Radical Ideas: The Origins and Evolution of Visible-Light Photocatalysis
Capabilities
Presented: October 21, 2025
About our Virtual Chemistry Lecture on Photocatalysis
Chemistry stands at the forefront of a transformative era, where light-driven processes are redefining how molecules are built and understood. In this lecture, Prof. Corey Stephenson showcased groundbreaking developments in photocatalysis that merge deep mechanistic insight with real-world synthetic utility—particularly in pharmaceutical synthesis.
Central to this innovation is the strategic use of organic free radicals, which unlock new reactivity pathways and enable access to molecular architectures previously considered unattainable. Prof. Corey Stephenson discussed how these photocatalytic strategies have informed the design of a nanoliter-scale high-throughput discovery platform, allowing rapid evaluation of chemical reactivity and mechanistic hypotheses across vast chemical space.
This integration of advanced catalysis with automated experimentation compresses the discovery cycle and accelerates the translation of photochemical concepts into practical synthetic tools. The lecture highlighted how this synergy is reshaping the pace and scope of modern chemical synthesis, offering cleaner, more sustainable processes and expanding the boundaries of molecular design.
Prof. Corey Stephenson explored how photocatalysis, empowered by high-throughput experimentation, is revolutionizing synthetic chemistry and opening new frontiers in molecular innovation.
About our Speaker
Prof. Corey Stephenson
Prof. Stephenson was born in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Waterloo in 1998. He completed graduate studies under the direction of Professor Peter Wipf at the University of Pittsburgh before joining the lab of Professor Erick M. Carreira at ETH Zürich. In September 2007, he joined the Department of Chemistry at Boston University as an Assistant Professor where he served until June 2013. In July 2013, he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Michigan as an Associate Professor of Chemistry, and in September 2015, was promoted to full Professor. In June 2024, he was appointed at the University of British Columbia as the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Innovative Synthetic Methods for Translational Chemistry with appointments in Chemistry and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He also co-leads a new synthesis laboratory at the BC Cancer Research Center with Professor Corinna Schindler.
About the Virtual Chemistry Lecture Series
Pharmaron’s monthly Virtual Lecture Series, launched in July 2020, provides our team and partners with online educational opportunities. World-class academic researchers are invited to present novel research related to synthetic and medicinal chemistry through this virtual forum. The lectures have been insightful and very well received by the audience and have contributed to cultivating a vibrant learning culture at Pharmaron.