Anthony Rojas

Bio

Anthony J. Rojas was born in Miami, Florida. He received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in 2014 where he worked with Seth R. Marder on developing C-H activation transformations and designing new functional materials like organic light emitting diodes and dye-sensitized solar cells. He entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in 2014 and earned his Ph.D. in 2018. His thesis work, with Stephen L. Buchwald and Bradley L. Pentelute, concerned the development of palladium-mediated bioconjugation reactions. During his time at MIT, he was awarded the Dow Chemical Fellowship and Wolf Fellowship from MIT’s School of Science. In 2018, he began his independent career as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Salisbury University. In 2021, he began his current role as Clinical Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Kennesaw State University.

Teaching Philosophy

My belief is that students are better served, develop greater understanding, retain knowledge, and truly begin to master concepts through active learning with deliberate assessment and reinforcement. It forces engagement with the material by students at early and more regular stages, provides for more equity in the classroom, and ensure students remain engaged in the classroom.

Selected Publications

Wathen, Bailee, Lanehart, Emily, Woodis, Lena A. and Rojas, Anthony J.  (2021)  Buchwald–Hartwig Amination, High-Throughput Experimentation, and Process Chemistry: An Introduction via Undergraduate Laboratory Experimentation.  vol. 98.  no. 3.  pp. 996-1000.  Journal of Chemical Education.

Rojas, Anthony J., Pentelute, Bradley L. and Buchwald, Stephen L.  (2017)  Water-Soluble Palladium Reagents for Cysteine S-Arylation under Ambient Aqueous Conditions.  vol. 19.  pp. 4263–4266.  Organic Letters.

Rojas, Anthony J., Zhang, Chi, Vinogradova, Ekaterina V., Buchwald, Nathan H., Reilly, John, Pentelute, Bradley L. and Buchwald, Stephen L.  (2017)  Divergent unprotected peptide macrocyclisation by palladium-mediated cysteine arylation.  vol. 8.  pp. 4257–4263.  Chemical Science.

Zhang, Junxiang, Chen, Wayne, Rojas, Anthony J., Jucov, E V., Timofeeva, Tatiana V., Parker, Tim C., Barlow, Stephen and Marder, Seth R.  (2013)  Controllable Direct Arylation: Fast Route to Symmetrical and Unsymmetrical 4,7-Diaryl-5,6-difluoro-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole Derivatives for Organic Optoelectronic Materials.  vol. 44.  no. 135.  pp. 16376–16379.  Journal of the American Chemical Society.