Rate My Professor Simona Marincean

Simona Marincean is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the Chemistry Discipline in the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, a position she has held since joining the institution in 2007. She earned her Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from Michigan State University in 2003, with a doctoral thesis titled 'Proton Transfer in Dihydrogen Bonded Systems' under the advisement of J. E. Jackson. Earlier, she obtained a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 1993. Following her doctorate, Marincean completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Michigan State University with Professors Ned Jackson and Dennis Miller, where her work focused on the catalytic hydrogenolysis of carbohydrates and related polyols. In her teaching role, she delivers ACS-certified Chemistry courses and contributes to the Master of Science in Environmental Science program. She has co-developed innovative classes and programs in medicinal chemistry and natural products chemistry, incorporating cultural and historical perspectives, including study abroad courses in Padova, Italy, in 2023. Marincean also investigates and assesses best practices in teaching and learning organic chemistry.

Marincean's research emphasizes the molecular-level study of noncovalent interactions and their influence on redox processes, particularly those relevant to developing diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in health-related fields. Her scholarly interests encompass Green Chemistry and Organic Chemistry. Ongoing projects include the synthesis and characterization of novel riboflavin derivatives to address riboflavin deficiency in at-risk populations and to identify flavin binding proteins, conducted in collaboration with the Benore laboratory; and the exploration of benzo[e][1,2,4]triazines as precursors to Blatter radicals for applications in medicinal chemistry and materials science, in partnership with the Constantinides laboratory. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, with key works such as 'Riboflavin interactions with the chicken isolated carrier protein' (Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 2023, with Diana L. Nichols and Marilee A. Benore), 'The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on STEM faculty: Productivity and work-life balance' (PLoS ONE, 2023, with Amanda Esquivel and Marilee A. Benore), 'Remote Organic Chemistry Laboratories at University of Michigan-Dearborn' (Journal of Chemical Education, 2020, with Steven L. Scribner), 'NMR Studies Of Structure-Reactivity Relationships In Carbonyl Reduction: A Collaborative Advanced Laboratory Experiment' (Journal of Chemical Education, 2012, with Sheila Smith and others), and 'Can Hydridic-to-Protonic Hydrogen Bonds Catalyze Biological Processes?' (The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 2010, with James E. Jackson).