The American Chemical Society has selected chemistry Prof. M. Christina White as the 2026 recipient of the Herbert C. Brown Award for Creative Research in Synthetic Methods. The 2026 ACS national award winners were announced Aug. 18.
The prestigious H.C. Brown award was established in 1997 to recognize researchers who have accomplished outstanding and creative research involving the discovery and development of novel and useful methods for chemical synthesis.
As William H. and Janet G. Lycan Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, White’s research in organic chemistry has introduced groundbreaking concepts that have advanced chemical synthesis, challenged established paradigms regarding carbon-hydrogen bonds, and produced many useful catalysts.
White will be honored at an award ceremony on March 24, 2026, in conjunction with the ACS Spring meeting in Atlanta. White joined the Illinois chemistry faculty in 2005 after a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. She received her B.A. with highest honors in Biochemistry from Smith College in 1992 and her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1998.
Several of White’s former graduate students and postdoctoral researchers praised their advisor and mentor for being selected to receive this award.
Shauna Paradine (PhD, ’15), an MCWhite lab graduate who is now an assistant professor at Rochester University, said the award is very fitting for Christina and the group, because creativity is one of professor’s White’s greatest strengths.
“She has an incredible talent for identifying interesting synthetic problems and then developing creative solutions to those problems, and her willingness to adapt and follow the science has resulted in highly impactful research that has been transformational for the field of organic synthesis,” Paradine said.
Ken Fraunhoffer (PhD, ’07), an MCWhite lab graduate who is now Scientific Director at BMS, said it is fantastic that Professor White and the research group are being recognized with the prestigious H.C. Brown Award.
“Like H.C. Brown’s work, a hallmark of the MCWhite lab is to push the frontiers of chemical reactivity with an eye toward developing interesting and synthetically useful products,” Fraunhoffer said.
“White C—H Oxidation”
Over the past two decades, White and researchers in her lab have discovered and developed novel catalytic systems that first enabled selective, predictable, and preparative oxidation of aliphatic carbon-hydrogen (C—H) bonds outside of enzymatic catalysis.
White’s powerful catalytic system for aliphatic C—H hydroxylation, enables the direct installation of C(sp³)-O functionality onto complex natural products and bioactive molecules without the need for pre-existing functional handles. The lab’s work challenged the prevailing idea prior to 2007 that achieving synthetically useful selectivity between aliphatic C—H bonds of the same types was unattainable without shape recognition strategies. The work led to the establishment of rules known as “White’s Oxidation Rules”, which have proven general for many C—H oxidation systems, and can now be found in introductory organic textbooks.
Jinpeng Zhao (PhD, ’19), an MCWhite lab graduate who is project leader at Corteva, said these rules can predict the site-selectivity between C—H bonds on complex molecules with multiple catalysts tailored to respond differently toward various physical chemical parameters. The rules have guided invention of new catalysts that “read the rules differently” to alter site-selectivities and improve chemoselectivity.
Zhao said these rules have proven broadly applicable to other recently developed aliphatic C-H functionalization methodologies.
“Collectively, these advances have revolutionized the field’s approach to accessing novel derivatives of complex molecules and paved the way for the concept of ‘late-stage C-H functionalization,’ ” Zhao said. “It’s exciting to see this excellent work being recognized by the ACS with the prestigious HC Brown award.”
Kaibo Feng (PhD, ’20), an MCWhite lab graduate who is now an assistant professor at the University of Florida, said the C–H oxidation strategy provides chemists an elegant and powerful toolbox to modify natural products and bioactive molecules selectively, eliminating many needs for re-synthesizing the molecules from scratch and enabling rapid derivatization of many medicinally interesting compounds. This is evidenced, he said, by publications from other groups showing how they applied the group’s methods at late stages of synthesis.
During his time in the group, Feng, pioneered an oxidative C—H methylation reaction that enables chemists to swap C—H for C—Me to rapidly explore the “magic methyl “ effect in pharmaceuticals. In order to do this, he helped to develop a way to mask nitrogen that expanded the C–H oxidation reaction’s scope to include nitrogen-containing molecules, which make up 84% of FDA-approved small-molecule drugs. The oxidative methylation reaction also benefited from a new catalyst developed by former MCWhite group graduates Zhao and Gormisky that is both highly site-selective and tolerates aromatic rings, another prevalent functionality in pharmaceuticals.
“With these developments this method has become very useful and versatile in functionalizing drugs and bioactive molecules,” Feng explained.
Paul Gormisky (PhD, ’13), who is now Senior Director at Odyssey Therapeutics, said White is extraordinarily well deserving of this award.
“I joined Christina’s group because she was, and is, working on frontier problems in synthetic chemistry and approaching very difficult problems in a creative way. When I read the C—H activation literature, I see the influence of the group’s work and approach to problem solving everywhere,” Gormisky said.
Two of the commercially available catalysts have been named after the graduate students who helped to discover them: Fe(PDP), the “White-Chen catalyst” and Mn(CF3PDP), the “White-Gormisky-Zhao catalyst”.
Mark Chen (PhD, '09), lead research chemist at Chevron, said their work on these catalysts was, and still is, very unique in the literature for our non-directed approaches to C-H functionalization.
"And it has really introduced an alternative philosophy for how synthetic chemists think about chemical reactivity," Chen said.
Two other areas of impactful research from the MCWhite lab that are marked by creativity are allylic C–H functionalization and what is known as “White Amination”.
“White Amination”
Professor White led her group in the discovery that iron and manganese phthalocyanines, previously used as dyes, are catalysts for C(sp3)–H aminations and alkylations proceeding via nitrenes and carbenes. These catalysts led to what is known as “White amination”, which operates according to the “White Oxidation” rules and is the most highly site- and chemo-selective intermolecular C–H amination reported to date.
Joseph Clark, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was part of this creative work as a postdoctoral researcher. Clark said White’s creativity inspires a lot of the ongoing work in the field today. As a postdoc, which he called the opportunity of a lifetime, Clark said he worked on developing the first highly selective and general base metal catalyzed intermolecular C-H amination, which had long eluded chemists working in the C-H amination field.
“We had so many different directions we could have taken that project. Christina has such a creative eye when guiding the directions to take these types of projects, and this was crucial to the success of the work,” Clark said. “I am delighted to see the impact that Mn-catalyzed intermolecular C-H amination has in organic synthesis. These projects have shifted how researchers approach developing new reactions.”
For example, Clark said, the late-stage C-H amination components of their work in the MCWhite lab moved the entire field of C-H functionalization toward breaking down huge barriers.
“It is not uncommon to find a large scope of complex small molecules and natural products in new C-H functionalization reaction development,” Clark said. “I think Christina inspired a lot of this, and I am always grateful that I was able to contribute in a meaningful way to how her work has impacted an entire field of organic synthesis.”
Paradine said it has been remarkable to watch the growth of "team nitrene" and phthalocyanine catalysis in the group. Recalling the first time she pulled a bottle of iron phthalocyanine off the shelf on a whim, Paradine said that led to a thriving research area that has provided solutions to numerous challenging problems in C-H functionalization chemistry.
“The development of phthalocyanine catalysis in the group is a perfect example of Christina's creativity and solutions-oriented approach to research,” Paradine said. “We had a synthetic challenge we wanted to solve, and when we had an unexpected hit with phthalocyanines, we pushed forward with them rather than dropping it when our existing catalysts weren't effective.”
Two of the commercially available catalysts have been named after students who helped to discover them: Mn(t-BuPc): White-Paradine Catalyst and Mn(ClPc) “White-Clark catalyst.
Allylic C–H Functionalization
Another area marked by creativity in the MCWhite lab, is their work on allylic C–H functionalization, which is now a textbook way to make carbon oxygen bonds, carbon-nitrogen bonds, and carbon-carbon bonds. Sulfoxide ligands transform the classic pi-philic metal palladium from activating nucleophilic attack on olefins to heterolytic cleavage of allylic carbon-hydrogen [C(sp3)–H] bonds.
The MCWhite group has contributed general principles for how to use challenging nucleophiles in electrophilic transition metal catalysis and more recently how to use the catalysts to perform cross-coupling reactions of C—H bonds with complex amines and alcohols. One of the catalysts is commercial [Pd(bis-sulfoxide)], and is known as the “White Catalyst”, and a second is under development and named after the student that helped to discover it – “White-MaSOX catalyst”.
More about this research — Enzyme-inspired catalyst puts chemicals in right position to make ethers
Sven Kaster (PhD, ’24), a recent PhD graduate from the group who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, said he is thrilled to see the group's work and the innovative concepts they developed being recognized through the H. C. Brown Award.
“This recognition is a testament to the dedication and creativity that everyone has contributed. None of our recent accomplishments would have been possible without Christina’s mentorship and the foundational work of past group members. A core principle of the White group has always been to stay focused on solving meaningful, challenging problems and to develop reactions that people truly care about and want to use,” Kaster said.
He recalled when he first discussed the C–H to C–O cross-coupling with Professor White that she emphasized what a longstanding synthetic challenge it had been and then challenged him to solve it.
“The method we ultimately developed showcases the strength of integrating mechanistic insight with thoughtful reaction design. I believe the concepts we introduced in that work will continue to be used by our group and others to tackle similarly tough problems in heteroatom functionalization,” said Kaster, who added that working in the group was an incredible experience. “MCW inspired me to work hard and pushed me to grow into the best scientist I could be. She was always there to support me during tough times and to celebrate successes. My time in the group has prepared me exceptionally well for the challenges I’ll face in my scientific career.”
Fraunhoffer, a graduate student who pioneered Pd/sulfoxide allylic C—H amination in the group, added that the advancements of the synthetic method over the last 20-plus years are truly remarkable.
“Organic chemists can rely on the methodology as a functional group tolerant fragment coupling offering impressive levels of regioselectivity for C-O, C-N, and C-C formation. Many examples now impart high enantioselectivity which was a major breakthrough,” he said.
William Lyon (BS, ’21), doctoral fellow at Princeton University, was an undergraduate researcher in the MCWhite group who worked with Kaster on a palladium catalyzed alcohol-olefin cross coupling reaction.
"The way the method directly couples poorly nucleophilic alcohols with unactivated olefins really showcases the ability of the palladium-SOX catalyst to link together two very inert classes of molecules and it really showcases how careful mechanistic design and understanding can enable the development of a challenging synthetic reaction. I’m very excited to see what the future holds for this area in the White group," said Lyon, who added that working in the White group was instrumental for his development as a scientist.
"Christina’s mentorship taught me how to think creatively about problems in synthetic methodology. She also gave me the ability to initiate projects within the group, which really helped to prepare me for graduate school. She was incredibly generous with her time in meeting with me often to help with graduate school applications and career advising. I truly loved my time in the group," he said.