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Dr. Alexandra J. MacDermott
Assistant Professor of Physical Chemistry
University of Houston - Clear Lake
School of Natural and Applied Sciences
2700 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, Texas 77058-1098
Tel: (281) 283-3749; Fax: (281) 283-3709
E-mail:
macdermott@cl.uh.edu
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Education
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| B.A. (1975), D.Phil. (1981), Oxford
University |
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Courses Taught
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Physical Chemistry I
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CHEM 4231
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Physical Chemistry II
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CHEM 4232
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Biochemistry I
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CHEM 4431
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BIOL 4431
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Modern Spectroscopy
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CHEM 4931
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CHEM 5931
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Symmetry in Chemistry
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CHEM 5931
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Origins
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CHEM 4931
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CHEM 5931
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Research Interests
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Dr MacDermott's research interests lie
in the broad area of *chirality*, encompassing not only the theoretical
calculation of parity-violating and other enantioselective effects and chiroptical
properties, but also chirality as a *signature* of life, in particular the
chiroptical detection of life on other planets: although herself primarily
a theoretician, she leads an international group, the SETH Consortium, which
is currently developing space polarimeters in Moscow to Search for Extra-Terrestrial
Homochirality (SETH) on Mars.
She is a Co-Investigator on the COSAC experiment of the Rosetta mission
to Comet Wirtanen, and an Adjunct Scientist on the Beagle 2 Mars Lander. Her
current work is the ab initio calculation of molecular parity-violating effects
(in particular the *parity-violating energy difference* or *PVED* between
enantiomers, and also enantioselective beta-radiolysis) which may play a
role in explaining the *origin* of chirality - i.e. *why* life is based on
L-amino acids and not their D mirror images.
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Sample Publications (Review Article)
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A.J.MacDermott "Stephen Mason Review:
The Ascent of Parity-Violation: Exochirality in the Solar System and Beyond",
Enantiomer (2000) 5 153-168
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