Dr. Wesley Chalifoux

Biography

Professor Wesley Chalifoux received his B.Sc. from the University of Alberta in 2004. He conducted his undergraduate training with a one-year industrial internship at Raylo Chemicals in Edmonton, receiving the NSERC IURA award and later became an NSERC graduate scholar and an Alberta Ingenuity scholar. He obtained his PhD in 2010 under the supervision of Professor Rik R. Tykwinski, focusing his dissertation on the synthesis and study of polyynes to gain insight into the properties of the elusive sp-allotrope of carbon known as carbyne. He then worked as an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University under the supervision of James L. Leighton from 2010 to 2012, focusing on enantioselective allylation of beta-diketones. In 2012, he joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he worked as an Assistant Professor and progressed to Associate Professor before moving to the University of Alberta in 2023 to take on the role of Professor of Chemistry. His research group is interested in developing novel and efficient bottom-up approaches for the synthesis of both achiral and chiral nanographene structures, investigating fascinating materials through national and international collaborations with applications in nonlinear optics, thin-film transistors, organic light-emitting diodes, organic photovoltaics, synthetic receptors, spintronics, and battery technologies.

Research Interests

Experience