Our productive, externally-funded research group was usually comprised of eight undergraduate and graduate students. The general research focus was the development of new organic synthetic reactions and their application to synthetic problems of current medicinal interest.  We were particularly interested in stereochemically controlled molecular rearrangements, as yields are high and topological control is virtually assured. Successful projects result in the streamlining of existing preparative sequences for compounds already in use, and/or greatly facilitated synthetic accessibility of complex molecules whose current syntheses are inefficient or unwieldly.