Jennifer Murphy

Education and Employment Background

Prof. Jennifer Murphy earned her PhD in Chemistry from Memorial University in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. Francesca Kerton (Chemistry) and Prof. Kelly Hawboldt (Process Engineering). Her PhD thesis focused on the valorization of blue mussel waste from the aquaculture industry with the main goal of biorefining the mussel waste to develop new chemical materials and products from the CaCO₃ rich shells. During her PhD she received a Research Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador (RDC NL) Ocean Industries Student Research Award (OISRA) as well as an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS-D3). Prof. Murphy was also a Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement (MSFSS) awardee and completed a research project on supercapacitors at Monash University (Australia) under the supervision of Prof. Douglas MacFarlane. After graduate school she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Windsor where she worked on the synthesis and characterization of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and coordination polymers containing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and studied how these materials collapsed under physiological conditions. From 2021-2022 she held an NSERC PDF under the supervision of Prof. Jeffrey Long at University of California Berkeley where she synthesized new materials for direct air capture. Prof. Murphy has been in her current role as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry since January 2023.

Highlights

NSERC Discovery Grant 2023

NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship 2021-2022

NSERC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement 2018

NSERC CGS-D3 2016-2019

Ocean Industries Research Award 2015-2018

Research Themes

Our group designs and develop materials for carbon capture, utilisation and storage applications. We aim to develop functional sorbent materials and technologies for industrial atmospheric carbon removal that are selective, sustainable, and cost effective, and to utilize the captured CO₂ to produce industrially relevant compounds. Researchers in the Murphy group are exposed to a suite of organic, inorganic, and materials characterization that best suit their projects and interests.

Carbon Capture Materials, Crystallography, Organic and Inorganic Synthesis, Metal-organic frameworks, Hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks.

Research Opportunities

Highly qualified candidates for summer research, honours thesis, graduate studies and postdoctoral research are welcome to send your resume to Professor Murphy by email.

The Guelph-Waterloo Centre for Graduate Work in Chemistry and Biochemistry (GWC²) is a joint graduate program offered by the Departments of Chemistry at the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo. To apply for the MSc/PhD program, please visit GWC².

There are a number of scholarships and awards available at the University of Guelph for Canadian and international graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. For details, please visit:

List of Awards/Scholarships for Graduate Students at the University of Guelph

List of Awards/Scholarships Specific to Graduate Students at the College of Engineering and Physical Science

We thank all applicants for your interests in advance; only candidates selected for interview will be contacted.

Murphy Research Group

Luke Kameka, MSc. Candidate

Past Members

Gabriele Wehrle, MSc. 2025

William Berecz, Undergraduate 4th year research project 2025

Makayla Carter, NSERC USRA 2023