Samuel Kwain will receive his Ph.D. in chemistry at Clemson University’s doctoral commencement ceremony on May 6, marking the end to a long journey — both literally and figuratively.
That journey started in the small town of Nkwaeso in the Bono East region of Ghana in West Africa.
There, his parents are small-scale farmers with little formal education. His mother never attended school. His father and three older siblings went to middle school but didn’t attend high school because of finances.
“My parents were not financially sound to sponsor their education in high school, so right after middle school, they got into apprenticeships and jobs,” Kwain said. “Even though my parents didn’t have the financial capacity, they vowed to do anything possible, even if it meant sacrificing meals, to support my education and let my talent take me as far as possible.”
He got serious about his studies and did very well in senior high school.
“Initially, chemistry wasn’t my plan after high school. My idea was to go to medical school and become a doctor. My mom always wanted that. She would go to church and tell her friends that her last born is going to school to become a doctor,” he said.
So, he enrolled in the University of Ghana with a plan to go to medical school after his first year. Unfortunately for Kwain, his grade point average fell just short of the requirements.
He decided to major in chemistry instead.
After earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of Ghana in 2014, Kwain did his mandatory national service as a teaching assistant in the same department. It was during his teaching assistantship that he began to appreciate what chemistry really meant.
“I came to understand that almost every medicine we take is made by chemists. Because of that, I decided that if I couldn’t become a medical doctor, I could pursue chemistry and that gets me closer to medicine and would also make my parents happy,” he said. “That was the reason I pursued chemistry to the highest degree.”
Kwain enrolled in and finished the University of Ghana’s master’s program in chemistry. During that time, a friend of his was admitted to Clemson to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering. She told him that the Clemson chemistry department does a lot of fantastic research, and he should consider attending if he was interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in the United States.
“Moreover, she told me the weather in Clemson was warm,” he said.
Research pursues cures for dangerous diseases
His research focuses on developing new synthetic methods to access complex nitrogen-containing compounds with potential therapeutic applications. He leverages computer-aided drug design along with multi-step organic synthesis to create compounds that may help restore balance in the human gut microbiome — an approach that could lead to treatments for chronic gut disorders.
Additionally, his work aims to develop therapies for infections caused by the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri and the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, the reason why cat litter boxes are off-limits to pregnant women. Toxoplasma infections can cause birth defects and even fetal death. Humans can also contract T. gondii by eating certain undercooked, contaminated meats, especially pork, lamb and venison.
Daniel Whitehead, associate chair of the Clemson Department of Chemistry and one of Kwain’s advisors, said Kwain’s potential was readily apparent the first time the pair met.
“It’s been really rewarding to see Samuel blossom into a confident, careful and expert organic chemist,” Whitehead said.
He called Kwain, who recently received the Outstanding Graduate in Discovery award from the College of Science, “the perfect type of scientist.”
“He is very bright, thorough and tenacious,” Whitehead said. “When he believes in an idea, he wrestles it to the ground and makes it a reality. Samuel is also versatile and learns things quickly. It is extremely rare to encounter someone who is not only an expert synthetic chemist but can also carry out rigorous computational chemistry. He’s a unicorn!”
Whitehead said Kwain never shied away from taking on the difficult projects in his group — projects that had met with significant struggles before he joined.
“He never gave up,” Whitehead said. “I will not forget his excitement on those occasions when he stopped by my office to show me a result that he had been chasing for months. He’d sit down in the chair with a big smile and simply say, ‘We got it! We got it.’ Ph.D. mentors live for those moments.”
After graduation, Kwain wants to pursue a career in drug discovery and development for a pharmaceutical company.
“My parents are so happy that they have someone from the family who not only completed high school but also went beyond that to get a terminal degree,” Kwain said. “It’s moving me closer to fulfilling (my mother)’s dream of me going into medicine. While I’m not becoming a medical doctor, I’m helping medical doctors because my career will involve discovering and designing drugs that they will use to treat patients. So, we’re working on the same thing, right?”
Kwain said his long-term goal is to go back to Ghana and establish a pharmaceutical company.
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