Ronald K. Castellano
Colonel Allen R. and Margaret G. Crow Term Professor & Chair
Castellano Lab Website (coming soon!)
Research Focus
Prof. Castellano’s group is focused on research in the general areas of supramolecular and physical organic chemistry, including self-assembled optoelectronic materials, supramolecular polymers, and functional small-molecule scaffolds and therapeutics. The most recent work in the laboratory has shown how hydrogen bonding paradigms borrowed from solution can be used to “program” the arrangement of π-conjugated materials in the solid state to improve solar cell performance, introduced the first families of self-assembling paracyclophanes that form chiral 1-D hydrogen-bonded polymers, and developed a new class of molecular anti-cancer agents (disulfide bond disrupting agents or DDAs). An appreciation for noncovalent interactions pervades all his research.
Education and Training
2000–2002: NSF International Research Scholars Postdoctoral Fellow, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (lab of François Diederich)
1995–2000: Ph.D. Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (lab of Julius Rebek, Jr.)
1991–1995: B.S. Chemistry, Gettysburg College
Selected Awards
UF Doctoral Dissertation Advising/Mentoring Award (2023–2024)
University Term Professor (2016–2022)
IUPAC Young Observer (2013)
Research Corporation for Science Advancement Scialog Fellow (2011)
NSF CAREER Award (2006)
Selected Activities
Associate Editor, Frontiers in Chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry, 2019–present
Regional Editor (USA), Current Organic Chemistry, 2015–2019
Head, Organic Chemistry Division, 2012–2024
Faculty Advisor, UF Chemistry Club, 2009–2021
Chair of the Florida Section of the American Chemical Society, 2007–2009
Selected Publications
Stearns, C. D.; Kumar, A.; Ghiviriga, I.; Dobrzycki, L.; Abboud, K. A.; Castellano, R. K.* “Mixed Amide [2.2]Paracyclophane Assemblies Emulating Supramolecular Copolymers”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 24615–24627.
Das, P.; Grinalds, N. J.; Ghiviriga, I.; Abboud, K. A.; Dobrzycki, Ł.; Xue, J.*; Castellano, R. K.* “Dicyanorhodanine-Pyrrole Conjugates for Visible-Light-Driven Quantitative Photoswitching in Solution and the Solid State”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 11932–11943.
Ghilardi, A. F.; Yaaghubi, E.; Ferriera, R. B.; Law, M. E.; Davis, B. J.; Schilson, C. M.u; Ghiviriga, I.; Law, B. K.*; Castellano, R. K.* “Anticancer Agents Derived from Cyclic Thiosulfonates: Structure-Reactivity and Structure-Activity Relationships”, ChemMedChem 2022, 17, e202200165.