Dr. Margaret (Maggie) K. Meadows

Dr. Margaret (Maggie) K. Meadows was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, before attending Furman University, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in chemistry. She then headed west to the University of Texas at Austin for graduate school, earning her Ph.D. under the mentorship of Dr. Eric Anslyn. After working at Northwestern University as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Nobel Laureate Sir Fraser Stoddart, Dr. Meadows joined the Mercer University Chemistry Department in 2018. She primarily teaches Organic Chemistry I, Organic Chemistry II, and Chemistry Capstone. Outside of Mercer, Dr. Meadows enjoys spending time with her family including her rescue pups, cooking and baking, trivia, and embroidery.

Education

• Postdoctoral Fellow, Sir Fraser Stoddart Mechanostereochemistry Laboratory, Northwestern University
• Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin
• B.S., Chemistry, Furman University

Specialty

Organic chemistry with an emphasis on supramolecular and physical organic chemistry, molecular sensing, chemistry education.

Professional Interests

Dr. Meadows’s lab focuses on the detection of pollutants and harmful compounds in water. The main project in the lab currently is the synthesis of a molecular sensor for the detection of the endocrine disrupting chemical phthalate. Students who work with Dr. Meadows can expect daily lab work to be a mixture of organic synthesis and spectroscopic analysis.

Dr. Meadows also studies how to improve student learning, including studying student stress and wellness, and how students learn in the Organic Chemistry Teaching Laboratory.

Recent Publications

• Meadows, M. K. “Recognize Me?: Evaluation of an Inquiry-Based, Unknown Identification Laboratory Using Student-Synthesized Compounds.” Journal of Chemical Education 2024, 101(7), 2806-2814.
• Meadows, M. K.; Strickland, K. M.; Simon, L. E.; Chaffin, A. N.; Kloepper, K. D.; Stanga, J. P. “Ten Minutes a Semester: Evaluation of a Short Wellness Intervention for Undergraduate Chemistry and Biology Courses.” Journal of Chemical Education 2023, 100, 638–646.
• Bridges, S. S.; Bucholtz, K. M.; Goode, D. R.; Meadows, M. K.; McGuire, R.; Masters, K. M.; Kiefer, A. M. “Unexpected Synthetic Outcomes from a Traditional Separations Laboratory: A Learning Experience for Faculty and Students.” Chemical Educator, 2020, 25, 105-108.
• Meadows, M. K.; Sun, X.; Johnson, K. A.; Anslyn, E. V. “Mechanistic and Kinetic Studies of a ‘Declick’ Reaction.” Chemical Science, 2019, 10, 8817-8824.
• Gade, A. M.; Meadows, M. K.; Ellington, A. D.; Anslyn, E. V. “Differential Array Sensing for Cancer Cell Classification and Novelty Identification.” Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 2017, 15, 9866-9874.
• Meadows, M. K.; Roesner, E. K.; Lynch, V. M.; James, T. D.; Anslyn, E. V. “Boronic Acid-Mediated Coupling of Catechols and N-Hydroxylamines, a Bioorthogonal Reaction to Label Peptides.” Organic Letters, 2017, 19(12), 3179-3182.

Contact Dr. Margaret Meadows

(478) 301-5309
meadows_mk@mercer.edu
Office: Godsey Science Center, Room 428