Sarah Z Tasker

Sarah Z Tasker is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Franklin & Marshall College. She received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Calvin College (research under Profs. Carolyn Anderson and Chad Tatko), Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from MIT (under Prof. Timothy Jamison), and completed a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (under Prof. Paul Hergenrother).

Her research focuses on developing solutions to real-world chemical challenges:

• Gas-releasing molecules: Designing tunable thioCORMates for safe carbon monoxide delivery
• Antibiotic development: Synthesizing natural products and derivatives to combat bacterial resistance
• Photochemical methods: Exploring thioester reactivity for oxetane synthesis and radical transformations

Her publications emphasize catalytic organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, and chemical biology, with recent work advancing gas-release technology and antibacterial agents. She received the prestigious NSF CAREER Award (2024) for her thioCORMate research.

Awards & Grants:

• NSF CAREER: 'Development of New Gas-Releasing Molecules' ($514,388, 2024-2028)
• NSF MRI: NMR Instrument Acquisition ($390,720, co-PI, 2023-2026)
• Organic Syntheses PUI Grant: Thioether Synthesis ($16,000, 2023-2024)
• ACS Petroleum Research Fund: Oxetane Synthesis ($55,000, 2018-2022)
• Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship

She mentors undergraduates in the Tasker Lab, where students contribute to publications and present at national conferences. Courses taught include Organic Chemistry I/II, General Chemistry II, and Total Synthesis of Natural Products.