Bio-Inspired Approaches to Functional Molecules and Materials

9:00 - 11:00 a.m. - Jimenez Room

Dr. Jeffery Davis, Dept. of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Maryland, Title: "Non-Covalent Synthesis Using Natural and Unnatural Building Blocks"

Dr. Charles Nakamura, DuPont, Title: "Metabolic engineering for the microbial production of 1,3-propanediol"

Dr. Colin Nuckolls, Columbia University, Title: "Creating Nanostructured Materials Through Self-Assembly"

Organized and Moderated by Dr. Lyle Isaacs, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland

JEFFERY DAVIS, PH.D. Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland. Dr. Davis and his research group work on problems in molecular self-assembly and molecular recognition. He received his B.A. from Colby College and earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from MIT in 1987 under the guidance of Professor Satoru Masamune. After 3 years as Group Leader of Bio-organic Chemistry at Genzyme Co., he continued his training in NMR spectroscopy of biomolecules with Professor Brian Reid at the University of Washington, where he was an NIH post-doctoral fellow. In 1993 he joined the faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Maryland.

CHARLES NAKAMURA, PH.D. Senior Research Associate, DuPont.   A native of Baltimore, Charles Nakamura earned degrees in art and design and biology from MIT in 1974. He received his doctorate in biochemistry from Brandeis University in 1986 and conducted post-doctoral work in enzyme mechanisms at Brown University from 1985 to 1988.   Nakamura joined DuPont Central Research & Development in 1988. In 1994 he was one of two scientists to begin charting a biological route to 1,3-propanediol (PDO) production.   PDO is a key component of Sorona, a next generation Nylon.   A manufacturing facility in Loudon, TN designed to produce 100 million lbs. of PDO per year is in construction.

COLIN NUCKOLLS, PH.D. Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Columbia University.   Professor Nuckolls received degrees from the University of Texas, Austin (B.S.) and Columbia University (Ph.D.) and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Scripps before joining the faculty at Columbia in 2000.   His research interests focus on the use of self-assembly as a route to the preparation of structurally complex and functional molecular electronics systems.   Nuckolls was a funding member of an NSF Nanocenter: The Columbia Center for Electronic Transport in Molecular Nanostructures and has garnered numerous honors including Beckman Young Investigator, Sloan Research Fellowship, and Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar awards.

 

 

 

For more information about the Bioscience Research & Technology Review Day, please contact Gene Ferrick at (301) 405-7016, or gene@umd.edu.