Chemistry
The Department of Chemistry offers opportunities for students to become involved in original research by working with our faculty members. Our faculty members have research interests in areas such as inorganic, organic, biological, analytical, physical, and theoretical chemistry.
* These faculty members are NSERC Awardees and eligible to work with Undergraduate Student Research holders. (USRA)
Dr. Cory Beshara has held a tenure-track Assistant Professorship at UFV over the past four years, with a concurrent adjunct position at UVic. His current research interests in molecular recognition and bioanalytical chemistry is the result of a broad chemical education beginning with a BSc in biochemistry with a biotechnology option (2000) where, in addition to general exposure to molecular biological techniques, he developed a penchant for organic synthesis. Cory then began a very successful PhD with Alison Thompson at Dalhousie University in 2001 where he became an expert in pyrrole chemistry, publishing six papers. During the course of his PhD, Cory undertook a student exchange at Cardiff University in Wales, UK under the supervision of Nicholas Tomkinson. The exchange was three months in duration and garnered two first-author publications and technology transfer of reagents to Sigma-Aldrich chemical company (catalogue number 669407 and 669393). Three post-doctoral positions in medicinal chemistry (2006 with DF Weaver, Dalhousie), molecular recognition (2007-2009 with F Hof, UVic), and protein engineering (2009-2010 with RE Campbell, U Alberta) allowed a further four publications concerning molecular recognition and physical organic chemistry. Cory is applying his knowledge broadly with experience in pyrolytic plastic decomposition to fuel oil, which was supported by an NSERC Engage grant (joint with Noham Weinberg); and, the synthesis of ion recognition motifs that will be applied to a broad range of interests from medicinal targets, to agriculture and the environment, to high-pressure studies aimed at understanding molecular recognition in living systems in the ocean deep. During his time at UFV Cory has supervised a number of undergraduate student researchers.
Linus graduated from Simon Fraser University (SFU) with his B.Sc. in 2009, then completed his Ph.D studies with Prof. Tim Storr at SFU in 2014. He then conducted his postdoctoral studies with Prof. T. Daniel P. Stack at Stanford University studying Cu-containing enzymatic models. He joined the Department of Chemistry at UFV in 2016, where he currently leads a research team that focuses on the study of biologically-inspired inorganic catalysis. The design of these compounds are inspired by enzymes (such as hydrogenase, galactose oxidase and photosystems) that make use of earth-abundant transition metals to catalyze challenging chemical transformations at exceptional efficiencies.
Global energy demands are currently met by fossil fuels combustion, which produces greenhouse gases (like carbon dioxide) that have been associated with global warming. The Chiang research team focuses on investigating inorganic compounds that imitates the structure of the aforementioned enzymatic active sites to catalyze the production of alternative fuels (i.e. hydrogen). These compounds can be tuned through systematic electronic or structural modifications, which will ultimately be studied as alternative fuel production catalysts electrochemically or photochemically (i.e. sunlight).
Interested students are encouraged to contact him directly by at linus.chiang@ufv.ca!
Dr. David Fenske, whose research involves lipid nanoparticles and their applications in drug delivery, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at UFV where he has taught for the last 9 years. Prior to that David was a Research Associate in the Liposome Research Unit headed by Prof. Pieter Cullis at UBC, before which he spent two years studying membrane NMR at the National Research Council of Canada. He completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry (Biochemistry) at Simon Fraser University in 1998, where he studied membrane NMR and the properties of the human plasma lipoproteins. The focus of David’s current research program involves the generation of lipid nanoparticles, and maximizing the uptake and retention of chemotherapeutic agents. Current projects involve lipid nanoparticles containing novel new cholesterol-containing synthetic lipids, and the surfactant sarkosyl, as well as measurements of the trapped volume of lipid nanoparticles by atomic absorption spectroscopy. David’s research on environmentally friendly solvents for remediation of petroleum-contaminated soils was supported by an NSERC Engage grant (joint with Noham Weinberg). David has published 25 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and 13 review articles on lipid nanoparticles as drug delivery systems, the use of pH gradients in drug-loading and transbilayer transport, and the functional roles of lipids in membranes. He supervised numerous research students at UBC and UFV.
Dr. Golfam Ghafourifar received her Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from the Université de Montréal where she worked with Prof. Karen Waldron on the characterization of glutaraldehyde-immobilized chymotrypsin and an in-situ immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER) using capillary electrophoresis-based peptide mapping. Since becoming a faculty member at UFV in 2016, Golfam has established her independent research program that involves undergraduate student researchers. Currently, her research is focused on developing microscale immobilized enzyme reactor fabrication protocol for proteomics studies. Enzyme immobilization is a novel method whereby autoproteolysis decreases significantly; therefore, a proteolytic enzyme can be used at higher enzyme-to-substrate ratio while cleaving proteins, for faster reaction. Immobilized enzyme reactors (IMERs), once seen only in process chemistry, are being used more frequently in proteomics studies for protein digestion.
Her research will contribute to proteomic studies by developing innovative strategies for in-situ of immobilized enzyme in capillary tubes using capillary electrophoresis (CE) while the immobilization process is automated. The research can aid in the throughput of biomedical applications such as biomarker discovery.
Dr. Jason Thomas received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. For his Ph.D. research on the mechanisms of catalytic nucleic acids, he was awarded the Boehringer-Ingelheim Award by the Canadian Society for Chemistry, which recognizes annually the top Canadian Ph.D. thesis across the fields of organic and biological chemistry. As a postdoctoral research fellow at Simon Fraser University, he worked on the development of a new class of DNA-based electrochemical sensors for disease biomarkers. Currently, he is involved with a collaborative research effort with other UFV faculty members as part of the Center for High Pressure Research.
Dr. Noham Weinberg received his M.Sc. in physical chemistry and Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry in Moscow and has been a member of the UFV Chemistry Department since 1994. He was a visiting scientist at the University of Vienna, Princeton University, and University of Oita, Japan and has been an Adjunct Professor with the Department of Chemistry, SFU since 1994. He has supervised and co-supervised a number of graduate and undergraduate students at UFV and SFU and is the director of the UFV Molecular Modeling Lab, which over the past ten years housed more than 60 undergraduate student researchers, many of whom continued as graduate students at various Canadian universities. Noham’s research focuses on computer modeling of chemical reactions and equilibria with a specific interest in the properties of chemical and biochemical systems at elevated temperatures and pressures. His research has been supported by NSERC Discovery and Engage grants (the latter jointly with David Fenske and Cory Beshara) and enabled by the use of the WestGrid supercomputer facilities. He has been involved in a number of research collaborations, nationally and internationally. Noham is a recipient of the 2013 UFV Research Excellence Award.