Biographical Sketch of Professor Sunhee Choi
(Click here for Choi CV)
(Click here for an article about Choi on Middlebury Magazine, Fall 1999)
Dr. Sunhee Choi is Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Middlebury College. She is a native Korean. Choi was awarded the Bachelor of Arts degree at Seoul National University in 1973 and went on to receive M.S. in Physical Chemistry at Korean Advanced Institute of Science in 1975 in the laboratory of Professor Musik Jhon. She came to U.S. to earn her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at Princeton University in 1982 in the laboratory of Professor Thomas G. Spiro. After her Ph.D. she became an industrial chemist at Colgate-Palmolive Company where she was awarded Colgate Presidential Award for Technical Excellence and obtained a U.S. Patent (U.S. Patent 4,725,377) for cold water detergency. In the fall of 1987, she joined the faculty at Middlebury, teaching Fundamental (CH 104), Advanced Fundamental (CH 107), Physical (CH 351, CH 352, CH 353, CH 452), and Instrumental Analysis Laboratory (CH 311, CH 312) courses. She also taught non-majors' courses such as Food Chemistry and Biographies (Beethoven, Chagall and Marie Curie) of the Imaginative.
Choi is active in research in metals in biological system with many of her undergraduate colleagues. She maintains an active externally-funded (Research Corp, ACS, NIH/AREA, and NSF/RUI; total ~$600,000 ) research program involving undergraduates in the area of mechanism of platinum anticancer drugs. She mentored about 42 students and published 12 papers in peer-reviewed journals with undergraduate co-authors. Most of her students went on to graduate school or medical school. She brings her research for presentation at international conferences. At the 8th International Symposium on Platinum and other metal coordination compounds in Cancer Chemotherapy, Oxford, UK, 1999, her poster was selected to be one of the best eight posters out of 100 posters. At the 10th International Conference on Bio-Inorganic Chemistry, Florence, Italy, 2001, her poster was selected to be one of the best three posters out of 500 posters. In each case, her poster was the only one of the recognized posters to originate from an undergraduate institution. Recently (Nov. 17, 2005) she was awarded Vermont Prosfessor of the Year given by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
She and her husband, Jim Larrabee, a chemistry professor, have a daughter, Yuna, and a son, Yuri. They share passion for chemistry, daily walking, hiking, classical music, gardening, cooking and entertaining.
Recent Publications
Choi, S.; Vastag, L.; Larrabee, Y. C.;* Personick, M. L.;* Schaberg, K. B.;* Fowler, B. J.;* Sandwick, R. K.; Rawji, G. "The Importance of Pt(II) Catalyzed Pt(IV) Substitution for the Oxidation of Guanosine Derivatives by Pt(IV) Complexes" Inorg. Chem., 2008, 47, 1352-1360.
Choi, S.; Vastag, L.*; Leung, C. H.*; Beard, A. M.*, Knowles, D. E.*, Larrabee, J. A. "Kinetics and Mechanism of Oxidation of Guanosine Derivatives by Platinum(IV) Complexes" Inorg. Chem., 2006, 45, 10108-10114.
Choi, S.; Cooley, R. B.*; Voutchkova, A.*; Leung, C. H.*; Vastag, L.*; Knowles, D. E.* "Oxidation of Guanosine Derivatives by a Platinum(IV) Complex: Internal Electron Transfer through Cyclization"J. Am. Chem. Soc, 2005, 127, 1773-1781.
Choi, S.; Cooley, R. B.*; Hakemian, A. S.*; Larrabee, Y. C.; Bunt, R. C.; Maupaus, S. D.; Muller, J. G.; Burrows, C. J. "Mechanism of Two-Electron Oxidation of Deoxyguanosine-5'-Monophosphate by a Platinum(IV) Complex"J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126, 591-598.
Choi, S.; Delaney, S.*; Orbai, L.*; Padgett, E. J.*; Hakemian, A. S.* "A Platinum(IV) Complex Oxidizes Guanine to 8-Oxo-Guanine in DNA and RNA" Inorg. Chem., 2001, 40, 5481-5482.
Choi, S.; Delaney, S.*; Jewett, K. J.*; Orbai, L.* "Reaction of Platinum(IV) Anticancer Complexes with DNA" J. Inorg. Biochem., 1999, 74, 98-98.
Choi, S.; Mahalingaiah, S.*; Delaney, S.*; Neale, N. R.*; Masood, S.* "Substitution and Reduction of Platinum(IV) Complexes by a Nucleotide, Guanosine 5'- Monophosphate (5'-GMP)"Inorg. Chem., 1999, 38, 1800-1805.
Choi, S.; Filotto,C.*; Bisanzo, M.*; Delaney, S.*; Lagasee, D.*; Whitworth, J. L.*; Jusko, A.*; Li, C.*; Wood, N. A.*; Willingham, J.*; Schwenker, A.*; Spaulding, K.* "Reduction and Anticancer Activity of Platinum(IV) Complexes" Inorg. Chem., 1998, 37, 2500-2504.
Recent Grants
Choi, Sunhee. NSF-RUI (#0450060) 3/1/05-6/30/08 ($200,000) "Mechanism and Kinetics of Oxidation of Guanosine Derivatives by Pt(IV) Complexes"
Choi, Sunhee. Vt Genetics Network 6/1/05-5/31/06 ($50,916) "Mechanism of Oxidation of DNA by Pt(IV) Compelxes"
Choi, Sunhee. Mellon Foundation Career Advancement Award 9/1/04-8/31/05 ($25,000) Joint with Kerry Kraukstis (Havery Mudd), Miriam Rossi (Vassar), Laura Wright (Furman) and Bridget Gourley (De Pauw) "Advancing the Careers of Senior Women Chemistry Faculty through a Horizontal Peer Network"
Choi, Sunhee. Vt Genetics Network (#1003) 5/15/04-6/30/04 ($10,000) "Mechanism of Oxidation of 8-Oxo-G by Pt(IV) Complexes"
Choi, Sunhee. ACS-PRF (37874-B3) 7/02-6/05 ($50,000) "Mechanism of Oxidation of DNA by Pt(IV) Complexes"
Choi, Sunhee. Vt Genetics Network (#3038) 6/02-8/03 ($20,000) "Mechanism of Oxidation of DNA by Pt(IV) Complexes"