All About Me

Marsha Cole is a third year graduate student from Dr. Isiah M. Warner’s research group in the Department of Chemistry at Louisiana State University.  She is currently doing research at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) through the Harriet Jenkins Predoctoral Fellowship Program.  Marsha’s dissertation work is on the use of antibiotic-based ionic liquids and groups of uniform materials based on organic salts (GUMBOS) to selectively inhibit the growth of several zoonotic pathogens.  Through her expertise in chemistry and microbiology, she has been able to chemotherapeutically inhibit the germination process of different Bacillus and Clostridium spores.  This project will help to accomplish the missions of NASA Planetary Protection in that contamination can be quantified and eliminated within sterility assurance levels.

Marsha hails from Dallas, Texas.  She has one older brother, Marcus Cole, who is in the United States Army.  A social butterfly, Marsha loves make-up and fashion and has participated in a few campus pageants.  She loves to sing, dance, and enjoy the company of her close friends and family.  Marsha’s only child happens to be a 4 year old Boxer named Babe, who she misses very much!

education

B.S. Chemistry, Grambling State University, 2007

Ph.D. Chemistry, Louisiana State University, 2012 (projected)