Faculty and Staff
Chemistry Faculty
Daniel Autrey, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chemistry, Chair
Physical Chemistry
B.S., Southeast Missouri State University
Ph.D., Texas A & M University
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 305C
Phone: (910) 672-1354
E-mail: dautrey
Research interests: Biological Raman spectroscopy.
Darren Pearson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chemistry, Assistant Chair
Organic Chemistry
B.S., Virgina Politechnic Institute and State University
Ph.D., University of South Carolina - Columbia
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 305B
Phone: (910) 672-2073
E-mail: dpearson
Research interests: Synthesis, characterization, and application of conducting rigid rod organic oligomers for use in molecular rectifiers, transistors, and other electronic devices.
Cevdet Akbay, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry
Analytical Chemistry
B.S., Inonu University, Turkey
M.S. & Ph.D., Louisiana State University
Office: Lyons Science Annex Building (LSA) 336
Phone: (910) 672-1943
E-mail: cakbay
Research interests: Separation of small and large molecules using capillary electrophoresis (CE) - micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC).
Bidisha Bose-Basu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Organic Chemistry
B.S. & M.S. University of Calcutta, India
Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, IN
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 311
Phone: (910) 672-1052
E-mail: bbosebas
Research interests: Carbohydrate and nucleic acid structure, and structural aspects of protein-DNA interaction. Initiating new research on natural products.
Jonathan Breitzer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Inorganic Chemistry
B.A., Grinnell College
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 310
Phone: (910) 672-1176
E-mail: jbreitzer
Research interests: Cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries; sulfur-rich molecules; synthesis of nanoscale materials; demonstrations for chemical education.
Jairo Castillo-Chara, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry
Physical Chemistry
B.S., Universidad del Valle, Cali-Colombia
M.S., University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez , PR
Ph.D., Texas A & M University, College Station, TX
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 313
Phone: (910) 672-2062
E-mail: jcastill
Research interests: Computational chemistry.
Shubo Han, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry, Coordinator of FSU/NCSU 3+2 Dual Degree Engineering Programs
Analytical Chemistry, Nanoscience
B.E., Hebei University of Science and Technology
M.S. & Ph.D., University of Science and Technology of China
Office: Lyons Science Annex Building (LSA) 334
Phone: (910) 672-1303
E-mail: shan
Research interests: Protein interactions in neurodegenerative diseases, nanomaterials, biosensors, electrochemistry.
Hengguang Li, Ph.D.
Lecturer/Instrument Laboratory Technician
Organic and Medical Chemistry
B.S., Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
M.S., Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry Chinese Academy
Ph.D., Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 307
Phone: 910-672-2651
E-mail: hli
Research Interests: Bioactive molecules including small molecules and macro compounds in application of medicine, pharmaceuticals, materials, agriculture, environment, and new energy. Particular interest is aptamer and aptbody.
Subir Nagdas, Ph.D.
Professor of Biochemistry
Biochemistry
B.S. & M.S., Calcutta University, Calcutta, India
Ph.D., Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India
Office: Lyons Science Annex Building (LSA) 336
Phone: (910) 672-2073
E-mail: snagdas
Research interests: Identification and characterization of acrosomal enzymes and acrosomal protein-protein interactions to elucidate their physiological roles in mammalian fertilization.
Ali Siamaki, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Organic Chemistry
M.S., University of Calgary, Canada
Ph.D., McGill University, Canada
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 320
Phone: (910) 672-1619
E-mail: asiamaki
Research interests: Heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis, metal nanoparticles synthesis and characterization, metal catalyzed reactions including cross coupling reactions, and Microwave and continuous flow reactions.
Physics and Materials Science Faculty
Abdirahman Abokor, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Physics
B.S., Somali National University
Ph.D., Texas Tech University
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 321
Phone: (910) 672-1358
E-mail: aabokor
Research interests: Theoretical nuclear structure, particularly the hadron-quark hybrid model and the structure of light nuclei using wave functions derived from realistic potentials.
Bhoj Raj Gautam, Ph. D. 
Assistant Professor of Physical Science
B.S. Tribhuvan University, Nepal
M.S. Tribhuvan University, Nepal
Ph. D. University of Utah, UT
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 315
Phone: (910) 672-1653
Email: bgautam
Research Interests: Steady state and time resolved optical spectroscopy, charge and thermal transport in light harvesting materials, energy up-conversion in polymer and organic inorganic perovskites, polymer chemistry, material science and solid state physics.
Joseph W. Kabbes, M.S.
Lecturer/Planetarium Manager
B.S., Civil Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana
M.S., Astronomy, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 312
Phone: (910) 672-2651
E-mail: jkabbes
Research Interests: Astronomy education and public outreach activities; create educational programs and increase public knowledge of planetarium and observatory.
Zhiping Luo, Ph.D.
Professor of Materials Science
SENCR-MIC Director
Materials Science and Engineering
B.E., Dalian Jiaotong University, China
M.S.E., Southwest Jiaotong University, China
Ph.D., Chinese Aeronautical Establishment
Office: Lyons Science Annes Building 234
Phone: (910) 672-2647
E-mail: zluo
Research interests: Fabrication of novel nanostructured materials with enhanced performance for energy-related applications; luminescence and radiation detection; material structures through electron microscopy; material structure-property correlations.
John Mattox, Ph.D.
Professor of Astronomy & Physics
B.S., University of Florida
Ph.D., Stanford University
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 319
Phone: (910) 672-1652
E-mail: jmattox
Research interests: astrophysics, sustainability, and physics education.
Alex Umantsev, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics
B.S., Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology
M.S., Moscow Institute for Transportation and Engineering
Ph.D., National Research Lab for Metallurgy, Moscow
Office: Lyons Science Annex Building (LSA) 322
Phone: (910) 672-1449
E-mail: aumantsev
Research interests: Condensed- and soft-matter physics, computational materials physics and biophysics; particularly processes of pattern formation, nonequilibrium thermodynamic and dynamics of interfaces, theoretical methods and computer.
Staff
Administrative Associate
Science and Technology B. 305
Phone: (910) 672-2441
E-mail: bfuller
Ivy Rittenhouse
Research Operation Coordinator
Lyons Science B. 305
Science and Technology B. 440
Phone: (910) 672-1054
E-mail: irittenhouse
Grace Chavis, M.S.
Research Technician
Science and Technology B. 232A
Phone: (910) 672-1860
E-mail: gchavis
Academic Advisor
Science and Technology B. 112
Phone: 910-672-2913
Email: cdmarshall01
Retired Faculty
Rahi, Gurcharan, Ph.D.
Professor of Physical Sciences
Wu, Jianshi, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics
Adjunct Faculty
Jainab Khatun, Ph.D.
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Theoretical Physical Science
B.S., M.S.: University of Calcutta, India
Ph.D.:Jadavpur University, Calcutta-India
E-mail: jkhatun
Research Interests: Bioinformatics, biostatistics, proteomics and genomics. Specific interest is to develope software for predictive modeling and to aid in data analysis processes.
Ana Claudia Lemes da Silva, Ph.D.
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Analytical Chemistry
B.S., M.S., Ph.D.: Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil
E-mail: adasilva
Research Interests: Chemical education: Development of experiments and other resources to facilitate the learning of chemical concepts. Analytical Chemistry: method development. Chromatography and separation methods. Solid phase micro extraction.
Caroline Sloan, Ph.D.
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Chemistry EducationB.S., Concordia University
M.S., University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign
Ph.D., North Carolina State University
Office: Science and Technology Building (STB) 314
Phone: (910) 672-2487
E-mail: csloan3
Research interests: New assessment methods for chemistry students; student-centered active learning environment with flipped learning/teaching methdos