Vy Dong
Vy Dong
University of California, Irvine
Chancellor's Professor, Department of Chemistry
Vy was born in Big Spring, Texas and grew up in Anaheim, California. She graduated magna cum laude from UC Irvine where she majored in chemistry and completed an honor's project with Larry Overman on the Bignelli condensation. After graduation, she began graduate studies at UC Berkeley with David MacMillan (2021 Nobel Laureate), as one of his first graduate students. She moved with the MacMillan Group to Caltech to complete her doctoral studies. Her Ph.D. thesis featured variants of the zwitterionic-Claisen rearrangement and a total synthesis of erythronolide B. As an NIH postdoctoral fellow, Vy pursued training in both organometallic and supramolecular chemistry, with Professors Robert Bergman and Kenneth Raymond at Berkeley.
She began her independent academic career at the University of Toronto, where she was promoted with tenure and named the Adrian Brook Professor. After six years in Canada, Vy returned to the United States. At UC Irvine, Professor Dong is currently a Chancellor’s Professor, a title that recognizes academic merit and achievements. Outside the University, she has been recognized by the ACS EJ Corey Award, ACS Cope Scholar Award, and Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. Professor Dong teaches introductory organic chemistry (chem 51A) and advanced synthesis (chem 160) courses. She serves as an associate editor for Organic Syntheses and RSC’s Chemical Society Reviews.
