October 15, 2019
Chemistry is not just a vocation, but a passion for chemistry and biochemistry professor Jeremy Morgan.
“My postdoctoral advisor told me that to run a successful organic chemistry research group, the principal investigator can have two hobbies, but one of them has to be chemistry.”
Outside of the classroom, Morgan, winner of a 2018-19 Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award, can be found in his office writing and researching literature, interacting with students or in the lab running reactions.
His temporary office and lab are in the MARBIONC building on the Myrtle Grove campus and he spends much of his research time synthesizing nitrogen-rich molecules that may prove useful in developing new pharmaceuticals.
“Day to day, my group of undergraduate and master’s students are mixing commercially available chemicals to make new chemicals that are purified, analyzed and submitted to collaborators for biological testing,” he said.
When he isn’t in the lab, Morgan brews wine and most recently, kombucha, and finds time to help “build bridges.”
“A few years ago, I was awakened to the need for racial reconciliation in our city and country,” he said. “Wilmington went from a beacon of hope on racial integration in the late 1800s to a racially divided city in 1898, and the truth was buried for nearly a century. I have been working with Be the Bridge, a nonprofit organization focused on equipping ‘bridge builders’ to seek racial unity.”
He hopes to start “Be the Bridge” groups on campus.
Outside of work, he loves spending time with his “amazing wife and daughters and our two dogs.”
-- Tricia Vance
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