The 2010-2011 academic year has been another full and eventful one for the Chemistry Department. Our classrooms were full of lively and capable students, with 26 senior majors, 15 of whom completed senior independent thesis projects. A critically important development in the Chemistry Department was the promotion of Professor Sarah Goh to Associate Professor with tenure. We congratulate Sarah on her accomplishments and look forward to her future contributions to the Department and to the College. At the close of the year were sad to say goodbye to two valuable colleagues. Assistant Professor Oyindasola Oyelaran departed to begin an appointment at Northeastern University. We wish Oyinda good fortune in all her future endeavors. On July 1, Dr. Anne Skinner,

Emily Gao’13 presenting her poster at the American Chemical Society Conference in Anaheim, CA, March 2011.

Senior Lecturer in Chemistry and long time member of the Department, officially retired from her teaching duties and from her long and valued service as Campus Safety Officer. We are pleased, however, that Dr. Skinner has agreed to stay on as Campus Radiation Officer and that she will continue her very active research program in archeometry for the next several years.

We are particularly proud of our students and their accomplishments. Each year, individual students are recognized with departmental awards. In the class of 2011, the John Sabin Adriance prize went to Yuzhong (Jeff) Meng for his outstanding work throughout her chemistry career and Mary Beth Daub was awarded the American Institute of Chemists Student Award for outstanding scholastic achievement. The James F. Skinner prize was awarded to Zebulon Levine for his distinguished achievement in chemistry and his future promise as a researcher, and the Leverett Mears prize went to Elizabeth Kalb in recognition of both her abilities in chemistry and future in medicine. Colin Platt was awarded the American Chemical Society Connecticut Valley Section Award for his sustained scholastic excellence. Sara Turner was the recipient of the ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry Undergraduate Award in Inorganic Chemistry and Charles Seipp was awarded the American Chemistry Society Analytical Division Award.

Over the course of the academic year, a number of awards were presented to chemistry students for outstanding scholarship. Thomas Daubert’13, Emma Rickles’14, and Chau D. Vo’14 received the CRC Awards as the outstanding students in CHEM 151, CHEM 153, and CHEM 155, respectively. Recognized for their achievement in organic chemistry, Peter Clement’13 received the Polymer Chemistry Award and Michael Girouard’13 was the recipient of the Harold H. Warren Prize.

This year we continued to participate in the Class of 1960 Scholars Program. Two distinguished scientists were invited to campus to meet with our students and present a seminar. Professor Bob Crabtree from Yale University and Professor Chris Chang from the University of California-Berkeley were the 1960 Scholar speakers this year. Sixteen students were selected by the faculty to be Class of 1960 Scholars during 2011 and to participate in the seminar program which includes: a preliminary meeting of the Scholars with a Chemistry Department faculty member to discuss some of the papers of the seminar speaker, attendance at the seminar/discussion, and an opportunity for further discussion with the seminar speaker at an informal reception or dinner. The students selected for 2011 are:

Class of 1960 Scholars in Chemistry

During the summer of 2011, approximately 40 Williams College chemistry students were awarded research assistantships to work in the laboratories of departmental faculty. We gratefully acknowledge support from the American Chemical Society, the College Divisional Research Funding Committee, the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Lowe JA III 1973, the J. Hodge Markgraf ’52 summer research fund, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, Research Corporation, Summer Science Program funds, and the Wege-Markgraf fund.

After returning from his productive sabbatical year abroad, Associate Professor Dieter Bingemann, along with the help of work-study student Ji Won Ahn’12, applied new-found insight to data taken previously in his own laboratory. With a newly developed statistical analysis routine they showed that single molecule spectroscopy allows to follow the relaxation at the glass transition in unprecedented detail, individually observing fast and slow polymer domains at the molecular level. These results have since been published in the Journal of Chemical Physics and are setting the stage for research with summer research students Bryn Falahee’13 and Chiara Del Piccolo’14.

Building on the experience gained during his sabbatical, Bingemann expanded his research field to now also include molecular dynamics simulations performed on high-speed parallel computers. With work-study student Chansoo Lee’12 the lab identified the times between local rearrangement events in simulations on a model glass former and found amazing similarities to simulations on polymers and results from their own single molecule experiments. Bingemann will present results from both the single molecule experiments and the computer simulations at the Gordon Conferences “Chemistry and Physics of Liquids” and “Soft Condensed Matter Physics” in August.

Back in the classroom, in the fall Bingemann taught Physical Chemistry: Structure and Dynamics (CHEM 361), one of the upper-level chemistry courses, using a new project-based approach, which borrows heavily from tutorials, and was favorably received by the students. In the spring he team-taught Introduction to Environmental Sciences (ENVI 102) with Professor Mea Cook, Geosciences Department, and Professor Henry Art, Biology Department. He also supported Foundations of Modern Chemical Science (CHEM 256) as lab instructor.

Associate Professor Amy Gehring returned to teaching this year following her sabbatical semester. She was thrilled to be back teaching in our biochemistry offerings including Biochemistry I – Structure and Function of Biological Molecules (CHEM 321) in the fall and Enzyme Kinetics and Reaction Mechanisms (CHEM 324) in the spring. She also enjoyed working with a great group of students in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BIMO) senior seminar program this past spring, Topics in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BIMO 401). Gehring is currently serving as chair of the BIMO program.

Research continued in the Gehring lab to understand the molecular details of the life cycle of the important antibiotic-producing soil bacterium, Streptomyces coelicolor. During the summer of 2010, Gehring was joined in this work by Nancy Dong’11, Moyukh Ghosh’11, Ariel White’11, and Sora Kim’13. Moyukh and Ariel continued on during the academic year as thesis students, studying genetic conditions that cause overproduction of antibiotics and secreted hydrolytic enzymes that potentially influence the life cycle of this bacterium, respectively. Also participating in research at various times during the academic year were Nancy Dong’11, Donna Lee’12, Matt Madden’12, Sora Kim’13, Sola Haye’14, Jessica Monterrosa Mena’14, and Aura Perezbanuet’14. For both the summer and academic year, Mike Alcala’12 pursued a collaborative project with Professor Peacock-López using fluorescence microscopy to visualize oscillations in gene expression in the model bacterium E. coli. In addition to pursuing her research program, Gehring served as a reviewer for several journals throughout the year including Applied and Environmental Microbiology, FEMS Microbiology Letters, Journal of Bacteriology, Journal of Molecular Biology and PLoS ONE.

Research on homogeneous metal catalysts continued to progress in the laboratory of Assistant Professor Christopher Goh thanks to thesis students Matt Everhart’11 and Sara Turner’11, fellow student researchers Emily Gao’13, Lovemore Makusha’14, Zac Remillard’12, Pedro Roque and John van Paridon, an exchange student from the University of Leiden, Netherlands. Through the generous support of the Chemistry Department, the Bronfman Science Center and the Division of Inorganic Chemistry, Sara and Emily both presented their work on combinatorial approaches to the discovery and systematic study of Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) catalysts using copper complexes at the national American Chemical Society conference in Anaheim, CA, in March 2011.

Professor Goh taught Current Topics in Chemistry (CHEM 155) in the fall semester, and Instrumental Methods of Analysis (CHEM 364) in the spring. He also served as a reviewer for the Petroleum Research Fund and the journals Macromolecules and The Journal of Materials Chemistry.

The summer of 2010 was quite productive for Professor Sarah Goh. The group submitted two manuscripts. Elizabeth Hwang’13, Taylor Wilson-Hill ’09, Ji Won Ahn’12, Andrew Platt ’07, and Kate Rutledge ’05 all contributed to a lengthy project of synthesizing self-assembled peptide-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) copolymers. This Journal of Polymer Science paper described these micelles’ characteristics (size, CMC, solvent/temperature stability) and encapsulation behavior using fluorescein as a model drug. A Biomacromolecules article featured the work of Karen Chiu’10, Lauren Agoubi’13, Iris Lee ’09, Matt Limpar ’09 and Jim Lowe ’09. The paper explored the effects of PEGylation on trypsin’s enzymatic activity and stability.

Charles Seipp’11 and Colin Platt’11 completed senior theses, developing polymers using peptide-based monomers and active cell-targeting moieties, respectively. They were joined by Michelle McRae’12 and Matt Zhou’12 in February, who began calendar year theses. Also in the lab this year were Ben Fischberg’14, Chris Corbett’13, and Nari Miller’12, as part of their winter study course Introduction to Research in Organic Chemistry (CHEM 23). Bryn Falahee’13, Elizabeth Hwang’13, and Julia Nguyen’14 were also active in research.

Professor Goh and students traveled to two conferences this year. Charles, Elizabeth, and she attended the National American Chemical Society meeting in Anaheim, CA over spring break, where Elizabeth won Best Poster in the Undergraduate Polymer Symposium. Bryn, Chris, and Elizabeth represented the Goh lab at the local ACS Connecticut Valley Undergraduate Symposium in April at Trinity College.

In the fall semester, Professor Goh taught Physical Organic Chemistry (CHEM 344T) as a tutorial. The students had a great time putting all of their mechanistic knowledge together for their final independent laboratory project. In the spring, Professor Goh taught a new course entitled Polymer Chemistry (CHEM 348). She also continues to serve a member of the Proposal Study Panel for the Molecular Foundry, a Department of Energy Nanoscale Science Research Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Professor Lawrence J. Kaplan was on a sabbatical for the 2010-2011 academic year, which he spent at the University of Central Florida working with colleagues in the Chemistry Department and the Forensic Science Program.

He continues to administer the Center for Workshops in the Chemical Sciences with his colleagues Professors Jerry Smith of Georgia State University, David Collard of Georgia Institute of Technology and Patricia Hill of Millersville University. Since its founding ten years ago, the CWCS has received major grants from the National Science Foundation and was informed in the fall of 2010 that the latest grant application was reviewed favorably and the grant awarded. This year, collaborative proposals were submitted so that the major grant was made to Georgia State University for $3,908,665 for five years and the collaborative grant was award to Williams College for $204,260 for five years. The CWCS sponsors workshops related to the chemical disciplines including Food Chemistry, Chemistry and Art, Environmental Chemistry, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Fundamentals of Proteomics, Biomolecular Crystallography, and Forensic Science. In addition to offering workshops, the CWCS continues to develop a series of Communities of Scholars. With the workshops and their alumni serving as the nucleus, the Communities will continue to develop high-quality course content and pedagogy; propagate the use of successful teaching strategies; and provide discussion venues such as online discussion boards and video conferencing. This past year, the website for the Forensic Science Scholars Community was launched.

Kaplan taught a weeklong CWCS workshop in forensic science during the summer of 2010 at Williams. Sixteen participants from colleges and universities as well as community colleges became criminalists for the week. They processed crime scenes and analyzed evidence such as glass and soil, fibers and fingerprints, drugs and alcohol, blood and bullets, and, of course, DNA. Ms. Deborah Morandi, Administrative Assistant and Dr. Tony Truran, Lecturer/Technical Assistant, both in the Chemistry Department, assisted Kaplan in the organization and instruction of the workshop.

Kaplan organized and presided at a daylong symposium and a daylong forensic workshop sponsored by CWCS at the 21^st Biennial Conference of Chemical Education at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas in August 2010. The symposium provided an opportunity for workshop alumni to present their accomplishments based upon their participation in previous workshops. A number of colleagues assisted Kaplan in the instruction of the mini-workshops. Professor John Woolcock, Chemistry Department, Indiana University of Pennsylvania introduced the participants to ballistic analysis of both bullets and cartridge casings; Professor Deirdre Belle-Oudry, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arizona, presented an activity involving the principles and forensic applications of Attenuated Total Reflectance, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy; Professor Carmen Valdez-Gauthier, Department of Chemistry, Florida Southern College coordinated a series of experiments involving the analysis of suspected powdered drug material and drugs in urine and the detection of alcohol in saliva; and Professor Eric Schurter, Department of Chemistry, Muskingum University showed the participants how to detect nitrated explosives using a fluorescence quenching technique.

Kaplan organized a daylong forensic science symposium at the 240^th American Chemical Society national meeting in August 2010 in Boston. Entitled “Forensic Science: Its Impact on the Education of Recent Generations of Undergraduate Students,” the symposium brought together some of the major figures in the world of forensic science – Barry A. J. Fischer, Director, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Crime Laboratory, past president of the American Academy of Forensic Science; Dr. Richard Saferstein, Forensic Science Consultant, Mt. Laurel, New Jersey; Professor Howard Harris, Department of Forensic Science, University of New Haven; Professor Jay A. Siegel, Director, Forensic and Investigative Sciences Program, Indiana University Purdue University – as well as a number of alumni from Kaplan’s forensic science workshop.

Professor Charles Lovett stepped down as Director of the Science Center in July of 2010 after 16 years in the position. During the past year he continued to serve as Chair of the Bioinformatics, Genomics, and Proteomics Program and Director of the Summer Science Program for Students from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the sciences.

Professor Lovett continued his research on the Bacillus subtilis SOS response to DNA damage, which comprises a set of DNA damage-inducible genes i.e., SOS genes that code for DNA repair and cellular survival functions. During the past 26 years Lovett and Williams’ students working in his lab have discovered more than 30 SOS genes and characterized their genetic regulation in response to DNA damage. NIH Funding $214,050 for Lovett’s project entitled, “The binding of the LexA protein to the RecA protein nucleoprotein filament,” which involves characterizing the molecular details of SOS induction, began in June of 2010. In the past year Williams students have worked on various aspects of this project during the summer of 2010, during winter study, and during the academic year. Several summer students worked as full time research assistants including Lucas Bruton’11, Pacifique Irankunda’13, Bianca Martinez’12, Asvelt Nduwumwami’12, and Henry Su’13. Lucas Bruton continued as an honors thesis student during the academic year. Professor Lovett also supervised independent research student Roop Dutta’13 during the spring semester of 2011, winter study research student Jackline Odhiambo’13, work study students Bianca Martinez’12, Lara Roche-Sudar’14, and Bianca Ulloa’14.

Last summer, Professor Lovett taught the Chemistry lectures component of the Williams College Summer Science Program. Together with Professor David Richardson, he also taught in the eighth year of science camp for elementary school students and teachers.

Professor Lovett also served as a reviewer for the Journal of Bacteriology, and as a consultant for the Sherman Fairchild Foundation’s Scientific Equipment Grant Program.

Park’s work on the design of new materials for use in organic photovoltaic cells continued this year with the help of a large group of students. Between summer 2010 and summer 2011, the following students helped out in the lab, participating in summer research, independent study work during the academic year, Winter study research, or simply by volunteering time in lab: Grace Babula’12, Gordon Bauer’13, Heather Burrell’12, Peter Clement’13, Chris Corbett’13, Dan Gross’12, Tracy Hu’13, Mindy Lee’12, Trey Meyer’13, Emma Pelegri-O’Day’12, Jennifer Rodriguez’13, Cameron Rogers’12, Joon-Hun Seong’14, Seth Tobolsky’13, Katrina Tulla’11, Erica Wu’13, Nai-Chien Yeat’13 and Johan Postema, an exchange student from the University of Leiden. This group of students has been working on the design and synthesis of new conductive materials that will be used in prototype organic solar cells. Over the year they successfully made a series of new partially fluorinated polymers and begun studying the self-assembly properties (via AFM) of thin films of those polymers cast onto silicon. They’ve also begun exploratory work on the design and preparation of some small molecule species that can be used in organic photovoltaic devices, including oligo-phenylenevinylenes as well as other borane and amine based compounds. We’re looking forward to a productive 2011!

Park taught Materials Chemistry (CHEM 336) and Foundations of Modern Chemical Science (CHEM 256) this year. For the Materials Chemistry course, she developed and offered a lab program for the first time this year. The lab program focused on various strategies in nanofabrication, and made heavy use of the new AFMs on campus, as well as of the refurbished evaporator (for deposition of metals) in the Park lab. This lab program is highly unusual at small liberal arts colleges; it was exciting to be able to offer it this year, and we’re looking forward to making some improvements for the next time it’s offered (spring 2012).

Park also finished her service as vice-chair (continuing as a regular member of the committee) of the Committee on Professional Training for the American Chemical Society, a committee that oversees curricular development at all approved chemistry programs in the country as well as numerous other aspects of the professional training of chemists at all levels. In addition, she continued her service reviewing proposals for various funding agencies (NSF, Research Corporation, the Petroleum Research Fund) as well as manuscripts for various journals. She also served as an external reviewer for the Carleton College Chemistry Department in January 2011, and was an invited participant (representing CPT) at an Education Summit hosted by the American Chemical Society, and was an invited participant at two NSF sponsored workshops, one focusing on future directions in macromolecular, supramolecular and nanoscale chemistry and another focusing on issues in career development for women in chemistry and physics. Closer to home she continued her service on the Committee for Appointments and Promotions, and served on two successful college-wide search committees, one for the new athletic director and one for the new vice-president of finance administration.

During the academic year, 2010-2011 Professor Peacock-López spent part of his sabbatical as a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town. During the year, Steve A. Mendoza’13 and Erik Levinsohn’12 worked on discrete dynamic systems, and in particular, considered seasonality models and simple genetic networks. Related to the latter project and in collaboration with Professor Amy Gehring, Professor Peacock-López extended his research in complex dynamical chemical and biochemical mechanisms to include transcriptional regulatory networks. In collaboration with Professor Gehring, the so-called repressilator plasmid, which was designed originally by M. B. Elowitz and S. Leibler to include three particular genes, and a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter was investigated. In this network, the LacI protein, from E. coli, represses the transcription of a second gene, tetR, from the tetracycline-resistance transposon, Tn10. The protein product TetR inhibits a third gene cI, from Lambda phage. Closing the loop, protein product CI represses the lacI gene. The system also includes a compatible reporter plasmid containing the tet-repressible promoter PLtetO1 fused to a variant of gfp. Up to date the repressilator is the smallest oscillatory transcriptional network. Motivated by the repressilator dynamics, Michael Alcala’12 has considered a relatively simple synthetic transcriptional network in E. coli and has developed a two-gene plasmid, which represents the smallest artificial gene network. This simple network has been modeled by Mimi Lu ’09 and Steve A. Mendoza’13, predicting complex dynamics.

During the academic year, Ang Li’11 considered two extensions of the Higgins Model used to model metabolite concentrations in glycolysis. In his work, Ang Li’11 developed and studied a two variable and a three variable model, where he considered glucose transport and hexokinase inhibition by gluco-6-phosphate. For the three variable model, we found complex oscillation including bursting and mixed modes, as well as chaos.

While continuing with his research, Professor Peacock-López, Ms. Gisela Demant, and instructors Mr. Kevin M. Hartmann (Drury High School: 28 students) and Ms. Cheryl Ryan (Hoosac Valley High School: 14 students) organized and taught chemistry labs at Williams College. As in previous years, Professors Sarah Goh and Christopher Goh, as well as Dr. Tony Truran helped with running the experiments. These honors chemistry students came five times during the year to perform some of the labs from the Williams introductory chemistry lab program and a newly developed organic synthesis lab. The latter experiment was implemented and adapted by Ms. Gisela Demant to include the synthesis of aspirin from salicylic acid and include the characterization of the purity of the product by TLC and melting point determination. This outreach chemistry effort has now been supported entirely by the National Science Foundation through an RUI grant to professor Peacock-López.

Finally, he has served as reviewer for Chaos, Mathematical and Computing Modeling, Solutions and Fractals, Journal of Chemical Physics, Catalysis Letters, Journal of Applied Mathematics, and Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

In 2010-2011, Professor David Richardson pursued another full year of teaching and research and completed the final year of a two-year stint as department chair. On the research front, he supervised the work of several students throughout the year. He supervised the senior honors thesis research of Christina Meade’11 and Mara Shapero’11 who continued the Richardson lab’s collaboration with Dr. Andria Agusta of the Indonesian Institute of Biological Sciences and with Professor Chip Lovett of the Chemistry Department. This project is directed at the isolation of new antibiotics from medicinally active South East Asian plants. Clarissa Andre’12 also contributed to this project as a work-study student. Collaborating with Professor Jay Thoman, he supervised Mika Nagashige’13, a work-study student, and summer students Emily Ury’13 and Alex Lou’13 with research directed at measuring PCB levels in sediments and macro-invertebrates from the Hoosic River. Finally, in a new research collaboration with Professor Luana Maroja of the Biology Department, he supervised the research of Zachary MacKenzie’14 (work-study student) and also provided extensive technical support to a new research project being conducted by Professor Bill DeWitt with his senior honors thesis student, Michael Abrams’11.

He continued his supervision and maintenance of the department’s 500 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer (overseeing a rebuild of the instrument’s magnet after it spontaneous quenched), and he supervised the upgrade and refurbishment process for our high-pressure liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer. He also served as a reviewer for Steroids, The Journal of Natural Products, Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, The Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry, The Journal of Organic Chemistry, and Natural Products Communications. He served on the review committee evaluating Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ application to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education to reinstate a chemistry major, and on the Science Building Steering Committee advising MCLA on the design of their new science building.

Professor Richardson’s teaching responsibilities for the year included two laboratory sections of Organic Chemistry: Intermediate Level (CHEM 251) and Organic Chemistry: Intermediate Level-Special Laboratory Section (CHEM 255) in the fall semester, and a laboratory section of Organic Chemistry: Introductory Level (CHEM 156) in the spring semester. In the month of July he taught the Chemistry laboratory portion of the Williams College Summer Science Program for traditionally underrepresented groups in the sciences and, together with Professor Chip Lovett, he hosted the Department’s Summer Science Camp program for local 4^th and 5^th graders. Professor Richardson also served as chair of the Olmsted Committee, served on Boards of the New England Tropical Conservatory and the South Williamstown Community Association, and as the Tutor Coordinator for the Williamstown ABC Program.

Anne Skinner, who taught her first class in the fall of 1967, retired from teaching this year. She will continue her research program, with the help of students. In the fall of 2010 she gave a keynote address, “Current Topics In ESR Dating,” at EPRBiodose 2010, a conference dosimetry through electron spin resonance and complementary biological techniques, in Mandelieu La Napoule, France. She also presented a series of posters on dating topics ranging from deep-sea foraminifera to desert molluscs. In January she was invited to participate in an expedition to the oases of the southwestern desert of Egypt, from which she brought back numerous samples for student projects. In March, with Natalia Loewen’12, she attended the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Sacramento where she gave an oral presentation on new ways of calculating ages and a poster on samples from Tanzania. At the conference she learned that a grant on which she is a co-Principal Investigator has been received for more work in Tanzania. Natalia presented a poster on her work in Ethiopia. During this year Dr. Skinner has also served as guest editor for Radiation Measurements, preparing the proceedings for the EPRBiodose 2010 conference.

Professor Tom Smith spent his thirteenth year at Williams pursuing his research in organic synthesis and methods development, Asymmetric Methods for the Synthesis of Pyran-Based Anticancer Natural Products, under an NIH Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) grant and a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. Senior honors student Zebulon Levine’11 made significant progress toward the complex marine natural product, tedanolide C, Mark Johnson’11 developed methods for the synthesis of a,b-unsaturated lactones including the natural product, goniothalamin, Mary Beth Daub’11 developed the key step in the synthesis of jerangolid D, and Marian Deuker’11 worked toward the synthesis of a new marine natural product, enigmazole A.

In the classroom this fall, Professor Smith taught Synthetic Organic Chemistry (CHEM 342) to five dedicated chemistry majors. The final project, an analysis of a recent total synthesis published in the chemical literature was, again, the high point of the course. In the spring semester, Smith taught Organic Chemistry: Introductory Level (CHEM 156) to a group of 120 aspiring chemistry majors and premedical students.

In December, Professor Smith and all four of his senior thesis students traveled to Honolulu, HI to attend Pacifichem 2010: The International Congress of Pacific Basin Societies.

Jay Thoman taught Concepts of Chemistry: Advanced Section (CHEM 153) in the fall and Physical Chemistry: Thermodynamics (CHEM 366) in the spring. During January, Thoman taught Glass and Glassblowing (CHEM/ARTS 16) and sponsored an independent study in flameworking. With David Dethier, he served as thesis co-advisor to J.J. Augenbraun’11, who completed one of the first theses in Environmental Science. A focus of Augenbraun’s thesis was to analyze data from the sensors on the unique solar thermal collection system on Thoman’s home. The collection system includes a 20-m² reflector, which is angled such that it functions as a shade in the summertime and a mirror in the winter. In service outside of the college, Thoman was on the external review committee for the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at Middlebury College. He continues to serve as Chair of the Review Committee for the Chemistry GRE.

During summer 2010, Thoman worked with Dave Richardson, Alex Lou’13, and Emily Ury’13 examining the distribution of PCB pollutants in the Hoosic River between North Adams and Williamstown. They took advantage of the new gas chromatograph – mass spectrometer to quantify PCBs in parts per million concentrations in the sediment. Ury was particularly successful at catching crayfish; mapping the concentration of PCBs in crayfish is a goal for the project continuing in summer 2011. During the academic year, Thoman was joined by Rick Eiselen’14 on his continuing research into the structure and dynamics of hydrofluorocarbons. At the Pacifichem 2010 conference in Honolulu, Thoman presented a poster on this project, based in large part on the thesis work of Tina Motazedi’10 and Dan Suess ’07.

Thoman also enjoyed working with the artist Jenny Holzer and her studio on her piece 715 molecules, a sandblasted diorite table and benches that has been installed in the science quad. The table is a gift from friends of the late J. Hodge Markgraf ’52, who was a Professor of Chemistry at Williams starting in 1959 through to his retirement in in 1998, and who taught a lab section or a course almost every year after his retirement. Numerous students, faculty, and alumni, contributed ideas, drawing, and proofreading to the project. Charles Seipp’11, Karen Chiu’10, Rachel Patel’12, Mindy Lee’12, Scott Snyder ’94, and Dave Vosburg ’97 provided chemical help to the team of dozens.

Chemistry Colloquia

Professor Simon Blakey, Emory University

“Metallonitrene/Alkyne Metathesis and Beyond: Transition Metal Catalyzed Oxidative
 Amination for Organic Synthesis”

Professor Christopher Chang, University of California-Berkeley, Class of 1960 Scholars Program

“Molecular Imaging Approaches to Understanding Metal and Oxidation Chemistry in the Brain”

Professor Robert Crabtree, Yale University, Class of 1960 Scholars Program

“Climate Change, Our Energy Future and Water Oxidation Catalysis”

Professor Danielle H. Dube, Bowdoin College

“Chemical Tools to Discover and Target Bacterial Glycoproteins”

Dr. Edward Grabowski, Merck Laboratories (Retired), Charles Compton Lectureship

“Recent Applications of Catalytic Processes in the Pharmaceutical Industry:
The Importance of Asymmetric Hydrogenation”

Professor Gavin Sacks, Cornell University

“The Flavor Chemistry of Wines and Grapes”

Dr. Doron Greenbaum, Penn Genome Frontier Institute, BIMO Class of 1960 Scholars Program

“Chemical Biology Approach to Understand Host-Parasite Interactions”

Professor Jay Thoman, Williams College

“715 Molecules, Jenny Holzer, American 2010”

Professor Dhandapani Venkataraman, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

“Plastic Photovoltaics: Promise, Progress and Prognosis”

Dr. Phil Zamore, University of MA Medical School, BIMO Class of 1960 Scholars Program

“What Fruit Flies Teach Us About RNA Silencing”

Off-Campus Colloquia

Dieter Bingemann

“The Glass Transition Using the Example of the Molecular Dynamics Simulation
of a Model Polymer”
Technical University Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany, June 2010

Christopher J. Corbett’13, Bryn E. Falahee’13, Elizabeth E. Hwang’13, Williams H. Parsons ’07,, Charles A. Seipp’11, and Sarah L. Goh

“Synthesis of Amino Acid Containing Self-Assembling Polymers”
Connecticut Valley Section of the American Chemical Society Undergraduate Symposium, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, April 2011

Emily Gao’13, Sara Turner’11, Zachary Remillard’12, Andre Martinez ’09, Desire Gijima’10, and Christopher Goh

“Copper-Catalyzed Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization of Styrene Using
Heteroaromatic-imine Ligands”
241^st ACS National Meeting and Exposition, Anaheim, CA, March 2011, POLY-85

Elizabeth E. Hwang’13, Taylor R. Wilson-Hill ’08, Ji Won Ahn’12, Andrew P. Platt ’07, and Katherine E. Rutledge ’05, and Sarah L. Goh

“Self-Assembled Di- and Tri-block PEG-pentavaline Copolymers”
241st ACS National Meeting and Exposition, Anaheim, CA, March 2011, POLY-84

Connecticut Valley Section of the American Chemical Society Undergraduate Symposium,
Trinity College, Hartford, CT, April 2011

Lawrence J. Kaplan

“Forensic Science: An Advanced CWCS Workshop”

“Issues Confronting the Education and Training of Future Forensic Scientists”

“Center for Workshops in the Chemical Sciences (CWCS): Professional Development Opportunities Through Workshops and Community Building”
21^st Biennial Conference of Chemical Education, The University of North Texas, Denton, TX, August 2010

“Forensic Science: Its Impact on the Education of Undergraduate Science Students”
240^th American Chemical Society National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 2010

Lee Y. Park

“Guiding Morphology Development in Polymer/PCBM Films for Organic Photovoltaic Applications via Surface Patterning and Polymer Design”
University of West Florida, January 2011

“Practices and Policies that Foster Excellence in the First Two Years”
21^st Biennial Conference of Chemical Education, The University of North Texas, Denton, TX, August 2010

Enrique Peacock-López

“Minimal Model of Chemical Self-Replication and Its Dynamic Consequences”
Department of Chemistry, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, July 2010

David P. Richardson

“Organic Pollutants in Local Waters: PCBs in the Hoosic River Watershed: A Snapshot”
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, MA

David P. Richardson, Zachary M. McKenzie’14, and Luana S. Maroja

“Can You Smell Your Species? GC/MS Chemical Analysis of the Cuticular Hydrocarbons
in the Hybridizing Crickets Grylus firmus and G. pennsylvanicus”
Evolution 2011, The University of Okalhoma, Norman, OK, June 2011

Charles A. Seipp’11, Elizabeth E. Hwang’13, Christopher J. Corbett’13, Bryn E. Falahee’13, Bianca Martinez’13, William H. Parsons ’07, and Sarah L. Goh

“Synthesis of Amino Acid Containing Self-Assembling Polymers”
241st ACS National Meeting and Exposition, Anaheim, CA, March 2011, POLY-87

Anne R. Skinner

“Current Topics in ESR Dating”
EPRBiodose 2010, Mandelieu La Napoule, France, October 2010

“Thinking Inside the Sphere: Calculating External Radiation Dose Rates for ESR and TL Dating at Roc de Marsal, France, and Grotte des Contrebandiers, Morocco”

“ESR Dating of Mollusc Shells from the Iringa Region, Tanzania”
76^th Annual Meeting of SAA, Sacramento, CA, April 2011

Anne R. Skinner and Natalia Loewen’12

“Blue Highways: Dating Shinfa River sites, Ethiopia, with ESR”
76^th Annual Meeting at SAA, Sacramento, CA, April 2011

Thomas E. Smith

“Asymmetric Methods for the Synthesis of Pyran-Based Anticancer Natural Products”
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Symposium, New York, NY, October 2010

Thomas E. Smith, Zebulon G. Levine’11 Sarah J. Fink ’08, Adrian A. Zackheim ’09, Kerani A. McClelland’10, and Mary Beth Daub’11

“Synthetic and Stereochemical Studies on Tedanolide C”
Pacifichem, Honolulu, HI, December 2010

Thomas E. Smith, Jennifer L. Green, Mary Beth Daub’11, Cale D. Weatherly ’09, Edwin T. Layng’10, Zebulon G. Levine’11, Amanda Huey’10, Pamela M. Choi ’05, Marian M. Deuker’11, Rachel C. Patel’12

“Asymmetric Methods for the Synthesis of Pyran-Based Natural Products”
Pacifichem, Honolulu, HI, December 2010

John W. Thoman, Jr., Daniel L. M. Suess ’07, Christopher A. Chudzicki’10, Tina Motazedi’10, and David P. Richardson

“Dynamics of Deuterofluorocarbons Probed by Overtone Spectroscopy”
Poster presentation at Pacifichem 2010, Honolulu, December 2010

Sara Turner’11, Emily Gao’13, Desire Gijima’10, Andre Martinez ’09, Zachary Remillard’12, and Christopher Goh

“Copper Complexes of Tridentate Pyridine-imine Ligands as Catalysts of Atom Transfer Radical Polymerizations”
241^st ACS National Meeting and Exposition, Anaheim, CA, March 2011, INOR-57

Postgraduate Plans of Chemistry Department Majors