Vy Maria Dong facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Vy Dong
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Vy Maria Dong
1976 (age 48–49) |
| Alma mater | University of California, Irvine B.S. (1998) California Institute of Technology Ph.D. (2003) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Organic chemistry |
| Institutions | University of California, Irvine (2012-present) University of Toronto (2006-2012) University of California, Berkeley (2004-2006) |
| Thesis | Novel Variants of the Zwitterionic Claisen Rearrangement and the Total Synthesis of Erythronolide B (2003) |
| Doctoral advisor | David MacMillan |
| Other academic advisors | Larry E. Overman, Robert G. Bergman, Ken Raymond |
Vy Maria Dong (born in 1976 in Big Spring, Texas) is a brilliant Vietnamese-American scientist. She is a Chancellor's Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Professor Dong is known for her work in organic chemistry, especially in creating new ways to build complex molecules. She has received many important awards for her research, including the Royal Society of Chemistry's Merck, Sharp & Dohme Award in 2020 and the American Chemical Society's Elias James Corey Award in 2019.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Vy Dong was born in Big Spring, Texas, in 1976. She spent her early childhood there before her family moved to Anaheim, California. She was the first person in her family to go to college.
Discovering a Passion for Chemistry
Vy Dong studied chemistry at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). She was a special student who received a Regents' Scholarship. This scholarship is given to students with excellent grades. She decided to focus on chemistry during her second year of college. This happened after she took a class with Professor Larry E. Overman. She later worked with him on research projects. She graduated from UCI in 1998 with very high honors.
Graduate Studies and Research
After UCI, Vy Dong went to the University of California, Berkeley for her advanced studies. She joined Professor David MacMillan's lab as one of his first students. She then moved with Professor MacMillan to the California Institute of Technology. There, she earned her PhD in 2004. Her research focused on new ways to create complex molecules, including a natural product called erythronolide B.
Postdoctoral Research
After earning her PhD, Dr. Dong returned to UC Berkeley. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Professors Robert G. Bergman and Ken Raymond. Her research involved creating special molecules that could hold other reactive molecules in water. This work is part of a field called supramolecular chemistry, which is about how molecules can interact with each other.
Amazing Chemistry Research
Vy Dong started her own research group in 2006 at the University of Toronto. Her team worked on creating special ring-shaped molecules called heterocycles. These molecules are very important in making medicines.
Creating Useful Molecules
At Toronto, she showed how to make molecules called lactones from other simple molecules. She used special rhodium catalysts to do this. Catalysts are like tools that help chemical reactions happen faster and more efficiently. Her method created the desired molecules without making any waste products. In 2011, she was named the Adrain Brook Distinguished Professor at the University of Toronto.
Moving to UCI and New Discoveries
In 2013, Professor Dong moved her research group to the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Her team continued to make exciting discoveries. They found new ways to use rhodium catalysts to create important chemical structures. For example, they learned how to make cyclic peptides, which are ring-shaped protein parts, using simple starting materials. These methods are very useful for making new medicines.
Professor Dong's group also developed a new way to combine aldehydes and alkynes using two different catalysts. She continues to explore new chemicals and methods to build complex organic molecules.
Awards and Recognitions
Professor Dong has received many awards for her important work in organic chemistry.
- In 2008, she received an Ontario Research Fund grant.
- In 2009, she gave the first Eli Lilly Young lecture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She talked about how to change C-H bonds in molecules.
- She also received an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship in 2009.
- In 2010, she was named an Amgen Young Investigator and won the AstraZeneca Award in Chemistry.
- She also received the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society in 2010.
- In 2011, she won the Roche Excellence in Chemistry award.
- She received the Novartis Chemistry Lecturer award in 2012.
- In 2013, she was awarded a Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry in Japan (SSOJC) Lectureship and a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship.
- In 2016, she received the Iota Sigma Pi Agnes Fay Morgan Research Award for her excellent research on catalytic hydroacylation.
- She received the UCI's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2018.
- In 2019, she won the American Chemical Society's Elias James Corey Award.
- In 2020, she received the Royal Society of Chemistry's Merck, Sharp & Dohme Award.
Since 2015, Professor Dong has also served as an associate editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Chemical Science.
Personal Life
Vy Dong met her husband, Wilmer Alkhas, at the University of California, Irvine. They have a son named Liam.
See also
In Spanish: Vy Maria Dong para niños
