Ajdin Kavara is originally from Capljina, Bosnia and Hercegovinia.  He moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1997 and obtained his B.S. in chemistry from Grand Valley State University in 2004.  He did undergraduate research with Prof. Kovacs on heterogeneously catalyzed breakdown of sugars.  His PhD work is focused on CH-activation chemistry using Sn, applications of the products to cross-coupling chemistry, and novel approaches to natural products.