Our Faculty and Staff

Susan C. Jackels, Ph.D. Professor of Chemistry Telephone: (206) 296-5946 Office: Bannan 512 e-mail: sjackels@seattleu.edu

Education Professional Experience Research Experience Publications NEWS

Dr. Jackels teaches introductory chemistry and advanced inorganic chemistry. Besides devoting her time to teaching, facilitating undergraduate research students and serving the department, she is active about campus on issues such as assessment, service learning and combining her scientific research in support of the University Mission. For over twenty years, her research interests have been transition metal complexes, macrocyclic ligands and metallobiochemistry.  In 2000, she began a new research initiative that combines her expertise in chemistry with the needs of poor small-scale coffee farmers in Nicaragua.  In partnership with Catholic Relief Services/Nicaragua (CRS/NI), a Nicaraguan agricultural NGO called ADDAC (Association for the Development and Diversification of Agricultural Communities), and the University of Central America Managua, she is now working on projects designed to help Nicaraguan coffee farmers improve the quality and consistency of their green coffee product.  The goal is to work with CRS/NI to help the organic certified coffee farmers in improving their coffee so they can market their excellent coffee on the specialty coffee market through the Equal Exchange web site.  In 2003 - 2004 she was on sabbatical and spent three months conducting field research on coffee farms in the Matagalpa region of Nicaragua.

Dr. Jackels was awarded a NSF Discovery Corps Senior Fellowship for 2005 - 2006.  Project Summary:

Susan Jackels will undertake an international collaborative project to establish a laboratory for agricultural and environmental analysis at the University of Central America Managua (UCA) and to conduct service-based research and activities for improvement of coffee quality with Nicaraguan small-holder coffee farmers.  This project will be accomplished through an existing partnership of Seattle University (SU), the University of Central America Managua and Catholic Relief Services/Nicaragua (CRS/NI) in which Jackels, SU and UCA students, an UCA professor, a University of Washington Bothell professor, CRS/NI staff and Nicaraguan non-government organization technical staff and coffee producers participate in collaborative projects and exchanges. COFFEE PROJECT WEBSITE:

August 2004, Dr. Jackels received a Turner BioSystems Fluorometer Grant.  This grant provides a Picofluor^TM handheld battery-operated fluorometer to be used in a project to develop an appropriate-technology analysis for Ochratoxin A in green coffee.  For more information about the Turner BioSystems Fluorometer Grants Program, check the following link:

Professor Carlos Vallejos from the University of Central America, Managua visited Seattle University for the month of August, 2004.  Professor Vallejos is collaborating with Dr. Jackels on a project to develop an analysis for Ochratoxin A in green coffee.

Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota B.A. 1968 Chemistry

University of Washington, Seattle, WA Ph.D. 1973 Inorganic Chemistry

Postdoctoral Fellow, Univ. of Washington 1973-75 Biochemistry

Visiting Res. Assoc., Ohio State Univ. 1975-77 Inorganic Chemistry

1977-1983 Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

1983-1990 Associate Professor of Chemistry, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

1986-1995 Research Associate Professor of Radiology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC

1990-1995 Professor of Chemistry, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

1994-1996 Affiliate Staff Scientist, Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Richland, WA

1996-present Professor of Chemistry, Seattle University, Seattle, WA

1997- 2003 Chair of the Chemistry Department, Seattle University, Seattle, WA

1985 Research Fellow, Department of Radiology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC

1985-86 Sabbatical Leave, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

1993-94 Sabbatical Leave, University of Minnesota and Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories

2003 2004 Sabbatical Leave, University of Central America Managua and Catholic Relief Services/Nicaragua, Matagalpa, NI

Jackels SC and Jackels CF.  Characterization of the Coffee Mucilage Fermentation Process Using Chemical Indicators: A Field Study in Nicaragua. Journal of Food Science, in press, 2005.

Elster AD, Jackels SC, Allen NS, Marrache RC . EuropiumDTPA: A GadoliniumDTPA Analogue Traceable by Fluorescence Microscopy Amer. J. of Neuroradiol. 1989 10: 1137 1144.

Jackels SC. Enhancement Agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Fundamentals. Chapter 20 in "Pharmaceuticals in Medical Imaging", D. P. Swanson, H. M. Chilton and J. H. Thrall, eds., MacMillan, 1990, pp. 645 661.

Sobol WT, Jackels SC, Cothran RL , Hinson WH . NMR SpinLattice Relaxation in Tissues with High Concentration of Paramagnetic Contrast Media: Evaluation of Water Exchange Rates in Intact Rat Muscle. Medical Physics 1991 18: 243 -250.

Jackels SC. Chemistry of Paramagnetic Chelates: Relationship Between Ligand Structure and Relaxivity, in "New
Developments in Contrast Agent Research", P. A. Rinck and R. N. Muller, eds., European Magnetic Resonance Forum,Blonay, Switzerland, 1991, pp. 3 - 12.

Jackels SC, Durham MM, Newton JE , Henninger TC. Aqueous Solvent 1H NMR Relaxation Enhancement by Mn(II) Macrocyclic Complexes: Structure Relaxivity Relationships. Inorganic Chemistry 1992 31: 234 - 239.

Rothermel, Jr GL, Bryant, Jr LH, Miao L, Hill AL , Jackels SC. Macrocyclic Ligands with 18-Membered Rings Containing Pyridine or Furan Groups: Preparation and Complexation of Metal Ions. Inorganic Chemistry 1992 31: 4854 - 4859.

Baird HW, Jackels SC, Lachgar A. Structural Confirmation of a Template Reaction Mechanism: Structure of dichloro(2,9-dimethyl-3,10-diphenyl-1,4,8,10-tetraene)coblat(III) hexafluorophosphate. J. Crystallographic and Spectroscopic Research 1993 23: 485 - 488.

Bryant, Jr LH, Lachgar A, Coates KS , Jackels SC. Synthesis, Optical Resolution, and X-ray Crystal Structure of a Helical Hexaazamacrocyclic Zinc Complex. Inorganic Chemistry 1994, 33, 2219 - 2226.

Miao L, Bell D, Rothermel Jr GL, Bryant Jr LH, Fitzsimmons PM, Jackels SC. Design and Synthesis of an Ultrachelating Ligand Based on an 18-Membered Ring Hexaaza Macrocycle. Supramolecular Chemistry 1996 6: 365-373.

Bryant Jr LH, Lachgar A, Jackels SC. Untwisting a Helically Coordinated Hexaazamacrocycle: Divalent Mg, Ca, Sr, Cd, Hg,and Pb Complexes of Pyo2[18]dieneN6 and the X-ray Crystal Structure of the Cd Complex. Inorganic Chemistry 1995 34:4230 - 4238.

Fitzsimmons PM and Jackels SC. Helical Hexaazamacrocyclic Ligands Containing Pyridyl and (+ or-)-trans-Diaminocyclohexyl Groups: Effect of Ligand Constraints Upon Metal ion Binding. Inorganica Chimica Acta, 1996 246: 301 - 310.

Please direct questions and comments to chemdept@seattleu.edu