Omar Villaneuva

NDCR Member
Graduate Student, The MacBeth Group, Emory University, 2010-2015

  Inorganic Chemistry, Catalyst Development

Omar Villanueva attended the University of Georgia in Athens for his undergraduate studies in Chemistry. He then attended Emory University for graduate school and obtained his Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Cora E. MacBeth at Emory. Omar was part of the CCHF while at Emory and his graduate work focused on the development of coordinatively-versatile redox-active ligands to promote unique reactivity at cobalt(II) metal centers. During his graduate work, he was able to push two major interdisciplinary projects forward that involved 1) the mechanistic and spectroscopic investigation of molecular oxygen by a cobalt(II) complex and 2) the C-H amination of aryl azides by the same cobalt(II) complex. As part of the CCHF center during his graduate work, his research was conducted with various organic, inorganic and computational groups.

Omar is currently an assistant professor of chemistry at Georgia Gwinnett College, an undergraduate-only college outside of Atlanta where he teaches various chemistry courses and conducts both chemical and educational research. Most recently, Omar started to work with undergraduate chemistry students in research that focus in the area of ligand design in efforts to make sustainable first-row transition metal catalysts capable of promoting multi-electron reactions. Omar is very excited to be a part of the NDCR and is looking forward to hearing how other folks research at primarily undergraduate institutions.