Faculty Spotlight: Dennis Awasabisah
Dennis Awasabisah, Ph.D., grew up in the small town of Tamale, Ghana and was the youngest of five children in his family. In high school, he learned about chemistry from a member of the Peace Corps, and discovered that was his passion in life. He was the first of his family to attend college, and earned his B.Sc. at the University of Cape Coast. After working as a teaching assistant in Ghana for a year to serve his country, he decided to continue his education in the United States. He went on to attend Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where he graduated with a M.S. in Chemistry. Not long after that, he earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Oklahoma, and then worked there as a lecturer and postdoctoral associate for one year before relocating to Massachusetts.
Dennis began his career at Fitchburg State University as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 2016. He was originally drawn to this particular campus since he could teach while pursuing his various research interests at the same time. He also saw this career path as a great opportunity to mentor first-generation college students by giving them exposure on how to conduct scientific research. At FSU, he teaches courses including General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Chemistry for the Health Sciences.
His research interests include the synthesis and characterization of heme models and related complexes, organofluorine compounds, and the activation of small molecules such as NOx’s and CO. One of his ongoing studies pertains to the study of the role of heme in the mechanism of action of antimalarial drugs. He creates models of hemoglobin in this lab in order to observe its reactivity with other chemical compounds of biological relevance. His goal in all of this is to observe how heme in hemoglobin reacts to antimalarial drugs in hopes of finding more effective ways to treat the disease. He elaborates on this study in great detail in one of his latest publications “Preparation, Characterization, Electrochemistry, and Infrared Spectroelectrochemistry of Ruthenium Nitrosyl Porphyrins Containing η1- O-Bonded Axial Carboxylates'' which was published in The European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry in 2016. Click the link to see a list of his recent work: tiny.cc/AwasabisahPublications
Dennis lives in Templeton, MA with his wife and two children. Along with spending quality time with his family, he enjoys gardening, playing on the piano, playing soccer, and watching the Oklahoma Sooners play football.