Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Chemist Earns Humboldt Research Fellowship

Monday, May 5, 2014, By Rob Enslin
Share
College of Arts and Sciences

A chemist in the College of Arts and Sciences has received a major research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, known for promoting academic collaboration among scientists and scholars from Germany and around the world.

Ivan Korendovych

Ivan V. Korendovych

Ivan V. Korendovych, assistant professor of chemistry, has been awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship to study protein engineering. Specifically, he will examine the manner by which proteins catalyze chemical transformations—a process that has applications for science, medicine and industry.

Korendovych will spend several months working alongside Uwe T. Bornscheuer, professor of biotechnology and enzyme catalysis at the University of Greifswald, and Manfred T. Reetz, the Hans-Meerwein Research Professor Emeritus at the University of Marburg. Both universities are in Germany.

“I am extremely proud to serve as a Humboldtian,” says Korendovych, referring to the more than 25,000 Humboldt Foundation alumni worldwide. “This fellowship is the German equivalent of a Fulbright [Award], and I will use it to build stronger ties between Syracuse University and German universities.”

Central to Korendovych’s fellowship is the hypothesis that a single amino acid mutation can serve as the starting point for evolving reactivity not supported by the original protein. By combining cutting-edge protein engineering with directed evolution techniques developed in German universities, Korendovych hopes to come up with a set of design principles for the development of what he calls “novel, allosterically regulated, biocompatible catalysts.”

The result? New ways of looking at how proteins function.

“Developing efficient catalysts for chemical transformations is the ‘Holy Grail’ of chemistry,” says Korendovych, an expert in bioinorganic chemistry, biophysics and chemical biology. “Despite our progress in creating novel catalysts for industrially important unnatural reactions and re-engineering existing enzymes to adopt new properties, the problem of creating a catalyst for a particular chemical transformation is far from solved. This fellowship will enable me to collaborate with two world-renowned experts in bioengineering who, in turn, will lend their expertise and facilities to the project.”

Karin Ruhlandt, Distinguished Professor and chair of chemistry, is proud of Korendovych, whom she helped recruit to Syracuse University more than three years ago.

“This fellowship is a feather in the cap for the chemistry department and for the College of Arts and Sciences,” says Ruhlandt, who also is the college’s interim dean-designate. “Much of Ivan’s work is at the intersection of biology, chemistry and physics. It’s highly interdisciplinary and, in the case of this fellowship, relatively new and cutting-edge. Ivan and our department will benefit from this research for years to come.”

Prior to Syracuse University, Korendovych served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Tufts University.

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • Data Privacy Day 2021: Is Your Personal Information Safe?
    Monday, January 25, 2021, By Daryl Lovell
  • Spring 2021 Office of Research Events Focus on Research Success
    Monday, January 25, 2021, By News Staff
  • A&S Speech Disorders Professor: Poet Amanda Gorman’s Story Shares Important Lesson
    Monday, January 25, 2021, By Daryl Lovell
  • Syracuse University Names Four as “Unsung Heroes” in Honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
    Monday, January 25, 2021, By News Staff
  • WAER Will Transition to the Newhouse School This Summer
    Monday, January 25, 2021, By Wendy S. Loughlin

More In STEM

Data Privacy Day 2021: Is Your Personal Information Safe?

Jan. 28 is Data Privacy Day, an annual event to create and raise awareness about how personal information is collected, secured and shared in the growing digital world. A 2019 Pew Research Center report found a majority of Americans were…

Professor Rahman Awarded Google Grant to Engage Underrepresented Students in Computing Research

Electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) Professor Farzana Rahman received a 2020 Google exploreCSR award to fund the development of an undergraduate student engagement workshop program, Research Exposure in Socially Relevant Computing (RESORC). The RESORC program will provide research opportunities…

Arts and Sciences Welcomes New Director of Forensics Kathleen Corrado

After 25 years working in the field of forensic science and over two decades of executive experience as a laboratory director, Kathleen Corrado has been named director of the Forensic and National Security Science Institute (FNSSI) in the College of…

Hehnly Lab Awarded $1.2M NIH Grant to Research Critical Tissue Formation

A key process during the development of an embryo is tissue morphogenesis, where the number of cells in an organism increase through cell division and tissues begins to take shape. Heidi Hehnly, assistant professor of biology, has been awarded a…

The Role of Digital Forensics and Tracking Down US Capitol Riot Criminals

With just under a week left before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony, investigators and law enforcement agencies across the country are working speedily to identify as many of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot offenders as they can. Knowing exactly…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.