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 4th year of his doctoral studies at the University of Southern California, working under Dr. Valery V. Fokin, a pioneer in the field of “click” chemistry. Kevin has several projects ongoing, including 1) the study of 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions conducted “on-water” (heterogeneous aqueous-organic emulsions), 2) the synthesis of sulfonyl fluoride decorated naloxone derivatives as covalent antagonist of the µ-opioid receptor, 3) inducing triazole ring-opening reactions by visible-light photoredox catalysis.