Ben Stokes

Assistant Professor

Research

Discovering, developing, and understanding new medicinally relevant reactions for the transformation of small organic molecules, including 1) transition metal-catalyzed reactions mediated by tetrahydroxydiborane, and 2) reactions for the preparation and elaboration of quaternary carbon-containing compounds.

Awards

Hellman Foundation Faculty Fellowship (2018)
Thieme Chemistry Journals Award (2017)
American Chemical Society Young Scientist Travel Award (2013)
NIH NIGMS Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (2012)
Abbott Laboratories Abbott Scholar Award (2011)

Publications

Stokes, B.J.; Cai, X.; Amsbaugh, R.V.*; Drake, L.J.*; Kotamraju, R.M.A.*; Licauco, N.J.C.* Tert-Butoxide-Mediated Protodeformylative Decarbonylation of α-Quaternary Homobenzaldehydes. SynOpen 2024, 8, 47–50. https://doi.org/10.1055/a-2231-3108

Tohti, A.; Lerda, V.; Stokes, B.J. Brønsted Acid Catalyzed Stereospecific Dearomative Spirocyclization of Benzothiophenyl Analogues of Tertiary cis-β-Benzylstyrenes. Synlett 2024. DOI: 10.1055/a-1894-8726

Fu, W.; Alam, T. M.; Li, J.; Bustamante, J.;† Lien, T.; Adams, R. W.; Teat, S. J.; Stokes, B.J.; Yang, W.; Liu, Y.; Lu, J. Q. “Arene Substitution Design for Controlled Conformational Changes of Dibenzocycloocta-1,5-dienes.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 16651−16660.

Mao, Z.; Vang, H.;† Garcia, A.;† Tohti, A.; Stokes, B.J.; Nguyen, S. C. “Carrier Diffusion: The Main Contributor to Size-Dependent Photocatalytic Activity of Colloidal Gold Nanoparticles.” ACS Catal. 2019, 9, 4211–4217.

Keshavarz, A.; Riahinasab, S. T.; Hirst, L. S.; Stokes, B.J. “New Promesogenic Ligands for Host Medium Microencapsulation by Quantum Dots via Liquid Crystal Phase Transition Templating.” ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2019, 2, 2542–2547.

Cai, X.; Tohti, A.; Ramirez, C.;† Harb, H.; Fettinger, J. C.; Hratchian, H. P.; Stokes, B.J. “Dispersion-Controlled Regioselective Acid-Catalyzed Intramolecular Hydroindolation of cisMethindolylstyrenes to Access Tetrahydrobenzo[cd]indoles.” Org. Lett. 2019, 21, 1574– 1577.

S. T.; Keshavarz, A.; Melton, C. N.; Elbaradei, A.; Warren, G. I.;† Selinger, R. L. B.; Stokes, B.J.; Hirst, L. S. “Nanoparticle-Based Hollow Microstructures Formed by Two-Stage Nematic Nucleation and Phase Separation.” Riahinasab, Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 894.

Melton, C. N.; Riahinasab, S. T.; Keshavarz, A.; Stokes, B.J.; Hirst, L. S. “Phase TransitionDriven Nanoparticle Assembly in Liquid Crystal Droplets.” Nanomaterials 2018, 8, 146–156.

Quint, M. T.; Sarang, S.; Quint, D. A.; Keshavarz, A.; Stokes, B.J.; Subramaniam, A. B.; Huang, K. C.; Gopinathan, A.; Hirst, L. S.; Ghosh, S. “Plasmon-Actuated Nano-assembled Microshells.” Sci. Rep. 2017, 7, 17788.

Cai, X.; Keshavarz, A.; Omaque, J. D.;† Stokes, B.J. “Brønsted Acid-Catalyzed Intramolecular Hydroarylation of β-Benzylstyrenes.” Org. Lett. 2017, 19 (10), 2626–2629. 14.

Riahinasab, S. T.; Elbaradei, A.; Keshavarz, A.; Stokes, B.J.; Hirst, L. S. “Nanoparticle Microstructures Templated by Liquid Crystal Phase-Transition Dynamics.” Proc. SPIE 2017, 10125, 1012503–1012503-7.

Cummings, S. P.; Le, T.-N.; Fernandez, G. E.;† Quiambao, L. G.;† Stokes, B.J. “Tetrahydroxydiboron-Mediated Palladium-Catalyzed Transfer Hydrogenation and Deuteriation of Alkenes and Alkynes Using Water as the Stoichiometric H or D Atom Donor.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138 (19), 6107-6110.