Spotlight: Dr. Gina MacDonald

Dr. Gina MacDonald is a biophysical chemist and Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at James Madison University.  Her biochemical research uses various approaches and tools to monitor protein structure and stability under a variety of solution and substrate conditions.  She also is conducting some studies aimed at finding methods to quantify neurotransmitters and their metabolites in urine and blood.  Her research has been supported by several grants from the National Science Foundation, including a Presidential Early Career Award.  Her work is regularly published with her students as co-authors.

Dr. MacDonald also has been co-principal investigator for a series of Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) awards from the National Science Foundation, which have provided 10-week research experiences for undergraduate students from JMU and other campuses.  The REU program has included hearing-impaired students and groups underrepresented in the sciences.  Currently, Dr. MacDonald is leading an effort funded by Research Corporation for Science Advancement on research-intensive undergraduate institutions.

Dr. MacDonald has mentored more than 70 undergraduates in her laboratory, as well as high school teachers, high school students and post-baccalaureate and post-doctoral fellows.  Students working in her laboratory have come from chemistry, biotechnology, biology and physics majors and have gone on in diverse fields, with many having completed doctoral degrees, including two this year receiving degrees from Yale and Stanford.  Dr. MacDonald sees her success through her students and is an outstanding mentor.  More recently she has been involved in mentoring new colleagues joining the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. 

Gina MacDonald cares deeply about educating non-science students and in diversifying the science community.  The students in her laboratory are testimony to her interest in diversity – she has worked with a very diverse group of students over time.  Recently she has been nominated for the Stan Israel Diversity Award at the American Chemical Society.

Dr. MacDonald has established an excellent reputation in biochemistry and biophysics through her research and educational activities.  She has served as a Councilor for the Council for Undergraduate Research and a frequent reviewer for and counsel to the National Science Foundation, Research Corporation, The Murdock Trust and the American Chemical Society, among others.  She received the Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Memorial award from the Biophysical Society in 2002 and the Henry Dreyfus Teacher – Scholar Award in 2003.  Gina was named a Cottrell Scholar by Research Corporation for Science Advancement in 2015.  While this award was personally satisfying, she was even more pleased that also being named a Cottrell Scholar in 2015 was one of her early research students, Scott Brewer, who is now a faculty member at Franklin and Marshall College.

Dr. MacDonald is frequently invited to make presentations at meetings of professional societies and on other campuses.  Presentation topics are related to her research but also “deaf students and interpreters in the laboratory”, “how to manage a research program”, teaching undergraduates in biochemistry and biophysical chemistry” and “hallmarks of faculty mentored research”, among others.

Dr. MacDonald encourages her students and challenges them.  If her students invest in themselves and are prepared to work and learn, they can count on her to be with them every step of the way.  And if they want to do research on a Saturday, she will buy them breakfast.