Chemist Gets Great Reaction as R&B Artist

Learn how you can support MIT’s Department of Chemistry, as well as many other programs in the MIT community, on March 13, 2025, during the MIT 24-Hour Challenge. 

“Everything is a learning experience. I’m just going to go for it.” That’s the attitude that drives Kelvin Frazier PhD ’15—and it’s made him a pretty busy man. Currently, Frazier works as an assistant professor of chemistry, a sixth-grade math teacher, an AI consultant, and an R&B recording artist (he’s made the Billboard charts twice).

“I am not a naturally gifted person, but I am a hard worker,” Frazier says.

Raised in Savannah, Georgia, Frazier studied math and chemistry at Savannah State University. He hadn’t even heard of MIT until he started researching graduate schools and a friend suggested he apply. “I was like, what is MIT? She said, ‘Look it up.’ I Googled MIT and saw the technology there and thought, this is another level. So, I applied.”

He earned his PhD in chemistry in the lab of Timothy Swager, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry. Frazier focused on chemical sensors that detect volatile organic compounds—work with applications in food and water quality, industrial environment, and health. “I like projects that have applications,” he says.

After MIT, Frazier did some consulting and worked as an electrochemist to gain experience in the industry before moving into academia. He also decided it was time to pursue his lifelong love of music. “Once I got my PhD, I felt like I was free to dive deep into music. I’ve got my security blanket,” he says.

Amateur Night at the Apollo

Frazier grew up in a family of singers, but he wasn’t a standout performer in his youth. “I felt inadequate compared to them,” Frazier says. In college, however, Frazier joined the concert choir and was awarded his first solo.

He started auditioning seriously after MIT and landed his first gig playing at Amateur Night at the famous Apollo Theater in New York City. “This whole time I’m like, I have no idea what I’m doing,” he says.

Nevertheless, he kept at it. He moved out to LA, recorded an EP, and started networking. He was fortunate enough to meet a promoter who liked his music and was able to get it on the radio. Then in 2018, right around his birthday (which, in a turn of MIT kismet, falls on Pi Day), Frazier made it to the Billboard charts for the first time with his single “Marked and Scarred.”

After that success, Frazier got the opportunity to provide background vocals for a Netflix special called Dolly Parton: A MusiCares Tribute, and he started planning a music tour to the United Kingdom. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Finding himself stuck at home, Frazier decided it was time to get his bachelor’s degree in music. “I can’t just sit down and do nothing,” he says. Working online, Frazier earned his degree from the Berklee College of Music in 2022.

Giving Back

Meanwhile, he continued his chemistry career, joining the faculty at Chaminade University of Honolulu as a visiting professor before gaining his current tenure-track position last fall. He also kept up his consulting business: He is now working on a project to help AI do chemistry problems.

That would seem to be enough, but when Frazier discovered his university students were struggling with math, he decided to start teaching younger students as well. Now he is teaching sixth-graders math for two hours a day at the Kūlia Academy, a charter school in Hawaii.

“When I was a kid, I struggled with schooling,” Frazier says, noting that while math came easily to him, other subjects did not. “I’m just trying to give back.”