2021-2022 FASC New Faculty
Michelle Carlin
Title/Rank: Assistant Professor
Department: Chemistry; Forensic Science Program
Dr. Michelle Carlin will join the Department of Chemistry and the forensic science program as an assistant professor. Currently a senior lecturer in forensic and analytical chemistry at Northumbria University in England, Dr. Carlin earned a doctorate in analytical chemistry and toxicology from the same institution. Her research project title was Development and evaluation of an LC-ESI-MS method for the simultaneous detection of five major opium alkaloids.
Ivan Rivera-Torres
Title/Rank: Assistant Teaching Professor
Department: Chemistry
Ivan Rivera-Torres attended the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras, where he completed a Bachelor in Science in the Department of Biology in 1996. During his senior year as an undergraduate, Ivan became particularly interested in the link between chemistry and biology that could help provide insight into fundamental and biomedical problems and decided to conduct graduate studies in Biochemistry. He joined the Sue Golding Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where he completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biochemistry in 2000 and 2004, respectively. His doctoral thesis focused on structural studies of an alkaliphilic F1FO ATP synthase, a membrane protein involved in bioenergetics of an extremophilic bacteria, using multidimensional Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Ivan’s interest in membrane protein structure and function also inspired him to spend a season as a postdoctoral fellow at The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel in 2008.
Ivan’s professional experience includes the pharmaceutical industry through work for a leading biotechnology company. He also has extensive experience in higher education in multicultural settings. Ivan is particularly committed to the success of students. His current academic interest focuses on the connection between novel pedagogies and Developmental Psychology, and in curriculum development that is engaging, transformative and meaningful to students.
Ivan also enjoys literature, poetry, classical music, and comparative religion.