United States Air Force Academy

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Dr. Latisha Jefferies

Associate Professor of Chemistry

Department of Chemistry

Dr. Jefferies
Contact Information

(719) 333-6046

Email

Bio

Dr. Jefferies grew up in Texas. After graduating high school she moved to Belton, TX to pursue an undergraduate degree at the University of Mary Hardin-Balor. It was here Dr. Jefferies became interested in pursuing an advanced degree in organic chemistry after an NSF-REU undergraduate research program at Texas A&M University in the labs of François Gabbaï. Upon graduation, Dr. Jefferies went to Indiana University and received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry with Dr. Silas Cook in 2015 studying ways to in which to make alcohols electrophiles.

Upon completion of her graduate studies Dr. Jefferies began a Visiting Assistant Professorship at the College of the Holy Cross in Worchester, MA. In 2016, she joined the faculty at the United States Air Force Academy.

Education

Ph.D., Organic Chemistry, Indiana University

Bachelor of Science, Chemistry, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

Professional Experience

Associate Professor, U.S. Air Force Academy (2020 – present)

Assistant Professor, U.S. Air Force Academy (2016-2019)

Visiting Assistant Professor, College of the Holy Cross (2015-2016)

Research and Scholarly Interests

Biosensing, Fluorescence, Small Molecular Sensors

Publications

Jefferies, L. R., Giordano, A. N., & Hicks, B. W. Agar Art as an Instructional Tool to Teach Inducible Promoters via Fluorescent Protein Expression. Journal of Chemical Education, 2022.

Jefferies, L. R., & Jefferies, S. S. Biochemistry and Art: Incorporating Drawings, Paintings, Music, and Media into Teaching Biological Science. Trends in Teaching Experimentation in the Life Sciences, 2022 509-522.

Roche, P. R., Oh, T. C., Landrum, G. W., Yook, D. H., & Jefferies, L. R. FRET Analysis of Green and Orange Fluorescent Proteins for Their Use as Potential Fluorescent Protein Probes. Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research, 2020, 19.1, 5-9.

Reimann, M. J., Salmon, D. R., Horton, J. T., Gier, E. C., & Jefferies, L. R. Water-Soluble Sulfonate Schiff-Base Ligands as Fluorescent Detectors for Metal Ions in Drinking Water and Biological Systems. ACS Omega, 2019, 4, 2874-2882.

Marcyk, P. T., Jefferies, L. R., AbuSalim, D. I., Pink, M., Baik, M. H., & Cook, S. P. Stereoinversion of Unactivated Alcohols by Tethered Sulfonamides. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2019, 58, 1727-1731.

Marchioetto, Mira K., Horton, Jacqueline T., Berstler, Calvin A., Humphries, Joseph B. Koloditch, Isaac J., Voss, Samuel D., de La Harpe, Kimberly, Hicks, Barry W., Jefferies, Latisha R. Chemical cross-linking of a variety of green fluorescent proteins as Foster resonance energy transfer donors for Yukon orange fluorescent protein: A project-based undergraduate laboratory experience, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 2018, 46, 516.