Professor Chruma is teaching organic chemistry lecture and laboratory courses, with a particular focus on organic laboratory for non-majors/minors on a pre-health career track. Over the past two decades, he established a highly collaborative international research portfolio in organic synthesis. Independent research interests involved the development of new methods for the synthesis of biologically-active natural products, drug-like scaffolds, and luminescent small molecules, with a particular focus on using 2-azaallyl anions as imine umpolungs and super-electron-donors. Moreover, Prof. Chruma is an internationally-decorated instructor in organic chemistry, with over 10 teaching excellence awards including the 2018 Tang Lixin Teaching Masters Award from Sichuan University in Chengdu, China.

Jason J. Chruma earned his B.S. with Honors in Chemistry from the University of Arizona (1996) and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania (2002). After completing a NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University, Mr. Chruma joined the faculty at the UVA Department of Chemistry in 2005 as an Assistant Professor. In 2012, Prof. Chruma transitioned to the College of Chemistry at Sichuan University (SCU) where he served from 2012–2020 as a Professor and Assistant to Dean on International Affairs; Jason still co-directs a research program and (up through July 2022) holds a part-time summer position at SCU as a high-level international faculty. Finally, Mr. Chruma is an active member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), serving as the founding Secretary and second Chair of the Southwestern China International Chemical Sciences Chapter of the ACS and as an Associate on the International Activities Committer (IAC) of the ACS.

Selected Recent Publications

Nickel-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Generation and Asymmetric Allylation of 2-Azaallyl Anions. C. Liu, C. Deng, H. Yang, X. Qian, S. Tang, M. Poznik, J. J. Chruma, J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 10102–10110. DOI: 10.1021/acs.joc.9b01293; PMID: 31328915.

Palladium-Catalysed Decarboxylative Generation and Regiodivergent Prenylation of 2-Azaallyl Anions. X. Wang, X. Zeng, Q. Lin, M. Li, P. J. Walsh, J. J. Chruma, Adv. Synth. Catal. 2019, 361, 3751–3757. DOI: 10.1002/adsc.201900491.

Palladium-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Generation and Propargylation of 2-Azaallyl Anions. S. Tang, W. Wei, D. Yin, M. Poznik, J. J. Chruma, Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2019, 3964–3978. DOI: 10.1002/ejoc.201900537.

2-Azaallyl Anions, 2-Azaallyl Cations, 2-Azaallyl Radicals, and Azomethine Ylides. S. Tang, X. Zhang, J. Sun, D. Niu, J. J. Chruma, Chem. Rev. 2018, 118, 10393–10457. DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.8b00349; PMID: 30302999.

2-Azaallyl Anions as Light-Tunable Super-Electron-Donors: Coupling with Aryl Fluorides, Chlorides, and Bromides. Q. Wang, M. Poznik, M. Li, P. J. Walsh, J. J. Chruma, Adv. Synth. Catal. 2018, 360, 2854–2868. DOI: 10.1002/adsc.201800396.

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Amides from the Zanthoxylum genus – from Culinary Curiosities to Probes for Chemical Biology. J. J. Chruma, D. J. Cullen, L. Bowan, P. H. Toy, Nat. Prod. Rep. 2018, 35, 54–74. DOI: 10.1039/C7NO00044H; PMID: 29299588.