Chemistry Department Faculty

Kenneth R. Metz

Professor of the Practice

Director of Advanced Chemistry Laboratories

Research

Dr. Metz is a physical / analytical chemist with interests in the development and application of instrumentation in chemistry. His main focus is NMR spectroscopy, and he has published extensively in such diverse areas as solution- and solid-state NMR of metal nuclides, techniques in multidimensional NMR, new sample coil designs, spectroscopy and imaging of living biological systems, high-speed NMR imaging using radiofrequency field gradients, NMR techniques for phospholipid analysis, and deconvolution methods for spectral resolution enhancement. The courses Dr. Metz teaches emphasize spectroscopy, chromatography, electrochemistry, and similar approaches, and they are accompanied by an intensively hands-on laboratory program. For example, students routinely construct a working NMR spectrometer from individual components to aid in understanding the subtleties of this method. Dr. Metz also has interests in the history of chemistry, particularly the evolution of laboratory techniques, and he maintains an extensive collection of antique apparatus and rare scientific books.

Selected Honors and Awards

  • National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow, 1983
  • Sigma Xi, 1990
  • Fellow, American Institute of Chemists, 1992

Representative Key Publications

  • K.R. Metz, "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy" in听Handbook of Measurement in Science and Engineering, Myer Kutz (editor), Vol. 3, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York,听2016, pp. 2529-2581.
  • K. R. Metz, M. M. Lam, and A. G. Webb, 鈥淩eference deconvolution: a simple and effective method for resolution enhancement in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy,鈥澨Concepts Magn. Reson.,2000,听12,听21-42.
  • K. R. Metz and L. K. Dunphy, 鈥淎bsolute quantitation of tissue phospholipids using听31P NMR spectroscopy,鈥澨J. Lipid Res.,1996,听37,2251-2265.
  • J. L. Bowers, P. M. Macdonald, and K. R. Metz, 鈥淩apid chemical-shift selective MR imaging using radiofrequency field gradients,鈥澨J. Magn. Reson., Ser. B,1995,听106,听72-75.