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Melanie S. Sanford (born June 16, 1975) is an American chemist, who currently works at the University of Michigan, where she holds the positions of  Moses Gomberg Collegiate Professor of Chemistry and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry. Melanie is best known for her studies of high-valent organopalladium species, particularly those implicated in Pd-catalyzed C–H functionalization reactions. She is also a Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Melanie is married to fellow chemist Antek Wong-Foy.

Early Life and Education
Melanie was born to Jean Doyle and James Sanford in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She grew up in Providence, Rhode Island where she attended Classical High School. She then attended Yale University where she graduated with a B.S. and M.S. in chemistry with honors. While at Yale she worked in the lab of Robert H. Crabtree where she studied C-F bond activation and functionalization. After graduating from Yale in 1996, she started her graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology. During her first year at Caltech she initially joined the lab of Professor Jacqueline Barton, but after one year she transferred to the lab of Professor Robert H. Grubbs. While working with Professor Grubbs, Melanie studied ruthenium-catalyzed olefin metathesis reactions. Some of her research while working for Professor Grubbs was ultimately involved in the research for which Professor Grubbs was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Melanie graduated from Caltech with a Ph.D in 2001. Afterwards, she began postdoctoral research with Professor John T. Groves at Princeton University. During her time at Princeton as an NIH post-doctoral fellow she studied biologically inspired metalloporphyrin-catalyzed functionalization of alkenes.

Independent Career
After her postdoctoral research at Princeton, Melanie began her independent academic career as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. In 2007 she was put up for early tenure and in 2010 she was promoted to full professor of chemistry. She is currently the Arthur F. Thurnau and Moses Gomberg professor of chemistry. Throughout her career at the University of Michigan she has received numerous awards including a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2011 ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, and the 2013 Sackler Prize in Chemistry. In addition to her many accomplishments as a researcher she has also been honored as an outstanding educator and mentor.

Research Areas
Although Melanie is probably most well known for the development of C-H bond activation reactions using Pd(II) catalysts, her lab investigates a wide range of topics in organic and inorganic chemistry. Her lab has made contributions to the studies of CO2 reduction, metal organic frameworks,  C-H activation of simple arenes, methane activation, and asymmetric catalytic transformations.

Oxidative C-H Bond Functionalization
From its beginning in 2003, Melanie's lab has focused on the investigation of late transition metal-catalyzed C-H functionalization reactions. The group found initial success in the development of selective Pd(II) catalyzed C-H bond oxygenaton. Her lab has made significant advances in generalizing this reactivity for numerous transformations including halogenations, arylations and alkylations. These reactions are particularly noteworthy for their high regio- and chemoselectivity not traditionally seen in similar oxidative functionalizations. The general reaction mechanism is thought to proceed first through a chelate-assisted C-H activation, oxidation of the Pd(II) metal center to Pd(IV) followed by a bond forming reductive elimination. The Pd(II)/Pd(IV) cycle is supported by the observation that weaker oxidants such as benzoquinone, which usually mediate Pd(0)/Pd(II) cycles, are ineffective for this reaction class. The project has grown to inspire and inform other ongoing research projects in the lab such as the reactivity and isolation of highly oxidized late transition metal complexes.

The Synthesis and Reactivity of Highly Oxidized Late Transition Metals
As part of the mechanistic investigations of the oxidative C-H bond functionalization project, the Sanford Group has made tremendous advances in the isolation and reactivity of highly oxidized late transition metal complexes, particularly those of Ni(IV), Pd(IV) and Pt(IV). These complexes have been suggested as probable intermediates in many reaction pathways but were not well studied due to the traditional instability of such highly oxidized metal centers. The group has examined the reactivity of these complexes to probe finer aspects of C-H functionalization reaction pathways.

Fluorination of Organic Molecules
Another focus of the Sanford lab's research has been the development of metal mediated and catalyzed selective fluorination methodologies. The group initially explored electrophilic fluorine sources in the context of their oxidative C-H functionalization project. Later, the lab studied  C-F bond formation using nucleophilic fluoride. The group has explored the fluorination of multiple coupling partners including aryl trifluoroborates, diaryliodomium salts, aryl stannanes, and C-H bonds of arenes. Melanie's research group has also developed catalytic and metal mediated perfluoralkylation methodologies.

Honors and Awards

 * ACS Sierra Nevada Section: Distinguished Chemist Award 2013
 * Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Chemistry 2013
 * Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award in Synthetic Chemistry 2013
 * ACS Ipatieff Prize 2013
 * Thieme-IUPAC Prize 2012
 * Moses Gomberg Collegiate Chair in Chemistry 2012
 * Paul N. Rylander Award 2012
 * Classical High School Distinguished Alumni Award 2012
 * MacArthur Foundation Fellowship 2011
 * Royal Society of Chemistry Fluorine Prize 2011
 * Fellow of American Association for Advancement of Science 2011
 * ACS Award in Pure Chemistry 2011
 * Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship 2011
 * National Fresenius Award (Phi Lambda Upsilon and ACS) 2010
 * John Dewey Award for Undergraduate Education 2010
 * LSA Excellence in Teaching Award 2010
 * BASF Catalysis Award 2009
 * ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award 2008
 * Dupont Young Investigator Award 2007
 * Roche Excellence in Chemistry Award 2007
 * GlaxoSmithKline Chemistry Scholars Award 2006
 * Abbott Young Investigator Award 2006
 * Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) 2006
 * AstraZeneca Excellence in Chemistry Award 2006
 * Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar Award 2006
 * Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow 2006
 * National Science Foundation CAREER Award 2006
 * Bristol Myers Squibb “Freedom to Discover” Award 2006
 * Eli Lilly Grantee Award 2005
 * Amgen Young Investigator Award 2005
 * Boehringer Ingelheim New Investigator Award in Organic Synthesis 2005
 * Beckman Young Investigator Award 2004-2007
 * Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award 2003-2008
 * NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship 2001-2003
 * Herbert Newby McCoy Award for Graduate Research 2001
 * Arthur Fleischer Award for Undergraduate Research 1996

Notable Students

 * Dr. Kami L. Hull Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign|HullGroup]
 * Dr. Nicholas D. Ball Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Amherst College
 * Dr. Dipannita Kalyani Assistant Professor St. Olaf College
 * Dr. Marion Emmert Assistant Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

C-H Activation Page
The ubiquity of C-H bonds makes their regioselective activation one of the foremost challenges in the synthetic application of this reaction class. One of the primary ways that this problem has been addressed is through the implementation of a lewis basic directing groups enforce a metal catalyst's proximity to the bond sought to be activated.

Pd Coupling Page
Although Pd(0)/Pd(II) cycles are most common, palladium cross-coupling of aryl groups has been demonstrated under oxidizing conditions through Pd(II)/Pd(IV) cycles. In work by Sanford et al. effective Pd(II)/Pd(IV) cross coupling has been demonstrated with directing group fuctionalized arenes with diaryliodonium salts as the coupling partner.

Nucleophilic Fluorination Subsection of Organofluorine chemistry
Nucleophilic fluorine sources such as KF have been demonstrated to be effective sources of fluorine using Pd(II) catalysts in the presence of a phase transfer catalyst like 18-crown-6.