Melanie Sarah Sanford (born June 16, 1975) is an American chemist, currently the Moses Gomberg Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan.
[5] Sanford began her academic career as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan in 2003.
Sanford is best known for her studies of high-valent organopalladium species, particularly those implicated in Pd-catalyzed C–H functionalization reactions.
[6][7] Her group has also developed new methods to access fluorinated and radiofluorinated materials for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals[8] and radiology.
[9] In a collaboration with Matthew Sigman at the University of Utah her group has designed new compounds for use in redox flow batteries.