Kenneth K. Laali

Kenneth K. Laali (BSc, PhD, FRSC) is Presidential Professor of Chemistry at University of North Florida (UNF) and previously served as the Founding Chair of Chemistry. He completed his PhD in the UK at University of Manchester in 1977 and after postdoctoral stints at King’s College London, University of Strasbourg, University of Amsterdam, and at ETH-Zurich, he moved to University of Southern California in 1982 to work with Prof. George Olah (Nobel Laureate 1994). He began his independent academic career at Kent State University (Ohio, USA) in 1985, where he went through the ranks and became full Professor in 1996. In 2009, he moved to UNF.

He has authored and coauthored over 280 peer-reviewed publications, reviews, books/monographs and patents.

Research in the Laali laboratory has focused on multifaceted projects that combine synthetic, structural/mechanistic, and theoretical approaches. Prof. Laali’s research contributions in generation and NMR studies of carbocations, onium ions, and in organofluorine and superacid chemistry are internationally recognized.

In the past decade, he has directed much of his attention to synthetic method development and catalysis in ionic liquids, and more recently to drug discovery projects.