Michael Webb joins the Department of Chemistry at Illinois State University as an assistant professor. He received his B.Sc. with honors in Chemistry in 2008 from Mount Allison University. Professor Webb then attended Simon Fraser University, earning a Ph.D. in chemistry under the supervision of Professor Charles Walsby in 2013. His thesis project involved using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and other analytical techniques to determine the biological fate of Ru(III) anticancer agents.
While at Simon Fraser, Professor Webb was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada – Postgraduate Doctoral scholarship. He continued his training at University of California, Berkeley as a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Professor Niren Murthy from 2013-2014, before being offered a faculty position in the department of chemistry at Montana Tech, where he taught from 2014-2017 before accepting the opportunity to join the chemistry department at Illinois State. Professor Webb has been published many times, including in Dalton Transactions, with one of his articles featured on the front cover of issue 40. His teaching interests include general chemistry and inorganic chemistry, with an emphasis on bioinorganic chemistry. His research interests focus on the occurrence of metals in medicine, as either the therapeutic agent or the target for therapy. Specifically, protein interactions have been observed to be central in either the pathology of several diseases following an interaction with metal ions, thereby becoming the target for therapy, or in the transportation of metal-based drugs to their site of action. He is currently investigating several metal-protein interactions, to provide new leads for therapeutic development.
In his free time, Professor Webb plays ice hockey, enjoys going for hikes, and spending time with his wife, two young children, and two three-legged dogs.
