Matthew S. Sigman – Department of Chemistry

The Sigman-Marks Fellowship

This fellowship was established by Distinguished Professor in Chemistry Matthew Sigman, Ph.D., and Deborah L. Burney-Sigman, Ph.D. with Chemistry donors Jeffrey Marks, Ph.D., and Nancy Yu. Donations will provide support and recognition to outstanding graduate students demonstrating a research focus or interest in physical organic chemistry. GIVE HERE.

Education and Experience

2006 Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

2019-2024 Chair, Department of Chemistry

2016-present Distinguished Professor of Chemistry

2012-present Peter J. Christine S. Stang Presidential Endowed Chair of Chemistry

2009-2010 Visiting Professor, Huntsman Cancer Institute, U of U

2008-2016 Professor of Chemistry, University of Utah

2004-2008 Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Utah

1999-2004 Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Utah

1996-1999 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Harvard University

Mentor: Professor Eric N. Jacobsen

Research Area: Enantioselective Strecker reactions

1992-1996 Graduate Student, Washington State University

Thesis Advisor: Professor Bruce E. Eaton

1994-1995 NeXstar Predoctoral Fellow, NeXstar Pharmaceuticals, Boulder, CO

1992 B.S., Chemistry, Sonoma State University, California

1991 Undergraduate Research Fellow, Utah State University

Mentor:Professor Michael E. Wright

Research Area: Synthesis of ferrocene derived NLO-polymers

Honors and Awards

2023 Patai-Rappoport Lecture Award

2022 University of Utah Distinguished Teaching Award

2019-present Editorial Advisory Board, Accounts of Chemical Research

2018 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award

2017 Celebrate U "Top Researcher Honoree", University of Utah

2017 ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry

2016 Distinguished Professor of Chemistry

2016 Sigma Chi Outstanding Professor Award (student-awarded)

2014-2015 Novartis Chemistry Lectureship

2013 Schulich Visiting Professor Lectureship, Technion, Israel

2012-present Peter J. Christine S. Stang Presidential Endowed Chair of Chemistry

2012 Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

2011 University of Utah Distinguished Scholarly and Creative Research Award

2011-2019 Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Chemical Society

2010-2012 Editorial Advisory Board, ACS Catalysis

2010 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award

2009 Robert W. Parry Teaching Award

2009-present Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Organic Chemistry

2008 University of Utah Distinguished Honors Professor

2004 Pfizer Award for Creativity in Organic Chemistry

2004 Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award

2002 National Science Foundation CAREER Award

2000 Research Innovation Award (Research Corporation)

1997-1999 National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship

Research Interests

Overview. Our program is focused on the discovery of new practical catalytic reactions with broad substrate scope, excellent chemoselectivity, and high stereoselectivity to access novel medicinally relevant architectures. We believe the best strategy for developing new classes of catalysts and reactions applicable to organic synthesis is using mechanistic insight to guide the discovery process. This allows us to design new reaction motifs or catalysts in which unique bond constructions can be implemented furthering new approaches to molecule construction. An underlying theme to these methodologies is to convert relatively simple substrates into much more complex compounds allowing for access to known and novel pharmacaphores in a modular manner. This provides us the ability to readily synthesis analogs enabling us to understand the important structural features responsibility for a phenotypic response in a given biological assay. We are currently engaged in several collaborative projects to evaluate our compound collections for various cancer types at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah and are engaged in follow-up investigations to identify improved compounds as well as understanding the mechanism of action. For more information, please check out our WEBSITE.