Muslim Professor takes on Chemistry, Catholicism, and Islam at Seton Hall

By Linda Kamateh

A priest, a minister, and an imam walk into a lab. It sounds like the beginning of an inappropriate joke but it’s really the premise of a unique course at Seton Hall University that launched in the Spring of 2025.

Wyatt Murphy, Ph.D., a Methodist professor and Nada Khan Ph.D., a Muslim chemistry professor at the school, led the development of Laudato Si’, Stewardship, Sustainability, and Green Chemistry, the first class to explore the intersections between chemistry, Catholicism and Islam.

Dressed in a modern suit and brightly colored hijab, Dr. Khan leads the students in discussions on everything from the effects of chemicals used in lip fillers to the ethics of working in the pharmaceutical industry. She also delves into religion.

“At first, I was reluctant to discuss Islam, but in my first lecture, I said to the class: This class is for everyone, for non-believers and believers, but we start from the base that there is God, that is our foundation, there is God and there is faith, and we talk from there,” said Dr. Khan, who runs an organic chemistry lab and teaches Green Chemistry courses at the university. She has been teaching there for nine years.

“This is a Core 3 course. Core 3 courses are all about how Catholic tradition engages with real-world problems,” said Dr. Murphy. “I wanted Nada to do this [teach the course] because I saw her teach organic chemistry. I observed her, and I saw how she handled the class. Usually, in a standard organic chemistry class, kids don’t ask questions. Still, she was really great at drawing students out and getting them to ask questions. She is authoritative without being intimidating.”

Last year, the North Jersey Section of the American Chemical Society honored Dr. Khan with the Sr. Marian Jose Smith Award for Excellence in Education, for inspiring students and successfully launching them onto successful careers in chemistry. However, this was her first time leading a course that involved subjective discussions and religious philosophy.

Students are introduced to three texts: “The 12 Principles of Green Chemistry,” by Paul Anastas and John Warner; “The 10 Green Commandments of Laudato Si,” by Fr. Joshtrom Kureethadam, and “The Green Deen: What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet”, by Ibrahim Abdul Matin.

All three texts challenge the reader to rethink how one cares for the earth whether by embracing Pope Francis’ ecological spirituality; understanding the Islamic concept of Khalifah, a human being’s stewardship over the earth; or practicing the first principle of Green Chemistry, to prevent waste.

When they began developing the course in 2023, Dr. Murphy, Dr. Khan and their colleagues in the university’s Academy of Green Chemistry wanted to create a class for both science and non-science majors that would explore the ethical and moral foundations of Green Chemistry.

Dr. Murphy, who has been teaching at Seton Hall for 40 years, also wanted the course to be more than just an overview of Laudato Si, which was issued in 2015 and was the first papal letter to address environmentalism. He wanted students from different faiths and backgrounds to comprehend the universal nature of these principles. The growing Muslim student body on campus, made Dr. Khan’s offer to incorporate Islam into the course, a perfect fit.

The University currently has an Islamic Studies Department, a Muslim Students’ Association, and a Muslim Law Students’ Association.

“People of different traditions value stewardship. Catholicism and Islam are not so different,” said Murphy.

“When I tell people I am a professor at Seton Hall, they always ask me how I find my place and if I have ever experienced discrimination. I never felt uncomfortable at Seton Hall as a Muslim professor. Muslims and non-Muslim students often greet me by saying ‘As-salamu alaykum’ (Peace be upon you), and some even acknowledge and congratulate me during Muslim holidays by saying ‘Eid Mubarak’ (Happy or Blessed Eid),” said Dr. Khan.

Dr. Khan challenged the students to implement the principles they learned in class on campus; after all this was their first common home.

The students created a composting system in front of their classroom building. From February through May, they collected coffee grounds, orange peels, banana skins, and all manner of residual fruit scraps. They collected and watched and waited, and with the help of a “Green” accelerator compound, those scraps turned into soil. On the last day of class, the students of CHEM 3551 spread that soil in the most fitting of landscapes, Seton Hall’s Prayer Garden.

Seton Hall will offer CHEM 3551 in the Spring of 2026.

The Academy of Green Chemistry was founded in 2021 by Nada Khan Ph.D., Wyatt Murphy, Ph.D., David Laviska, Ph.D, Robert Augustine, Ph.D. Setrak Tanielyan, M.Sc., and Cecilia Marzabadi, PhD. It grew out of conversations between Augustine, Marzabadi, Tanielyan, Laviska and Murphy, which led to the creation of the Green Chemistry Initiative in July 2018, led by Provost Katia Passerini with funding by Dean Shoemaker in June of 2018. The Green Chemistry initiative has led to many accomplishments including the creation of CHEM 3551.