Dr. Renze obtained a PhD in medicinal organic chemistry from the University of Hamburg, Germany (2002).  For his work on design and synthesis of pro-nucleotides for HIV chemotherapy, Jürgen received awards at the International Roundtable on Nucleosides in San Francisco, at the International Conference on Antiviral Research in Seattle and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service.  During his Postdoctorate at Harvard Medical School (2002-2004), he developed and synthesized high-affinity small-molecule contrast agents for in vivo imaging of prostate cancer cells.

In 2004, Dr. Renze joined the medicinal chemistry group at Microbia, Inc. (now Ironwood Pharmaceuticals) under John J. Talley.  For his work in medicinal and process chemistry towards developing novel cholesterol absorption inhibitors and COX-2 inhibitors, Jürgen holds a U.S. patent and a world patent.  In 2008, he joined the WarnerBabcock Institute for Green Chemistry as a senior scientist, where his work focused on non-covalent derivatization, and the development of dye-sensitized solar cells.

In 2010, Jürgen and his family moved to Western Massachusetts, and he joined Central Connecticut State University and Manchester Community College as an Adjunct Professor, instructing general, organic and biological chemistry lectures and laboratories.  In August 2023, Dr. Renze accepted a position as a Visiting Assistant Professor at WSU.  He currently teaches general chemistry I and organic chemistry I classes and laboratories.

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