Biography

This is a story all about how Robert’s life got turned, flipped upside down and I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there and I’ll tell you all about how he became a grad student in the lab of Butler. Southern California not born but raised, in the classroom is where he spent most of his days. Studying, relaxing, actin’ all cool, and doing some light gaming outside of school. After a couple of years, they were all pretty good, he decided it was time to try something… new. Despite his failures as a rapper and R&B sensation, he decided that he’d give this whole life thing another college try. And so he decided to try college. While at UCSD he picked up cycling and learned to love the comfortable embrace of spandex. After deftly making his way through his undergraduate education, he decided to ignore the advice of his peers and apply to graduate school. Being of Southern California, his frail, fragile frame could not survive in the harsher climates of the rest of the country. Luckily for him, UCSB was in a wonderful location.  After graciously accepting UCSB’s offer, he started work on organic reaction methodology with Javier Read de Alaniz and eventually found a home in Alison Butler’s group. Robert enjoys medium length walks on the beach, the soft glow of the silver screen, beverages made from malted grains, crafting culinary delights, Carl Sagan, and spending time with friends.

Research Area

Robert is an organic chemist in a bioinorganic laboratory. His research has focused on structure elucidation of siderophores and on the synthesis of siderophore analogues as small molecule models to further understand mussel foot protein adhesion on wet surfaces. He also enjoys talking in the third person apparently.