Biochemistry Junior Battles Wildfires in the West

Eric Bugglin-Borer, Honors Biochemistry at the University of Delaware, battled fierce fires that swept west this summer.

As part of a fire suppression group, Eric spent two weeks of his summer battling blazes in Utah and Southern California.

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Department Awarded CBI Grant for Fourth Time

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has been awarded, for the fourth consecutive time, the Chemistry Biology Interface multidisciplinary training grant. The grant is a five year award of $1.3M funded by the National Institutes of Health.

This multidisciplinary grant provides funding for additional opportunities for doctoral students to gain exposure to scientific concepts, methods from both chemical and biological sciences.  

Students funded by this grant enjoy opportunities in training in the Departments of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering or Biological Sciences while conducting research with any of the forty CBI faculty labs from across campus.  

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Assistant Professor Donald Watson's Postdoctoral Research Published in Science

Then postdoctoral researcher Donald Watson and his advisor Professor Stephen L. Buchwald along with other colleagues at MIT have had their research on Flexible Fluorination published in the August 2009 issue of Science and highlighted in August's Chemical & Engineering News. Donald Watson arrived in Delaware July 1, 2009, where he accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware.

Their research publication entitled Formation of ArF from LPdAr(F): Catalytic Conversion of Aryl Triflates to Aryl Fluorides was submitted on June 25, 2009 and accepted by the journal on July 30, 2009, was published online on August 13, 2009.

Donald had worked for Professor Buchwald since 2006, where he was a postdoctoral researcher, and he studied metal catalyzed processes for C-F bond formation. The Department is delighted to have Professor Donald Watson join their growing family. His experience and background will be a great addition to the Department and its research.

Read more about Professor Donald Watson here.

Read more about their research in C&EN News here.

Read Professor Stephen Buchwald and Professor Donald Watson's paper here.

Department Welcomes Two New Assistant Professors!

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is delighted to announce the long awaited arrival of two new Assistant Professors.

Assistant Professor Mary P. Watson comes to us from Harvard University, where she completed her Postdoctoral study in the laboratory of Professor Eric N. Jacobsen. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of California, Irvine and her A.B. at Harvard. Mary Watson is setting up shop in 237 Brown Laboratory (office) and 337 Brown Laboratory and can be reached at (302) 831-1529 or mpwatson@udel.edu.

Research in the M. P. Watson group is centered on the discovery of new catalytic, stereoselective methods for organic synthesis by utilizing the power of both transition metal and Brønsted acid catalysts.

Assistant Professor Donald A. Watson comes to us from MIT, where he completed his Postdoctoral studies in Professor Stephen L. Buchwald's laboratory. He completed his Ph.D at University of California, Irvine and received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of the California, San Diego. His research program is broadly focused on the development of transition metal catalysts for applications in organic synthesis and alternative energy. He is particularly interested in inventing new reactions for the stereocontrolled introduction of heteroatoms, such as nitrogen, in rapid fashion. He also employs the principles of catalyst design and organometallic synthesis to prepare novel complexes for use as catalysts in alternative fuel preparation and energy storage.

Donald Watson will be located in 205 Lammot duPont Laboratory (office) and 224 Lammot duPont Laboratory and can be reached by telephone at (302) 831-8728 or by email at dawatson@udel.edu.

I hope that ALL will be welcoming to our new chemistry and biochemistry family members. And, of course, if you need a bit of a work out, I’m sure neither would turn down the offer of a little help as they get their offices and laboratories ready for their new research groups.

Laurel Kegel Awarded GRA Predoctoral Fellowship

14th CHEM/BIOC Graduation Convocation: Pearson Hall, May 30, 2009

CHEM/BIOC Awards - Honors Day, 2009

One of the pleasures that I look forward to every May, is my annual mining expedition for CHEM/BIOC nuggets in the Honors Day booklet. As usual, I found quite a few in the 2009 edition:

UNIVERSITY AWARDS

Harward Fellow:
Ann E. Benevidez(BS/CHEM/09)

Phi Beta Kappa Clift and DeArmond Award:
Valerie W. Shurtleff(BS/CHEM/11)

DEPARTMENT AWARDS

American Chemical Society Award in Chemistry: Amy L. Styer (BS/BIOC/10)

American Institute of Chemists Award in Chemistry: Stephen J. Tereniak(BS/CHEM/09)

Kevin Scott Beall Memorial Awards: Timothy E. Gilpatrick (BS/BIOC/12),Soma Jobbagy (BS/BIOC/12)

Wallace H. Carothers Scholarships: Valerie W. Shurtleff (BS/CHEM/11), James L. White (BS/CHEM/11)

Frank W. Collins Undergraduate Award in Biochemistry: Stephanie L.Myrick (BS/BIOC/09)

Quaesita Drake Scholarships: Christina H. Antonopoulos (BS/BIOC/09), Ionna H. Antonopoulos (BS/BIOC/09), Heather A. Hartman (BS/CHEM/10), Meghan D. Woods (BS/BIOC/09)

Plastino Award

Svilen Bobev named 2009 ExxonMobil Solid State Chemistry Faculty Fellowship awardee

Assistant professor, Svilen Bobev, has been named the awardee of the 2009 ExxonMobil Solid State Chemistry Fellowship in Inorganic Chemistry by the ACS. Prof. Bobev's research is studying the relationship between composition, structure and electronic structure in complex intermetallic compounds. He will receive his award at the fall ACS national meeting in Washington DC. The solid state chemistry fellowship recognizes young scientists who have made substantial contributions to the discipline of solid-state chemistry and have the potential to emerge as leaders in the field.

Read more on UDaily: http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2009/apr/bobev042209.html

Read more about Prof. Bobev's research at: http://www.udel.edu/chem/bobev/Site/Personal%20Web.html

Read more about the ExxonMobil Solid State Chemistry Faculty Fellowship at: http://www.acsdic.org/awards.htm

Two New Assistant Professors Join the Department Ranks!

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is pleased to announce that it as been successful in attracting two new faculty members to the Department. Drs. Mary Watson (Ph. D. UC Irvine, currently a postdoc at Harvard) and Don Watson (Ph. D. UC Irvine, currently a postdoc at MIT) will join the Department this fall as Assistant Professors in Organic Chemistry.

Mary Watson's research program is centered on the discovery of new catalytic, stereoselective methods for organic synthesis by utilizing the power of both transition metal and Bronsted acid catalysts. Her research will focus on selective activation and functionalization of relatively strong bonds; enantioselective transition metal-catalyzed preparation of chiral alkylboranes and alkylsilanes; and the development of new chiral Bronsted acid catalysts to promote reactions of unactivated alkenes. These methods will allow greater efficiency and novel bond constructions in the synthesis of stereochemically complex molecules, with applications that extend to natural products synthesis, drug discovery and process chemistry. The development of these methods will also provide a platform for mechanistic investigations, which will enable insights into questions of fundamental reactivity and catalyst design.

Don Watson's research program is broadly focused on the development of transition metal catalysts for

applications in both organic synthesis and alternative energy. His synthetic research will focus on the development of enantioselective catalysts for the synthesis of a-branched chiral amines and on the development of bimetallic and bifunctional catalysts for remote functionalization of organic substrates. This research will allow the use of inexpensive, simple starting materials to efficiently prepare high value, complex organic molecules, which can be used in medicine, agrochemicals, materials and biology. Don's group will also investigate novel catalyst systems for use in alternative fuels and energy storage. He is specifically interested in developing electrocatalysts for reduction of carbon dioxide to methanol. The ultimate goal of this work is to link carbon dioxide reduction to water oxidation in a solar energy driven process for the development of an environmentally sustainable and economically viable global energy source.

We look forward to their arrival in July.

2009 Intercollegiate Student Chemist Convention

The 73rd Intercollegiate Student Chemists Convention (the oldest meeting of its kind in the US) was held at Franklin and Marshall College, in Lancaster, PA, on Saturday, April 18, 2009. A record number (19) of U of D students and faculty attended: Derek Ahneman, Thomas Bloss, Eric Bugglin-Borer, Douglas Desario, Timothy Gilpatrick, Alyssa Hellereich, Soma Jobaggy, Sarah King, James Lansing, Kristin Nuzzio, Michael Pirnot, Charles Polotti, Valerie Shurtleff, Stephen Tereniak, James White (our official photographer), Nicholas Zeringo, Steven Zucker, Prof. Svilen Bobev, and Prof. John Burmeister.

Seven of the students presented papers based on their undergraduate research projects:

Douglas Desario, "Multivariate Analysis of the Fluorescence Decay of 3 Hydoxyflavone", Prof. Sharon Neal, Adviser

Steven Zucker, "Characterization of Carbonaceous Airborne Particulate Matter in Wilmington, DE", Prof. Murray Johnston, Adviser

Kristin Nuzzio, "Characterization of Vanadium Haloperoxidase Mutants by V(51) Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy", Prof. Tatyana Polenova, Adviser

James Lansing, "Stabilization of High Oxidation State Transition Metals", Prof. Klaus Theopold, Adviser

Stephen Tereniak, "Synthesis and Characterization of a 'PS(2)' Ligand and [PS(2)NiX]BPh(4) (X = chloride, bromide, iodide) for Coordination Chemistry and Bioinorganic Modeling", Prof. Charles Riordan, Adviser

Michael Pirnot, "Alkylpyridine Anion Chemistry - Progress Towards the Synthesis of Lycopladine A and Monomorine", Prof. Douglas Taber, Adviser

Nicholas Zeringo, "FT-ICR MS Studies of Metal Sulfide Cluster Formation Using Electrospray Ionization", Prof. Douglas Ridge, Adviser

Awards for best presentations were received by Douglas Desario (First Place, Analytical Division), Michael Pirnot (Second Place, Organic II Division), and Nicholas Zeringo (Second Place, Physical Division).

A total of 47 papers were presented by students from 14 colleges and universities in PA, NJ, MD, and DE. Since its inception, in 1936, more ISCC awards (94) have been won by U of D students than any other of the 62 participating schools.

The 2010 ISCC will be held at the University of Delaware on April 24, 2010 - the 8th time that we will have hosted the meeting (also more than any other school).

On a more personal note, F&M is my alma mater, and 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of my graduation. I had not seen the campus since the last ISCC held there in 1992. They're still called the Diplomats ("Dips", for short), but little else remained unchanged. Even my old fraternity house, Phi Kappa Sigma, looked rather spiffy, although the walk down James Street seemed to be a lot longer than I remembered it to be. I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with their (relatively) new President, John Fry, who was a colleague of President Harker's at UPenn. Finally, a more perfect spring day could not have been imagined!

JB
http://www.udel.edu/chem/
white/UCC/ISC2009/ISCC2009.html

The 43rd annual Glenn S. Skinner Memorial Award

The 43rd annual Glenn S. Skinner Memorial Award was presented to Radhika Nagarkar on April 6, 2009 at the Wriston Memorial Lecture. Ms. Nagarkar’s research advisor is Professor Joel Schneider. This award, in honor of Dr. Skinner, is presented for distinction in scholarship, research, teaching and service by a graduate student in the Department. Dr. Skinner was a very active member of the Chemistry faculty from 1928 to 1958. As a recipient of this award, Ms. Nagarkar received a certificate and a check for $2,500.00.

27th Annual Dyer Awards

The 27th annual Elizabeth Dyer Excellence in Teaching Awards were presented to four outstanding Chemistry and Biochemistry graduate student teaching assistants at the departmental graduate recruitment seminar on March 6, 2009.  The graduate students honored were Brad Bauer, David Gerstenhaber, Bayrammurad Saparov and Xiaochun Zhang.  Brad received his bachelor’s degree from Desales University and is currently working on his doctorate in the laboratory of Professor Sandeep Patel.  Brad served as a TA in CHEM-445, Physical Chemistry, during the fall of 2007. David received his bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire and is currently working on his doctorate in the laboratory of Professor Douglass Taber.  David served as a TA in CHEM-333, Organic Chemistry, during the fall of 2007 and CHEM-334, Organic Chemistry, during the spring of 2008.

Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839 – 1903)

Chemistry and Biochemistry's Glass Technologist Highlighted in UDaily

Chemistry and Biochemistry's Doug Nixon, Glass Technologist, was highlighted in one of UDaily's February 4th, 2009 articles. The Scientific Glassblowing Shop, located in 011 Brown Laboratory, provides a valuable service to the Department's scientific glass needs. As the Glass Technologist, Doug has run the

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Learn more about the services offered at the Glassblowing Shop website.

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Learn more about the Center for Critical Zone Research (CCZR)

Learn more about the Unidel Foundation

Professor Murray Johnston Awarded the Benjamin Y. H. Liu Award

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Read more about the American Association for Aerosol Research (link: www.aaar.org)