Nathan S. Werner

Nathan is a native of Southern Utah. He was born in Cedar City, graduated from Cedar High School, and attended college at Southern Utah University. While at SUU, he was awarded a Department of Energy Undergraduate Laboratory Fellowship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. During his time at ORNL he studied the reducing potential and growth of biopolymers for application in hydrogen fuel cells under the supervision of Dr. Hugh O’Neill. At SUU, Nathan was the recipient of a number of awards including: SUUSA College of Science Senator, College of Science Outstanding Service Award, Reed W. Farnsworth Memorial Scholarship, Zion Natural History Association Scholarship, Questar Science Scholarship, and WECCO Scholarship. In 2005, Nathan graduated from SUU with a double major in Chemistry and Biology and enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His first year of graduate school was spent in the laboratory of Prof. David Y. Gin investigating hypervalent iodine mediated, beta-selective glycosylation reactions. In 2006, he joined the laboratory of Prof. Scott E. Denmark where he conducted his doctoral work on the development of palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. As a graduate student, Nathan was the recipient of a number of awards including: the Sigma-Aldrich Graduate Student Innovation Award, Eli Lilly Graduate Fellowship, School of Chemical Sciences Graduate Fellowship, and Seemon H. Pines Travel Award. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 2011, Nathan carried out postdoctoral studies on the design and synthesis of potent antibiotics in the laboratory of Prof. Dale L. Boger at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. He joined the faculty of his alma mater as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 2012. At SUU, Nathan has been the recipient of of number of honors including: Southern Utah University Distinguished Educator, Department of Physical Science Outstanding Faculty Member, Thunderbird Awards Professor of the Year Finalist, The National Society of Leadership and Success Excellence in Teaching Award, and The Journal of the Utah Academy Best Physical Science Paper.