People

People

About Monika Raj

Dr. Raj grew up in Chandigarh, India, and obtained her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. After receiving her Ph.D., Prof. Raj was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and then at New York University. She joined Seton Hall as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry in 2014 and moved to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Auburn University in 2017.  As of 2020, she is an Associate Professor in the Emory University Department of Chemistry.

Dr. Raj’s research takes place at the interface between the fields of organic synthesis, bioorganic chemistry, and catalysis. Her lab is interested in utilizing organic chemistry tools to solve problems in the field of biology. The Raj lab’s focus is geared towards the development of new chemical reactions, catalysis, and ligation methodologies for the synthesis of chemical probes for studying biological molecules and systems. 

She was named a 2023 Kavli Fellow from the National Academy of Sciences and received the 2019 NIH MIRA Award, the Early Career Lectureship from APS, and the NSF Career Award, among other honors such as Sloan Research Fellow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2020); Early Career Lectureship, Japan Peptide Society (JPS) (2019); Early Career Lectureship, American Peptide Society (APS) (2019); Rising Star Award, Chemical Protein Synthesis (CPS) (German Science Foundation) (2019); University Research Council Grant (SHU) (2017); CDI grant from University Assessment Center (Teaching Award) (SHU) (2017); Researcher of the Year Award (SHU) (2016); University Research Council Grant (SHU) (2015); and Eli Lilly Asia Outstanding Thesis Award, First Prize in Asia (2009). 

In 2019, Dr. Raj was awarded the James E. Land professor, and she is a council member of the American Peptide Society (2021-2027). She is the current Chair of APS Early Career Research Award (2022) and an Associate Editor of SynLett (2023).

Alumni

Graduate Students

• Rachel Wills (2024 PhD). Current position: Postdoctoral fellow at Abbvie
• Kuei Cheng Tang (2022 PhD). Current position: Postdoctoral fellow at NIH National Cancer Institute
• Victor Adebomi (2022 PhD). Current position: Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington with Dr. David Baker.
• Ogonna Nwajiobi (2022 PhD). Current position: Senior scientist at Amgen
• Yonnette Sim (2020 PhD): Current position: Principal Scientist at Eurofins
• Ryan Cohen (2019 PhD).   Current position: Associate Principal Scientist at Merck
• Tiauna Howard (2019 PhD): Current position: Senior Scientist at Merck
• Neelam Lahankar (2018 PhD): Current position: Assistant Professor at New York Institute of Technology, NY
• Hader Elashal (2018 PhD): Current position: Senior Scientist at NJ Bio

Post Docs

• Ashish Kumar Verma. Current position: Postdoctoral fellow at St. Judes Children’s Hospital
• Masesh Sriram. Current position: Principle Scientist at Sai Life Sciences Limited, India

Undergraduates

• Patrick Czabala (2023): MD/PhD candidate at Medical College of Georgia
• Yuwen (Daniel) Wang (2023): PhD candidate at UC Irvine
• Julia Donovan (2023): PhD candidate at University of Michigan
• Eddy Pineda Jr. (2023): PhD candidate at University of Chicago (NSF GRFP)
• Caroline Spancake (2023): PhD candidate at University of Michigan
• Jonathon Farhi (2022): PhD candidate at CalTech
• Xavier Streety (2020): PhD candidate at Vanderbilt University (Goldwater Scholar)
• Zilma Muneeswaran (2017): PhD candidate at Rutgers University
• Heidi Elashal (2017): PhD candidate at School of Medicine, UPenn
• Lyssa Buissereth (2017): PhD candidate at Temple University
• Joseph M. Nalbone (2017): Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School (NJMS)