Christian (he/him/his) was born and raised in the northernmost region in the Philippines, Bangui – Ilocos Norte. He moved to Manila and obtained his BS and MS in Chemistry from Far Eastern University and Ateneo de Manila University. In 2016, Christian received his PhD in organic chemistry under the mentorship of Prof. Amy Howell at the University of Connecticut. There he developed various transition metal catalyzed reactions for the selective transformations of heterocyclic compounds. His PhD work was recognized with a Connecticut Chemistry Research Award and by the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry. As a Boehringer Ingelheim PhD fellow, Christian conducted a year of research at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals in CT where he worked on method development for Alzheimer's disease. Christian moved to the University of Michigan to conduct mechanistic organometallic chemistry for reaction discovery with Prof. Melanie Sanford. Recently, Christian became an NIH Pathway to Independence Investigator at the NSF Center for Synthetic Organic Electrochemistry at the University of Utah where he worked on electrocatalysis for organic synthesis.

    In 2022, Christian started his tenure-track appointment as an assistant professor of chemistry at Northwestern University where his group works on the utility of organic synthesis, transition-metal catalysis, and molecular electrochemistry towards the discovery of sustainable organic reactions and the development of next-generation organic-based redox-flow batteries.