Reactions involving organic radical intermediates have been traditionally regarded as overly reactive and unselective. Nickel complexes can reversibly coordinate to radicals, and thus modulate the reactivity and control the selectivity of reactions involving radical intermediates. Our research answers fundamental questions, such as "how do nickel complexes initiate radical formation from various precursors", "how do radicals interact with nickel complexes", and "How do ligands serve to stabilize open-shell intermediates and facilitate catalytic reactions?" Mechanistic insight has informed us in the development of a new glycosyl radical precursor for the syntheses of C-glycosides, including nucleoside analogues crucial for drug discovery and chemical biology studies.

Tianning Diao is an Associate Professor of Chemistry. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2012 and conducted postdoctoral research at Princeton University from 2012 to 2014. Since joining the faculty of NYU in 2014, she has focused on understanding the mechanism of nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions and developing new methods to address challenges in organic synthesis of sustainable energy conversion. Diao is a recipient of the NSF-CAREER award (2016), Sloan Research Fellowship (2018) Chinese-American Chemistry Professors Association Distinguished Junior Faculty Award (2018), Organometallics Distinguished Author Award (2018), and Camille-Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2019).