Eric Theiste
Bethany Lutheran College | www.blc.edu
Assistant Professor - Chemistry
Phone: 507-447-5870
Office: Meyer Hall 314
Message: Send web message
Courses Recently Taught
Advanced Organic Chemistry
General Biochemistry and Lab
Organic Chemistry I and Lab
Organic Chemistry II and Lab
The Chemistry of Art and Lab
Topics in Chemistry and Lab
Education
University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
M.S., Organic Chemistry, 2009
Advisor: Dr. Alison J. Frontier
Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan
B.A., Chemistry, 2007
Advisor: Dr. Dan Adsmond
A.A.S., Industrial Chemistry Technology, 2007
Advisor: Bill Killian
Academic Interests and Research
As molecules are among the smallest units of matter, studies in chemistry arm us with the tools to probe the world around us in one of the most fundamental manners, and these studies highlight the incredibly orderly and logical way all of creation was fashioned. This highly ordered universe allows us to use chemical reactions both in our everyday lives (when cooking an egg, extracting oxygen from the air we breathe, etc.) and in the laboratory.
My research interests involve developing a reaction's utility with the eventual intent to use it in a synthesis. This often starts by either developing novel chemical transformations, which afford chemists a tool they did not previously have, or by elucidating a reaction mechanism, which can showcase potential extremes in which the reaction can be used or to develop multicomponent, or tandem, reactions.
While in the Frontier lab I had the opportunity to investigate the course and scope of cationic rearrangements initiated by the Nazarov cyclization and a copper mediated autoxidation process. We also made progress towards a divergent Nazarov cyclization strategy for the total synthesis of both Cyanthiwigin U and AC.
