Craig Day
Assistant Professor (University of Copenhagen)
Craig is a leading expert in the application of catalysis to challenges in sustainable chemistry. He was born in Toronto, Canada, and graduated with a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from York University in 2016 under his advisor Michael Organ. Craig then earned his M.Sc with Deryn Fogg at the University of Ottawa, Canada in 2019. He then earned his Ph.D with Ruben Martin at the ICIQ, Spain while also working with John Hartwig at UC Berkeley, USA studying the mechanism of Ni-catalyzed reactions.
This was followed by a postdoc with Troels Skrydstrup at Aarhus University, Denmark and Jeremiah Johnson at MIT, USA working on polymer upcycling strategies and developing isotope labelling strategies. Craig joined the faculty of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen in 2025 as an assistant professor.
Among Craig’s many awards and honors are a IUPAC-SOLVAY PhD award, given to the best 5 chemistry PhDs globally, the Scripps-Sinocompound Young Investigator Award, the BASF PhD award and Lilly-RSEQ PhD award . He is the Danish representitive of the Organometallics Division of EuChemS , is a member of the Danish Young Academy of Science (YATSI) and lives in Copenhagen with his wife, Stephanie, and dog.
Education
2019-2022
Ph.D.
Insitut Catala D´Investigacio Quimica (ICIQ), Spain
Thesis: Understanding Nickel Catalysis at the Molecular Level: Insights into C-O Functionalization and Electron Transfer Events.
Awarded numerous recognitions such as IUPAC-SOLVAY PhD Award, BASF-ICIQ PhD award, Doctoral Excellence Award, Lilly-RSEQ PhD award, and graduated Cum Laude.
2017-2019
M.Sc.
University of Ottawa, Canada
Thesis: Efficient New Routes to Leading Ruthenium Catalysts, and Studies of Bimolecular Loss of Alkylidene
2012-2016
B.Sc.
York University, Canada
Thesis: Immobilization of Pd-PEPPSI-IPentCl