Catherine J. Murphy
Catherine "Cathy" J. Murphy (born 1964) is an American chemist and materials scientist, and is the Larry Faulkner Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The first woman to serve as the head of the department of chemistry at UIUC, Murphy is known for her work on nanomaterials, specifically the seed-mediated synthesis of gold nanorods of controlled aspect ratio. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019. Early life and education Murphy was born in Morris Plains New, Jersey in 1964. She attended junior high and high school in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, after her family moved to the Chicago suburbs in 1974. Murphy attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) as a first-generation college student. During her undergraduate studies, Murphy conducted research in the lab of Thomas B. Rauchfuss. She graduated with Bachelor of Science degrees in both chemistry and biochemistry in 1986. After graduating, she did a summer internship with Amoco Research Center in Naperville, Illinois. Murphy earned her doctorate degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison under the direction of Arthur B. Ellis in 1990. Her graduate work focused on the surface chemistry of semiconductors. Murphy completed postdoctoral work as a NSF and NIH postdoctoral fellow under the advisement of Jacqueline Barton at the California Institute of Technology from 1990 to 1993. Career Murphy joined the faculty of the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of South Carolina in 1993, the first female faculty member on the tenure track in that department. She remained at South Carolina through 2009, becoming the Guy F. Lipscomb Professor of Chemistry in 2003. In 2009, she joined the faculty in the department of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as the Peter C. and Gretchen Miller Markunas Professor of Chemistry. She held this professorship until 2017, when she received the Larry R. Faulkner Endowed Chair in Chemistry at UIUC. In 2020, Murphy was appointed as the head of the department of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the first woman to ever hold this position. At UIUC, Murphy also holds affiliations with the departments of Bioengineering, Material Science and Engineering, the Materials Research Lab, the Micro and Nanotechnology Lab, the Center for Advanced Study, the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. She is a senior investigator for the National Science Foundation Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. During her career at UIUC, Murphy has mentored and advised more than 6 visiting scientists, 11 postdoctoral researchers, 37 graduate students, 86 undergraduate students, 3 high school students, and 2 high school teachers. While at South Carolina, she advised 12 postdoctoral researchers/visiting scientists, 24 graduate students, 55 undergraduate students, and 14 high school students. She has received recognition for this service including the Siemens-Westinghouse High School Science Mentor Award in 2002 and the University of South Carolina Outstanding Undergraduate Research