CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT
Although the new science facilities construction project is now becoming
a dim memory, new challenges continued for the Chemistry Department in 2001-02
as we began the process of transitioning into a new curriculum. In a plan
that will eventually alter the structure of our upper-level requirements and
leave us with an almost totally new set of course numbers, the major changes
we began implementing this year affect our introductory-level courses. Our
new curriculum offers introductory organic chemistry in the spring of the
first year by sandwiching this two-semester sequence between the two courses
that traditionally represent general chemistry. In addition, the Department
offered a new fall semester course for students with very strong high school
chemistry backgrounds, CHEM 155, Current Topics in Chemistry, which
was team-taught by Professors Mark Schofield and Raymond Chang.
Beyond these changes, there were also significant staffing developments
in the Department. First, Assistant Professor Joe Chihade was reappointed
for second term. Next we bade farewell to Ms. Julie Ann McGaulley who served
the Department throughout the year as a laboratory instructor in our introductory
organic chemistry program. Julie will be entering a Ph.D. program in Polymer
Chemistry at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse,
NY in the fall. Ms. Jenna MacIntire, already a laboratory instructor in the
Biology Department, also joined the Department this year as a part-time laboratory
instructor in our general and organic chemistry programs. We also welcome
two new tenure-track, chemists, Amy Gehring ’94 and Dieter Bingemann. Amy
is a biochemist who earned her Ph.D. at Harvard Medical School with Professor
Christopher T. Walsh and then completed postdoctoral study at Harvard University
with Professor Richard M. Losick. Amy will be teaching CHEM 321,Biochemistry
I–Structure and Function of Biological Molecules; CHEM 310, Enzyme
Mechanisms and CHEM 406, Topics in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,
(together with Professor Chip Lovett) in her first year at Williams. Dieter,
a physical chemist who has most recently served as an Assistant Scientist
in the Chemistry Department at the University of Wisconsin, completed his
Ph.D. studies at Georg-August Universität and Max-Planck Institute for
Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, followed by postdoctoral
work at Wisconsin with Professor F. Fleming Crim. In his first year at Williams,
Dieter will teach CHEM 153, Concepts of Chemistry: Advanced Section,
and CHEM 302, Physical Chemistry: Structure and Dynamics. Finally,
we welcomed the return of Ms. Gisela Demant, our Stockroom Manager/Technical
Assistant, from her one-year absence while completing a B.A. degree at the
College of St. Rose, magna cum laude.
This year we continued to participate in the lectureship program under
the sponsorship of the Class of 1960 Scholars Program. Three distinguished
scientists were invited to campus to meet with our students and present a
seminar. Professor John Tully of Yale University, Professor Thomas Katz of
Columbia University and Professor David Evans of Harvard University were the
1960 Scholar speakers this year. Nine students were selected by the
faculty to be Class of 1960 Scholars during 2002 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 2002-03 are:
Class of 1960 Scholars in
Chemistry
Peta-Gaye Burnett
|
Marshall Dines
|
Laurel Hensley
|
Kevin Hsueh
|
Jason Leith
|
Alison Peet
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Jennifer Roizen
|
Alison Stewart
|
Catherine Sumner
|
During the final week of classes, a number of awards were presented to chemistry
students for outstanding scholarship. Candice Li ’05 received the CRC Award
as the outstanding student in the general chemistry course and Cameron Marshall
’05 and Saroj Bhattarai ’05 received the CRC Award as the outstanding students
in the advanced general chemistry courses. Steven Scroggins ’04 was awarded
the Harold H. Warren Prize as the outstanding student in introductory organic
chemistry. At the annual Senior Honors Colloquium, Professor Richardson announced
the American Chemical Society Polymer Division Award for excellence in introductory
organic chemistry for Shauna Dineen ’04, the American Chemical Society Analytical
Division Award for Kamille Williams ’03, the American Chemical Society Connecticut
Valley Section Award for sustained scholastic excellence for Carrie Jones
’02, the American Institute of Chemists Student Award for outstanding scholastic
achievement for Eli Groban ’02.
Emily Balskus, Chemistry Major and Williams College 2002
Valedictorian, receiving
the Pfizer 2001 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Award
from Elias James Corey, 1990 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
At Class Day activities before graduation, the John Sabin Adriance Prize
was awarded to Emily Balskus ’02 as the senior chemistry major who maintained
the highest rank in all courses offered by the Department. Also during Class
Day, David Chung ’02 was announced as recipient of the Leverett Mears Prize
in recognition of outstanding scholastic achievement. The James F. Skinner
Prize, for achieving a distinguished record in chemistry and showing promise
for teaching and scholarship, was presented to Adam Steeves ’02.
During the summer of 2002, 35 Williams College chemistry majors were
awarded research assistantships to work in the laboratories of departmental
faculty. We gratefully acknowledge support from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus
Foundation, Inc., the College Divisional Research Funding Committee, the J.
Hodge Markgraf ’52 summer research fund, the National Science Foundation,
Petroleum Research Foundation grants administered by the American Chemical
Society, Pfizer, Inc., Summer Science Program funds, and the Wege-Markgraf
fund.
Professor Raymond Chang continues to serve on the editorial board of
theChemical Educator. He team-taught a new course, CHEM 155, Current
Topics in Chemistry, in the fall semester with Professor Schofield, who
was the organizer of the course. The third edition of his chemistry text,
General Chemistry, was published by McGraw-Hill Book Company. Professor
Chang published a paper titled “Illustrating Chemical Concepts with Coin
Flipping” with Professor Thoman in The Chemical Educator.
Assistant Professor Joe Chihade continued his research, centered on
RNA-protein recognition this year. One particular focus is aminoacyl-tRNA
synthetases, the enzymes which correctly attach amino acids to transfer RNAs
to create the “adapters” which are required for correct translation of the
genetic code. Honors student Alix Partnow ’02 worked this year on two unusual
alanyl-tRNA synthetases that function in animal mitochondria. These nuclearly
encoded enzymes have adapted to recognize and differentiate tRNAs that mutate
at very high rates. A theme that has begun to emerge from this work is that
adaptations make the mitochondrial enzymes much less specific than their
cytoplasmic counterparts.
Much of the work in the Chihade lab this year has centered on pseudouridine
synthases, enzymes that rearrange particular uridine nucleotides in RNA to
pseudouridine. Over the summer, Jenica Chambers ’04 and Marina Vivero ’04
worked to understand the parameters of substrate recognition by anE. coli
pseudouridine synthase by preparing hybrid RNA substrates. Thesis student
Kristen LeChevet ’02 started a new project over this year, characterizing
reagents that can be used to react with pseudouridine specifically leaving
all other nucleotides in an RNA untouched.
Alison Peet ’03 continued her work in the Chihade lab during the summer
and Winter Study on a collaborative project with Professor Wendy Raymond
of the Biology Department examining a strain of yeast in which mutation of
a pseudouridine synthase leads to cell death.
In the fall, Professor Chihade taught CHEM 311, Physical Organic
Chemistry, for the first time to four brave and enthusiastic students.
(Steven Scroggins ’04 spent Winter Study improving the lot of future generations
of CHEM 311 students by further developing a lab involving characterization
of diphenylfulvenes with Professor Chihade and Professor Markgraf.) In the
spring, Chihade taught the last rendition of CHEM 202,Organic Chemistry,
which fades into the sunset as the Department moves into the new curriculum.
In between learning about the vast toolkit of synthetic chemistry, CHEM
202 students still had time to write minute papers about The Adventures
of Buckaroo Banzai across the Eighth Dimension.
Chihade did manage to sneak out of town to two conferences. In the summer,
he attended the American Chemical Society’s National Meeting in Chicago, which
thesis student Kristen LeChevet ’02 also attended. In the middle of Winter
Study, Chihade spent a week on the Monterrey Peninsula talking about enzymes
at the Asilomar Conference on Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases in Biology, Medicine
and Evolution. Aside from wonderful science, he found the jellyfish exhibit
at the aquarium particularly enchanting.
Professor Lawrence J. Kaplan (
http://www.williams.edu/Chemistry/lkaplan/)
along with colleagues Professors Emelita Breyer and Jerry Smith of Georgia
State University and David Collard of Georgia Institute of Technology continue
to administer the Center for Workshops in the Chemical Sciences (CWCS;
http://chemistry.gsu.edu/CWCS/).
CWCS was established last year with a $1.85 million grant from the National
Science Foundation. Under the auspices of the CWCS, workshops were conducted
in the following areas: Metals in Biology, Chemistry and Art, Environmental
Chemistry, Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, Molecular Genetics, Nuclear
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Forensic Science.
Kaplan taught a five-day workshop, June 18-22, 2001 on “Forensic Science”
at Williams College (
http://www.williams.edu/Chemistry/lkaplan/forensicchemistry.html).
The workshop provided an understanding of the application of forensic science
to all aspects of undergraduate chemistry instruction. Fourteen participants
from institutions ranging from Washington State University to Greenfield Community
College and East Tennessee University to Haverford College 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. This summer, due to overwhelming demand, Kaplan will
be conducting two weeklong sessions of the workshop.
Kaplan was a co-author with his colleagues from CWCS on two presentations
made at the 223rd American Chemical Society National Meeting in
April. One was titled “Workshops for Teaching Faculty: The Center for Workshops
in the Chemical Science (CWCS),” and the other “CWCS: A National Experiment
in Chemical Education.”
Kaplan’s new media project “Project Sherlock” which provides an exploration
into the world of forensic science from the crime scene to the crime lab was
the topic of his lunchtime talk to natural science colleagues in the fall
semester. It was also the topic of his presentation at the Faculty Research
Luncheon for administrative and support staff given in April. This animation
project also was the topic of articles by Samantha Orme ’02 in the WilliamScene
and in the Parents Pages for spring 2002.
Assistant Professor Birgit Koehler taught physical chemistry CHEM 401,
Quantum Chemistry and Molecular Spectroscopy, the advanced quantum
mechanics class. During the spring, she taught ENVI 102, Introduction
to Environmental Science, together with Professor Manuel Morales from
Biology and Professor Heather Stoll from Geosciences. Among other things,
the class studied Eph’s Pond to determine its environmental health (pretty
good–almost OK to swim in) and to recommend remediation that would improve
the water quality and health of the wetlands.
During Winter Study, Professor Koehler and Professor Kaplan taught CHEM
011, Science for Kids. In this program, 20 Williams College students
prepared two-hour workshops on science topics ranging from forensics to food
to physics to electricity and magnetism. At the end of January, 120 kids
came to participate in the workshops with their parents.
Professor Charles Lovett continued to serve as Director of the Science
Center, Chair of the Science Executive Committee, Chair of the Divisional
Research Funding Committee, Chair of the Science Technology Committee and
Director of the Summer Science Program for Minority Students.
Professor Lovett continued his research on the regulation of DNA repair
in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis supported by a $375,000 grant from
the National Science Foundation. Last summer Williams College students Eli
Groban ’02, Carol Lynn Higgins ’02, Marsha Lynch ’03, Georgina Calderon ’04,
and Christina Villegas ’04 worked on this research as full-time research assistants.
Also participating in this research and providing invaluable assistance
was Thomas O’Gara, now in his fourteenth year as research technician in the
Lovett lab. Last summer Professor Lovett also co-directed with Professor
Steve Swoap the research of Merck Scholar Alison Stewart ’03. Professor Lovett
was awarded a $330,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to support
a new research project in his lab on the mechanism of ComK-mediated regulation
of the recA gene in the bacteriumBacillus subtilis. During
the academic year, Professor Lovett directed Eli Groban ’02, Carol Lynn Higgins
’02, and Tracey Jackson ’02 as senior honor students working on the ComK
project. Professor Lovett also directed two students, Joel Schmid ’02 and
Michael Leparc ’05, in a Winter Study research project aimed at characterizing
LexA repressor mutants.
In the fall semester, Professor Lovett taught CHEM 321, Biochemistry
I–Structure and Function of Biological Molecules, and in the spring semester
taught both CHEM 310, Enzyme Mechanisms, and CHEM 115, AIDS: The
Disease and Search for a Cure.
Last summer, Professor Lovett taught the Chemistry lectures component
of the Williams College Summer Science Program for Minority Students. Together
with Professor David Richardson, he also supervised the fourth year of Summer
Science Camp for elementary school students and teachers. During the past
year Professor Lovett served as a reviewer for Molecular Microbiology,
theJournal of Bacteriology, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
He also served on the Beckman Foundation Advisory Panel for the Beckman
Scholars Grant Program, and as a consultant for the Sherman Fairchild Foundation’s
Scientific Equipment Grant Program.
Professor emeritus J. Hodge Markgraf was appointed as a Visiting
Professor for the spring semester; he taught a tutorial CHEM 312T,Heterocyclic
Chemistry. He supervised the honors thesis of Peter J. Webb ’02 throughout
the year. The focus of their research was the synthesis of pharmacologically-active
alkaloids known as benzocanthinones; two new routes to these compounds were
achieved. This summer three students will continue the project on canthinone
alkaloids and will develop new preparative methods for quinone compounds that
are active against the parasite which causes Chagas’ disease. Professor Markgraf
served as a reviewer for theJournal of Organic Chemistry, Journal of Heterocyclic
Chemistry, Journal of Chemical Education, Tetrahedron, and the Petroleum
Research Fund of the American Chemical Society.
In the fall semester, Professor Lee Park taught Chemistry 153, Concepts
of Chemistry: Advanced Section, (the advanced introductory course in the
revised departmental curriculum) and CHEM/PHYS 318, Materials Science:
The Chemistry and Physics of Materials. During the spring semester, she
was on leave, and did not have any formal teaching responsibilities.
During the summer of 2001, Park and three research students–Carrie Jones
’02, Susan Fulmer ’02, and Laurel Hensley ’03–worked on synthesizing ligands
for use with novel metallomesogenic structures, focusing on two families of
bipyridyl-based ligands. Carrie continued her research project as a thesis
student. Susan and Laurel both continued their work as one-semester independent
study projects. Carrie and Susan were able to prepare metallomesogenic derivatives
of Pt(bipy)X2 complexes, characterizing them by Differential Scanning
Calorimetry and Polarized Microscopy; they succeeded in preparing examples
of columnar liquid crystalline materials, which are promising candidates for
use as one-dimensional conductors. Laurel continued work on a series of
Fe(bipy)X2 compounds, and began synthesizing a new family of ligands
for another Pt(II) based series. She and her students traveled to Chicago
in August 2001 to present their work at the American Chemical Society National
Meeting. Park’s research was supported this year by the second year of a
three-year grant from the National Science Foundation.
In the summer of 2002, Park will have two students, Steve Scroggins
’04 and Teddy McGehee ’05 who will be the first students to participate in
the institutional collaboration that has been established to take advantage
of the new nanotechnology center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Steve
and Teddy will work with Prof. Park in collaboration with Professors Chang
Ryu and Yvonne Akpalu of RPI in developing new methods to characterizing liquid
crystalline phases using high temperature atomic force microscopy and high
intensity x-ray methods.
Park continued her professional activities on a number of other fronts
as well, serving as a reviewer and panelist for the NSF (Divisions of Chemistry
and Materials Research), and as a reviewer for the ACS, Research Corporation,
and Benjamin Cummings Publishers.
Professor Peacock-López taught CHEM 301, Physical Chemistry:
Thermodynamics, and CHEM 302, Physical Chemistry: Structure and Dynamics,
where he has increased the use of MATHEMATICA and other software packages
as a tool to solve time-consuming numerical and symbolic calculations in physical
chemistry. Also during the 2001-02 academic year, Professor Peacock and
Mount Greylock Regional High School’s Advanced Placement Chemistry Instructor,
Scott Burdick, organized and taught an AP lab experience at Williams College.
The AP Chemistry students came four times during the year to perform some
of the experiments from the Williams introductory chemistry lab program. Finally,
he offered the Winter Study course CHEM 013, The Popular Culture of Football
(Soccer) Around the World.
Professor Enrique Peacock-López continued his research currently
supported by a $155,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The present
work both continues and expands his models in the area of chemical and biochemical
reactions, in solution and on surfaces. Recently, temporal and spatial pattern
formation in biological systems has become an interesting and challenging
problem in theoretical biophysical chemistry. The Peacock-López group
has been studying the molecular basis of different physiological mechanisms
and has proposed several dynamic models to explain observed temporal and chaotic
oscillation in the concentrations of relevant metabolites. In general, the
study of the dynamical properties of metabolite concentrations in cascade
reaction mechanisms is an important area of research, which will lead to an
understanding of the response to initial macromolecule-surface protein.
Professor Enrique Peacock-López’s work includes self-replicating
structures and their implication on triple-stranded DNA, prion kinetics, the
complement’s nonlinear kinetics in the immune system, coupled oscillators
as a model of pulsitile secretion and regulation of pituitary hormones. Also
considered is glucose metabolism in liver cells, in which switching between
glycolysis and gluconeogenesis is regulated, in part, by the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation
of a bifunctional enzyme. Finally, his group has been studying reaction-diffusion
equations associated with their proposed models.
Professor Peacock-López also has served as reviewer for the National
Science Foundation, and The Chemical Educator.
At long last, Professor David Richardson completed his fourth and final
year as department chair during 2001-02. This was another busy year in the
Chemistry Department as it began the process of transitioning into its new
curricular structure after many years of planning and discussion. On the
research front, Professor Richardson supervised the work of several students
throughout the year. During the summer of 2001, Tracey Jackson ’02 began
her year- long senior honors research working on a collaborative project between
Professor Richardson and Professor Chip Lovett’s labs. Tracey’s project involved
early stages in the synthesis and use of an iron-centered probe (Fe-BABE)
for the targeted footprinting analysis of binding interactions between the
DNA regulation protein known as ComK and the alpha subunit of the carboxy-terminal
domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase. Professor Richardson also supervised the
research of three other students: Peta-Gaye Burnett ’03, Joel Schmid ’03 and
Prosper Nwankpa ’04. Peta-Gaye continued Professor Richardson’s work directed
at the isolation and characterization of the toxic components from plants
used in the manufacture of poison-tipped darts in Southeastern Asia. Joel’s
project involved a collaboration between Professor Richardson and Professor
Hank Art on the isolation of allelopathic agents from two plants that grow
widely in Hopkins Forest: raspberry and hay-scented fern. In addition to
assisting Joel on the allelopathy project, Prosper investigated the synthesis
of new complexes to be used in the Department’s Ford Course. During Winter
Study Period, Professor Richardson supervised the research of two students
in the Department’s offering CHEM 023, Introduction to Research in Organic
Chemistry, Vicky Bock ’04 and Karen Thome ’04. Vicky and Karen worked
on verification of synthetic methods that will be published as articles in
the chemistry journal Organic Syntheses. Vicky’s project was directed
at the synthesis of a new difluorocarbene precursor, while Karen investigated
conditions for the electrophilic bromination of isoquinoline and substituted-isoquinoline
systems. Professor Richardson served as a reviewer for the Journal of
Organic Chemistry and as an external tenure reviewer for Trinity College.
Professor Richardson’s teaching responsibilities for the year included
CHEM 201, Introductory Organic Chemistry, in the fall semester. In
the spring semester, he taught the first installment of CHEM 156, Organic
Chemistry: Introductory Level. This course is part of the Department’s
new curricular structure and it represents the first time that introductory
organic chemistry has been offered at the first year student level. In the
month of July he taught the Chemistry laboratory portion of the Williams College
Summer Science Program for Minority Students and, together with Professor
Chip Lovett, he hosted the Department’s Summer Science Camp program for local
4th and 5th graders. Professor Richardson served on
the Science Technology Committee, on the Science Executive Committee, and
as chair of the Olmsted Committee.
Assistant Professor Mark Schofield continued his research on the development
and synthesis of metalloenzyme mimics. During the summer of 2001, David Chung
’01 prepared several nickel macrocycles to serve as functional models for
the active site of methylcoenzyme M reductase, an enzyme found inArchaea
that is responsible for the production of over a billion tons of methane per
year. Following leads developed in the summer, David carried out his thesis
work in the Schofield lab where he used a combination of electrochemical,
computational, and reactivity studies to evaluate the suitability of these
models. Carolyn S. Adams ’02 also joined the Schofield lab this year, working
on the synthesis of sterically-hindered aminedithiolate ligands as models
for copper, nickel and zinc metalloenzyme active sites.
During the fall semester Professor Schofield taught CHEM 305, Inorganic
and Organometallic Chemistry, and team-taught (with Professor Chang) a
new course, CHEM 155, Current Topics in Chemistry. During the spring
semester, Professor Schofield began his assistant professor leave.
In addition to his on-campus activities, Professor Schofield continued
his professional activities outside Williamstown. In the fall, he presented
his work at the 10th International Conference on Biological Inorganic
Chemistry, Florence, Italy. In the spring, he attended the American Chemical
Society National Meeting in Orlando, a National Science Foundation workshop
on Metals in Biology in Logan, Utah, and he gave a research talk at Washington
University in St. Louis.
While Dr. Anne Skinner’s teaching was, as usual, centered on the introductory
laboratory program, both the numbers of the courses taught and the content
were very different. In the fall, CHEM 151, Concepts of Chemistry,
added an environmental analysis lab that allowed students to determine the
characteristics of local water samples, both from obvious sources such as
the Green River and less obvious, such as their roommate’s fishbowl! In the
spring, she taught sections of the first semester organic course, now called
CHEM 156, Organic Chemistry: Introductory Level.
Dr. Skinner’s research uses electron spin resonance (ESR) to date fossils.
In the summer of 2001, she had two Williams students, LaShawn Mays ’03 and
A. C. Okwesili ’04 in her lab, along with Williamstown high school student
Emily Hogeland. Students also participated in her research during January
as part of Winter Study.
In October 2001, Dr. Skinner was a keynote speaker at International
Symposium on ESR Dosimetry and Dating at Osaka University, Japan. Her talk
covered her recent investigations on the limits of ESR as a dating method.
Naturally she has been attempting, and with some success, to widen those
limits so that ESR dating will be more useful to archaeologists and paleontologists.
Among those contributing to this presentation was Alan Velander ’02, who
spent an earlier summer in her lab.
In August 2001, Dr. Skinner excavated archaeological material at Olduvai
Gorge, Tanzania. The site is believed to be one of the earliest Late Stone
Age sites in Africa, and of considerable interest to those who believe that
many cultural developments occurred first in Africa and then spread to the
rest of the world through migration. The results of that trip will be presented
in late June at the 10th International Symposium on Luminescence
and Electron Spin Resonance Dosimetry. Preliminary results were discussed
in February at the Annual Archaeometry Workshop at the University of Buffalo.
Dr. Skinner also attended the annual meeting of the American Association
of Physical Anthropologists, where some of her data were included in a presentation
on Gladysvale, a paleoanthropological site in South Africa.
Dr. Skinner continues as News and Features Editor of the Council on
Undergraduate Research Quarterly.
Tom Smith spent this Assistant Professor leave year working full-time
on his research projects in organic synthesis and methods development along
with two senior honors students, Emily Balskus ’02 and Alan Velander ’02.
In April, the whole Smith group journeyed to Orlando, Florida to present two
posters at the American Chemical Society National Meeting.
Alan continued a project directed at a general asymmetric synthesis of
the kavalactones. These natural products, including kavain, are the active
constituents of the kava plant which has been used for centuries in South
Pacific cultures for its sedative and muscle relaxing effects. Modern interest
in the compounds from this herbal tonic stems from their reported ability
to relieve anxiety. Alan’s work has led to the first asymmetric synthesis
of (+)-kavain and a three-step synthesis of (+)-dihydrokavain. After Williams,
Alan will attend medical school.
Emily pursued two different projects. Last summer she investigated a
ring-closing metathesis approach to the cytotoxic marine natural product,
octalactin A. During the academic year, she began work on the asymmetric
total synthesis of hennoxazole A, an antiviral natural product isolated from
a marine sponge. Hennoxazole A has been shown to be highly active against
the herpes simplex virus. Emily has demonstrated the viability of a proposed
key fragment coupling and has made significant progress toward the total synthesis
of this interesting natural product. After Williams, Emily will pursue a
M.Phil. degree at Cambridge University as a Churchill Fellow working with
Organic Chemistry Professor Steven Ley. Following this one-year program,
Emily will attend graduate school in organic chemistry at Harvard.
Professor Smith also began a project, himself, toward the asymmetric
total synthesis of jerangolid D, an antifungal natural product isolated from
myxobacteria. The methods developed for kavalactone synthesis were extended
to the assembly of both the δ-lactone and cis-dihydropyran portions
of this molecule. After a productive year in the lab, Professor Smith looks
forward to teaching CHEM 111, Fighting Disease: The Evolution and Operation
of Human Medicines, and CHEM 156, Organic Chemistry: Introductory
Level, next year.
Working with Adam Steeves ’02 Professor Jay Thoman, continued research
on the behavior of chlorofluorocarbon substitute molecules with chemically
significant amounts of energy. Working during summer 2001 and on a senior
thesis project, Adam measured the vibrational overtone spectroscopy of a
series of hydrofluorocarbons, concentrating on the fire-suppressant molecule
1,1,1,2,3,3,3-heptafluoropropane. While most of the measurements were made
using long-path (up to 20m) absorption, Adam also implemented a laser-based
technique known as cavity ringdown spectroscopy, which provides an equivalent
path length of kilometers. Cavity ringdown spectroscopy now works much more
straightforwardly in Thoman’s lab, thanks to the acquisition of a new Nd:YAG-pumped
dye laser system in May 2002.
In the fall semester, Thoman taught the first offering of CHEM 151,Concepts
of Chemistry. With approximately 100 students, CHEM 151 is the introductory
course of the new chemistry curriculum. Anne Skinner and Jenna MacIntire
joined Thoman in teaching a full laboratory program to accompany the lectures.
In one new laboratory exercise, students examined local waters of their own
choosing for pH, acid neutralizing capacity, conductivity, and nitrate ion
concentration. During Winter Study, Thoman sponsored Brain Saar ’05 in CHEM
024, Introduction to Physical Chemistry Research. Brian continued
in Thoman’s lab as a work-study student, working with Adam Steeves to probe
highly excited hydrofluorocarbons. In the spring, Thoman taught CHEM 304,
Instrumental Methods of Analysis. With guidance from Smith College
Professor Kate Queeney ’92 (who was in CHEM 304 the last time Thoman taught
the course), a new lab was brought to the course in which FTIR is used to
measure the surface coverage of bromobenzene on silica gel. Thanks to Professor
Lee Park’s purchase of a new fluorometer, Thoman was able to reintroduce a
laboratory exercise using fluorescence to determine the amount of quinine
in commercial tonic water. With help from environmental analysis technician
Sandy Brown and a new ion chromatograph, an HPLC lab was also re-introduced
to CHEM 304.
CHEMISTRY COLLOQUIA
Professor Linnea Avallone, University of Colorado
“Adventures in the Arctic: Applications of Physical Chemistry to Understanding
What Depletes Tropospheric Ozone”
Professor Virginia Cornish, Columbia University
“A Generic Activity Screen for Protein Evolution and Proteomics”
Professor David Evans, Harvard University, Class of 1960 Scholars Program
“Building Molecules That Do Things: Asymmetric Synthesis with Chiral
Metal Complexes”
Dr. Stephen Hale, Phylos, Inc.
“Darwinian Evolution on the Microliter Scale: Exploiting Molecular Diversity”
Professor Tamara Hendrickson, Johns Hopkins University
“Discovery of an Essential but Paradoxical Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetase”
Professor Yvette Jackson, University of West Indies, Charles Compton Lectureship
“The Hetero-Diels Alder Reaction and Its Application in the Synthesis
of Some Pyridoacridine Alkaloids”
Professor Thomas Katz, Columbia University, Class of 1960 Scholars Program
“Synthesis and Properties of Helicenes”
Professor John Koh, University of Delaware
“Ligand-Receptor Engineering: New Gene Regulators, New Strategies to
‘Rescue’ Genetic Mutations with Organic Chemistry”
Professor Raima Larter, University of Indiana, Purdue University at Indianapolis
“Understanding Complexity in Biophysics and Biochemistry”
Professor Karin Mursier-Forsyth, University of Minnesota
“Protein-Facilitated Nucleic Acid Rearrangements in HIV: Potential Avenues
for New Therapeutic Targets”
Professor Lee Park, Williams College
“Building Blocks for Nanotechnology: How to Design a Molecular Wire”
“Building Blocks for Nanotechnology: How to Design aBetter Molecular
Wire”
Professor Enrique Peacock-López, Williams College
“Demonstration across Disciplines”
Professor Terry Sheppard, Northwestern University, sponsored by Organic Syntheses,
Inc.
“Chemical Insights into DNA Damage and Site-Specific DNA Modification”
Professor Erik Sorensen, The Scripps Research Institute, sponsored by Organic
Syntheses, Inc.
“Emulating Nature’s Efficiency in the Synthesis of Bioactive Natural
Products”
Professor John Tully, Yale University, Class of 1960 Scholars Program
“Rates and Pathways of Energy Flow at Surfaces”
OFF-CAMPUS COLLOQUIA
Lawrence J. Kaplan, Emelita Breyer, David Collard, Jerry Smith
“Workshops for Teaching Faculty: The Center for Workshops in the Chemical
Science (CWCS)”
“CWCS: A National Experiment in Chemical Education”
223rd American Chemical Society National Meeting, Orlando, FL
Lee Y. Park
“A Metallomesogenic Approach to One-Dimensional Materials”
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Enrique Peacock-López
“Competitive Self-replicating Structures”
Gordon Research Conference: Nonlinear Science, Mt. Holyoke College
Mark H. Schofield
“Kinetics, Mechanism and Thermodynamics of Nickel-Carbon Bond Dissociation:
Modeling
Methylcoenzyme M Reductase”
Washington University, St. Louis
Mark H. Schofield, David Y. Chung ’02, and Jack Halpern
“Kinetics and Mechanism of Decomposition of Nickel Benzyl Complexes
and Determination of Nickel-Benzyl Bond Dissociation Energies”
10th International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry,
Florence, Italy
Anne R. Skinner
“Dating the Naisiusiu Beds, Olduvai Gorge, by Electron Spin Resonance
(ESR)”
“Developing ESR Dating for Sharks’ Teeth: Towards a New Geochronological Method
for Sedimentological and Paleontological Analysis”
“Specific Sorption of Uranium in Modern and Fossil Dentine”
“U Uptake in Enamel and Dentine: The Fossil Evidence”
10th International Symposium on Luminescence and Electron Spin
Resonance Dosimetry, Reno, NV
“New Clues to Limits on ESR Dating”
International Symposium on ESR Dosimetry and Dating, Osaka University, Japan
“Preliminary Ages for the Naisiusiu Beds, Olduvai Gorge, Using Electron
Spin Resonance (ESR)”
Archaeometry Workshop, SUNY-Buffalo
Thomas E. Smith and Emily P. Balskus ’02
“Ring-Closing Metathesis Approach to the Octalactins”
223rd American Chemical Society National Meeting, Orlando, FL
Thomas E. Smith, Alan J. Velander ’02, Mabel Djang ’01
“Versatile Asymmetric Synthesis of the Kavalactones: The First Synthesis
of (+)-Kavain”
223rd American Chemical Society National Meeting, Orlando, FL
John W. Thoman, Jr., Adam H. Steeves ’02, and Brian G. Saar ’05
“Vibrational Overtone Spectroscopy of Hydrofluorocarbons”
57th International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy, Ohio State
University
POSTGRADUATE PLANS OF DEPARTMENT
MAJORS
Carolyn Adams
|
Undecided
|
Jonathan Alexander
|
Biochemist, Whitehead Institute for Human Genome Research, Cambridge,
MA
|
Emily Balskus
|
M.Phil. in Chemistry, University of Cambridge; Ph.D. in Chemistry,
Harvard University
|
Benjamin Chaffee
|
Undecided
|
David Chung
|
M.D./Ph.D., Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
|
Susan Fulmer
|
Undecided
|
Bryce Gillespie
|
M.D., University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
|
Christopher Goggin
|
Attending Law School
|
Erin Graham
|
Undecided
|
Eli Groban
|
Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco
|
Karl Hein
|
M.Mus. in Choral Conducting, Portland State University
|
Carol Lynn Higgins
|
Chemistry Teacher at The Hun School of Princeton, Princeton, NJ
|
Nicholas Hiza
|
Undecided
|
Travis Hobart
|
M.D., Tufts University
|
Tracey Jackson
|
Ph.D. in Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute
|
Milos Janicek
|
D.M.D., University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine
|
Carrie Jones
|
Undecided
|
Hiroyuki Komura
|
Work for one year then to graduate school
|
Kristen LeChevet
|
Undecided
|
Jamin Morrison
|
Work at architecture firm in Japan for one year then graduate school
in architecture
|
Alix Partnow
|
Apply to Veterinary School, D.V.M.
|
Adam Steeves
|
Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
|
Joseph Stember
|
Ph.D. in Chemical Physics, University of Florida
|
Xiao Tan
|
Ph.D. in Genetics, Cambridge University
|
John Thomison, III
|
M.D., University of Tennessee, Memphis
|
Danielle Torin
|
Work at the New England Aquarium then apply to Veterinary School,
D.V.M.
|
Alan Velander
|
Undecided
|
Peter Webb
|
Research Associate, Arena Pharmaceuticals, San Diego, CA
|
Willie Wu
|
Applying to graduate school
|