• NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, California Institute of Technology, CA, 2012-2015
• PhD, University of California-Irvine, CA, 2012
• BS, Colorado State University, CO, 2007

• UB’s Exceptional Scholar – Young Investigator Award, 2020
• Arthur E. Martell Early Career Researcher Prize, 2020
• NSF CAREER Award, 2019
• NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F32GM106726)

Coordination chemistry, reactivity, and mechanisms of transition metal catalysts

Manganese(III), nature’s highest-potential one-electron oxidant (1.23 V vs NHE), plays a central role in biological processes such as photosynthesis and carbon cycling. Despite its natural significance, its high-potential properties in synthetic chemistry remain untapped due to the absence of well-defined, accessible Mn(III) reagents. The Lacy group has overcome this limitation by developing bench-stable high-potential (>1.23 V vs NHE) Mn(III) complexes and is now investigating their reactivity to enable new synthetic methodologies with implications across several disciplines. Some publications describing this work are provided below.

• Paul, S.; Saju, A.; Cohen, C.; Crawley, M. R.; MacMillan, S. N.; Lacy, D. C. Synthesis of Mn(III)X₃ (X = Cl, Br, I) Compounds with Phosphine (R₃P) Ligands. Inorg. Chem. 2024, 63, 15791-15803.  https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.4c01820
• Saju, A.; Crawley, M. R.; MacMillan, S. N.; Lacy, D. C. Manganese(III) Nitrate Complexes as Bench-Stable Powerful Oxidants. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2024, 146, 11616-11621. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c03411
• Saju,^§ A.; Gunasekera,^§ P. S.; Morgante, P.; MacMillan, S. N.; Autschbach,* J.; Lacy,* D. C. Experimental and computational determination of a M–Cl homolytic bond dissociation free energy: Mn(III)Cl mediated C–H cleavage and chlorination. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 13384-13391. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c03651. § = equally contributing.
• Lacy,* D. C.; Abhyankar, P. C. Dinuclear Mn(I) complexes with phosphido and hydrido bridges: synthesis, reactivity, and hydrogenative catalysis Chem. Eur. J. 2023, e202300518. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202300518
• Saju, A.; Griffiths, J. R.; MacMillan, S. N.; Lacy,* D. C. Synthesis of a bench-stable manganese(III) chloride compound: coordination chemistry and alkene dichlorination. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 16761-16766 https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c08509
• Abhyankar, P. C.; MacMillan, S. N.; Lacy,* D. C. Bench-stable dinuclear Mn(I) catalysts in E-selective alkyne semihydrogenation: a mechanistic investigation Chem., Eur. J. 2022, 28, e202201766. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202201766
• Paul, S.; Morgante, P.; MacMillan, S. N.; Autschbach,* J.; Lacy,* D. C. Hydrogenative catalysis with three-coordinate zinc complexes supported with PN ligands is enhanced compared to PNP analogs Chem., Eur. J. 2022, 28, e202201042. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202201042
• Fanara,^§ P. M.; Vigneswaran,^§ V.; Gunasekera, P. S.; MacMillan, S. N.; Lacy,* D. C. Reversible photoisomerization in a Ru cis-dihydride catalyst accessed through atypical metal–ligand cooperative H₂ activation: photoenhanced acceptorless alcohol dehydrogenation Organometallics 2022, 41, 93-98. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.organomet.1c00648. § = equally contributing.
• Lacy,* D. C. Applications of the Marcus cross relation to inner sphere reduction of O₂: implications in small-molecule activation. Inorg. Chem. Front. 2019, 6, 2396-2403. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9QI00828D  
• Kadassery, K. J.; Lacy,* D. C. Pentacarbonylmethylmanganese(I) as a synthon for Mn(I) pincer catalysts. Dalton Trans. 2019, 48, 4467-4470. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9DT00529C
• Vigneswaran, V.; MacMillan, S. N.; Lacy,* D. C. Beta-amino phosphine Mn catalysts for 1,4-transfer hydrogenation of chalcones and allylic alcohol isomerization. Organometallics 2019, 38, 4387-4391. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.organomet.9b00692
• Surendhran,^‡ R.; D’Arpino,^‡ A. A.; Sciscent,^‡ B. Y.; Cannella, A. F.; Friedman, A. E.; MacMillan, S. N.; Rupal, G.; Lacy,* D. C. Deciphering the mechanism of O₂ reduction with electronically tunable non-heme iron enzyme model complexes. Chem. Sci. 2018,9, 5773-5780. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8SC01621F. ‡ = undergraduate author.
• Kadassery, K. J.; Dey, S. K.; Cannella, A. F.; Surendhran,^‡ R.; Lacy,* D. C. Photochemical water-splitting with organomanganese complexes. Inorg. Chem. 2017, 56, 9954-9965. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b01483. ‡ = undergraduate author.