Hans Renata, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at Rice University,  moved to the U.S. after completing his high school education in Singapore. Dr. Renata received his B.A. degree from Columbia University in 2008, conducting research under the tutelage of Professor Tristan H. Lambert. He earned his Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute in 2013 under the guidance of Professor Phil S. Baran. After postdoctoral studies with Professor Frances H. Arnold at the California Institute of Technology, he started his independent career at The Scripps Research Institute in 2016.

Dr. Renata is an organic chemist with research focusing on the nexus of synthetic chemistry, biocatalysis, and natural product chemical biology. His research focuses on the development of new biocatalytic methods and chemoenzymatic strategies to prepare complex, bioactive molecules.

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Hans Renata, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at Rice University,  moved to the U.S. after completing his high school education in Singapore. Dr. Renata received his B.A. degree from Columbia University in 2008, conducting research under the tutelage of Professor Tristan H. Lambert. He earned his Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute in 2013 under the guidance of Professor Phil S. Baran. After postdoctoral studies with Professor Frances H. Arnold at the California Institute of Technology, he started his independent career at The Scripps Research Institute in 2016.

Dr. Renata is an organic chemist with research focusing on the nexus of synthetic chemistry, biocatalysis, and natural product chemical biology. His research focuses on the development of new biocatalytic methods and chemoenzymatic strategies to prepare complex, bioactive molecules. For these efforts, he has received several notable awards, such as the NSF CAREER award, the Sloan fellowship, the Chemical and Engineering News "Talented 12" and the Arthur C. Cope Scholar award. In July 2022, he accepted a position at Rice University with the support of  a CPRIT Recruitment of Rising Stars award.

 By combining the power of modern enzyme engineering tools and advances in genome mining, Dr. Renata's group aims to develop practical enzymatic solutions for traditionally challenging organic reactions, especially in the realm of C–H functionalization chemistry. The utility of these transformations will be showcased in the concise, scalable synthesis of bioactive natural products and their analogues, which in turn will serve as potential leads in drug discovery efforts or novel chemical probes to interrogate various cellular processes. These goals are pursued through collaborative efforts that take advantage of Rice's unique proximity to the Texas Medical Center. 

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