Thomas Maimone

Thomas Maimone

Professor of Chemistry

email: maimone@berkeley.edu
office: 826 Latimer Hall
office phone: 510-642-4488
lab: 915, 916, 917 Latimer Hall
lab phones: 643-1610 (915 Latimer), 642-1609 (917 Latimer)

Research Group
Recent Publications

Research Interests

Organic and Organometallic Chemistry — Natural product total synthesis, Synthetic organic methodology development, Catalyst design.

Synthesis is the unifying theme of our group—total synthesis, new methods for organic synthesis, and the synthesis of new catalyst architectures. In the former area, we are actively pursuing innovative solutions to the total chemical synthesis of a number of complex, biologically active natural products. The identification and realization of powerfully simplifying transformations, which allow for rapid access to the target structure, is a major driving force of our research program. In addition, the interplay between structure and function, and the ability to “re-engineer” natural product structures in an attempt to increase their applicability to problems in biology and medicine is also of particular interest and target selection typically reflects this objective. In a second area, we are interested in exploring unorthodox approaches to catalyst design for transition metal-mediated processes. Traditional metal/ligand catalyst systems often feature rigid ligands with well-defined steric and electronic parameters.  We are interested in the synthesis and study of fluxional ligand structures with the potential to access many different steric and electronic states during catalysis. We will use the tools of organic and organometallic chemistry to synthesize and characterize the behavior of these systems.

Biography

Education

  • B.S. University of California, Berkeley (2004)
  • Ph.D. The Scripps Research Institute, CA (2009)
  • NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2009-2012)

Awards

  • Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award For Organic Synthesis (2024)
  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) (2019)
  • Arthur C. Cope Scholar (2019)
  • Eli Lilly Grantee Award (2017)
  • National Fresenius Award (2017)
  • Amgen Young Investigator (2017)
  • UC Berkeley Rose Hills Innovator (2017)
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grant in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (2017)
  • Novartis Early Career Award in Organic Chemistry (2016)
  • Cottrell Scholar (2016)
  • NSF CAREER Award (2016)
  • American Cancer Society Research Scholar (2016)
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (2015)
  • UC Berkeley Hellman Fellow (2015)
  • Thieme Chemistry Journal New Faculty Award (2013)
  • ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator (2013)
  • Cupola Era Chair in Chemistry (2012-2014)
  • Elsevier Reaxys PhD Prize Winner (2010)
  • NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellowship (2009-2012)
  • Roche Excellence in Chemistry Award (2008)
  • ACS Division of Organic Chemistry Fellowship (Pfizer Sponsored) (2008)
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb Graduate Fellowship (2007)
  • Erich O. and Elly M. Saegebarth Prize in Chemistry (2004)

Biographical Sketch

Tom Maimone was born and raised in the small upstate town of Warsaw, NY. He began undergraduate studies at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, and after two years, transferred to the University of California, Berkeley where he obtained his B.S. degree with high honors in chemistry in 2004. While at Berkeley, Tom conducted undergraduate research in the laboratory of Prof. Dirk Trauner. In the fall of 2005, he began doctoral studies at The Scripps Research Institute under the guidance of Prof. Phil Baran. While at Scripps, Tom completed total syntheses of the alkaloids hapalindole U and ambiguine H, and was part of the team that completed the first laboratory synthesis of the complex diterpene vinigrol. In the fall of 2009, Tom moved to MIT to pursue post-doctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof. Steve Buchwald where he worked in the area of palladium-catalyzed carbon-oxygen and carbon-fluorine bond formation. In July of 2012, Tom returned to UC-Berkeley as an assistant professor in the department of chemistry wherein his research group investigates the chemistry and biology of natural products. In 2018 he was promoted to Associate Professor, and in 2022 he became a full Professor.