With the support of the Chemical Synthesis Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor László Kürti of Rice University is studying the development of reactions to build nitrogen-containing molecules—compounds commonly found in medicines, crop-protection agents, and functional materials. These new synthetic strategies break weak N-O bonds to drive the formation of stronger bonds, use readily available building blocks and avoid reliance on expensive precious metal catalysts or harmful reagents. In addition, Professor Kürti leads a long-standing K–12 outreach program called “Fun with Chemistry,” which reaches over 8,000 students annually in the Houston area. The program promotes STEM education through live demonstrations and hands-on activities. This project focuses on reagent-controlled strategies to construct diverse N-heterocycles by harnessing the cleavage of weak N–O bonds to drive C–C and C–N bond formation. Key approaches include the development of [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements of N-alkenyl and N-aryl O-vinylhydroxylamines and O-dihalocyclopropyl hydroxylamines to access fully substituted pyrroles, indoles, and halogenated indolines. Additionally, new intermolecular and intramolecular amination reactions using amphoteric O-sulfonyl hydroxylamines are being explored for their ability to engage both electrophilic and nucleophilic partners. These activities are expanding the toolkit of operationally simple, catalyst-free reactions and providing broadly useful metho