Mihaela D. Leonida is a Professor of Chemistry at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Metropolitan Campus, in Teaneck, NJ (mleonida@fdu.edu). She received a M.S.and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnic University in Bucharest, Romania, and a second Ph.D. in Chemistry from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. While teaching, she has mentored research with over sixty students. Her scientific interests are broad, from “wiring” enzymes to bionanomaterials with antimicrobial and anti-proliferation activity, to detecting art forgeries, to materials and techniques used by artisans of times past.
Ish Kumar is an Associate Professor of Chemistryat Fairleigh Dickinson University, Metropolitan Campus, in Teaneck, NJ (ikumar@fdu.edu). He earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Panjab University, in Chandigarh, India. During his years as faculty Dr. Kumar has supervised research of more than twenty students. His research interests involve designing new molecular inhibitors using the tools of computational chemistry, enzyme structures, enzyme kinetics and chemical synthesis.