Research
Prof. Blackmond’s research focuses on mechanistic studies of organic reactions, including asymmetric catalysis. She pioneered the methodology of “Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis (RPKA)” for fundamental mechanistic studies of complex organic reactions as well as for streamlining pharmaceutical process research. A second fundamental area of her research focuses on seeking to understand the origin of life. She was a Simons Investigator in the Simons Foundation Collaboration on the Origins of Life where she studied prebiotic chemistry and the origin of biological homochirality. She has been invited by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to speak at two Nobel Workshops, “On the Origin of Life” (2006) and “Chiral Matter” (2021). Her current interest is in bringing information about reaction kinetic profiles into mechanistic studies in organic chemistry including ML/AI approaches. She collaborates with the University of Liverpool/Imperial College AIChemy project.