URSA Grant Winner Stephen Phillips Aims to “Expand Chemistry’s Toolbox”

Senior Stephen Phillips, a chemistry major with a minor in Italian, has been a part of Dr. Leila Romero’s organic chemistry group since his sophomore year at Baylor. While in the lab, he has worked with several graduate students while centralizing around reactions to reduce esters. His current project (ZrH-Catalyzed Semi-Reduction of Amine-Containing Esters to Generate Heterocycles) has earned him a URSA grant to continue this work with the hopes of publication before he graduates in May 2025. This research utilizes the mild and selective zirconium hydride catalyst to form nitrogen-containing rings. A type of nitrogen-containing ring Phillips is examining is the indole motif. Indoles are defined as a benzene ring attached to a pyrrole ring and is a common building block for complex molecules typically involved in pharmaceutics, metabolic pathways, and many other fields. The overarching goal of Phillips's research is to offer synthetic chemists more ways to reductively cyclize compounds to indoles in a mild manner. Though he has yet to present this research publicly, he plans to present it at URSA Scholars Week in March and hopefully publish it as a co-author before graduating. Phillips wants to show his deep gratitude to his mentors: graduate student Sasha Lubaev, recent Ph.D. graduate Dr. Rebecca Kehner, and Dr. Romero all of whom have greatly encouraged him along with the rest of the Romero group.

            From as early as elementary school, Phillips has had a deep love and curiosity for science. As he grew, that love narrowed into chemistry so that his plan once beginning at Baylor was to earn a Ph.D. in organic chemistry. This project in particular has only acted as reinforcement to that plan. As a mostly independent researcher, Phillips has been a part of the design and completion of this project which has increased his confidence in going to graduate school. He admits it was the constant support from several Romero group members who pushed him to apply to higher-caliber graduate schools and he has recently submitted his applications for next fall. Phillips’s love for organic chemistry goes far beyond the lab since he also is a supplemental instructor (SI) for Dr. Michael Plunk’s organic chemistry course. Another key factor in Phillips’s success is his involvement in Baylor’s Kappa Alpha Order where he served as the Academic Chair from 2023-2024. These experiences have exponentially increased his leadership, teamwork, and communication skills. Thus, his advice to his fellow undergraduates is to never leave any questions answered whether in conversation or on a test- as he tells his OChem students, “Just put something down!”