Scientific Collaborators
Dr. Dwight Miller, Physical and Organic Chemist
In 1979 Dr. Miller began working at FDA’s National Center for toxicological Research (NCTR) and in currently a GS 11 chemist in the division of Chemistry, Spectroscopic Techniques Branch. Dr. Miller also acts as adjunct faculty member of the Department of Applied Sciences (DAS) at the University of Arkansas Little Rock.
Dr. Miller’s research experience includes organic synthesis, chemical kinetics, mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, infrared (IR) spectroscopy, ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy, electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy, solid state chemistry of free radicals and their precursors, solid state spectroscopic techniques, gas and liquid chromatography. He has authored and co-authored 80 peer-reviewed publications, more that 40 abstracts, seven technical reports, and seven patent applications.
Dr. Miller received a Bachelor of Science in Technical Education with a concentration in chemistry from Oklahoma State University where he also earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry.
Dr. Jon G. Wilkes, Analytical Chemist
Currently, Dr. Wilkes is the Team Leader of the FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) Counter-Bioterror Research Group. Dr. Wilkes’ group has developed novel methods for detecting pathogenic agents for hoax counter-terror materials and biomarker expression level measurements by MALDI mass spectrometry. Critical in health mechanistic studies such as diagnostics, tracking disease, and therapy progress, Dr. Wilkes’ work resulted in two patents in 2004.
While at the former Chemistry Division’s Computational Group, Dr. Wilkes helped develop efficient, reliable, and rapid methods to estimate the biological effects of chemicals, including toxic as well as therapeutic characteristics of a chemical. This led to numerous publications and patents. Dr. Wilkes is active in an NCTR/University of Arkansas Little Rock Nanotechnology project, filing patents for novel nano particle based cancer therapies, as well as the large scale manufacture of carbon nanostructures.
Dr. Wilkes completed his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry at Rice University and earned a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Houston.
Dr. Dan Buzatu, Physical and Computational Chemist
As a Research Chemist at the FDA’s national Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR), Dr. Buzatu serves on the Counter Bioterrorism Team which is currently developing and testing spectral based methods for rapid detection of biological pathogens and hoax materials.
In 2003, Dr. Buzatu was awarded the FDA’s Excellence in Analytical Science Award for his work in the development and application of a class of novel and highly accurate predictive modeling methods for Spectral Modeling. In 2001 Dr. Buzatu helped to develop the first self-optimizing parallel distributed artificial neural network.
Dr. Buzatu is the author of numerous articles and several chapters in computational nano scale molecular electronics, and involved extensively in predictive computational work on carbon nanotubes and nanostructures. Dr. Buzatu has co-authored five U.S. and global patent applications, including two patents pertaining to nanotube based cancer therapies, as well as a novel nanotube synthesis method.
Dr. Buzatu earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Ohio State University and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of New Orleans.