Thomas R. Hoye, PhD

organic chemistry, synthesis, mechanism, structure, NMR, drug delivery, nanoparticles, sustainable polymer synthesis, natural products

• College of Science and Engineering Distinguished Professor (University of Minnesota)
• Cope Scholar Award (American Chemical Society)
• Robert Robinson Award (Royal Society of Chemistry)
• Ernest Guenther Award in Natural Products Chemistry (American Chemical Society)
• Minnesota Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Chemical Sciences (American Chemical Society, Minnesota Section)
• Merck Professor of Chemistry, Morse-Alumni Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (University of Minnesota)
• Award for Outstanding Contributions to Post-baccalaureate
• Graduate and Professional Education (inaugural year, University of Minnesota)
• Fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

American Chemical Society

A primary emphasis of Professor Hoye's research group is the development of new strategies for natural product total synthesis. 

Early contributions included pioneering studies in brominative cyclizations, poly-epoxide cascade reactions, exploitation of symmetry, and development of desymmetrization strategies. 

His research interests and their impact are remarkably broad. They include: 

• advancing new synthetic methods
• natural product structure determination
• development of new NMR-based strategies for determination of absolute and relative configurations
• in situ (No-D) NMR spectroscopy
• spontaneous reactions as key events in biosynthetic pathways
• organometallic chemistry
• olefin metathesis reactions [including relay ring-closing metathesis (RRCM)]
• peptides and peptidomimetics as antiangiogenic agents
• polymer synthesis
• interfacial polymer reactions and phenomena
• sustainable polymers from renewable resources
• biodiesel production, design of functional block copolymers and nanoparticles for drug delivery
• the silicate prodrug strategy
• molecular electronic phenomena
• discovery of CNS-active and antimalarial natural products
• design of chiral selectors for liquid chromatographic supports
• sea lamprey pheromone chemistry
• development and exploitation of the hexadehydro-Diels–Alder (HDDA) reaction
• the discovery of the pentadehydro-Diels–Alder (PDDA) and photochemical-HDDA reactions

Teaching Areas

organic chemistry

Courses

• CHEM 2312H Introductory Honors Laboratory
• CHEM 2331H Introductory Honors Laboratory Lecture 
• CHEM 4321/8321 Organic Synthesis
• CHEM 4322/8322 Advanced Organic Chemistry 

1. Zhang, J.; Hoye, T. R. Divergent reactivity during the trapping of benzynes by glycidol analogs: ring cleavage via pinacol-like rearrangements vs oxirane fragmentations. Org. Lett. 2019, 21, 2615-2619.
2. Shen, H.; Xiao, X.; Hoye, T. R. Benzyne cascade reactions via benzoxetenonium ions and their rearrangements to o-quinone methides. Org. Lett. 2019, 21, 1672-1675.
3. Arora, S.; Palani, V.; Hoye, T. R. Reactions of diaziridines with benzynes give n-arylhydrazones. Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 8082-8085.
4. Wang, Y.; Zheng, L.; Hoye, T. R. Sulfonamide-trapping reactions of thermally generated benzynes. Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 7145-7148.
5. Xiao, X.; Wang, T.; Xu, F.; Hoye, T. R. Cu(I)-mediated bromoalkynylation and hydroalkynylation reactions of unsymmetrical benzynes: complementary modes of addition. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2018, 57, 16564-16568.