About Connor

Connor was born in New Jersey, where he lived until moving to undertake undergraduate studies at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. While at Northeastern, he studied the mechanisms of phosphine exchange in cyclopentadienyl ruthenium complexes under the direction of Prof. Rein U. Kirss. After graduating with a BS in Chemistry in 2014, Connor moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he completed a PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Scott E. Denmark. At Illinois, his studies on transmetalation from boronic esters to palladium in the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction led to several mechanistic publications and the development of two new synthetic methods. After graduating from Illinois in 2020, he joined the laboratory of Prof. John F. Hartwig at the University of California, Berkeley as a postdoctoral scholar. At Berkeley, Connor studied the mechanism of copper-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions that form carbon-heteroatom bonds, discovering a previously unconsidered mechanism that is operative when dianionic ligands are used to form the active catalyst. In August 2023, he will join the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas as an assistant professor. In his time outside the laboratory, he enjoys hiking, trying new restaurants, and traveling.

connor.delaney {at} utdallas.edu

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