The Houk Lab is fully committed to supporting the principles of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. People of all backgrounds have the right to engage in scientific endeavors without facing discrimination or prejudice. Unfortunately, women and minorities face many barriers in the field of chemistry and are largely underrepresented compared to the general population.

It has consistently been shown that diverse groups are better equipped to tackle complex scientific problems and that diversity fosters innovation. In our lab, we aim to create a healthy, inclusive research environment through the following means:

• Collaborating with a variety of individuals from all over the world

• Actively working to mentor undergraduates and high school students and give them exposure to the field of computational chemistry

• Honoring communication and trust in all our research endeavors

• Respecting all identities and opinions

• Emphasizing the importance of scientific communication in making science more accessible to all backgrounds

• Striving to continually educate ourselves

The Houk Group solves problems in organic and bio-organic chemistry using theoretical and computational methods and programs. Theoretical predictions and designs of new reactions, reagents, and catalysts are tested experimentally in the Houk lab or with collaborators. The group is currently heavily involved in the study of dynamics of chemical reactions and the motions and properties of nanomachines.

The Houk Group conducts research in the following areas:

• Enzyme mechanisms and selectivities

• Prediction of novel catalytic enzymes

• Pericyclases: enzymes that catalyze pericyclic reactions

• Dynamics and properties of nanomachines

• Mechanisms and design of stereoselective organic reactions and catalysts

• Pericyclic reaction mechanisms, rates, and synthetic applications

• Bioorthogonal cycloadditions

• Ambimodal and polypericyclic transition states

• Molecular dynamics of chemical reactions

• Organometallic reaction mechanisms and CH functionalization

• Organic materials, molecular devices, and host-guest chemistry

Professor Houk’s position in the The Academic Tree for Chemistry.

Hat presented to Professor Houk to commemorate his 55 years of [6+4] cycloaddition, showing an ambimodal transition state now known to be involved in the reaction of tropone and dimethylfulvene that he studied in graduate school.

Houk Group postdocs Huiling Shao and Aneta Turlik enjoying Lobster Night at the Gordon Conference on Stereochemistry, July 2022.

Houk Group watch the Dodgers play the Chicago Cubs, July 10, 2022.

Professor Houk and former members of the Houk group at the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC) meeting in Vancouver, Canada, July 2022.

Members of the Houk Group (Pengchen Ma, Qingyang Zhou, Xiangyang Chen, Torben Rogge, Nina Strassner, Aneta Turlik, and Huiling Shao) at the reception for the John D. and Edith M. Roberts Lecture, delivered by Dennis Dougherty, November 18, 2021.

Houk Group watch the Dodgers lose to the Angels in 11 innings and 4.5 hours! August 6, 2021.

New graduate Jonathan Wong and Professor Houk, May 2021.

Houk Group postdoc Dennis Svatunek presenting a poster at the 2019 National Organic Symposium.

Houk Group members Gina Lee and Katherine Bay at the Fourth Annual Southern California Theoretical Chemistry Conference at the University of Southern California, May 18, 2019.