March 21, 2018

Dr. Tim Cernak has joined the College as an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry. Dr. Cernak began his appointment on March 15, 2018. 

Dr. Cernak earned his PhD in Organic Chemistry with Prof. Jim Gleason at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.  His doctoral research was focused primarily on the development of chemical methods towards natural product synthesis.  For his postdoctoral work, he chose to work on the development of approaches for multiplexed chemical synthesis (e.g., synthesizing many molecules at a time) as a FQRNT postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Tristan Lambert’s lab at Columbia University. Dr. Cernak followed his postdoc by accepting a position at Merck & Co. first as a Senior Scientist then as an Associate Principal Scientist.  He is also on the scientific advisory board for the  NSF Center in Selective C-H Functionalization.  Dr. Cernak has 15 publications and 7 patents, as impressive record given that he has been working in the pharmaceutical industry since 2009.  "Dr. Cernak’s discussion of his plans has generated great enthusiasm and excitement among our faculty," said George Garcia, PhD, Professor and Chair of Medicinal Chemistry and Director, Interdepartmental Program in Medicinal Chemistry. "We feel that he will be an outstanding, visible addition to the department, the College, and the University."