Faculty Research
All sub-disciplines of chemistry are represented by the exciting
research being carried out by faculty at CSUS’s department of chemistry. Students can work with faculty on projects relating
to the development of new and novel pharmaceuticals, understanding natural and
human disturbed processes occurring in our environment, elucidating important
biochemical pathways, chemical instrumentation development, novel compound
syntheses, computational chemistry, and chemical education, to name a few. Opportunities exist to carry out
interdisciplinary research with researchers in other departments as well as
with other universities and outside agencies.
Many of our faculty have been awarded research grants from external
funding agencies to support their work.
The department is well equipped to carry out research with modern
instrumentation that is available for student use. Most importantly, students get to work
alongside their research advisors and learn in an ideal collaborative
atmosphere.
The following is an
alphabetical list of faculty in the chemistry department who are involved in
research with graduate students. A short
description of research interests is given.
Please contact the individual faculty member for more information, or
see their individual websites if available.
Brad Baker (webpage): Professor Baker’s research interests involve atmospheric
chemistry and the measurement of reactive gasses in the atmosphere,
specifically quantifying the exchange of trace atmospheric gasses between the
biosphere and the atmosphere.
Susan Crawford (webpage): Professor Crawford is involved in several
projects using NMR as a primary tool.
One is the application of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy toward
understanding the deterioration of water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. Another involves the migration of
ions in zeolites.
Roy Dixon (webpage): Professor Dixon is an analytical chemist
interested in development of high performance liquid chromatography detectors
and analysis methods. He also is working
to use such methods to detect organic compound present in atmospheric
particulate matter. Organic compounds
from wood smoke currently are being studied to determine how wood smoke affects
air quality in the
Benjamin Gherman (webpage): Professor Gherman's
research focuses on computational bioinorganic chemistry. He uses computational methods, such as
density functional theory, to study metalloenzymes
and biomimetic systems in order to understand the
enzymes' functions and improve the design of model compounds. Specific interests
include peptide deformylase, which is involved in
bacterial protein synthesis, and chaperone proteins involved in intracellular
copper trafficking.
Cynthia Kellen-Yuen (webpage): Professor Kellen-Yuen
is interested in the area of catalysis, specifically in the design and
synthesis of chiral metalloporphyrins
for use in chiral and stereoselective transformation including asymmetric
cyclopropanation and stereoregular polymerization of epoxides.
Claudia Lucero (webpage): Professor Lucero’s research focuses on the
development of novel strategies that allow for reactions to run in tandem
without the need to purify at each step.
An attractive feature to tandem strategies is the use of the same
catalyst to mediate two sequential reactions.
The goal is to construct enantiomerically pure
molecules, in an expeditious and efficient manner, and to employ these building
blocks for the syntheses of biologically active agents. The research will also focus on studying the
mechanisms of the reactions to explain results.
Mary McCarthy Hintz (webpage): One of Professor McCarthy Hintz's interests
is the study of Vitamin D 24-hydroxylase as an enzyme that inactivates Vitamin
D. She is also developing projects in
the area of biochemical education.
Kathie McReynolds (webpage): Professor McReynolds' research interests
involve the development of new delivery vehicles and targeting strategies of known
inhibitors of HIV. The goal of these
projects is to increase the selectivity of a drug for the virus-infected cells,
and also to improve the antiviral action of moderately active compounds.
James Miranda (webpage): Professor Miranda's research focus is centered
around the development of new reactions for the synthesis of structurally
complex biologically active molecules.
We seek to use a wide variety of reactive intermediates in constant
pursuit of this goal. Equally important
to this task is also the pursuit of understanding these novel reactions at an
elementary, mechanistic level.
Jeffrey Paradis (webpage): Professor Paradis’
research focuses on the scholarship of teaching. Initially he is revising Chemistry 106 to
meet new State standards. He is
interested in studying how new teaching methods affect student learning.
Linda Roberts (webpage): Professor Roberts is interested in structural
analysis of human apolipoprotein A-I and investigation of infection mechanisms
of filamentous phages.
Tom Savage (webpage): Professor Savage’s research focuses on
understanding the regulatory mechanisms controlling the biosynthesis of
commercially-important plant products.
John Spence (webpage): Professor Spence investigates the synthetic organic
chemistry of macrocycles related to porphyrins and calixarenes and their potential to fight cancer.