Dr. David Berg

Biography

David Berg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Victoria. He holds a PhD from Berkeley and was a NSERC Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia. His research expertise includes F-elements and organometallic coordination chemistry, where he focuses on synthesis and medical catalytic applications. His research investigates lanthanides and early transition metals as essential catalysts in industrial alkene and diene polymerizations. He works on mild Lewis acid catalysts for hetero Diels-Alder reactions and studies the unique complexes formed with metals that can facilitate rare types of stoichiometric carbon-carbon bond formation. His research group aims to probe the structure and bonding of metal complexes, developing catalysts that demonstrate higher activity, selectivity, and stability. Dr. Berg's work over the past years has led to the development of new ligand types, resulting in metal complexes that show superior reactivity compared to cyclopentadienyl (Cp) analogs. He teaches inorganic chemistry and advanced transition metal chemistry and has received the Faculty of Science Teaching Award in 2005.

Research Interests

Experience