Vladimir Birman

Vladimir Birman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis. His research focuses on synthetic organic chemistry, including total synthesis of bioactive natural products, asymmetric catalysis, and the design of stimuli-responsive molecular systems. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, a postdoctoral fellowship from Columbia University, and a B.S. from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Research Interests:

• Total synthesis of complex natural products like lingzhiol and sceptrin
• Development of amidine-based catalysts (ABCs) for enantioselective acyl transfer and alcoholysis reactions
• Creation of redox-responsive phenazine-based oligomers mimicking biological actin-myosin filaments
• Enantioselective synthesis of α-fluoro-β-amino acids and thiochromenes

Recent Work Trends: Articles emphasize catalyst design (ABCs), dynamic kinetic resolution strategies, and functional materials with programmable responses to chemical/electrochemical stimuli. Key contributions include first demonstrations of lactam N-acylation catalysis and biologically inspired molecular switches.