Selective oxidation chemistry represents one of the foremost challenges in the worldwide chemical industry, and the use of molecular oxygen as a stoichiometric oxidant would confer significant economic and environmental benefits. The oxidation of organic chemicals with molecular oxygen generally requires catalysts in order to prevent deep oxidation to carbon dioxide and water. This talk will highlight our recent research focused on development and understanding of palladium-catalyzed aerobic oxidation reactions. These methods are compatible with a wide range of chemical transformations including oxygenation, amination, and dehydrogenation of organic substrates.