Cathy Murphy named interim director of Beckman Institute

Cathy Murphy, the Larry R. Faulkner Endowed Chair in Chemistry, has been named the interim director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, pending Board of Trustees approval. Murphy is a highly regarded scientist, experienced administrator, and even met Arnold Beckman when she was a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology's Beckman Institute.

Murphy will succeed Nadya Mason, who announced in July that she will become the dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation will conduct a national search for Beckman's next permanent director. From the Speech Accessibility Project to the Molecule Maker Lab and everywhere in between, the Beckman Institute’s trademark brand of barrier-breaking research is thriving and will continue to do so under Murphy's leadership.

Murphy received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1990 before serving as a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology. From 1993-2009 she was a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of South Carolina before coming to Illinois in 2009. 

Murphy and her research group pursue a variety of subjects. They work at the interface of materials chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biophysical chemistry, and nanotechnology, with their primary goal being the development of inorganic nanomaterials for biological and energy-related applications.