Profile

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Role: Faculty
Campus: Springfield

Postal mail

Missouri State University
Chemistry and Biochemistry
901 S. National Ave.
Springfield, MO 65897

Details

Education

  • Ph.D., Chemistry, 1999, University of Missouri-Columbia
  • Human Frontier Science Fellowship, 2001, Institute de Biologie Structurale-Grenoble, FR

Teaching

Chem 160 General Chemistry I

Professional experience

  • Fall 2024 – Spring 2025 Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania
  • Fall 2022 – Fall 2024 Research Associate Professor and Lecturer at Stony Brook University
  • March 2016 – August 2021 Assistant Research Scientist and Lecturer at University of Michigan
  • October 2012 – March 2016 Senior Research Scientist - UT/ORNL Center for Molecular Biophysics
  • July 1999 – September 2012 Senior Scientific Specialist - Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center at Carnegie Mellon University

Research and professional interests

Biomolecular structures have specific functions but also vast evolutionary histories. Thus, over the past 2 decades my research has focused on leveraging molecular phylogenetic analyses to develop hypotheses on biomolecular structure-function relationships. These hypotheses are then examined at the atomic and electronic level with highly accurate quantum chemistry calculations and tested in the lab in collaboration with experimentalists.