RMC 2026 Program

Program for the 40th Reaction Mechanisms Conference to be held at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, on June 7–10, 2026.

Schedule

All sessions and breaks are in the Haworth Ballroom (rooms 134/136/140) unless indicated otherwise. A PDF program book will be available for download here shortly before meeting. A full PDF abstract book will only be sent to registered participants.

Sunday, June 7

	Event/Session	Details/Speakers
3–5 p.m.	Registration, Check-In, and Welcome Reception (Haworth Prefunction Area)
5:15–5:30 p.m.	Opening Remarks	Jason Gillmore
5:30–7:30 p.m.	Expanding Catalysis in Organic Chemistry	Session chair: Judy Wu Valery Fokin – University of Southern California Joseph Moran – University of Ottawa “Electric Field Catalysis and the Metabolic Origin of Life” Reginald Mills – University of Houston “Paramagnetic First-Row Organometallic Catalysts Involved in Cross-Coupling of Thiol-, Alcohol-, and Carboxylic Acid–Derived C(sp3) Electrophiles” Raul Hernandez – Rice University “Not All Nets Catch the Ball”
7:30–9:30 p.m.	Poster session with light reception (2 hrs)

Monday, June 8

	Event/Session	Details/Speakers
7:45–8:30 a.m.	Complimentary light breakfast
8:30–10:30 a.m.	Mechanistic Research in Industry	Session chair: Tom Peterson John Fetzer – Chevron “Catalytic Hydrocracking and the Large Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons” Stephanie Valenzuela – Dow “Keeping it Cool Space – Thermal Interface Materials using Key Crosslinking Strategies for Reliability” Shashank Shekhar – AbbVie “Methods and Tools to Meet the Synthetic Needs of Process Chemistry” Yunlong Zhang – Aramco “Unexpected Thermal Reaction Regimes in Aromatic Molecular Growth”
10:30–11 a.m.	Coffee Break (30 mins)
11 a.m.–12 p.m.	Industry Careers panel, sponsored by AbbVie	Panel Chair: Jeff Kallemeyn
12–5:30 p.m.	Free afternoon for Tourism and Networking – lunch and dinner on your own Motorcoach to Beach or Vineyard available
5:30–7:30 p.m.	Synthetic Methods and Chemical Reactivity	Session chair: Julie Peterson Robert Mayer – Technical University of Munich “High-Throughput Kinetics Enable Predicting Reactivity and Mechanisms of Catalysis in Water” Artur Mardyukov – Justus-Liebig University Giessen “On-Surface and Matrix-Isolation Strategies for Accessing Elusive Pnictogen–Nitrogen Species” Melanie Chiu – Michigan State University “Light as a Tool for Polymer Synthesis” Steven Lopez – Northeastern University “Machine-Learning Accelerated Simulations of Organic Photochemical Reactions”
7:30–9:30 p.m.	Poster session with light reception (2 hrs)

Tuesday, June 9

	Event/Session	Details/Speakers
7:45–8:30 a.m.	Complimentary light breakfast
8:30–10:30 a.m.	Mechanistic Research in Undergraduate Institutions	Amanda Turek – Williams College “Mechanistic Investigations of Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution Reactions” Dasan Thamattoor – Colby College “Bounties from Phenanthrene: Reactive Intermediates and Unusual Molecules” Daniela Arias-Rotondo – Kalamazoo College “Manganese(II) Complexes for Sustainable Photochemistry” Andrew Petit – California State U, Fullerton “Lewis Acid Activation of Ground- and Excited-State Proton Transfer”
10:30–11 a.m.	Coffee Break (30 mins)
11 a.m.–12 p.m.	PUI Careers panel, sponsored by Hope College	Panel Chair: Jason Gillmore
12–1:30 p.m.	Undergrad Context Lunch (Haworth Room 156/158)	Discussion Chair: Ron Brisbois
12–1:30 p.m.	Lunch Break (1 hr 30 mins) – lunch not provided (except undergrads, see above)
1:30–3 p.m.	Predicting Reactivity: Computations and Data-Driven Models	Anat Milo – Ben-Gurion University “Data Science Strategies in Organocatalysis” Peng Liu – University of Pittsburg “Flexibility Effects in Catalytic Organic Reactions” Alistair Sterling – University of Texas, Dallas “Numbers and Insight in the Age of Universal Machine-Learned Interatomic Potentials: Implications for Reactivity Prediction”
3–3:30 p.m.	Coffee Break (30 mins)
3:30–6 p.m.	Tribute to Professor Peter Chen	Session chair: Peter Schreiner Introduction Chris Slootweg – University of Amsterdam “Catalyzing a Sustainable Future: Radical Redesign of Chemistry for Circularity” Renana Poranne – Technion – Israel Institute of Technology “Old Ideas, New Tricks: Additivity in Polycyclic Aromatic Systems” Marc-Etienne Moret – Utrecht University “Teaching Nickel New Tricks with π-Pincer ligands” RMC Honoree: Peter Chen – ETH-Zurich “FLP Activation of Methyltrioxorhenium as an Olefin Metathesis Catalyst: a Homogenous Model for Heterogenous Rhenia Catalysts”
6–7 p.m.	Reception (open to all)
7–9 p.m.	Conference Banquet (tickets required) Haworth Dining Room (room 104)

Wednesday, June 10

7:45–8:30 a.m.	Complimentary light breakfast
8:30–10:30 a.m.	Functional Organic π-Systems	Session chair: Jeremy Bard Vladimir Popik – University of Georgia “Unusual Features of SPAAC Reactions. Experiment vs Calculations” Arthur Winter – Iowa State University “How to Break a Bond with Light” Malika Jeffries – Boston University “Design and Synthesis of Organic Electronic Materials” Benjamin King – University of Nevada, Reno
10:30–11 a.m.	Coffee Break (30 mins)
11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.	Spectroscopic Windows into Molecular Mechanisms	Session chair: Nathanael Kazmierczak Cláudio Nunes – University of Coimbra “Tunneling-Driven Reactivity of Arylnitrenes and Related Intermediates in Cryogenic Matrices” Ruth Gschwind – University of Regensburg “Assembly and Flexibility: Key Aspects of Photo-, Organo-, and Ion Pair Catalysts Revealed by NMR-Spectroscopy” Carlos Crespo-Hernandez – Case Western Reserve University “Discovering New Chemistry in an Old Molecule: A Twisted Ground State Intermediate Leads to the Formation of Uracil Photohydrates in RNA After UV Excitation”
12:30–12:45 p.m.	Closing remarks and instructions, Conference Survey
1–1:10 p.m.	Motorcoach Shuttle Departs Haworth Hotel for GRR (arrives by 12:15 p.m., sufficient for domestic departures later than 1:45 p.m., international departures later than 2:15 p.m.)

Thursday, June 11

11:20–11:30 a.m.	Motorcoach Shuttle Departs Haworth Hotel for GRR (arrives by 1:45 p.m., sufficient for domestic departures later than 3:15 p.m., international departures later than 3:45 p.m.)

Abstracts

Abstracts for posters and invited talks can be submitted through noon Eastern Daylight Time on Friday, May 15, 2026. Posters must be no bigger than 47.5" x 47.5" (120 x 120 cm). Tacks will be provided. Templates for abstract submission are provided, along with the abstract submission form, here. A print program will be available on site, with a PDF of abstracts sent directly to participants before the meeting and available via a QR code at the meeting, but not posted publicly.

Posters

Formal poster sessions will be held on Sunday and Monday evenings. But posters should be posted at check-in on Sunday and not removed until Tuesday night or Wednesday morning so that they are available for informal browsing and discussion throughout the meeting.

Posters must be no bigger than 47.5" x 47.5" (120 x 120 cm). Tacks will be provided.

A list of posters by title and presenter(s) will be posted here along with poster # assignments shortly before the meeting.