Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

By Megan Weintraub

Relative to most of her peers in the Department of Chemistry, Sarah MacArthur decided on her academic course of study fairly late in the game. She has worked hard to catch up, however, and has since thrived in the lab of Dr. Christian Wolf. She currently majors in Chemistry and belongs to the Honors program, yet when she first started at Georgetown, she was on course to complete a Science, Technology, and International Affairs major in the School of Foreign Service. Eventually, MacArthur realized that she enjoyed science more than policy. Her enrollment in a General Chemistry course over the summer solidified her decision to change her major to chemistry. Once she had committed to changing majors, she began investigating the various aspects of research she could pursue within the department.

“I did not have very much experience in organic chemistry when I first spoke with Dr. Wolf,” explains MacArthur. “Yet I found the prospect of organic synthetic chemistry interesting, especially the potential application of such research to pharmaceuticals, such as is the case with his malaria research.”

MacArthur was also intrigued by the connection between Dr. Wolf’s work and the biomedical research she had done in the Lombardi Cancer Center in Dr. Peter G. Shields’ Genetics and Epidemiology lab. While spending nearly a year volunteering as a research assistant to a post-doctoral fellow in the lab, she focused on breast cancer genetics, where she studied the relationship between various genes and the occurrence of the disease.

Her experience in the Lombardi Cancer Center prepared her to work in Dr. Wolf’s lab, where she has found practical applications to her research. Her current focus is on a project with palladium cross-coupling, a useful method for creating molecules using palladium—a rare, metallic element—as a catalyst.  She works with cyanation reactions of aromatic compounds to produce useful molecules for pharmaceutical research.  Although her decision to pursue chemistry arrived late, MacArthur does not delay in expressing her enthusiasm for the field of research she has chosen.

“I have found it thrilling to be learning so much so quickly; hands-on research is the only way to really learn!” says MacArthur. “It's always a great moment when you see that a reaction you're trying to make work produces the desired product.”

Her decision to pursue chemistry has been aided in large part by Dr. Wolf and the rest of the department.

“Dr. Wolf is very honest and frank in regard to advice and his approach to research, yet supportive at the same time,” explains MacArthur. “His depth of experience, especially the time he spent in the pharmaceutical industry, has made him an invaluable resource as a mentor.”

Working in Dr. Wolf’s lab has prepared MacArthur to continue in the field of chemistry after she graduates in 2009. She hopes to go to graduate school to pursue a Ph.D. in either Chemistry or Biochemistry. She credits Georgetown’s Department of Chemistry with encouraging her to change majors so that she could “do what she was meant to do.”

“The department was exceptionally welcoming, supportive, and eager to help me get into a lab where I could do some real research,” she explains.  “In this way, I have really loved that the department is rather small, because the opportunities are definitely there for students to do research and I was able to take advantage of them even coming so late in the game.”

Outside of the lab, MacArthur, a native of the Boston area, is “a huge plant person,” an avid reader and writer, a prolific drawer, and a rollerblading fanatic.

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