Martín G. Zysmilich
Martín G. Zysmilich
Associate Professor of Chemistry, Deputy Chair of the Department of Chemistry, and Director of Graduate Studies
Contact:
Email:
Martín G. Zysmilich
Office Phone:
(202) 994-4726
800 22nd St. NW
Washington DC 20052
Professor Zysmilich serves as Deputy Chair of the Chemistry department, assisting the Chair, Prof. Cahill, with the daily academic and administrative affairs of the department. He also serves as the Director of Graduate Studies for the Chemistry Department, as a member of the CCAS Graduate Affairs Committee, as well as the Student Discrimination Report Committee.
He served as a facilitator in the Summer 2022 in the ACS New Faculty Workshop. Prof. Zysmilich joined the Faculty in September 2000 and in the fall semester of 2001 he overtook the chemistry education program for non-science majors. Since then, he dramatically modified the curricula for the Contemporary Science for Non-Science Majors courses, Chem 003 and 004. The successful modernization of these two courses has made Prof. Zysmilich the recipient of the student-nominated 2002 Robert W. Kenny Prize, as well as the 2003 Bender Teaching Award. Prof. Zysmilich developed and taught the first distance online chemistry course offered by the Chemistry Department at GW.
During the Fall 2024 semester, Prof. Zysmilich. was on sabbatical working in the Office of Higher Education at the American Chemical Society (ACS), where he gained valuable insight into chemistry education at the national level and contributed to several major initiatives.
As part of his work with the ACS OHE, Prof. Zysmilich engaged in the evaluation and approval process for undergraduate chemistry programs and participated in developing the office’s new strategic vision. He collaborated closely with ACS staff to revamp the New Faculty Workshop, a professional development program for new chemistry educators, and the updated version launched in 2025 to excellent feedback. Prof. Zysmilich. has been a facilitator for the ACS New Faculty Workshops since 2022 and continues to contribute to national efforts that enhance chemistry education and faculty development.
Building on this work, he also designed a Mid-Career Faculty Workshop, which is planned for launch in Summer 2026.
In partnership with the ACS Green Chemistry Institute, Prof. Zysmilich reviewed instructional modules that promote sustainability and environmental responsibility in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. He submitted a proposal for a symposium on Integrating Green Chemistry in the Undergraduate Curriculum for the 2026 ACS Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting.
Chemical Education
Zysmilich, M. G. and McDermott, A., "Photochemically Induced Dynamic Nuclear Polarization in the Solid-State 15N Spectra of Reaction Centers from Photosynthetic Bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides R-26", J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1994, 116, 8362-8363.
Zysmilich, M. G. and McDermott, A., "Photochemically Induced Nuclear Spin Polarization in Bacterial Photosynthetic Reaction Centers: Assignments of the 15N SSNMR Spectra", J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 5867-5873.
Zysmilich, M. G. and McDermott, A., "Natural Abundance Solid State Carbon NMR studies of Photosynthetic Reaction Centers with Photoinduced Polarization", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1996, 93, 6857-6860.
dos Santos Afonso, M., Di Risio, C., Zysmilich, M., Marqués, R.O. and Blesa, M.A., "A Model of the Annealing and Activation of Dissolution Sites in Magnetite Exposed to (gamma + n) Radiation", Radiation Phys. and Chem. 1996, 48, 715-718.
McDermott, A., Zysmilich, M.G., and Polenova, T.E., "Solid-State NMR Studies of Photoinduced Polarization in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers: Mechanism and Simulations. " Solid State NMR, 1998, 11, 21-47.
M.S., 1990, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Ph.D., 1997, Columbia University, New York
Dr. Zysmilich received his Master of Science Degree (Licenciatura en Ciencias Químicas) from Universidad de Buenos Aires in 1990 and his Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry from Columbia University in 1997. From 1997 to 2000, he served as a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
GW All Access: Martín Zysmilich of CCAS
Professor Zysmilich was featured in an article that discussed, valuable lessons learned during the pandemic. "Chemistry professor says some techniques from virtual learning should remain in place whenever classes convene in person again."