Kevin Kou

Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Education

• University of Victoria - B.Sc. in Chemistry (Honors with Distinction, 2009)
• University of Toronto - Ph.D in Chemistry (2015)
• University of California, Berkeley - NSERC Postdoc. Fellow (2015-2018)

Bio

Kevin Kou was born in Victoria, British Columbia, and obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Victoria, during which time he worked in the labs of Neuromed Technologies, Targanta Therapeutics, TRIUMF Radiochemistry, and Professor Jeremy Wulff. In 2009, he began graduate research studying asymmetric catalysis and mechanisms with Professor Vy Dong at the University of Toronto and relocated with her group to UC Irvine in 2012 where he completed his Ph.D. as a visiting scholar. He was awarded an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship in 2015 to work with Professor Richmond Sarpong at UC Berkeley. His research interests at UC Riverside encompasses discovering new chemical reactivity, catalysis, and natural product synthesis.

Awards​

• NSF CAREER Award (2024)
• Thieme Chemistry Journals Award (2019)
• NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2015-2017)
• NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship, CGS-D (2011-2014)
• Leslie Gladstone Cook Memorial Fellowship (2011)
• John F. Reeves Memorial Award (2010)
• Edwin Walter and Margery Warren Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (2009-2010)
• Helen Sawyer Hogg Scholarship (2009)
• Hugh and Lilian Salmond Scholarship in Chemistry (2007)
• Chemistry Institute of Canada (CIC) Seminar Prize (2007)