Liu Group at the CIC Annual Meeting

The Liu Group recently traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, to participate in the 2025 Catalysis Innovation Consortium (CIC) Annual Meeting, hosted at Emory University from October 2nd to 4th, 2025. This year's meeting marked a significant milestone for the consortium, achieving its highest-ever registered attendance with 153 participants and a record-breaking 70 posters presented by students and postdocs from member groups.

Bridging Academia and Industry

The CIC’s mission is to foster a collaborative model that unites academic innovators with industrial partners to accelerate the translation of organic synthesis research into practical pharmaceutical applications. This year’s event featured representatives from major pharmaceutical partners including AbbVie, Eli Lilly, and Novartis, alongside academic groups from across the nation.

Prof. Peng Liu joined faculty colleagues and industry leaders for breakout discussions on industrial challenges and focused collaborations. The program included a diverse lineup of industrial presentations, student flash talks, and networking sessions designed to maximize student engagement and professional development.

Liu Group Poster Presentations

The Liu Group was well-represented in the poster session, with graduate students Turki Alturaifi, Mithun Madhusudhanan, and Grace Scofield showcasing their latest computational research. Their work highlighted the group’s focus on using computational tools to predict reactivity and selectivity in complex organic and organometallic reactions.

• Turki Alturaifi and Grace Scofield andpresented their work on the development of the HeteroAryl Descriptors (HArD) Database. This new open-access resource provides comprehensive steric and electronic parameters for over 31,500 heteroaryl substituents, serving as a vital tool for establishing structure-activity relationships in drug discovery and catalysis.

• Mithun Madhusudhanan and Turki Alturaifi presented their recent computational studies on solvent and catalyst effects in dirhodium tetracarboxylate-catalyzed cyclopropanations and C-H insertions. Their research combines quantum mechanical calculations and molecular dynamics to elucidate how solvent molecules interact with the conformationally flexible chiral dirhodium catalysts to influence the modes of enantioinduction.

The meeting was a fantastic opportunity for the group to receive feedback from industrial experts and reconnect with colleagues in the catalysis community. We look forward to the continued growth of the CIC and next year’s meeting!