He has taken on his new appointment by storm assembling a research team, establishing his laboratory, and seeking to develop new methods to generate and harness the power of organic radicals. It is his goal to develop new methodologies resulting in electrooganic synthesis, photoredox catalysis, and metal-catalyzed activation. This will be achieved, he hopes, through strategies to induce selectivity in radical-based bond forming reactions.
Not only is he energetic in his approach to research, but he also manages large organic classes, and eagerly talks with many students and all faculty – his goal is to have lunch with every faculty member before his first year at IUPUI is over. He lives by the dictum that work and luck operate in a symbiotic relationship: “The harder I work, the luckier I get” (Samuel Goldwyn). He believes that great challenges greatly mature a person.
I asked him about the intensity of his extrovert personality. “I adapt to my environment. This department operates on a high energy level, and so do I do. However, when I get home in the evening I turn into an exhausted, but happy introvert.”
Sébastien was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, where he went to grade school and high school, enjoyed the beach, went fishing and hunting with his dad, and became politically active protesting the Hugo Chavéz regime. For a while the family moved to Mexico. He went to Montpellier, France for his B.S. in Chemistry, and M.S. in chemical engineering degrees, followed by his Ph.D. in organic and analytical chemistry from the University of Louisville under the direction of Professor Michael H. Nantz.
Sébastien‟s personal goals for the next five years include grants, patents, publications, and being ready for tenure. It looks like he is well on his way.