Graduate Student (Joined 2022)
Ricardo Cruz is a second-year graduate student in the Wuest Lab from New Orleans, Louisiana. He received his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Loyola University New Orleans in 2020, where he conducted research on the synthesis of sulfur- and electron-rich polycyclic aromatic molecules for application as organic superconductors under the advisement of Dr. Qian Qin. After graduating, Ricardo came to Emory to pursue his PhD in organic chemistry, where he then joined the Wuest Lab in 2021. Currently, Ricardo is interested in the total synthesis and biological investigation of (-)-oxysporidinone and some proposed analogs to elucidate the true structure of the natural product and its reported antifungal activity. Outside of lab, Ricardo enjoys playing card games of every variety at the competitive level.
Awards and Publications:
- K. J. Dougherty et al. A Simple, Serendipitous Synthesis of Heterohexahelicenes. Eur. J. Org. Chem., 2019, 6534 —6538.