Mark Levin

Associate Professor
Research and Scholarly Interests: Organic Chemistry, Catalysis, Inorganic Chemistry
Websites: Levin Group Website
Contact: marklevin@uchicago.edu
773-702-6886
Office Location:
Room SCL 328, Searle Chemical Laboratory, 5735 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637

The Levin group is focused on the discovery, development, and mechanistic study of innovative chemical reactions.

Synthetic chemistry has delivered world-changing molecules by employing a common philosophical approach wherein a “lead” molecule is optimized for its function through iterative changes to its structure. The tedious resynthesis of analogs along the series of candidates, however, is out of step with the intellectual roots driving this process. We seek to empower chemists to make any change to a candidate structure's skeleton directly at the single-atom level. We apply a wide range of chemistries to enable single-atom logic, often repurposing exotic chemical space to suit our needs, and employ mechanistic elucidation as a design tool.

Because of the far reach of synthetic molecules, our methods have the potential to influence medicinal, material, and radiological applications by enabling access to molecules whose synthesis remain difficult or even impossible with current technology. Students in the Levin group are exposed to a highly multidisciplinary approach bridging organic synthesis with a wide range of related fields.

University of Rochester
BS
2012

University of California, Berkeley
PhD
2017

Harvard University
Postdoctoral Fellow
2019

The University of Chicago
Assistant Professor
2022

The University of Chicago
Associate Professor

“Retrosynthetic Simplicity.” Levin, M.D. Synlett, 2024, 35(13), 1471-1474.

"Carbon-to-nitrogen single-atom transmutation of Azaarenes." Woo, J.; Stein, C.; Christian, A.H.; Levin, M.D. Nature, 2023, 623, 77–82.

"Aromatic Nitrogen Scanning by Ipso-Selective Nitrene Internalization." Pearson, T.J.; Shimazumi, R.; Driscoll, J.L.; Dherange, B.D.; Park, D.; Levin, M.D. Science 2023, 381(6665), 1474-1479.

"Scaffold Hopping by Net Photochemical Carbon Deletion of Azaarenes" Woo, J.; Christian, A.; Burgess, S. Jiang, Y.; Mansoor, U.F.; Levin, M.D. Science 2022, 376(6592), 527-532.

"Single Atom Logic for Heterocycle Editing" Jurczyk, J.; Woo, J.; Kim, S.; Dherange, B.D.; Sarpong, R.; Levin, M.D. Nature Synthesis 2022, 1, 352-364.

"Skeletal editing through direct nitrogen deletion of secondary amines" Kennedy, S.H., Dherange, B.D., Berger, K.J. et al. Nature 2021, 593, 223–227.

Kyoto Rising Star Lectureship Award
2024

Falling Walls Breakthrough Finalist
2024

Bristol Myers Squibb Unrestricted Research Grant
2023

NSF CAREER
2023

Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award
2023

Amgen Young Investigator Award
2023

Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award
2023

FMC Young Investigator Award
2022

Camille & Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
2022

Sloan Research Fellowship
2022

Thieme Chemistry Journal Award
2022