Chemistry Department News

Graduating biochemistry senior Sunshine Peterson will be attending Palm Beach Atlantic University's Gregory School of Pharmacy in West Palm Beach, FL beginning in the fall of 2009. She will be obtaining her doctorate of pharmacy degree and plans to pursue a career as a hospital pharmacist.

Graduating senior Jessica Minke will be attending the University of Minnesota Medical School (Twin Cities) beginning in the fall of 2009. The U.S. Army, which Jessica joined as an officer on May 24th, is paying for Jessica's medical school expenses.

Graduating senior Taylor Mach has been named a Doctoral Scholar of the Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS). Taylor is among approximately ten new VT graduate students to be chosen for this award, and the first from the VT department of chemistry since the program began in 2007. The ICTAS program provides full graduate tuition and academic fee support, as well as an annual stipend for four years of Ph.D. study, and support for scientific travel. The award announcement is at http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2009&itemno=718. Taylor is beginning Ph.D. studies in theoretical chemistry at VT in the fall of 2009.

Graduating Chemistry major Kate O'Brien has been chosen to receive a $2,000 scholarship from the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), in addition to an annual stipend and tuition waiver. This scholarship is awarded to a student based on academic record and research achievements. Kate will be pursuing a doctorate in toxicology at KUMC in the fall of 2009.

“Who Am I and Where Am I Going? Moving beyond the Paycheck and Business Cards”, Brian Leafblad, Quality Coordinator, Ecolab, Inc.

Seminar: Mon., Feb. 23, 2009 in room AC300.
Pizza at 5:30 (for chemistry and biochemistry students and faculty)
Talk at 6:00 (all are welcome)

Department faculty and students made the following presentations at the 233rd ACS National Meeting in Chicago, March 25-29, 2007.

1. CHED 425 - Do student and faculty learning styles differ in the chemistry classroom? Hanna L. Kolzow and Ashley B. Mahoney, Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Chemical Education, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM, Monday March 26, HRRC, Poster.

2. INOR 326 - Relative energies of alpha and beta isomers of Keggin dodecatungstogallates Karthik Sundaram (Emory University), Wade A. Neiwert, Ira A. Weinstock (City College of the City University of New York), C. L. Hill (Emory University), Inorganic Chemistry in Water 7:00 PM-10:00 PM, Sunday, March 25, HRRC, Poster; Sci-Mix 8:00 PM-10:00 PM, Monday March 26, HRRC, Sci-Mix.

3. ORGN 83 - Diels-Alder reaction involving an unusual dienophile: Computational and mechanistic study Jack R. Waas and Daniel A. Singleton (Texas A&M), Process R&D, Physical Organic Chemistry, Heterocycles, Aromatics, Metal-Mediated Reactions, 8:00 PM-10:00 PM, Sunday March 25, HRRC, Poster.

4. CHED 806 - Preparation of new materials through the inclusion of polyoxometalate anions within a copolymer matrix Marcus A Kramer, Megan L Nagel, and Wade A. Neiwert, Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Polymer Chemistry, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM, Monday March 26, HRRC, Poster.

5. POLY 330 - Intermediacy of radicals in rearrangement and decomposition of metal-alkyl species: Relevance to metal-mediated polymerization of polar vinyl monomers
Megan L Nagel and Ayusman Sen (Penn State), General Papers and Segmented Block Copolymers, 6:00 PM-8:00 PM, Tuesday March 27 HRRC, Poster.

6. CHED 1230 - Polyoxometalates as nanoscale building blocks for the design and preparation of new materials Owen M. Boldt and Wade A. Neiwert, Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Inorganic Chemistry, 2:00 PM-4:00 PM, Monday March 26, HRRC, Poster.

9. PHYS 359 - Accuracy in theoretical excited-state dipole moments Rollin A. King, General Posters, 7:30 PM-10:00 PM, Wednesday March 28, HRRC, Poster.

10. CHED 261 - Does small group work change students' attitudes and confidence?
Ashley B. Mahoney, Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL), 8:30 AM-11:35 AM, Monday March 26, McCormick Place North -- Room N231, Level 2, Oral.

11. CHED 573 - Experimental and computational investigations into an electrophilic aromatic addition reaction Michael R Huehn and Jack R. Waas, Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Organic Chemistry, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM, Monday March 26, HRRC, Poster.

12. CHED 1408 - Hydrogen bonding to Coumarin-102 in ground and electronically excited states Kerri J. Grove and Rollin A. King, Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Physical Chemistry, 2:00 PM-4:00 PM, Monday March 26, HRRC, Poster.

13. CHED 1066 - A mutation in vesicle-associated membrane protein 1 causes prewean lethality in the mouse lethal wasting mutant J. K. Schwendinger, A. J. Sachs (Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center), N. B. Haider (Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center), and A. M. Nystuen (Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center), Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Biochemistry, 2:00 PM-4:00 PM, Monday March 26, HRRC, Poster.

HRRC = Hyatt Regency – Riverside Center