The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce that Dr. Gerardo Andrés Cisneros will join the Eagle Family as an associate professor in Fall 2016. Andrés received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Duke University in 2004, after which time he was an intramural postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle, NC. Andrés comes to us from Wayne State University, where he was an associate professor of chemistry.

Andrés is a nationally awarded investigator for his contributions to the development of computational simulation methods and their application to the study of protein systems. His research involves method development for classical and hybrid quantum/classical simulation of proteins and the investigation of DNA repair-related enzymes and their possible role in different cancer types. The methods developed by the Cisneros' group have been successfully employed to investigate in detail the reaction mechanisms of several enzymes as well as to determine single nucleotide polymorphisms in DNA polymerases and DNA dealkylases related to different types of cancer. Andrés is the author of 57 peer-reviewed publications; he received the OpenEye Scientific Software Outstanding Junior Faculty Award and the Dell-Intel Young Investigator Award in 2014. He is the sole principal investigator on an R01 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and a co-principal investigator on two other grants.

Likewise, we are also pleased to announce that Dr. Hong Wang will join the Eagle Family as an associate professor in Fall 2016. Hong received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California at Davis in 2003, and she has held postdoctoral appointments at Stanford University, The Scripps Research Institute, and Oxford University. Hong comes to us from Miami University of Ohio, where she was an associate professor of chemistry.

Hong's research interests lie in the areas of asymmetric catalysis through cooperative enamine-metal Lewis acid complexes, the synthesis of functional organic materials based on p-extended porphyrins, and the development of small molecule inhibitors that target STAT3. Hong is the author of over 42 peer-reviewed publications, and she serves as the sole principal investigator on grants funded by the National Science Foundation (Career Award) and the Department of Energy.

Join us in welcoming both Drs. Cisneros and Wang to UNT!