Scott Brewer

Scott Brewer serves as Professor of Chemistry at Franklin and Marshall College, where he maintains an active research program in biophysical chemistry. His work bridges experimental spectroscopy with structural biology to investigate fundamental biomolecular processes.

Research interests focus on protein and nucleic acid structure with site-specific resolution using advanced spectroscopic techniques. Key areas include vibrational energy flow in biomolecules, development of unnatural amino acid probes (particularly azide and nitrile-based reporters), and dynamics of RNA-protein interactions. His lab combines temperature-dependent infrared spectroscopy with isotopic labeling and computational analysis to achieve residue-specific insights.

Recent publications reveal a strong emphasis on vibrational reporter design and biomolecular dynamics, with significant contributions to understanding energy transfer mechanisms in aromatic scaffolds and local solvation environments in proteins. The group frequently employs multi-technique approaches including 2D-IR spectroscopy, crystallography, and computational modeling.

• Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
• Multiple NIH Academic Research Enhancement Awards (2R15GM093330 series)
• NSF CAREER Award (CHE-1053946)
• Research Corporation Cottrell College Science Award

Brewer actively mentors undergraduate researchers, with numerous students co-authoring publications. His NIH-funded projects investigate vibrational reporters for measuring RNA and protein dynamics. The lab maintains strong collaborations with Edward Fenlon (F&M) and external institutions, utilizing supercomputing resources for molecular dynamics simulations. Current work focuses on extending vibrational lifetime of probes through heavy atom effects and developing next-generation spectroscopic reporters for complex biomolecular systems.