Jennifer L. Muzyka
Ewing T. Boles Professor of Chemistry
Offices & Programs
Education
BS: Chemistry, University of Dallas
PhD: Organic Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin.
Expertise
Physical Organic Chemistry and Computational Studies for Drug Discovery; An organic chemist working on a collaborative interdisciplinary team to discover inhibitors of MurA, a bacterial enzyme important in the synthesis of cell walls; Committed to working with students in collaborative research; Develops web-based applications to help students learn organic chemistry.
Biography
Jennifer Muzyka is H. W. Stodghill, Jr. and Adele H. Stodghill Professor of Chemistry at Centre College, where she has taught since 1994.
An organic chemist, Muzyka is committed to working with her Centre students in collaborative research. Her current research involves the structure-based drug design of potential antibiotics, with focus on inhibiting the bacterial enzyme MurA. In 2013-14 she worked with Luke Presson ’16 and Daniel Graham ’16 on computational studies of the enzyme. Griffin Cote ’16, Josh Winner ’14, and Leila Samhat ’16 synthesized potential inhibitors for the enzyme.
Muzyka develops web-based applications such as the Spectral Zoo and the Reaction Zoo to help students learn organic chemistry. Muzyka’s presentations at the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education as well as hit counters on these sites show that faculty and students at other institutions find these tools useful. This year she organized a symposium on the Flipped Classroom for the 2014 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, which was very popular among attendees.
Muzyka has published her research in scholarly journals including the "Journal of Organic Chemistry", "Journal of Physical Chemistry," and "Journal of Chemical Education."
Muzyka received her B.S. from the University of Dallas and her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin.