem! (see publications list)

1/20/2023: Congratulations to Connor McCarty for graduating and starting a job at Calibr! Super Awesome!

5/26/2022: Congratulations to Ashley Dang-Nguyen for passing her candidacy exam! Finish strong!

5/24/2022: Congrats to Roni Johnson for deciding to pursue a Ph.D at University of Texas, Southwestern Biomedical Sciences. Good luck!

5/24/2022: Congrats to Joe Hatton for deciding to pursue a Ph.D at University of Oregon, Portland. Good luck!

5/16/2022: Congratulations to Mariam Basilaia for getting the University Graduate Fellowship! Super Awesome!

5/6/2022: Congrats to Professor Gustafson on his promotion to full professor! Way to go boss!

4/29/2022: Congrats to Dr. Sagar Vaidya, Beeta Heydari, Sean Toenjes, Prof. Jeff Gustafson on your publication in Journal of Organic Chemistry on Atropisomerically stable diarylamines. (see publications list)

4/21/2022: Congratulations to Mariam Basilaia for passing her 2nd year exam! Super awesome!

4/17/2022: Congrats to Ashley Dang-Nguyen, Ryan Zanolini, and Prof. Gustafson on your book chapter acceptance in Wiley for the CH Functionalization Handbook. (see publications list)

9/6/2021: Congrats to Mariel Cardenas, Della Saputra, Deane Gordon, Andrea Sanchez, Nobuyuki Yamamoto, and Prof. Gustafson on your publication in Chemical Communications! Super Awesome! (see publications list)

9/1/2021: Congratulations to Ashley Dang-Nguyen for receiving the ARCS Scholarship award.

8/20/2021: Congratulations to Ryan Zanolini for getting the Master’s Award Scholarship. Super awesome!

8/15/2021: Congratulations to Beeta Heydari for getting the Rees Stealy Scholarship. Super awesome!

7/3/2021: Congratulations to Beeta and Bahar Heydari for getting into the Joint Doctoral/Ph.D. program with UCSD and SDSU! Super awesome!

5/24/2021: Congrats to Ernesto Millan for deciding to pursue a Ph.D at CalTech. Good luck!

5/24/2021: Congrats to Samuel Albright for deciding to pursue a Ph.D at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Good luck!

5/24/2021: Congrats to Deane Gordon for accepting a position at J&J! Good luck!

5/24/2021: Congrats to Ramsey Hazin for accepting a position at Mirati Therapeutics. Super Awesome!

4/10/2021: Congrats to Della Saputra, Mariel Cardenas, and Prof. Gustafson on your book chapter in Wiley on Axially Chiral Compounds. (see publications list)

1/15/2021: Congrats to Dr. Sean Toenjes, Mariam Basilaia, Prof. Jeff Gustafson on your publication in Future Med Chem for your review on atropisomerism in med chem. (see publications list)

1/5/2021: Congrats to Mariel Cardenas, Ashley Dang-Nguyen, Zach Brown, Beeta Heydari, Bahar Herydari, and Prof. Gustafson on your review published in Arkivoc! Super Awesome!

1/1/2021: Congratulations to Mariam Basilaia for getting the Rees Stealy Scholarship. Super awesome!

12/7/2020: We are excited to share that our alumn Andrew Dinh, Ph.D. will be in pursuit of an Industry position, Medicinal Chemist at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, San Diego! Best of luck on your future work!

10/15/2020: We are excited to share that our alum Sean Toenejes, Ph.D. will be in pursuit of an Academic Postdoctoral position in Prof. Nathanael Gray’s research group! Best of luck on your future work!

10/12/2020: Congrats to Andrew Dinh, Sean Maddox, Sagar Vaidya, Della Saputra, Chris Nalbandian, Prof. Jeff Gustafson on your submission to Journal of Organic Chemistry (Link) on a regioselective chlorination of phenols and anilines via Lewis Basic Selenoether catalysts.

9/26/2020: Congratulations to Hyejeong Choi, Kiyeol Baek, Sean Toenjes, Prof. Jeff Gustafson and Prof. Diane Smith on your collaborative submission to Journal of American Chemical Society (Link) on achieving highly redox-responsive H-bonding by using electron transfer to initiate proton transfer across a H-bond in a linear H-bond array.

7/9/2020: Congratulations to Ashley Dang-Nguyen for getting the University Graduate Fellowship! Super Awesome!

7/3/2020: Congratulations to Mariam Basilaia for getting into the Joint Doctoral/Ph.D. program with UCSD and SDSU! Super awesome!

6/17/2020: Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Dinh on passing your Ph.D. thesis defense! We are quite proud of you!

5/18/2020: Congratulations to Dr. Sean Toenjes on passing your Ph.D. thesis defense! We are quite proud of you!

4/24/2020: Congrats to Valeria Garcia for deciding to pursue a Ph.D at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Good luck!

4/9/2020: Congratulations to Andrew Dinh for your submission/review in Chem (Link) about novel asymmetric catalysis.

4/7/2021: Congratulations to Ashley Dang-Nguyen for passing her 2nd year exam! Super awesome!

3/1-3/4/2020: The Gustafson group members attended and presented at FloHet 2020 at Gainesville, Florida.

1/16/2020: Congrats to Sagar Vaidya, Sean Toenjes, Nobuyuki Yamamoto, Sean Maddox and Prof. Jeff Gustafson on your submission to Journal of American Chemical Society (Link) on the atroposelective, phosphoric acid-catalyzed halogenation of N-aryl quinoids. This is our group’s first submission to JACS!

12/1/2019: Feeling the holidays? The Gustafson group likes to go all out for any fun holiday. But you probably already knew this right?

11/14/2019: Our lab ninja gave a presentation for the 2019 MINDSET program between SDSU and San Diego Miramar College. Mariel is an alumna of their school!

11/13/2019: Bubble tea?

11/9/2019: Annual Gustafson group tailgate!

10/31/2019: When the Gustafson group celebrates Halloween (and yes, our students legit did chemistry in their costumes).

10/26/2019: The Gustafson lab, SDSU CGSA, and the SDSU SMACS participated in an outreach event!

9/27/2019: Excited to have been on the cover for ACS Chemical Biology! Check under publications for the article!

8/25-8/29/2019: Fall 2019 ACS National Meeting was a blast!

8/19/2019: Congrats to Sean Toenjes, Valeria Garcia, Sean Maddox, and Greg Dawson on your submission to ACS Chemical Biology (Link) about your med chem effort towards a selective inhibitor of RET kinase.

7/29/2019: The official Fall 2019 ACS National Meeting program is out! A lot of the Gustafson group will be presenting. For those interested in attending and interested in visiting those giving posters or talks during this conference, see our blogpost

7/19/2019: The Gustafson group was the 22nd Annual MedChem Symposium at UC San Diego. Professor Gustafson presented at this symposium (the first time an SDSU faculty member has presented at the UC Med Chem symposium!).

7/3/2019: Congratulations to Ashley Nguyen for getting into the Joint Doctoral/Ph.D. program with UCSD and SDSU! Super awesome!

6/27/2019: Congrats to Andrew Dinh, Ashley Nguyen, Ernesto Millan, Sam Albright, and (to our collaborators in Dr. Diane Smith’s group) Mario Cedano on your submission to Synlett (doi: 10.1055/s-0039-1690107) about a photocatalyzed syntheses for benzothiazoles and sulfenylated indoles. This is Ashley Nguyen’s first publication with our group! Congratulations guys!

6/22-6/27/2019: The Gustafson group visited the University of Indiana in Bloomington, Indiana for the 2019 National Organic Symposium. 

6/16-6/21/2019: Dr. Jeff Gustafson gave a presentation at the GRC Heterocycles 2019 conference. Thanks for allowing us to present our work there!

6/7/2019: Congrats to Ernesto Millan for receiving the San Diego State University Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) Program.

6/1/2019: Congrats to Zach Brown for completing the year of residence at UCSD as part of the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program.

5/28/2019: Congrats to Andrew Dinh for passing his third year exam! Well done!

5/19/2019: Congratulations to our newest Gustafson group alumni: Laleña Janke, Andrea Sanchez, and Hanne Henriksen. We are super excited to watch you girls go on your own journeys.

5/16/2019: The Gustafson group went to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA to celebrate Professor Gustafson receiving tenure at San Diego State.

5/15/2019: Congrats to Mariel Cardenas for receiving the University Graduate Fellowship.

5/9/2019: Congrats to Sean Toenjes for passing his third year exam! Well done!

5/3/2019: Congrats to Sean Toenjes, Valeria Garcia, Sean Maddox, and Greg Dawson on your submission to ChemRxiv (Link) about your med chem effort towards a selective inhibitor of RET kinase. This is our lab’s first submission to ChemRxiv so check it out!

4/15/2019: Congrats to Laleña Janke for deciding to pursue a Ph.D. at CUNY. Good luck!

4/14/2019: The Gustafson group members went to Universal Studios Hollywood to celebrate the lab ninja’s birthday.

4/12/2019: Congrats to Hanne Henriksen for deciding to pursue a Ph.D. at UNC Chapel Hill. Good luck!

3/31/2019-4/4/2019: The Gustafson group visited Orlando, FA for the Spring 2019 National Meeting and Exposition.

3/29/2019: Congrats to Andrea Sanchez for deciding to pursue a Ph.D. at NYU. Good luck!

3/7/2019: Congrats to Mariel Cardenas for passing your Second Year Exam! Well done!

3/2/2019: The Gustafson group presented at the annual SDSU Student Research Symposium.

1/4/2019: The Gustafson group members Andrew Dinh, Sean Toenjes, Valeria Garcia and Laleña Janke presented at CSUPERB 2019 at Anaheim, CA.

11/2/2018: The Gustafson group celebrated our new lab members with a fun lab outing! (Check out our Instagram @gustafsongroup for more pictures of these wonderful students!)

10/31/2018: Happy Halloween from the Gustafson group! (left to right: Mariel Cardenas, Sean Toenjes. Credit to Della Saputra)

10/25/2018: Andrew Dinh, Sean Toenjes and Prof. Jeff Gustafson were invited to present a poster at the San Diego Innovation Symposium. (left to right: Sean Toenjes, Prof. Jeff Gustafson. Credit to Andrew Dinh)

9/25/2018: The Gustafson group is very thankful for the continual funding from CSUPERB. We were featured in the 2017-2018 annual report. Read all about our lab’s research here. (Check out our Instagram @gustafsongroup for more pictures of these wonderful students!)

8/30/2018: Congratulations to Mariel Cardenas for receiving the ARCS Scholarship award.

8/20/2018: C&E News published an article on atropisomerism in drug discovery featuring work done by the Gustafson lab, as well as other excellent examples in industry. Read about this article here.

8/7/2018: Congrats to Andrew Dinh, Ryan Noorbehesht, Sean Toenjes, Amy Jackson, Della Saputra, and Sean Maddox on having their paper on the atroposelective synthesis of diaryl ethers via a cationic catalyzed C(sp2)-H alkylation with nitroalkanes being accepted to Synlett! Nicely done!

7/20/2018: The Gustafson group was the 21st Annual MedChem Symposium at UC San Diego. (Check out our Instagram @gustafsongroup for more pictures of these wonderful students!)

6/14/2018: Congrats to Mariel Cardenas for completing the year of residence at UCSD as part of the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program.

5/31/2018: Congrats to Dr. Sean Maddox on passing your Ph.D. thesis defense! We are quite proud of you! Best of luck on all of your future endeavors. The Gustafson lab will miss you dearly, but we know that you are off to newer and exciting things!

5/30/2018: Congrats to Laleña Janke for receiving the San Diego State University Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Program.

5/30/2018: Congrats to Dr. Chris Nalbandian on passing your Ph.D. thesis defense! We are quite proud of you! Best of luck on all of your future endeavors. The Gustafson lab will miss you dearly, but we know that you are off to newer and exciting things!

5/15/2018: Congrats to Chris Nalbandian, Zach Brown, and Erik Alvarez on having their paper on the C-H sulfenylation of aromatics via Lewis base/Bronsted Acid dual-catalysis being accepted to Organic Letters! More details will be up on the website! Nicely done!

5/12/2018: Congratulations to our new SDSU Alumni: (from left to right) Greg Dawson, Erik Alvarez, Amy Jackson, Sean Maddox, Ryan Noorbehesht, Eyerusalem Ayenkulu, and Tiffany Duong! Good luck with all of your future endeavors! Hats of to you all! (Check out our Instagram @gustafsongroup for more pictures of these wonderful students!)

5/8/2018: Congrats to Sean Maddox, Greg Dawson, Nick Rochester, and Arianna Ayonon on having their paper on the enantioselective synthesis of biaryl atropisomers via thiophenol addition into aryl-naphthoquinones being accepted to ACS Catalysis! More details will be up on the website! Nicely done!

4/11/2018: Our lab has a new Twitter page! Keep up with our Group News archive here, and get the instant there!

4/11/2018: Congratulations to all of our undergraduates for deciding to pursue Ph.D. programs in Chemistry! This year, we have five undergraduates: Greg Dawson (NYU), Amy Jackson (Baylor, summer research with Prof. John Wood), Erik Alvarez (LSU), Eyerusalem Aynekulu (U. Missouri), and Ben Mitchell (U. Washington, summer 2015 internship with our lab from Pitzer College). Good luck to you all!

4/3/2018: Are you interested in pursuing undergraduate research in medicinal chemistry, and going to graduate school? The Gustafson group is currently looking for talented undergraduates (sophomores and juniors)! Please e-mail Prof. Gustafson (find his e-mail on the ‘Contact’ page)!

3/21/2018: Congrats to Mariel Cardenas, Sean Toenjes, and Chris Nalbandian on having their paper on the enantioselective synthesis of pyrrolopyrimidines via a cationic catalyzed nucleophilic aromatic substitution being accepted! This is Mariel Cardenas’s first paper, as well as her first, first-author publication. Nicely done!

3/18-3/22/2018: The Gustafson group visited New Orleans, LA for the 255th ACS National Meeting and Exposition.

3/13/2018: Congrats to Andrea Sanchez for receiving the San Diego State University Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Program.

3/7/2018: Congrats to Andrew Dinh for passing your Second Year Exam! Well done!

3/2-3/3/2018: Some of the members of the Gustafson group presented at the Eleventh Annual Student Research Symposium at San Diego State University! Congrats to Greg Dawson for winning the Undergraduate Research Excellence Award, Tiffany Duong for winning the Library Award. Greg Dawson presented on “The Cinchona-Alkaloid catalyzed nucleophilic dynamic kinetic resolution of aryl-naphthoquinones.” Tiffany Duong presented on “A Nucleophilic Atroposelective Kinetic Resolution of Selective Pyrrolopyrimidine Kinase Inhibitors.” Awesome job!

2/23/2018: Prof. Gustafson and Mariel Cardenas were guest speakers at San Diego Miramar College for the “SDSU Undergraduate Research Information Session” sponsored by ACS.

2/8/2018: Congrats to Sean Toenjes for passing your Second Year Exam! Well done!

1/31/2018: Congrats to Erik Alvarez for deciding to pursue a Ph.D. at Lousiana State University. Good luck!

1/30/2018: Congrats to Sean Toenjes on having his paper on atropisomerism in medicinal chemistry being accepted to Future Med Chem! Details will be up on the publications page soon! Nicely done!

1/28/2018: Congrats to Amy Jackson for deciding to pursue a Ph.D. at Baylor University. Good luck!

1/28/2018: The Gustafson group went on a hike at Cowles Mountain.

1/11/2018: The Gustafson group visited Santa Clara for the 30th Annual CSU Biotechnology Symposium.

1/9/2018: The Gustafson group’s annual White Elephant Holiday party at Kearny Mesa Bowling Alley. All of our lovely ladies were wearing matching black leggings and bowling shoes (all by pure coincidence!) feat. Clara Gustafson.

11/15/2017: Congrats to Eyerusalem Aynekulu for receiving the San Diego State University Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Program.

11/1-11/4/2017:  Congrats to Valeria Garcia for winning a poster prize at the 2017 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). Valeria’s poster was on the structural optimization of atropisomeric pyrrolopyrimidine  RET kinase inhibitors, research collaborated with Sean Toenjes.

9/11/2017: Congrats to Amy Jackson for receiving the San Diego State University Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Program.

8/28/2017: Congrats to Valeria Garcia for receiving the San Diego State University Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Program.

8/23/2017: Congrats to Sean Toenjes and Andrew Dinh for receiving the University Graduate Fellowship.

7/24/2017: We are grateful to have received an R35 grant from the NIH to fund our programs on atropisomerism.

7/14/2017: We are grateful to have received a grant from the NSF to fund our program on Lewis Base-catalyzed electrophilic aromatic substitution.

6/25/2017-6/29/2017: The Gustafson Group visited UC Davis for the 2017 45th National Organic Chemistry Symposium.

6/16/2017: Prof. Gustafson’s ‘tenure tour’ is starting to take shape with talks at Vanderbilt, Baylor, LSU and the Spring ACS meeting (as part of a symposium on atropisomerism in drug discovery!)

6/15/2017: Congrats to Sean Toenjes and Andrew Dinh for completing their year of residence at UCSD as part of the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program.

6/13/2017: Congrats to Arianna Ayonon, Chris Nalbandian, and Lucas Guillemard for having their paper on triphenylphosphineselenide catalyzed benzyllic functionalization being accepted! Details will be up on the publications page soon! This is the Gustafson Groups’ first paper with an undergraduate first author. Nicely done!

6/12/2017: Congrats to Greg Dawson for becoming an NIH IMSD undergraduate scholar!

5/18/2017: Congrats to Chris Nalbandian for passing your Third Year Exam! Well done!

5/12/2017: Congratulations to our new SDSU Alumni: Arianna Ayonon, Nick Rochester, Issac Marquez, Joseph Mattocks, and Adam Brooks! Good luck with all of your future endeavors!

5/4/2017: Congrats to Sean Maddox for passing your Third Year Exam! Well done!

5/1/2017: Congrats to Greg Dawson for winning a poster prize at the 2017 ACS Southern California Research Conference at UCLA. Greg’s poster was on the atroposelective addition of thiophenols into quinones, research he has carried out with Sean Maddox. Well done!

4/11/2017: Congrats to Joey Mattocks for deciding to pursue a Ph.D. at Penn State. Good luck!

4/4/2017: Congrats to Arianna Ayonon for deciding to pursue a Ph.D. at CalTech. Good luck!

4/3/2017: We finally have a group webpage!

3/3-3/4/2017: Some of the members of the Gustafson group presented at the Tenth Annual Student Research Symposium at San Diego State University!

February 2017: Prof. Gustafson gave lectures at USC and USD (in that order).

1/5/2017: The Gustafson group visited Santa Clara for the 29th Annual CSU Biotechnology Symposium.