Janis Louie

Janis Louie (born November 3, 1971, in San Francisco, California, U.S.)[citation needed] is a Chemistry professor and Henry Eyring Fellow at The University of Utah.

[1] Accessibility to structurally diverse organic compounds such as carbocycles and heterocycles are of great importance to the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries.

[1] Dr. Louie and her team focus on nickel-based systems not only because it is much less expensive than the more widely used palladium and platinum, but also because it offers a wider range of chemical activity,[4] such as nickel, being a more electropositive transition metal which allows it to undergo oxidative addition readily; oxidize Nickel and lessens the electron density around the atom itself.6 This allows for the cross-coupling of electrophiles to occur which is pivotal in the formation of carbocycles and heterocycles.

[6] The NHC ligands are largely sterically hindered and electron donating, which allows for improved and less harsh reactions conditions by expanding the chemical scope of the substrate.

Louie's nickel imidazolyidene complexes help progress the cyclization of terminal and internal functional group like aryl and alkyl isocyanates in a rather mild manner as opposed to synthetic synthesis.