April 2008
- Senior Chemistry major Samantha Mroczynski was on the winning team in the Alabama Launchpad Business Plan Competition. Sam's team, Lambert Technologies, LLC (UA), has developed a stress responsive material that can be used to visualize strain on materials to more accurately determine its service life. The team earned $100,000 to help establish their start-up business, which will be incubated at AIME. Dr. Richard Swatloski (PhD 05) was a member of the second place team, Cellulosix, which earned $50,000. UA press release
March 2008
- Gamma Sigma Epsilon inducted 24 new members into the national chemistry honorary society on March 27th. Congratulations to the new members who were chosen based on their academic performance in chemistry.
Mary C. Bradley |
Jessica L. McPherson |
 |
- Two UA students won prizes at the Alabama Academy of Science meeting. Quentin Sonnier won first place in the undergraduate paper competition. Quentin is an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Shaughnessy's group. Lensey Hill earned 2nd prize in the poster competition. Lensey is a graduate student in the Shaughnessy group.
- The chemistry department hosted Prof. Peter Stang as the inaugural Arduengo Lecturer. Prof. Stang a technical talk entitled, "Abiological Self-Assembly: Predesigned Metallacycles and Metallacages via Coordination," and a general talk entitled, "Chemical Publishing in the 21st Century: Perspectives of a JACS Editor," during his visit. The Arduengo Lecture Endowment was established in 2007to honor the achievements of Professor Arduengo and to promote academic excellence in the Department of Chemistry at The University of Alabama in perpetuity.
February 2008
- Senior chemistry major Jackson Switzer was one of 7 UA students named to the USA Today All-Academic Team. Jackson was recognized for his research in Dr. David Dixon's lab on chemical weapons. Specifically, Jackson has studied how Sarin and other chemical agents decompose in the atmosphere, and ways this might be accelerated.
January 2008
- Jesse Carrick has received an ACS Organic Division travel award to attend the National ACS meeting in New Orleans. Jesse is a member of the Jennings research group.
- The Department is happy to welcome several new graduate students
who have started this semester.
- Dripta De Joarder - University of Calcutta
- Kristine Jecen - Clemson University
- Venkateswara Reddy Karrepu - Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University
- Preethi Reddy Vennam - Kakitiya University
December 2007
- Congratulations to the students who earned chemistry degrees during
the December Commencement ceremonies.
The department wishes these students the best of luck in their future
endeavors.
- PhD
- Qingmei Chen - Towards Environmentally Friendly Fabric
Treatment Agents
Advisor: Dr. Joseph Thrasher - Joon-Hyung Cho - Part I. Palladium -Catalyzed Alkenylation
and Alkynylation of Nucleosides in Aqueous Media. Part II.
Palladium-Catalyzed Carbon-Selenium Bond formation for Unsymmetrical
Diselenides
Advisor: Dr. Kevin Shaughnessy - Galina Gulis - Biochemical Study of Disassembly and Degradation
of Photosystem 1 from Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii
Advisor: Dr. Kevin Redding - Zhufang Liu - Synthesis, Activation, and Electrochemical
Study of Pt and Pt-Based Bimetallic Nanoparticles for Anode
Catalysts of Direct Methanol Fuel Cels (DMFCs)
Advisor: Dr. David Nikles - Melanie Moody - A Study of the influence of Water on Polyethylene
Glycol Solutions
Advisor: Dr. Robin Rogers - Dwayne Reed - Use of Silicate Shells to Prevent Sintering
During Thermally Induced Chemical Ordering of FePt Nanoparticles
Advisor: Dr. David Nikles - Marcin Smiglak - A Modular "Ionic Liquid" Platform
for the Custom Design of Energetic Materials
Advisor: Dr. Robin Rogers - Haiyin Wang - The Photochemical Reduction of Dendrimer-Mediated
Metal Ions
Advisor: Dr. Shane Street - Yangliu Zhou - Preparation of New Crosslinking Agents and
Additives for Use in Polymer Electrolyte Membranes (PEMs) for
Fuel Cell Applications
Advisor: Dr. Joseph Thrasher
- Qingmei Chen - Towards Environmentally Friendly Fabric
Treatment Agents
- MS
- Yinghua Chen
Advisor: Dr. Timkovich - Yuan Chen
Advisor: Dr. John Vincent - Christopher Corey Hines
Advisor: Dr. Robin Rogers - Whitney Hough
Advisor: Dr. Robin Rogers
- Yinghua Chen
- BS
- James E. Clark, III
- Jennifer M. Harrison - cum laude
- Jake E. Porter
- PhD
November 2007
- Dr. Kevin Shaughnessy was named a Distinguished Teaching Fellow by Dean Olin at the fall A&S faculty meeting on November 30th. The award is given in recognition of dedication to the art of teaching. Fellows serve a 3 year term, during which they provide guidance to the Dean on issues related to teaching. Dr. Shaughnessy joins Dr. Kevin Redding, who was named a Distinguished Teaching Fellow in 2006.
- The 36th Annual Southeast Magnetic Research Conference (SEMRC) was held Nov. 9-11th at Shelby Hall. The meeting was hosted by The University of Alabama, the Department of Chemistry, and the Center for Materials in Information Technology with Dr. Lowell Kispert, Dr. Kevin Redding, Dr. Michael Bowman, and Dr. Chester Alexander serving as the organizaing committee. Thirty-two lectures and a number of posters were presented during the conference by some of the leading figures in magnetic resonance research.
October 2007
- Dr. Anthony Arduengo has been elected a Fellow of the American Associationi for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The announcement of this year's Fellow's was announced in the October 26th edition of Science. Dr. Arduengo is one of 56 Fellows chosen in the area of chemistry this year. Dr. Arduengo joins Dr. David Dixon as the second member of the Department to be named a AAAS Fellow. Dr. Arduengo was elected as an AAAS Fellow for the synthesis of the first stable carbenes and for distinguished contributions in the synthesis and characterization of main group element compounds with unusual valencies.
- Dr. Kevin Shaughnessy was named a recipient of the 2007 Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award (OCTA) at the Fall Faculty meeting. The OCTA is presented each fall to four faculty members at UA and is the University’s highest honor for excellence in teaching. Dr. Shaughnessy is the 4th chemistry department faculty member to receive the award. Other active faculty members who have received the OCTA are Dr. John Vincent (1999) and Dr. Silas Blackstock (2001).
- Three department graduate students have received Louisa Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowships. The recipients are DeAna McAdory of Montgomery; Melody Kelley of Detroit, Mich; and Nicole Gray of Moss Point, Miss, all of whom are in their first semester in the department. The LSAMP fellowships provide a 2 year stipend to support students in obtaining a masters degree, which hopefully will ultimately lead to a doctorate.
September 2007
- A paper co-authored by Dr. David Dixon, graduate student Raluca Craciun, and co-workers at UCLA and UC-Davis that was published in Chemistry--A European Journal was chosen as a Very Important Paper and highlighted on the cover. The paper entitled, "Molecular Heterogeneous Catalysis: A Single-Site Zeolite-Supported Rhodium Complex for Acetylene Cyclotrimerization," reports an experimental and computational effort to design efficient heterogeneous catalysts for the trimerization of acetylene to benzene.
August 2007
- We are pleased to welcome a new class of graduate students to the
department.
The first year students are listed below along with their previous
institution.
Three members of the incoming class were recipients of LSAMP
fellowships.
- Mier An - Beijing Normal University
- Aymara Albury - The University of Alabama
- Mingyang Chen - Fudan University
- Nicole Gray (LSAMP Fellowship) - Alabama State University
- Mellody Kelley (LSAMP Fellowship) - Wayne State University
- Franchessa Maddox - Augusta State University
- Steven McNeil - University of West Alabama
- DeAna McAdory (LSAMP Fellowship) - Alabama State University
- Nicholas Rhodes - University of West Georgia
- Yu Wang - Beihua University
- Dr. Joe Thrasher will step down as Department Chair effective August 15th. Dr. Thrasher has overseen the department through the move to Shelby Hall and an increase in our numbers of faculty and undergraduate majors. Dr. David Dixon will serve as Interim Chair for the Department as we search for a permanent chair. The Department thanks Dr. Thrasher for his service over the past 5 years and Dr. for his willingness to take on the interim chair.
- Dr. Greg Szulczewski is stepping down as Director of Undergraduate Studies after serving for the past 5 years. In that time our number of undergraduate majors has significantly increased. Dr. Kevin Shaughnessy has agreed to replace Dr. Szulczewski as the Undergraduate Director. The Department thanks Dr. Szulczewski for his service over the past five years and Dr. Shaughnessy for agreeing to take on this role.
- Congratulations to the Chemistry students who received their degrees
in the August Commencement ceremony.
- PhD
- Gabriela Gurau - New Developments in Carbene and Nitrene
Cemistry
Advisor: Dr. Anthony Arduengo - Dan Pu - Mass Spectrometric Studies of Peptide Fragmentation
and Complexes of Chromium (III) with Acidic Peptides
Advisor: Dr. Carolyn Cassady - Dominic F. Qualley - Synthesis and Survey of Non-Natural
Bases in Nucleic Acids
Advisor: Dr. Stephen Woski - Kailas B. Sawant - Studies Towards Synthesis of Lasonolide
A, Total Synthesis and Structural Determination of Diospongin
A and B
Advisor: Dr. Michael Jennings
- Gabriela Gurau - New Developments in Carbene and Nitrene
Cemistry
- BS
- Caitlin D. Prickett - University Honors Program
- Timothy B. Wilson - ACS certified degree
- PhD
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