Prof Rose joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at UT Austin in the Fall of 2012. His primary interests span several projects in the fields of synthetic inorganic chemistry.

Mike graduated from University of California, Davis in 2000 and proceeded to work in industry for two years at Roche Biosciences (Palo Alto, CA). While at UC Davis and Roche, he developed an interest in the molecular and functional aspects of enzymology and G-protein coupled receptors.

Upon matriculating to graduate school at UC Santa Cruz for biochemistry, Mike continued his interest in enzymes but gained a new interest in bio-inorganic chemistry – in particular metalloenzymes. He joined the research group of Prof Pradip Mascharak, and worked on synthetic modeling of iron-containing Nitrile Hydratase (Fe-NHase), which contains unique motifs in iron-sulfur and iron-carboxamide bonding. His graduate research also focused on the development of novel ruthenium-based nitric oxide (NO) carriers for photodynamic cancer therapy, sensitized with visible light chromophores.

In 2009, Mike was appointed a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Solar Fuels Center for Chemical Innovation (NSF), headed by PI’s at Caltech and MIT. He performed research under the guidance of Profs Harry Gray and Nate Lewis, and in 2010 was awarded an NSF ACC-F postdoctoral fellowship. At Caltech, he developed a new iron-based hydrogen electrocatalyst derived from a perfluorinated ligand. He also developed an interest in merging synthetic chemistry with semiconductor surface chemistry, in particular the attachment of molecular species to silicon surfaces.

In 2012, Mike joined the faculty at UT Austin and has established his research group in the areas of synthetic bio-inorganic chemistry, solar fuels & semiconductor functionalization, and heavy main group/1st row metal interactions.