Jacquelyn Cole, PhD
Biography:
Dr. Cole graduated from Bethany College in Bethany, WV, with her B.S. in chemistry-forensic science with a minor in physics and mathematics. During her undergraduate, she did research for two summers with the NSF REU program – one summer at Youngstown State University studying site directed mutagensis and the second summer at Bowling Green State University studying polymerization. She then attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, for graduate school and received her Doctorate in Chemistry for research using MALDI-TOF-MS to study immunoglobulin E and other biomolecules. She went on to do two post doctoral positions, one at the Wadsworth Center at the NY State Department of Health researching the metabolites of estrogens using LC-MS-MS, and a second on at NIMH at the National Institutes of Health researching human serum albumin concentrations using LC-MS-MS. While at Shepherd, she has taken part in numerous committees and taskforces, including serving on two separate American Chemical Society (ACS) exams committees to write a General Chemistry exam and a General-Organic-Biochemistry exam. She is a co-coordinator of Seeding Your Future Conference, an annual conference hosted by Shepherd’s science and art faculty to help engage middle-school aged girls by hands-on workshops. She became department chair of the chemistry department in May, 2020.
Research:
Dr. Cole is actively doing research in two areas. One is the study of essential oils using instrumental analysis, such as GC-MS, LC-MS, IR/UV spectroscopy, and NMR. This project is entirely performed by undergraduate research students as part of their capstone project and they are able to explore their own direction with the research, which has included anti-microbial studies and extraction of their own oils. A second study is looking at contaminants in the Potomac River, which is a source of water for Shepherdstown and other local cities and towns.
Faculty Research Forum 2018 – Link takes you to YouTube
Courses Taught:
CHEM 120, CHEM 120L, CHEM 122, CHEM 122L, CHEM 207, CHEM 207L, CHEM 209, CHEM 209L, CHEM 301