James Ciaccio

• Full Professor at Fordham University
• Associate Professor at Fordham University
• Assistant Professor at Fordham University
• Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Bard College (1989-90)
• Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Bucknell University (1988-89)
• Camille & Henry Dreyfus Postdoctoral Teaching & Research Fellow at Bucknell University (H. W. Heine)
• Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stony Brook University (1988, T. W. Bell)
• B.Sc. in Chemistry from SUNY, Oneonta (1982)

My primary research interests are in the following areas: 1) devising novel, project-oriented and/or discovery-based experiments for the undergraduate organic teaching laboratory that combine synthesis or natural product isolation, spectral analysis and mechanistic discovery; 2) synthetic organic chemistry, including the development of new or improved organic synthetic methods with emphasis on chemo- and regioselective reactions of epoxides and epoxide synthesis.

Highly Reversed Diastereoselective Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley (MPV) Reductions of Benzoin and Benzoin Pivalate Leading to meso- and dl-Hydrobenzoins: A Collaborative Stereochemical Investigation Using NMR Spectroscopy and Chemical Synthesis, Shahrokh Saba, James A. Ciaccio and Pooja Grewal, Journal of Chemical Education 2024, 101(1), 151–157.

Isolation of Sesamin from Consumer Goods and Investigation of Its Acid- Epimerization: An Introductory Organic Lab Experiment Combining Natural Product Isolation and Spectral Analysis, James A. Ciaccio, Baran Ak and Kareem Hassan, Journal of Chemical Education 2023, 100(7), 2739-2745.

Evidence For Cannabidiol Modulation of Serotonergic Transmission in a Model of Osteoarthritis via in vivo PET Imaging and Behavioral Assessment, Yu-Shin Ding, Jiacheng Wang, Vinay Kumar, James Ciaccio, Sami Dakhel, Cathy Tan, Jonathan Kim, Sabrina Lee, Hilla Katz-Lichtenstein, Zakia Gironda, Orin Mishkit, Jakub Mroz, Raul Jackson, Grace Yoon, Begona Gamallo-Lana, Molly Klores, Adam Mar, International Journal of Innovative Research in Medical Science 2022, 7(6), 254–271.

Rapid Isolation of Plant Essential Oil Components by Small-Scale Dry Column Vacuum Chromatography: An Experiment Combining Natural Product Isolation and Antibacterial Testing, J. A. Ciaccio and Baran Ak, Journal of Chemical Education 2022, 99(7), 2704-2709.

Modified Method for Extraction of Photosynthetic Plant Pigments for Microcolumn Chromatography, James A. Ciaccio and Kareem Hassan, Journal of Chemical Education 2020, 97(8), 2362-2365.

Using NMR Spectroscopy and Chemical Synthesis to Establish Diastereoselectivity of NaBH and Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley (MPV) Reduction of (+/-)-Benzoin Isopropyl Ether: A Collaborative Discovery-Based Laboratory Experiment, Shahrokh Saba, James A. Ciaccio, Lauren McMann and Tamilla Tariverdieva, Journal of Chemical Education 2020, 97(5), 1418-1424.

Probing the Reactivity of Cyclic N,O-Acetals vs. Cyclic O,O-Acetals with NaBH4 and CH3MgI, James A. Ciaccio, Shahrokh Saba, Samantha Bruno, John H. Bruppacher and Alexa G. McKnight, Journal of Chemical Education 2018, 95(6), 1045-1049.

Reaction of Orthoesters with Amine Hydrochlorides: An Introductory Organic Lab Experiment Combining Synthesis, Spectral Analysis, and Mechanistic Discovery, Shahrokh Saba and James A. Ciaccio, Journal of Chemical Education 2016, 93(5), 945-948.

Crystal Structure of 2α-(1,1-Diphenylethyl)-4-methyl-4α,5α-diphenyl-1,3-dioxolane: the Result of a Non-acid Pinacol Rearrangement, Richard M. Kirchner, Peter W. R. Corfield, Michelle Annabi, John Regan, Kevin Speina, Anthony DiProperzio, James A. Ciaccio and Joseph F. Capitani, Acta Crystallographica 2015, E71, 1278–1282.

Isolation and Identification of Nepetalactone Diastereomers from Commercial Samples of Nepeta cataria L. (Catnip): an Introductory Organic Laboratory Experiment, James A. Ciaccio, Rabeka Alam, Christina D. D'Agrosa, Amanda E. Deal and David Marcelin, Journal of Chemical Education 2013, 90(5), 646-650.

Probing the Reactivity of Dimethylsulfoxonium Methylide with Conjugated and Nonconjugated Carbonyl Compounds: an Undergraduate Experiment Combining Synthesis, Spectral Analysis and Mechanistic Discovery, James A. Ciaccio, Elena L. Guevara, Rabeka Alam, and Christina D. D'agrosa, Journal of Chemical Education 2010, 87(8), 850-853.

Synthesis and Positron Emission Tomography Studies of C-11-Labeled Isotopomers and Metabolites of GTS-21, a Partial alpha-7 Nicotinic Cholinergic Agonist Drug, Sung Won Kim, Yu-Shin Ding, David Alexoff, Vinal Patel, Jean Logan, Kuo-Shyan Lin, Colleen Shea, Lisa Muench, Youwen Xu, Pauline Carter, Payton King, Jasmine R. Constanzo, James A. Ciaccio, Joanna S. Fowler, Nuclear Medicine and Biology 2007, 34(5), 541-551.

Straightforward Synthesis and NMR Spectral Analysis of Amine Heterocycles: Discovering the Effect of Asymmetry on the 1H and 13C NMR Spectra of N,O-Acetals, Shahrokh Saba, James A. Ciaccio, Jennifer Espinal, and Courtney E. Aman, Journal of Chemical Education 2007, 84, 1011-1013.

'Instant Methylide' Modification of the Corey-Chaykovsky Cyclopropanation Reaction, James A. Ciaccio and Courtney E. Aman, Synthetic Communications 2006, 36, 1333-1341.

Synthesis of -Hydroxy Nitriles and 1,3-Amino Alcohols from Epoxides using Acetone Cyanohydrin as a LiCN Precursor, James A. Ciaccio, Michael Smrtka, William A. Maio, and David Rucando, Tetrahedron Letters 2004, 45, 7201-7204.

'Instant Methylide' Modification of the Corey-Chaykovsky Epoxide Synthesis, James A. Ciaccio, Antoinette L. Drahus, Regina Meis, Carice T. Tingle, Michael Smrtka, and Richard Geneste, Synthetic Communications 2003, 33, 2135-2143.

Diastereoselective Synthesis of (+/-)-1,2-Diphenyl-1,2-propanediol. A Discovery-based Grignard Reaction for a Large Organic Lab Course, James A. Ciaccio, Roxana P. Bravo, Antoinette L. Drahus, John B. Biggins, Rosalyn V. Concepcion, David Cabrera, Journal of Chemical Education 2001, 78, 531-533.

Grignard Reaction of an Epoxide. A Mechanistic Study, James A. Ciaccio, Sabrina Volpi and Ransford Clarke, Journal of Chemical Education 1996, 73, 1196-1198.

Diastereospecific Synthesis of an Epoxide. An Introductory Experiment in Organic Synthetic and Mechanistic Chemistry, James A. Ciaccio, Journal of Chemical Education 1995, 72, 1037-1039.

Alkylative Epoxide Rearrangement. A Stereospecific Approach to Chiral Epoxide Pheromones, Thomas W. Bell and James A. Ciaccio, Journal of Organic Chemistry 1993, 58, 5153-5162.

Facile Conversion of Epoxides to β-Hydroxy Nitriles Under Anhydrous Conditions with Lithium Cyanide, James A. Ciaccio, Catherine Stanescu and Jongnic Bontemps, Tetrahedron Letters 1992, 33, 1431-1434.

Regio- and Chemoselective Ring Opening of Epoxides to Bromohydrins with Dilithium Tetrabromocuprate, James A. Ciaccio, Elizabeth Heller and Adrian Talbot, Synlett 1991, 248-250.