Steven R. Kass

Steven R. Kass is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, leading research on environmentally friendly Brønsted acid/base catalysts, molecular recognition systems, and computational chemistry applications. His laboratory operates from Smith Hall and Kolthoff Hall, maintaining an active team of graduate and undergraduate researchers.

His research program specializes in physical organic chemistry and organocatalysis, with emphasis on charge-enhanced organocatalysts, weakly coordinating cations, and metal-free hydrogen bond catalysts. The group integrates experimental and computational approaches to solve environmental and medical challenges through innovative catalyst design for organic synthesis and enantiomeric ratio determination.

Recent scholarly output demonstrates strong focus on computational analysis of bond energetics and catalytic mechanisms, exemplified by the 2024 ACS Editors' Choice article on π-bond dissociation energies which examines fundamental C–C, C–N, and C–O bond strengths critical to reaction design.

Scientific recognition:

• ACS Editors' Choice article selection (2024)

Doctoral mentorship achievements include:

• Alex Lovstedt (2025): Advances in Weakly Coordinating Cations
• Walysson Ferreira (2025): Double Multicomponent Povarov Reaction
• Cal Mergendahl (2024): OPE completion
• Dan Blechschmidt (2023): Metallocenium Acid Catalysts
• Stephen Dempsey (2023): Weakly Coordinating Cations for Base Catalysis
• Ted Riegel (2022): Charge-Enhanced Organocatalysts
• Curtis Payne (2020): Charge-Enhanced Brønsted Acids
• Jie Ma (2018): Electrostatically Enhanced Phosphoric Acids
• Yang Fan (2018): Electrostatically Enhanced Thioureas

Research funding supports NSF-REU and Lando/NSF Summer Research programs hosting undergraduates from institutions including Oxford University, Carleton College, and St. Norbert College. Current graduate students Kevin Schill and Sofía Ramírez continue projects in computational chemistry and catalyst development.

The Kass Research Group maintains collaborative laboratory operations across Smith Hall (223) and Kolthoff Hall (462), fostering innovation in sustainable chemistry through weekly group meetings, departmental poster sessions, and events like the annual Chemistry Catalyst picnic.