Alexandra Velian

Alexandra is currently a MRSEC postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. There she works primarily with Prof. Colin Nuckolls on creating functional nano-structures from atomically precise metal chalcogenide clusters and studying their emergent chemical and electronic properties.


While a graduate student in the Cummins group, she introduced a fresh approach to generating phosphorus reactive intermediates using mild, anthracene-based molecular precursors. This new method allowed the generation and study of the chemical behavior, fundamental properties and application in synthesis of reactive molecules like diphosphorus (P2), phosphinidenes (RP) and phosphoalkyne (HCP). Another exciting discovery that emerged from her work is the synthesis and isolation of P2N3-, a rare example of an aromatic all-inorganic anion which is free of any protecting groups. The isolation of P2N3- illustrates that the stabilizing effects of aromaticity extend beyond the field of organic chemistry.


Alexandra carried out her undergraduate research studies at Caltech where she was introduced to synthetic inorganic chemistry in the group of Prof. Jonas Peters. Later, as the first member of the Agapie group, she developed the synthesis of bimetallic systems supported by semi-rigid terphenyl frameworks, relevant to small molecule activation and catalysis.


Some good links:
Inorganic Syntheses / ACS Journals / ACIE














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