Thesis advisor: Jason Kingsbury / Recent findings have led to the discovery that the Sc-catalyzed addition of substituted diazoalkanes to aldehydes elegantly affords a net carbon insertion into the C-H bond, delivering the requisite ketone in one simple step with no need for a readjustment in oxidation state. This chemistry is much improved over the century old diazomethane chemistry which requires stoichiometric amounts of a promoter and is limited in both application and scope. The new catalytic method has now been utilized as the key step in the synthesis of the pseduosymmetric precursor to the natural product achyrofuran, which has been named “pre-achyrofuran.” Subsequently, a related project was pursued involving the desymmetrization of bicyclic β-diketones by catalytic carbon insertion with trimethylsilyldiazomethane as the reagent. Preliminary developments in this area are disclosed. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry Honors Program. / Discipline: Chemistry.