Rate My Professor Leah Casabianca

Leah Casabianca is a Professor of Chemistry at Clemson University, where she joined the faculty in 2014, was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2020, and elevated to full Professor in 2025. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Rice University in 2002 and her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Georgetown University in 2008 under the supervision of Professor Angel C. de Dios. Her postdoctoral training included a fellowship in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 2008 to 2010 with Professor Yoshitaka Ishii, focusing on solid-state NMR of materials, and another in Chemical Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science from 2010 to 2013 with Professor Lucio Frydman, developing Dynamic Nuclear Polarization techniques for rare nuclei.

Casabianca's research program develops novel NMR methods to probe interactions between nanomaterials and biologically relevant molecules, utilizing solution and solid-state NMR spectroscopy, calculated chemical shifts, and Dynamic Nuclear Polarization. Her work addresses applications in drug delivery, biomedical devices, materials science, and nanomaterials toxicity. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses such as Physical Chemistry (CH 3310/3320), Atomic and Molecular Structure (CH 4350/6350), Computational Quantum Chemistry and Electronic Structure Calculations (CH 4360/6360), Quantum Chemistry (CH 8370), and Special Topics in Physical Chemistry: Solid-State NMR (CH 9300). She has been recognized with the NSF CAREER Award in 2018 for characterizing nanoparticle surface interactions and the College of Science Rising Star in Discovery Award in 2018. Key publications encompass 'Probing Driving Forces for Binding Between Nanoparticles and Amino Acids by Saturation-Transfer Difference NMR' (Scientific Reports, 2020), 'Binding Between Antibiotics and Polystyrene Nanoparticles Examined by NMR' (ACS Environmental Au, 2023), 'Effect of Plastic Type and Salt Concentration on Interactions between Nanoscale Plastic and Amino Acids in Solution Using Saturation-Transfer Difference NMR Spectroscopy' (ACS ES&T Water, 2024), and 'Tutorial: Saturation Transfer Difference NMR for Studying Small Molecules Interacting With Nanoparticles' (Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, 2025). Her contributions enhance the understanding of nanomaterial-biological interfaces in physical chemistry.