Roman Belli hired by the University of Winnipeg

Dr. Roman Belli grew up in Toronto, ON, and obtained his BSc in Chemistry with Honours from the University of Toronto (UofT) – St. George. During this time, he participated in undergraduate research with Prof. Douglas Stephan at UofT and received the Canadian Society for Chemistry Silver Medal. He also had the opportunity to participate in the Inorganic Chemistry Exchange (ICE), which brought him to the University of Victoria (UVic) for a summer to do undergraduate research with Prof. Lisa Rosenberg. From this experience, he decided to return to UVic for his PhD with Prof. Lisa Rosenberg where he received both the NSERC CGS-M and PGS-D. In his PhD research he developed new metal catalyst systems for hydrophosphination. After his PhD, he went on to work as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Courtney Roberts at the University of Minnesota (UMN) – Twin Cities. In his postdoctoral research he developed one of the first examples of using early transition metals in cross-coupling catalysis, and also isolated the first “inaccessible” five-membered heteroaryne which was published in Science. From Minnesota, Roman will be moving directly north of the border to start his independent career as an Assistant Professor in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Winnipeg in January 2025. His research will primarily focus on developing new sustainable methods to prepare valuable main group compounds.