Curriculum vitæ

vitæ | resumé

Education

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry | 2023
Master of Science in Chemistry | 2020
Advisor: Professor David B. Collum
Thesis: Structure-Selectivity Principles Underlying Alkylations of Oppolzer’s Camphorsultam Enolates

New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Bachelor of Science in Chemistry | 2018
Advisors: Professors Wael Rabeh and Panče Naumov
Thesis: Conserved loops mediate the active site microenvironment and determine the color of bioluminescence in beetle luciferases
Specialization: Biochemistry
Minor: Urban Studies

UWC-USA, Montezuma, NM, USA

International Baccalaureate Diploma | 2014


Research

Take a look at my research page for more!

Eli Lilly and Company

Postdoctoral Scientist, Exploratory Discovery AI | 2023 - present
Transfer learning approaches for reaction product prediction in the low-data regime

Cornell University

The Collum Group | Graduate Research Assistant and Ph.D. Candidate | 2018 - 2023
Oppolzer enolates: solution structures, mechanism of alkylation, and the origin of stereoselectivity
Alkyl silazides: highly soluble organosodium bases with broad synthetic applications
MoFlowGAN: a tandem generative model for property-targeted molecular graph generation | Independent project

Exscientia (acquired by Recursion Pharmaceuticals)

Cheminformatics Intern | Spring 2023
Identifying data-driven MPO weights for computational drug design

New York Univesity Abu Dhabi

The Rabeh Lab | Undergraduate Researcher | 2016 - 2018
Beetle luciferases with naturally red- and blue-shifted emission

Naumov Smart Materials Lab | Undergraduate Researcher | 2016 - 2018
Thermochemiluminescent peroxide crystals
pH-Dependent fluorescence from firefly oxyluciferin in agarose thin films
Natural product isolation of the extract of Cleome rupicola fruits

University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras

The Rivera Lab | NSF–REU Student | Summer 2017
Hierarchical assembly of supramolecular G-quadruplexes via enzyme instructed self-assembly



Leadership and Outreach

  • Indianapolis Chair • Lilly Postdoctoral Scientists | June 2024 - Present
  • Lead Organizer • 2024 Lilly Postdoc Summit Planning Committee | March 2024 - October 2024
  • Senior Graduate Student • The Collum Group at Cornell Chemistry | June 2021 - July 2023
  • Project Team Lead • Cornell College of Computing and Information Sciences | August 2022 - January 2023
  • President • ACS International Student Chapter at NYU Abu Dhabi | August 2017 - May 2018
  • Financial Director and Founding Board Member • Love Local Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi | July 2014 - May 2018
  • Class of 2018 Representative • The 2010 Fund Committee at NYU Abu Dhabi | September 2014 - June 2016



Honors and Awards

  • Bauer Scholarship Award | 2022
    Travel award to return to NYU Abu Dhabi to give a research talk.
  • ACS Graduate Teaching Award | 2020
    Teaching award given by the Cornell Section of the American Chemical Society in recognition of performance as a teaching assistant. (Formerly known as the Bayer-Covestro Teaching Award)
  • NYU Abu Dhabi Conference Travel Grant | 2018
    Travel grant awarded to give a spotlight talk at the 2018 Meeting of the International Society for Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence in Nantes, France.
  • ACS International Undergraduate Student Chapter Travel Grant | 2018
    Travel grant awarded to present honors thesis results at the 255th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, LA, USA.
  • PR-CLIMB Travel Grant | 2017
    Travel grant to present summer research results at the 1st ACS Asia Pacific International Chapters Conference in Jeju, South Korea; awarded for 2nd place presentation at the PR-CLIMB research symposium.
  • NSF–REU Award | 2017
    Grant to complete research at the NSF-REU site at the University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras in San Juan, including housing, board, ancillary travel, and personal expenses.



Publications

Visit the research page for abstracts, accolades, and demos of my academic publications, conference presentations, and a list of working papers.

  1. You, Q; Ma, Y; Woltornist, RA; Lui, NM; Spivey, JA; Keresztes, I; Collum, DB “Sodium Alkyl(trimethylsilyl)amides: Substituent- and Solvent-Dependent Solution Structures and Reactivities.s” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2024, 146 (44), 30397.

  2. Gambrill, Y; Commins, P; Schramm, S; Lui, NM; AlNeyadi, SS; Naumov, P “Natural Product Isolation of the Extract of Cleome rupicola Fruits Exhibiting Antioxidant Activity.” Chemistry & Biodiversity 2024, e202301382.

  3. Lui, NM; Collum, DB “Sodiated Oppolzer Enolates: Solution Structures and Mechanisms of Alkylation.” Organic Chemistry Frontiers 2023, 10, 4750.

  4. Lui, NM; MacMillan, SN; Collum, DB “Lithiated Oppolzer Enolates: Solution Structures, Mechanism of Alkylation, and Origin of Stereoselectivity.” Journal of the American Chemical Society 2022, 144 (51), 23379.

  5. Ma, Y; Lui, NM; Keresztes, I; Woltornist, RA; Collum, DB “Sodium Isopropyl(trimethylsilyl)amide (NaPTA): A Stable and Highly Soluble Lithium Diisopropylamide Mimic.” The Journal of Organic Chemistry 2022, 87 (21), 14223.

  6. Al-Handawi, MB; Polavaram, S; Kurlevskaya, A; Commins, P; Schramm, S; Carrasco-López, C; Lui, NM; Solntsev, KM; Laptenok, SP; Navizet, I; Naumov, P “Spectrochemistry of Firefly Bioluminescence.” Chemical Reviews 2022, 122 (16), 13207.

  7. Carrasco-López, C; Lui, NM; Schramm, S; Naumov, P “The elusive relationship between structure and colour emission in beetle luciferases.” Nature Reviews Chemistry 2021, 5, 4.

  8. Schramm, S; Karothu, DP; Lui, NM; Commins, P; Ahmed, E; Catalano, L; Li, L; Weston, J; Moriwaki, T; Solntsev, KM; Naumov, P “Thermochemiluminescent Peroxide Crystals.” Nature Communications 2019, 10, 997.

  9. Lui, NM; Schramm, S; Naumov, P “pH-dependent fluorescence from firefly oxyluciferin in agarose thin films.” New Journal of Chemistry 2019, 43, 1122.

  10. Carrasco-López, C; Ferreira, J; Lui, NM; Schramm, S; Berraud-Pache, R; Navizet, I; Panjikar, S; Naumov, P; Rabeh, W “Beetle luciferases with naturally red- and blue-shifted emission.” Life Science Alliance 2018, 1, e201800072.


Teaching

  • CHEM 7650 | Advanced Physical Organic Chemistry and Reaction Mechanisms
  • CHEM 2510 | Introduction to Experimental Organic Chemistry
  • CHEM 2070 | General Chemistry I



Language proficiency

  • 🇬🇧 English (Native)
  • 🇭🇰 Cantonese chinese (Near-native)
  • 🇫🇷 French (Intermediate)
  • 🇨🇳 Mandarin chinese (Elementary)

  • Python
  • Java
  • C++
  • bash