Faculty and Staff Directory

  • Department Chair, Chemistry
  • Professor, Chemistry
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Biological Sciences

Research Interests

  • Chemical biology: development of novel molecular probes for DNA sequencing analysis and disease gene discovery
  • Medicinal chemistry: development of new imaging and therapeutic agents towards cancer and cardiovascular disease; Design and synthesis of novel prodrugs of peptides and peptide mimetics.
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Psychology and Human Factors

Research Interests

  • Chemical education
  • Technology-supported learning
  • Online and Blended Classrooms
  • Flipped Classrooms
  • Spatial Ability
  • Professor of Chemistry

Links of Interest

Research Group Page

Research Interests

  • Enzyme Reaction Mechanisms and Dynamics
  • Non-Heme Iron Histone Demethylases
  • Multiscale Modeling of Epigenetic Mechanisms
  • Professor, Chemistry
  • Director, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) Program

Research Interests

  • Molecular basis of glycan (carbohydrate)-mediated biological functions
  • Glycan binding proteins or lectins
  • Glycan detection
  • Mechanistic glycobiology
  • Macromolecular communication
  • Biomolecular thermodynamics
  • Professor, Chemistry

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  • Organic Synthesis
  • Nucleic Acid and Peptide Chemistry
  • Organometallic Chemistry
  • Mechanochemistry
  • Epigenetics and Chemical Biology
  • Antisense Drug
Andrew Galerneau

Andrew Galerneau

  • Associate Teaching Professor, Chemistry
  • Laboratory Supervisor
  • Professor Emerita, Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Climate change communication
  • Science-policy interface
  • Youth engagement in climate policy
  • Response of aquatic systems to climate change
  • Great Lakes
  • Fluorescence-based analytical methods
  • Aerosol chemistry
  • Origin and fate of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in terrestrial, lake, and marine environments
  • Methods for detection of free radicals, photochemical transformations of natural and anthropogenic organic compounds in the environment
  • Integration of biological, geological, physical, and chemical data for understanding global cycles.
Katherine Heckman

Katherine Heckman

  • Adjunct Assistant Professor, Chemistry

Specialties

Heckman currently acts as administrator and  coordinator for the Radiocarbon Collaborative, a program designed to increase earth system  researcher access to radiocarbon analysis. Heckman works with academic and government  researchers to integrate radiocarbon analysis into their climate change and carbon cycle research,  and also offers assistance with data interpretation and manuscript preparation. Work supported  by the Radiocarbon Collaborative ranges from wildlife conservation to terrestrial C cycle  research.

  • Professor, Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Synthesizing, processing, and characterizing polymers and composites or nanoparticles
  • Stimulus-response nanoparticles for drug delivery
  • Electrospinning of nanofibers for tissue scaffolds
  • Structured nanoparticles for low-leaching wood preservation
  • Biocomposites and biofibers
  • Studies of controlled nanoscale interfaces of rice-hull reinforced composites
  • Engineered wood- or biopolymer-reinforced composites having improved processing, longevity, moisture resistance, and mechanical properties
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Computational Chemistry
  • Computational Studies of Dynamics and Reaction Mechanisms of Metalloenzymes
  • Collagenolysis and Matrix Metalloproteinases
  • Non-heme Iron DNA-modifying Enzymes
Susan Liebau

Susan Liebau

  • Director, Chemistry Learning Center
  • Chemistry Undergraduate Academic Advisor
  • Professor, Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Synthesis, characterization, biomedical sensing, imaging and therapeutic applications of water-soluble conjugated glycopolymers, glycodendrimers, glyconanoparticles, conjugated polyelectrolytes, small redox-active carbohydrate conjugates, and near-infrared fluorescent probes
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Low-valent molybdenum complexes capable of activating dinitrogen
  • Synthesis and characterization of heteronuclear quadruply bonded metal-metal complexes
  • Molecular dihydrogen compounds
  • Catalytic applications of metal-oxo/peroxo systems in the area of epoxidation of olefins
  • Construction of metallo-framework cluster materials
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Understanding the identities, occurrence, and transformation of aerosol organic compounds
  • Identifying organic aerosol constituents from a variety of atmospheric environments
  • Exploration of new LC column chemistries with ultrahigh pressure pumps for fast and thorough separations
  • Aqueous reaction pathways
Shannon Meller

Shannon Meller

  • Department Coordinator
  • Associate Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Department of Physics

Links of Interest

Teaching Interests

  • Physical-Chemical Treatment Processes
  • Environmental Process and Design
  • Computational Environmental Engineering and Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Sustainable water and wastewater treatment and management
  • Development of assessing and predicting tools for water treatment technologies
  • Innovative water and wastewater treatment technologies for energy saving and harvesting
  • Systematic and integrated understanding of water and wastewater reuse
  • Application of computational chemistry and molecular modeling
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry
  • Affiliated Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  • Surface chemistry and interfacial science 
  • Bridging reactions at the gas/solid and liquid/solid interfaces under model (ultra-high vacuum) and real (near ambient pressure) conditions
  • Growth, properties, and reactions on complex surfaces for energy and environmental applications
  • Designing metal and oxide architectures and nanostructured materials using tailored bottom-up approaches; growth techniques including, atomic layer deposition, physical vapor deposition, self-assembly, solution nucleation
Lorri Reilly

Lorri A. Reilly

  • Lab Supervisor
Dean Seppala

Dean W. Seppala

  • Research Associate
ManishKumar B. Shrivastava

ManishKumar B. Shrivastava

  • Staff Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • Adjunct Professor, Chemistry, Michigan Technological University

Specialties

  • Atmospheric Chemistry
  • Secondary Organic Aerosols
  • Regional and Global Earth Systems Modeling
  • Climate and Health impacts
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Lab Manager, Chemical Advanced Resolution Methods (ChARM) Lab
  • Research Associate, Chemistry
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry
  • Graduate Program Director

Links of Interest

  • Positions are open for undergraduate, M.S. and Ph.D. students and Postdocs

Publications

ORCID

Research Interests

  • Synthesis of molecular probes for evaluating substrate selection by carbohydrate transporters
  • Development of platforms for tumor imaging and drug delivery
  • Design and synthesis of bioreductively-activated DNA repair inhibitors
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry

Links of Interest

Research Interests

  • Understanding the molecular recognition features and assembly mechanisms of gene regulation
  • Associate Dean for Graduate Research and Education, College of Sciences and Arts
  • Faculty Fellow (Research Integrity), Office of the Vice President for Research
  • Professor, Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Identify experimental conditions that can generate diverse aggregated protein structures from the same proteins.
  • Develop novel tools and techniques to differentiate amongst the varied aggregated species of proteins.
  • Understand the relationship between aggregated protein species and its associated cellular toxicity.
Loredana Valenzano-Slough
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
—"Walden" - H.D. Thoreau
  • Associate Professor, Chemistry

Links of Interest

Reviewer for:

  • ACS: JACS, J Phys Chem Lett, J Phys Chem A/C, Inor Chem
  • RSC: J Mat Chem A/B/C, Dalton Trans, CrystEngComm, PCCP, New J Chem
  • Elsevier: Chem Phys Lett, J Solid State Chem, Appl Surf Science, Comp Mat Science, Physica B: Cond Matt
  • Springer: J Porous Mat
  • AIP: J Chem Phys
  • MDPI: Materials

Research Interests

  • Computational characterization of molecules and materials: energetic materials, nanoporous materials, cementing materials, active pharmaceutical ingredients, crystal growth, nucleation, surfaces, effect of defects on the structures and properties of materials, effect of water/solvents on material evolution and degradation, biomolecules