Joseph M Keane Professor |
Education
Teaching Interests
any of my favorite courses share a common theme of exploring the relationship between structure and function. In chemistry, we develop models, or ways of thinking about, the structures of atoms, molecules, and materials. We use these models to understand and explain the properties and behaviors of the substances we interact with every day. Muhlenberg students regularly take the structural understanding they develop in chemistry courses and apply it to such diverse fields as clinical medicine, pharmaceutical development and alternative-energy research.
Research, Scholarship or Creative/Artistic Interests
My research group is engaged in an ambitious effort to develop new reactions that might be useful for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and other small molecules of interest. We study compounds in which an organic component wraps around a heavy metal, such as molybdenum or tungsten, to give a molecule that has a well-defined and interesting shape. Precedent suggests that the shapes we are observing can be used to control other reactions facilitated by the metal, in a manner similar to the way enzymes work.