Vy Maria Dong

Biography

Vy Maria Dong, Ph.D., is Chancellor's Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. She received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, where she worked on Claisen rearrangements and the total synthesis of erythronolide B with Professor David MacMillan. Dong completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley, studying organometallic chemistry, physical organic chemistry, and supramolecular chemistry with Professors Robert Bergman and Kenneth Raymond. She joined the faculty at the University of Toronto in 2006 as an Assistant Professor, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010, and moved to the University of California, Irvine, as Full Professor in 2012.

Dong's research focuses on transition-metal catalysis, particularly rhodium- and cobalt-catalyzed hydroacylation, hydroamination, and hydrofunctionalization reactions. Her group has developed enantioselective methods for forming carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds, including approaches to lactones, heterocycles, and complex natural products. Notable contributions include the development of dynamic kinetic resolution strategies, transfer hydroformylation for carbon-carbon bond cleavage, and catalytic methods for alkyne and diene functionalization. Her work has expanded the scope of hydroacylation to include non-chelating aldehydes and has established new paradigms for enantioselective catalysis using sulfoxide ligands and tandem catalytic systems.

Dong is an Arthur C. Cope Scholar and has received the ACS Elias J. Corey Award for Outstanding Original Contribution in Organic Synthesis by a Young Investigator. She serves as Editor for Organic Syntheses and for the Royal Society of Chemistry's Chemical Society Reviews, and is an External Consultant with Merck & Co. Dong has mentored over 20 doctoral students and numerous postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to positions in academia and industry. She is the author of "Office Hours: Unlocking Your Potential in Organic Chemistry and Beyond," published in 2025.

Education

• B.S. in Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, 1998
• M.S. in Organic Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 2000
• Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, California Institute of Technology, 2003

Distinctions

• Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Merck, Sharp & Dohme Award, 2020
• ACS Elias J. Corey Award, Outstanding Original Contribution in Organic Synthesis by a Young Investigator, 2019
• ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, 2010
• American Chemical Society Poster Award Winner, Pacifichem ACS Conference, 2000
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 1999-2003
• Newkirk Fellow, University of California, Irvine, 2025
• The Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan, Lectureship, 2013
• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 2009-2011
• Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DTEI) UC Online Award, 2025
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship, 2013