My research program is directed towards the creation, understanding and application of methods for organic synthesis. The approach is to use metals to catalyze or mediate organic reactions which would be difficult or impossible using "classical" methods; to sequence reactions in situ in order to carry out more than one transformation in a single reaction vessel; and to discover new methods to produce chiral organic molecules in a highly (relatively and/or absolutely) stereocontrolled manner. The ultimate goal in the development of new methods is their incorporation in the challenging context of total synthesis of bioactive or structurally interesting molecules (usually natural products).