Patricia Z. Musacchio is an American chemist and assistant professor of chemistry at the University at Buffalo. Her research focuses on organic chemistry, chemical biology, and the development of new methods for the synthesis and modification of small molecules.
Education Musacchio received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012 and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Princeton University in 2017 under Prof. David MacMillan. She subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the UC Berkeley, from 2017 to 2019, under Prof. Dean Toste.
Research Musacchio began her independent academic career as an assistant professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2019. She later joined the Department of Chemistry at the University at Buffalo in 2024. Musacchio's research includes small-molecule synthesis, organic reaction development, radical and carbocation chemistry, photochemistry, C–H functionalization, and organometallic chemistry. Her group has investigated photoredox methods for the functionalization of carbon–hydrogen bonds and other approaches to constructing complex organic molecules. In 2026, Musacchio and collaborators reported a photochemical method using visible blue light to modify adjacent carbon atoms in molecules containing carbon–halogen bonds. The work, published in the journal Science, was applauded as a potential new approach for constructing complex molecules in fewer synthetic steps.
References
External links University at Buffalo faculty profile ORCID
