Department welcomes three new tenure track professors
8/14/08
Three new tenure track professors join the faculty of the Department of Chemistry & Physics this year.
Dr. Yingchun Li (organic chemistry) received his Ph.D. from the University of Houston and was then a postdoc in Dr. Raushel's Group at Texas A&M University. Dr. Li is interested in synthesizing and developing synthetic methodology for compounds that can be used as catalysts, enzyme inhibitors, and/or materials with special properties.
Dr. Jean Fotie (organic chemistry) was a DAAD Visiting PhD student at Potsdam University, Germany in 2001-2002, and he received his PhD from the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon, in 2004. He has been a AUF-Postdoctoral Scholar at Mcgill University, Canada, 2004-2006 and a WHO/TDR Research Scholar at Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, USA, from 2006-2008. Dr. Fotie’s research focuses on medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy. Broadly stated, his research interests are in the general area of Organic Medicinal Chemistry, and specifically focused on biologically active natural products as potential lead compounds for the treatment of protozoan diseases: isolation, total synthesis, lead optimization, structure-activity relationship
studies, investigation of the possible mode of action, and rational design in
drug discovery.
Dr. Zhengrong Li (inorganic chemistry) comes to us from Texas Tech University. His research interests are in inorganic (organometallic) chemistry, material chemistry using unconventional synthetic approaches. At present, the majority of Dr. Li’s research efforts is centered on the synthesis of novel inorganic materials with unique and tunable properties with application of high-intensity ultrasonic radiation. Specifically, Dr. Li does work in reductive sonochemical synthesis and in developing sonochemical organic reactions.