Ryan Rafferty appointed interim director of Johnson Cancer Research Center
Monday, May 19, 2025
Ryan Rafferty, associate professor of chemistry, has been named interim director of Kansas State University’s Johnson Cancer Research Center by Chris Culbertson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The center’s most recent director, Sherry Fleming, professor of biology, is retiring.
Rafferty joined K-State’s chemistry faculty as an assistant professor in 2014 and was promoted to associate professor in 2020. He has been affiliated with the cancer research center since 2014 and began serving as its assistant to the director in 2024. He has participated in its research and travel award programs, journal club and fundraising and outreach activities.
“Rafferty has been an enthusiastic member of the center and knows its mission well,” said Culbertson. “That plus his many years of experience conducting and mentoring students in cancer research make him the perfect person to lead the center through this transition, and we are grateful for his willingness to serve in this way.”
Rafferty has served as an academic advisor, a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program coordinator and a mentor to more than 15 graduate students and 40 undergraduate students in cancer-related research. He has served as a Kansas Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence executive board member and a faculty senate representative for Student Senate. He currently chairs the College of Arts and Sciences' Well-Being and Belonging Committee. He is also involved in the American Chemistry Society National Committee, the Women in Chemistry Committee and the Division of Organic Chemistry.
Rafferty studies the interface of synthetic organic chemistry and chemical biology, focusing especially on drug discovery, medicinal chemistry, transport of small molecules across complex cellular barriers and development of personalized cancer therapeutics. His group has developed routes for the total synthesis of at least seven natural products now being used in the development of new cancer delivery vehicles and synergistic compounds.
Rafferty's many honors and awards include the Commerce Bank and W.T. Kemper Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Award, Ervin Segebrecht Award, NSF CAREER Award, Thieme Chemistry Journal Award, Stamey Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Illinois Student Senate Teaching Excellence Award.
“I’m honored to serve as the interim director of the Johnson Cancer Research Center,” said Rafferty. “It has been such a support network for me, and I look forward to repaying that in this role. Fleming has been an amazing mentor and I’m grateful for her dedication to the center and to the advancement of cancer research at K-State.”
Rafferty earned bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and biology and a master’s degree in biochemistry, all from the University of Northern Colorado in 2000, 2002 and 2004, respectively. He earned his doctoral degree in synthetic organic chemistry from Colorado State University in 2011. He did postdoctoral research and served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois at Urbana until moving to K-State in 2014.