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Rich G. Carter, Ph.D.

Rich G. Carter

Professor
Department of Chemistry
Faculty Lead for Innovation Excellence - Office of Research

Rich G. Carter

Professor
Department of Chemistry
Faculty Lead for Innovation Excellence - Office of Research

Biography

Rich earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Gettysburg College and his Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. Rich has authored over 100 publications and multiple patents. Rich's expertise is in multi-step organic synthesis and reaction development. Rich is a graduate of the program and 2014 OSU Advantage Accelerator Entrepreneur of the Year.

Research

Professor Carter’s laboratory has had a longstanding interest in the total synthesis of complex, biological active natural products. Recent natural product families of interest include the lycopodium alkaloids, amphidinolides, mandelalides, abietane diterpeniods and furanyl diterpenes. In addition, these synthetic endeavors have led to multiple new reaction methodologies including proline sulfonamide organocatalysis, umpolung SAOD chemistry (sulfone alkylation oxidative desulfurization) and silver-catalyzed heterocycle formation. He has supervised over 50 researchers in his laboratory who have gone onto successful careers in academia and industry. A more detailed description of these projects can be found on his research group website.

In addition to these organic chemistry-related research endeavors, Professor Carter works with the Research Office in the role of Faculty Lead for Innovation Excellence at OSU. This position focuses on supporting faculty interests in innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) at OSU. Professor Carter’s interest in the intersection of academy and industry originated from his successful co-founding of Valliscor. He is the PI of the NSF-funded program (CNS-1936073) to facilitate a national conversation on how to ensure academic incentives such as promotion and tenure (P&T) value I&E and reward broader societal impacts. This led to the creation of the Promotion & Tenure Innovation & Entrepreneurship (PTIE) effort which involves over 65 institutions from around the country and numerous national stakeholder organizations. This work has resulted in a comprehensive set of recommendations for reform in promotion & tenure. He served as Chemistry Department Chair (2012-2017). In addition, he has served on the College-level P&T committee and chaired the Department-level P&T committee for multiple years. Finally, he is currently a mentor for the OSU Advantage Accelerator and sits on their Advisory Board.

Research Interests

  • Organic
  • Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Education

NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Oregon State University (1997-99)

Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin (1997)

B.S. Gettysburg College (1993)

Research areas

Organic Chemistry

Publications

  • Carter R. G.; Mundorff K.; Risien J.; Bouwma-Gearhart J.; Bratsch-Prince D.; Brown S. A.; Campbell A. L.; Hartman J. C.; Hasemann C. A.; Hollenbeck P. J.; Lupiani B.; McCarty O. J. T.; McClure I. D.; Mealey K.; Mimura C.; Romero A. J.; Sztajn P.; Van Egeren L. "Innovation, entrepreneurship, promotion, and tenure." Science 2021, 373, 1312-1314.
  • Bouwma-Gearhart J.; Lenhart C.; Carter R.; Mundorff K.; Cho H.; Knoch J. Inclusively Recognizing Faculty Innovation and Entrepreneurship Impact within Promotion and Tenure Considerations. J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 2021, 7, 182.
  • Bouwma-Gearhart J.; Carter R.; Mundorff K. (2021) "A Call For Promoting Faculty Innovation and Entrepreneurship." Change 2021, 53 (2), 18-24.
  • Ghosh A.; Brueckner A. C.; Cheong P. H.-Y.; Carter R. G. "Second Generation Synthesis of Northern Fragment of Mandelalide A: Role of Pi-Stacking on Sharpless Dihydroxylation of cis-Enynes." J. Org. Chem. 2019, 84, 9196-9214.
  • Goswami S.; Harada K.; El-Mansy M. F.; Lingampally R.; Carter R. G. "Enantioselective Synthesis of (-)-Halenaquinone." Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 9117-9121.
  • Li X.; Carter R. G. "Pummerer Cyclization Revisited: Unraveling of Acyl Oxonium Ion and Vinyl Sulfide Pathways." Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 5541-5545.
  • Li X.; Carter R. G. "Total Syntheses of Aromatic Abietane Diterpenoids Utilizing Advances in the Pummerer Rearrangement." Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 5546-5549.
  • Rodriguez-Perez, I. A.; Yuan, Y.; Bommier, C.; Wang, X.; Ma, L.; Leonard, D. P.; Lerner, M. M.; Carter, Rich G.; Wu, T.; Greaney, P. Alex; Lu, J.; Ji, X. “Mg-Ion Battery Electrode: An Organic Solid’s Herringbone Structure Squeezed upon Mg-Ion Insertion.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 13031-13037.
  • Veerasamy, N.; Ghosh, A.; Li, J.; Watanabe, K.; Serrill, J. D.; Ishmael, J. E.; McPhail, K. L.; Carter, R. G. "Enantioselective Total Synthesis of Mandelalide A and Isomandelalide A: Discovery of a Cytotoxic Ring-Expanded Isomer." J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 770-773.
  • Mahapatra, S.; Carter, R. G. “Exploiting Hidden Symmetry in Natural Products: Total Syntheses of Amphidinolides C and F.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 10792-10803.

Awards

  • Partners for Progress and Prosperity Award American Chemical Society – Northwest Region (2017)
  • Entrepreneur of the Year - Corvallis Willamette Angel Conference (2016)
  • Entrepreneur of the Year Corvallis Chamber of Commerce (2015)
  • Milton Harris Award for Basic Research (2015)
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship (2010)
  • Sugihara Young Faculty Research Award (2007)
  • Awarded Early Tenure from Oregon State University (2004)
  • National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow (1997-99)