Chris Kane

In January 2016, Chris joined the Cooper group as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. His research interests include organic and inorganic synthetic chemistry, materials science, and x-ray crystallography and is working towards the synthesis of novel organic tectons towards the formation of porous materials.

Chris received his BS chemistry degree from James Madison University under the direction of Dr. Scott Lewis where his first introduction to chemistry research was with the synthesis of cyclobutene derivatives towards m-difluorinated benzenes as potential pathways for the synthesis and development of novel pharmaceutical compounds. He continued his work in the field of synthetic organic chemistry by pursuing a MS degree under the supervision of Dr. Markus Etzkorn at UNC-Charlotte.  Research endeavors there involved synthesizing molecular tweezer derivatives for application in supramolecular chemistry as well as furnished fluorinated naphthalenes to expand the scope of Bergman cyclization reactivity. In 2009, he moved to Washington DC and attended Georgetown University for his PhD where he did extensive work on the synthesis of crystalline organic cavitands and their application in gas storage and separations applications with Dr. K. Travis Holman, using powder and single crystal x-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, gas sorption, and other standard spectroscopic techniques for materials characterization and further study.

In his free time, Chris enjoys playing hockey, cooking, the cinema, and gallivanting across Europe.