Craig M. Anderson

Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry
Director of Undergraduate Research 
Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar (2011–16)
Office: Reem-Kayden Center 138  
845-752-2356
[email protected]

Education

• Ph.D., Inorganic Chemistry, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec. Thesis: Solution and Structural Chemistry of Ruthenium Imidazole Complexes. Advisor: André L. Beauchamp.
• M.Sc., Organometallic Chemistry, Western University, London, Ontario. Thesis: Reactivity of Dimethylplatinum(II) Complexes. Advisor: Richard J. Puddephatt.
• B.Sc., Honours Chemistry, Western University. Thesis: Studies of a Trinuclear Platinum Cluster. Advisor: Richard J. Puddephatt.

Courses

• Basic Principles of Chemistry (Chemistry 141)
• Basic Principles of Chemistry (Chemistry 142)
• FSEM I: First Year Seminar: The Commons.
• CC 110: Alchemy, from Magic to Science in Imagination, Practice and Theory
• Principles of Chemical Analysis (Chemistry 301)
• Advanced Inorganic Chemistry (Chemistry 312)
• Chemistry of the Environment (Chemistry 130)
• Forensic Chemistry (Chemistry 135)
• Organometallic Chemistry (Chemistry 431)
• Experiments in Chemistry
• Environment and Disease (Biology 121)
• Organic Chemistry I (Chemistry 201)
• Advanced Techniques: Synthesis (Chemistry 360)

Research Interests
We are interested in the study of transition metal complexes with general applications towards bioinorganic and catalytic systems.
Examples of current projects:

• The synthesis of new platinum complexes with chiral and heterocyclic ligands. The study of the oxidative addition reactions of alkyl halides, such as MeI, to the new orthometallated platinum complexes which contain chiral sites in order to determine the stereoselectivity of such reactions.
• The design and synthesis of new ligands in order to produce bis-orthometalled platinum complexes. Such complexes have applications as OLEDs and light harvesting devices.
• The synthesis of di- and multi-nuclear complexes of platinum, iron, and/or ruthenium using bridging ligands containing nitrogen, sulphur or phosphorus and determining their reactivities with biomimetic molecules. It is speculated that the new complexes will have anti-tumor properties.

Awards and Funding:
2025-2028; 427,016; R15GM159331, National Institutes of Health, “Synthesis and Biochemical Evaluation of Ruthenium Compounds.” Principal Investigator (PI). Funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

2024-2027; $375,699; CHE-2400209, National Science Foundation, “RUI: Luminescent Cyclometalated Platinum(IV) Compounds” Principal Investigator (PI). Funded by the Chemical Mechanism, Function, and Properties (CMFP) Program, formerly the Chemical Structure, Dynamics, and Mechanisms B (CSDM-B) program.

2023; Chemistry Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research's 2023 ChemCUR Outstanding Mentorship Award.

2023-2024; $18,500; Jean Dreyfus Boissevain Lectureship for Undergraduate Institutions.

2017-2023; $245,922  CHE-1665435, "RUI: Metal complexes with Benzothiophene and/or NHC ligands: Synthesis and Applications" has been funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms B Program of the Chemistry Division of the NSF (http://www.nsf.gov/chem).

2014-2017; $216,000  CHE-1362858, "RUI: Cyclometalated Platinum Complexes Having Selective Reactivity and Applications in Catalytic, Photophysical, and Bio-Organometallic Systems " has been funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms B Program of the Chemistry Division of the NSF (http://www.nsf.gov/chem).

2011-2016; $60,000.  Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. "Synthesis, Characterization, and Reactivity of Hetero-Multinuclear, Anti-Cancer, Metal Complexes."

2011-2014; CHE-1058936  $198,000.  "RUI: Selective C-H and C-X Bond Activation to Platinum(II) and Reactivity of the Cyclometalated Complexes ,"  has been funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms Program of the Chemistry Division of the NSF (http://www.nsf.gov/chem).

Publications (2012– )
asterisk (*) indicates corresponding author; bold indicates undergraduate author

• Craig M. Anderson,* Matthew W. Greenberg, Christopher N. LaFratta, Ryan H. Lum, Everest I. Oppenheimer, Teeka S. Duplessis, Kris M. Tulloch, Joseph M. Tanski, Dual-Emitting Cyclometalated Platinum Compounds with Isocyanide Ligands. ACS Omega 2025, In press.
• Matthew W. Greenberg, Kris M. Tulloch, Michelle E. Reynoso, Juliette L. Knapp, Daphne D. Bartkus, Farman H. Sayem, Ryan H. Lum, Christopher N. LaFratta, Joseph M. Tanski. Craig M. Anderson.* Synthesis, Structure, and Photophysical Properties of Platinum Compounds with Thiophene-Derived Cyclohexyl Diimine Ligands. ACS Omega 2023, 8, 38587-38596. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.3c05567.
• Belle Coffey, Lily Clough, Daphne D. Bartkus, Ian C. McClellan, Matthew W. Greenberg, Christopher N. LaFratta, Joseph M. Tanski, and Craig M. Anderson.* Photophysical Properties of Cyclometalated Platinum(II) Diphosphine Compounds in the Solid State and in PMMA Films. ACS Omega 2021, 6 (42), 28316–28325. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.1c04509
• Craig M. Anderson,* Belle Coffey, Leslie Morales, Matthew W. Greenberg, Matthew Norman, Michael Weinstein, Garrett Brown, Joseph M. Tanski. Platinum Complexes from C−H Activation of Sterically Hindered [C^N] Donor Benzothiophene Imine Ligands: Synthesis and Photophysical Properties. ACS Omega 2020, 5 (41), 26855-26863. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c03993.
• Craig M. Anderson*, Garrett Brown, Matthew W. Greenberg, David Yu, Nellie Bowen,* Rahma Ahmed, Melissa Yost-Bido, Alina Wray.  Stereoselective C-X And Regioselective C-H Activation to, and Selective C(sp²)-C(sp³) Reductive Elimination from, Platinum Compounds With Thiophene-Derived Ligands. Tetrahedron Letters, 60, (43), 151156, 2019,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tetlet.2019.151156
• Craig M. Anderson*, Claudio Mastrocinque, Matthew W. Greenberg, Ian McClelland, Leila Duman, Nathaniel Oh, Francesco Mastrocinque, Michael Pizzuto, Kaylynn Tran, and Joseph M. Tanski. Synthesis, Characterization, and Photophysical Properties of bis-metalated Platinum Complexes with Benzothiophene Ligands.  Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, 880, 2019, 98-107.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jorganchem.2018.12.010
• Francesco Mastrocinque, Craig M. Anderson*, Adel Elkafas, Isabel Ballard, and Joseph M. Tanski. Synthesis, Characterization, and Photophysical Properties of Cyclometalated N-Heterocyclic Carbene Platinum(II) Complexes.   Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, 882, 2019, 10-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jorganchem.2018.10.026 ​​​​​​
• Swapan Jain*, Craig Anderson, Iden A. Sapse, Silvie H. Lundgren, Abigail K. Freer, Hang Hoang, Kyan Jain and Madeleine Breshears.  A ruthenium–platinum metal complex that binds to sarcin ricin loop RNA and lowers mRNA expression.  Chemical Communications, 54, 2018, 8987-8990.
• Craig M. Anderson*, Nathaniel Oh, Tedros A. Balema, Francesco Mastrocinque, Claudio Mastrocinque, Danielle Santos, Matthew W. Greenberg, and Joseph M. Tanski.  Regioselective C-H/C-X Activation of Naphthyl-Derived Ligands to form Six-Membered Palladacycles.  Tetrahedron Letters, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tetlet.2016.08.092
• Craig M. Anderson*, Matthew W. Greenberg, Lucia Spano, Labeeby Servatius, and Joseph M. Tanski. Regioselective Competition Between The Formation Of Seven-Membered And Five-Membered Cyclometalated Platinacycles Preceded by Csp2- Csp3 Reductive Elimination. Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, 819, 2016, 27-36.
• Craig M. Anderson^*, Matthew W. Greenberg, Tedros A. Balema, Leila M. Duman, Nathaniel Oh, Asad Hashmi, Leah Ladner, Kyan Jain, David Yu, and Joseph M. Tanski.  Regioselective Formation of Six-Membered and Five-Membered Cyclometalated Platinum Complexes.  Tetrahedron Letters, 56, 46, 2015, 6352–6355.
• Craig M. Anderson*, Swapan S. Jain, Lisa Silber, Kody Chen, Sumedha Guha, Wancong Zhang, Emily C. McLaughlin, Yongfeng Hu, and Joseph M. Tanski.  Synthesis and Characterization of Water-Soluble, Heteronuclear Ruthenium(III)/Ferrocene Complexes and Their Interactions with Biomolecules  Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 145, 2015, 41-50.
• Craig M. Anderson*, Margarita Crespo*, Nicole Kfoury, Michael Weinstein, Joseph M. Tanski.  Regioselective C-H Activation Preceded by Csp2- Csp3 Reductive Elimination from Cyclometalated Platinum(IV). Organometallics, 2013, 32 (15), pp 4199–4207.
• Swapan Jain*, Craig Anderson*, Francesca DiRienzo, Isabelle R. Taylor, Kyan Jain, Sumedha Guha, Nushrat Hoque.  RNA binding and yeast growth inhibition by a Ru(III)-Pt(II) metal complex.  Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 5031.
• Craig M. Anderson,* Isabelle R. Taylor, Michael F. Tibbetts, Jessica Philpott, Yongfeng Hu, and Joseph M. Tanski. Hetero-multinuclear Ruthenium(III)/Platinum(II) Complexes That Potentially Exhibit Both Antimetastatic and Antineoplastic Properties.  Inorg. Chem. 2012, 51, 12917−12924.
• Craig M. Anderson,* Michael A. Weinstein, James Morris, Nicole Kfoury, Leila Duman, Tedros A. Balema, Ava Kreider-Mueller, Perry Scheetz, Skylar Ferrara, Matteo Chierchia, Joseph M. Tanski.  Biscyclometalated platinum complexes with thiophene ligands.  Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, 723, 2013, 188-197.
• Margarita Crespo,* Craig M. Anderson,* Nicole Kfoury, Mercè Font-Bardia, and Teresa Calvet.  Reductive Elimination from Cyclometalated Platinum(IV) Complexes to Form Csp2- Csp3 Bonds and Subsequent Competition between Csp2 - H and Csp3 - H Bond Activation.  Organometallics, 2012, 31, 4401-4404.