A Day in the Life of a VPR: Fostering Collaboration

Dr. Christopher T. Nomura is Vice President for Research and a Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), a member of the SUNY-ESF Center for Applied Microbiology, Syracuse Biomaterials Institute and Chutian Visiting Lecturer at Hubei University in Wuhan, China. He received his BA in Biology with honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he studied immunology and physiology of elephant seals, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology at The Pennsylvania State University for his research on cyanobacterial electron transport proteins. From 2001 to 2006, he worked in the internationally recognized Natural Polymer Chemistry laboratory of Dr. Yoshiharu Doi at the RIKEN Institute in Japan.

Since 2006, he has been a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at SUNY-ESF. Dr. Nomura has published and co-authored more than 50 original articles in refereed scientific journals, including 3 reviews, 7 book chapters, and 5 patent disclosures. Dr. Nomura has a multi-disciplinary research group whose interests span the fields of metabolic engineering, protein engineering, microbial physiology, molecular microbiology, biochemistry, synthetic chemistry, and polymer chemistry with a focus on producing sustainable materials. He received the SUNY-ESF Exemplary Researcher Award in 2011 for his contributions to the field of biopolymer production and has received special recognition for his mentorship of student researchers. Dr. Nomura has worked with researchers through the Research Foundation of SUNY Networks of Excellence to foster collaborations between faculty and industry partners. Dr. Nomura’s research programs have been sponsored by DOE, USDA, NIH, NSF, NYSERDA, and The Research Foundation of SUNY.