Associate Professor of Chemistry
B.S., University of South Carolina; Ph.D., State University of New York, Stony Brook
Profile
Dr. Juliet Hahn grew up mostly in Columbia, S.C. (partly in upstate N.Y.), attending E.L. Wright elementary school, Dent Middle School, and graduating from Irmo High School. She graduated from the University of South Carolina (B.S., Chemistry) and the State University of New York, Stony Brook (Ph.D., Chemistry). She did postdoctoral research at Columbia University (New York, N.Y.) and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has taught chemistry at Arkansas State University, Delaware State University, Francis Marion University, Presbyterian College, the Citadel, Richland Northeast High School and New Bridge Academy High School. Her father was a Physics professor at Benedict College and her brother is a computer science professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Family gatherings were often “trade secrets of teaching” workshops. Her mom was a wonderfully supportive stay-at-home mom. Dr. Hahn is proud to say that she was her parent’s patient and supportive caregiver with the assistance of “real caregivers” until her parents passed away without entering a nursing home.
Dr. Hahn has taught Chemistry to Ph.D. students in a small graduate Chemistry program (DSU) and Science to high school freshmen at an alternative school (New Bridge). In many freshmen and sophomore Chemistry college classes, a drop/fail rate of about 30% is fairly common, but Dr. Hahn often obtains an almost zero drop/fail rate in both General and Organic Chemistry while still maintaining the same assessment results on end of semester exams as other classes who have lost the bottom 30% of students. Results are obtained by lots of in class work and lots of practice in class. The greatest predictor of success in college chemistry is hard work.
Research and Projects
Dr. Hahn’s research projects range from synthetic methodology to simulating skin cancer using small organic molecules. One project looks at the photodimerization of a derivative of thymine implicated in skin cancer using a small organic molecule to simulate the DNA damage. A second project looks at carbon nanotube surfactant effect on electrical conductivity of potential use for developing organic solar energy. A third project looks at organoaluminum catalysis to control stereoselectivity via a coordination effect. Stereoisomers are important in pharmaceuticals because of the way that drug molecule interacts with handed biological receptors.
Personal Interests
Dr. Hahn loves to cook brisket, perfect cast iron skillet steak, peach cobbler, and chocolate cherry torte. To counteract the rich food, she loves to walk 10,000 steps a day preferably at the botanical garden or at the mall while shopping for clothes and costume jewelry. All purchases must be on deep discount for a successful mall walk. In high school, Dr. Hahn was the nerdy, smart girl who took classes in both ballet and karate (green belt).
