Zachary Sercel was awarded a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship to pursue “The Development of a Nickel-Catalyzed ‘Cut and Sew’ Ring Expansion of Highly Substituted Cyclopropanes” with Professor Ilan Marek at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The envisioned chemical reaction would, in a single step, transform readily accessible cyclopropanes into valuable, highly substituted cyclopentenes with potential applications in organic synthesis. Zachary’s research interests lie in the synthesis of complex molecules and the development of synthetic methods.

Zachary completed his PhD in chemistry at Caltech, where he primarily studied the total synthesis of a bioactive marine alkaloid. He received a BS in chemistry from California State University, Los Angeles.