Kevin received his B.S. in Biochemistry and B.A. in Chemistry (with a minor in Biology) from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) in 2017. The following two years he worked under Dr. Young-Seok Shon on ligand-capped palladium nanoparticles that serve as catalysts for selective hydrogenation/isomerization of alkenes and dienes; he received his M.S. in Chemistry in 2019. In his time at CSULB he received several awards including the departmental Organic Chemistry Award, the Outstanding Teaching Associate Award, and the Graduate Dean’s Honor List of Scholars and Artists (awarded to the top 1.5% of graduate students in the College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics). 

He is now in the final semester of his doctoral studies at the University of Southern California, working under Dr. Valery V. Fokin, a pioneer in the field of “click” chemistry. During his time here he was awarded the Anton B. Burg Teaching Pre-Doctoral Teaching Award allowing him to serve as an assistant lecturer for majors organic chemistry.

Kevin has worked on several projects including 1) the development of highly selective covalent μ-opioid receptor antagonists intended for the acute treatment of opioid overdose, 2) the study of 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions conducted “on-water” (heterogeneous aqueous-organic emulsions), 3) and the synthesis of various small molecule SuFEx reagents.