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CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT

2004-2005 has been a busy year for the Chemistry Department. We welcomed Dr. Sarah Goh from the University of California, Berkeley as a new organic chemist; she taught Organic Chemistry, Intermediate Level (CHEM 251) in her first semester, and Physical Organic Chemistry (CHEM 344) in the spring term. She has made herself at home in the department, supervising her first thesis student, and presenting a Science Lunch talk in the fall semester. We have been very happy to welcome her to the department. We also hired Professor Faraj Hasanayn as our new inorganic chemist. Professor Hasanayn begins his appointment on July 1, 2005, and comes to us from the American University of Beirut; he brings with him a wealth of experience, both as a teacher and as a researcher in academic and industrial settings. His work involves modeling, kinetic, and mechanistic studies of fundamental reaction chemistry of organometallic complexes. He will teach Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry (CHEM 335) in the fall semester, and Instrumental Methods of Analysis (CHEM 364) in the spring semester, and we are excited that he will be joining us. Finally, we were very fortunate and grateful (once again!) to have both Professor Hodge Markgraf and Professor Raymond Chang as part-time visiting faculty for the year, contributing to Introductory Organic Chemistry (CHEM 156) and Current Topics in Chemistry (CHEM 155) respectively.
Three distinguished scientists were invited to campus to meet with our students and present seminars under the sponsorship of the Class of 1960 Scholars Program. Professor John Simon ’79 of Duke University, Professor Phil Crews of University of California Santa Cruz, and Professor Amy Rosenzweig of Northwestern University were the 1960 Scholar speakers this year. Ten students were selected by the faculty to be Class of 1960 Scholars during 2005 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 2005 are:
Class of 1960 Scholars in Chemistry
Stephen Acton
Mary Beth Anzovino
Kathleen Beutel
Joanna Demakis
Surekha Gajria
Kimberley Heard
Creston Herold
Wen-Hsin Kuo
Andrew Lee
Geoffrey O’Donoghue
Rachel Selinsky
Hang Song
Analia Sorribas
Ashleigh Theberge
Over the course of the year, as is our tradition, a number of awards were presented to chemistry students for outstanding scholarship. Didem Ilter ’08, Rachel Allen ’08 and Zoia Alexanian ’08 received the CRC Awards as the outstanding students in CHEM 151, CHEM 153, and CHEM 155 respectively. Jesse Schenendorf ’06 and Daniel Suess ’07 were recognized for their achievements in organic chemistry with the Polymer Chemistry Award and the Harold H. Warren Prize respectively. Ashleigh Theberge ’06 won the American Chemistry Society Analytical Division Award, while the American Chemistry Society Connecticut Valley Section Award for sustained scholastic excellence went to Kathleen Carroll ’05. Finally, the American Institute of Chemists Student Award for outstanding scholastic achievement was awarded to Pamela Choi ’05.
At Class Day activities before graduation, the John Sabin Adriance Prize was awarded to Renee Kontnik ’05 as the senior chemistry major who maintained the highest rank in all courses offered by the department. Marie-Adele Sorel ’05 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 Brian Saar ’05.
During the summer of 2005, some 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, Pfizer, Inc., Research Corporation, Summer Science Program funds, and the Wege-Markgraf Fund. In addition, Aashish Adhikari ’07 was selected to participate in a summer research program established between our department and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

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Professor Enrique Peacock-López at the Chemistry Department’s annual “Demo Day” for Williamstown 5th graders.

Visiting Professor Raymond Chang continues to serve on the editorial board of the Chemical Educator. He team-taught Current Topics in Chemistry (CHEM 155) in the fall semester with Professor Lee Park, who was the organizer of the course. Professor Chang attended the 279th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in March. The fourth edition of General Chemistry and his new text, Physical Chemistry for the Biosciences, were both published in the spring.
Working with independent study student John Harris ’05 and senior thesis student Noah Capurso ’05 throughout the year, Assistant Professor Dieter Bingemann continued his research on heterogeneous dynamics in glasses. Noah took extensive measurements of single molecule dynamics in polymer samples close to the glass transition temperature as a function of temperature. Millions of data points lead the determination of the apparent activation energy of glass rearrangements on the molecular level. These results also allowed Noah to refine the analysis technique to extract the desired slow dynamics of the glassy polymer environment from the original single molecule fluorescence data. During the summer, Bingemann and Capurso attended the National meeting of the American Chemical Society in August 2004 to present their results to the greater physical chemistry community.
Independent study student John Harris ’05 started to explore new territory in the Bingemann group, supported by a new grant from the Petroleum Research Foundation. Harris developed a new time-tagged, time correlated single photon counting technique which will allow directly recording single molecule traces of glass dynamics without an intermediate analysis step, reducing the complexity and length of the experiments tremendously.
In the fall semester, Bingemann taught Concepts of Chemistry: Advanced Section (CHEM 153), and team-taught Introduction to Environmental Sciences (ENVI 102) with Professor Heather Stoll of the Geosciences Department and Biology Professor Henry Art.
Assistant Professor Amy Gehring taught the lecture and two laboratory sections of Biochemistry I–Structure and Function of Biological Molecules (CHEM 321) during the fall semester. In the spring, she taught the BIMO program capstone course Topics in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BIMO 401) along with Dan Lynch in the Biology Department. Also during the spring semester, Gehring enjoyed teaching a non-majors course, AIDS: The Disease and Search for a Cure (CHEM 115).
Research continued in Professor Gehring’s laboratory to understand the molecular basis of the complex, interrelated processes of sporulation and antibiotic production in the soil bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor. One ongoing project in the lab involves characterizing the biochemical function of a particular protein that is required for sporulation. During the summer of 2004, Gina Calderon ’04 and Sharon Owusu-Darko ’06 contributed to this project. During the year, the project was continued by Sharon and Yamnia Cortes ’06 as research assistants and by thesis student Renee Kontnik ’05. During the summer and continuing through the year, Geri Ottaviano ’06 began research to characterize the activity of a regulatory protein that can block both sporulation and antibiotic production in S. coelicolor. Also participating in this project were spring semester independent study students Deborah Hemel ’05 and Nadria Gordon ’06 and Winter Study students Crystal Son ’05 and Oliver Starks ’05. Finally, Analia Sorribas ’06 and Nick Reynolds ’08 pursued the isolation and structural characterization of natural products, including antibiotic molecules, from S. coelicolor in a collaborative project with Professor Richardson.
In July of 2004, Gehring presented the results of some of this research in a poster at the Gordon Research Conference on Microbial Stress Response. This July, she will present a poster at the ASM Conference on Prokaryotic Development in Vancouver. Gehring has received a Cottrell College Science Award from Research Corporation to support work in her lab for the upcoming two summers. She also served as a reviewer for the journals Microbiology and Archives of Microbiology.
Assistant Professor Sarah Goh joined the Chemistry Department in July 2004. During the fall semester, Professor Goh taught Organic Chemistry: Intermediate Level (CHEM 251) and in the spring semester, Physical Organic Chemistry (CHEM 344). Her research focuses on the development of self-assembled, biodegradable polymers, and she was awarded a Faculty Start-Up Grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. Working with thesis student Kate Rutledge ’05, she is exploring peptide copolymers as potential hydrogel systems for drug delivery. Tom Koperniak ’07, Tomoki Kurihara ’07, and Rachel Allen ’08 explored aspects of polymer synthesis in Goh’s lab during Winter Study. Professor Goh also helped Professor Peacock-López with offering laboratory experiments for chemistry students at Hoosac Valley and Mt. Greylock High Schools. In March of 2005, Professor Goh attended the American Chemical Society meeting in San Diego, as well as a COACh (Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists) workshop. She also served as a reviewer for the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation and Bioconjugate Chemistry.
Professor Lawrence J. Kaplan taught Biophysical Chemistry (CHEM 367) in the fall semester and a laboratory section of Biochemistry I – Structure and Function of Biological Molecules (CHEM 321). In the spring semester, he taught Chemistry and Crime: From Sherlock Holmes to Modern Forensic Science (CHEM 113). He supervised the research of Joey Lloyd ’05 who investigated the role of linker histones in stabilizing the structure of chromatin. Kaplan assumed the chair of the Legal Studies Program and coordinated a number of activities in that program. He sponsored a Winter Study course Inside the Judicial System taught by Judge Elliot Zide and coordinated the senior seminar, Punishment and Crime: The Role of Criminal Law in the American Polity and Legal System (LGST 401) taught by Professor Frederick Lawrence ’77 of the Boston University Law School. During the spring semester, he was the coordinator and part of the team that taught the interdisciplinary course Processes of Adjudication (LGST 101). Kaplan taught a unit on evidence and the admissibility of scientific evidence.
During the Winter Study Program, Kaplan, along with Professor Richardson, taught Science for Kids (CHEM 011). Twenty four Williams students developed six workshops including “States of Matter,” “CSI Williamstown,” “Pressure and Fluids,” “Natural Disasters,” “Chemistry of Cooking,” and “The Human Body.” Over a weekend late in January, more than 130 fourth graders and their parents participated in the workshops. As evidenced by the enthusiastic response and the many follow up letters of appreciation, this program continues to be one of our more popular and educational outreach programs.
Kaplan continues to administer the Center for Workshops in the Chemical Sciences <http://chemistry.gsu.edu/CWCS/> with his colleagues Professors Emelita Breyer and Jerry Smith of Georgia State University and David Collard of Georgia Institute of Technology. CWCS, established four years ago with a grant from the National Science Foundation, sponsors many workshops including those in Metals in Biology, Chemistry and Art, Environmental Chemistry, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Molecular Genetics and Protein Structure and Function, Biomolecular Crystallography, and Forensic Science. Grants from the National Science Foundation totaling more than $3,460,000 have been awarded for the continuation of the CWCS and its programs.
Kaplan taught a weeklong workshop in forensic science during the summer of 2004 at Williams <www.williams.edu/Chemistry/lkaplan/cwcs.html>. Angie Chien ’06 assisted him as the Administrative Assistant and Laboratory Instructor. The workshop provides an understanding of the application of forensic science to all aspects of undergraduate chemistry instruction. 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.
Kaplan reviewed grant proposals for the Educational Materials Development and National Dissemination Track of the Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement Program of the National Science Foundation.
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, and Director of the Summer Science Program for students from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the sciences.
Professor Lovett continued his research on the mechanism of ComK-mediated regulation of the recA gene in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis supported by a $330,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. He also continued the characterization of the B. subtilis SOS DNA repair system, an ongoing project in the lab for the past 20 years. During the past three years, Lovett and Williams students working in his lab have discovered more than 30 genes involved in this DNA repair system and he and his summer research students last year cloned the genes and began purifying and characterizing the corresponding proteins. The summer students, working as full time research assistants, included Regine Lim ’07, Nadria Gordon ’06, Mikella Robinson ’07, Devin Schweppe ’07, Manual Moutinho ’07, Alejandro Mones ’07, Alcia Jackson ’07, Margaret Lowenstein ’07, Shuo Chen ’08, and Paul Obeng-Okyere ’06. Also participating in this research were research technicians Nora Au ’03 and Thomas O’Gara. During the academic year, Professor Lovett directed YiFan Guo ’05 as a senior honor student working on the characterization of the products of the B. subtilis yqjWXYZ operon.
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 sixth year of science camp for elementary school students and teachers.
During the past year, Professor Lovett served as a reviewer for Molecular Microbiology and the Journal of Bacteriology. He also served as a reviewer for the National Science Foundation Biological Sciences Division, as a reviewer for the Beckman Scholars Program, and as a consultant for the Sherman Fairchild Foundation’s Scientific Equipment Grant Program.
Professor emeritus J. Hodge Markgraf taught a course on The Science of Chocolate (CHEM 013) during Winter Study Period and taught a laboratory section of Organic chemistry: Introductory Level (CHEM 251) during spring semester. Markgraf supervised the honors thesis of Marie-Adele Sorel ’05. Dellie’s projects explored a new synthetic route to oxoaporphine, a tetracyclic alkaloid, and correlated substituent effects of 3-arylisoxazoles via 15N NMR spectroscopy. In summer 2005, Markgraf’s research group will include Steve Acton ’06, Tyler Gray ’07, and Lu Hong ’08. Steve will pursue a novel preparative pathway to pentalongin, a naturally-occurring tricyclic quinone isolated from an African medicinal plant used for the treatment of malaria and skin diseases. Tyler will investigate the regioselectivity of a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of benzonitrile N-oxide to an unsymmetrical alkene. Louisa will study substituent effects on diaryl cations.
Lee Park completed her third year as chair of the Chemistry Department. In the fall, she once again team-taught Current Topics in Chemistry (CHEM 155) with Raymond Chang to a group of approximately 25 students. In the spring, she taught Instrumental Methods of Analysis (CHEM 364) to a group of 17 students, including one student from MCLA.
Park continued her work on developing molecular wires based on low molecular weight liquid crystalline molecules. The summer of 2004 was very productive, with Katie Beutel ’06, Noah Bell ’05, Beth Landis ’05, and Ruben Musson (an summer research exchange student from the University of Leiden) all participating in the on-going projects. Ruben, Katie, and Noah made good progress toward the synthesis of some new target discotic molecules, while Beth began studies of anodized alumina to be used as templates for alignment of the liquid crystalline materials that are produced in the Park lab. Noah and Beth both continued their research as senior thesis projects, and had very successful years. They’ve both decided to continue on to graduate work. Beth will attend the University of Wisconsin, while Noah will join another recent Park group member, Steve Scroggins ’04, at U.C. Berkeley. The summer of 2005 promises to be equally busy and productive, with another four students (Rachel Selinsky ’06, Andrew Lee ’06, Jessica Chung ’07, and Oloruntosin Adeyanju ’08) ready to begin work. The projects pursued by her students continue to be carried out in partial collaboration with Chang Ryu at RPI, as well as Darren Hamilton at Mt. Holyoke College. Her research has been supported since 2000 through NSF RUI grants, and through funds provided by the RPI NSEC site grant.
Park has also kept busy with other professional activities this year. In particular, she was one of the co-organizers of the 9th International Symposium on Metallomesogens, which took place in Lake Arrowhead, CA from May 31-June 3, 2005. This was a small and congenial, though intense, international conference that brought together scientists from all over the world to discuss metal-containing liquid crystals as well as other metal-containing soft materials. She has continued to serve as a reviewer for a variety of professional organizations, including NSF, ACS-PRF, Research Corporation, Inorganic Chemistry, and textbook publisher Benjamin Cummings, and served as an external evaluator for several other institutions. She worked with a local high school teacher (Sherra Johnson, Niskayuna High School) on developing experiments suitable for use in AP chemistry courses and has also begun discussions with BILL (Berkshire Institute for Lifelong Learning) on establishing a series of lectures by science faculty that could become part of the future BILL curriculum. Closer to home, she presented a Science Lunch talk on “Designing and Aligning Molecular Wires”.
During the 2004-2005 academic year, Professor Peacock-López taught Physical Chemistry: Structure and Dynamics (CHEM 361) and Quantum Chemistry and Molecular Spectroscopy (CHEM 368). In these courses, Peacock-López extended the use of MATHEMATICA to solve problems in Physical Chemistry. In CHEM 361, he included an introduction to nonlinear kinetics and the numerical analysis of chemical oscillations. Finally, he considered Gaussian98 and ab initio calculations to analyze simple quantum mechanical systems.
Professor Peacock-López, Ms. Gisela Demant, and instructors Scott Burdick (Mount Greylock Regional High School; 26 students) and Simmi Narula (Hoosac Valley High School: 31 students) organized and taught Chemistry labs at Williams College. Due to the large number of high school students taking chemistry this year, Professor Sarah Goh, Dr. Jennifer Green, and Dr. Christopher Goh helped running the experiments. The AP and Honors Chemistry students came five times during the year to perform some of the labs from the Williams Introductory Chemistry Lab Program. This outreach chemistry effort has been supported in part by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Williams College. Professor Peacock-López also gave demonstrations to Hoosac Valley and Williamstown Elementary students.
Professor Enrique Peacock-López extended his research in complex dynamical chemical and biochemical mechanisms to include population dynamics. In collaboration with honors student Teddy McGehee, Professor Peacock-Lopez studied spatial pattern formation in ecological models. This work will be the foundation for a collaborative study with Biology Professor Morales on mutualism.
Finally, he has served as reviewer for the National Science Foundation, Petroleum Research Fund, National Institutes of Health, and The Chemical Educator. He also served as a member of a doctoral dissertation committee at Brandeis University.
In the 2004-2005 academic year, Professor David Richardson returned from sabbatical leave to another full year of teaching and research. On the research front, he supervised the efforts of two work-study students: Analia Sorribas ’06 and Nick Reynolds ’08. Analia and Nick continued the Richardson lab’s collaborative work with Professor Hank Art on the isolation and identification of allelopathic agents from “hay-scented fern,” a plant that grows widely in Hopkins Forest. In addition, Analia extended her ongoing work in a second collaboration with Professor Amy Gehring’s lab involving the isolation and structure determination of colored pigments produced by the bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor. Professor Richardson continued his supervision and maintenance of the department’s 500 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. He also served as a reviewer for the Journal of Organic Chemistry and for the Chemical Educator.
Professor Richardson’s teaching responsibilities for the year included Synthetic Organic Chemistry (CHEM 342), and Organic Chemistry, Intermediate Level – Special Laboratory Section (CHEM 255), in the fall semester, and Toxicology and Cancer (CHEM 341) in the spring semester. CHEM 341 had not been offered for 4 years and drew nearly 50 students. During Winter Study, he taught Science for Kids (CHEM 011) with Professor Larry Kaplan. 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, with Professor Chip Lovett, he hosted the department’s Summer Science Camp program for local 4th and 5th graders. Professor Richardson also served as chair of the Olmsted Committee.
During the summer of 2004, Assistant Professor Mark Schofield continued his research with students Andrew Lee ’06, Kate Larabee ’06, and Jim Enterkin ’05. Jim worked on the completion of his honors thesis entitled “Synthesis toward Novel Aminomethyl Oxazoline Platinum Complexes for Use as Anti-Tumor Agents.” In the fall semester, Professor Schofield taught Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry (CHEM 335) as well as a laboratory section of Concepts of Chemistry (CHEM 151). In the spring, he taught Introduction to Physical and Inorganic Chemistry (CHEM 256).
In January, Dr. Skinner received a Fulbright Senior Specialist Fellowship to visit rock art sites in northeastern Brazil. The dating of these sites has produced conflicting results, some suggesting that the sites predate almost all other New World hominid settlements. Other dates, however, are concordant with more recent settlement patterns. Dr. Skinner will be correlating the available information and suggesting ways to explain the discrepancies. While in Brazil she also lectured to students and staff at the site itself and at the University of Pernambuco in Recife.
Dr. Skinner's research uses electron spin resonance (ESR) to date fossils. In the summer of 2004, she had three Williams students in the lab, Sara Martin ’05 (for the second time), Abelee Esparza ’07 and Ophelia Adipa ’06. Sara’s work was published in 2005 as part of a paper on a Neanderthal site. Ophelia’s project on non-destructive dating was presented at a workshop at Dartmouth in September 2004. Joey Lloyd’s project from summer 2003 on burnt bones at Swartkrans was selected by Discover magazine as #44 of the top 100 science stories of 2004!
In addition to the workshop at Dartmouth, Dr. Skinner attended the annual meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society in April 2005. She presented a paper on the dating of another Neanderthal site, Roc de Marsal, located in the same general region as the famous French caves of Lascaux and Les Ezyies. She has been invited to visit the site and assist in further excavations during the summer of 2005.
In February, the proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on ESR Dosimetry were published. Dr. Skinner was the chief editor for this compilation. Dr. Skinner continues as News and Features editor of the Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly. Dr. Skinner taught labs for Introduction to Physical and Inorganic Chemistry (CHEM 256) in the spring, after teaching in Concepts of Chemistry (CHEM 151) in the fall.
Professor Tom Smith spent his seventh year at Williams pursuing his research in organic synthesis and methods development under an NSF Research at Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) grant, “Asymmetric Synthesis of Pyran-Based Natural Products.” Independent study students Ashleigh Theberge ’06 and Wen-Hsin Kuo ’06 continued a project 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 (HSV-1, IC50 = 0.6 g/ML). Honors student Pam Choi ’05 completed an asymmetric total synthesis of goniothalamin, a plant-derived antitumor natural product, in which the methods previously developed for kavalactone synthesis in our lab were extended to the assembly of its -unsaturated -lactone core. Honors student Salem Fevrier ’05 began work toward the asymmetric synthesis of the myxobacterial natural product, ratjadone, and laid the groundwork for the dihydropyran portion of that molecule.
In the 2005–06 year, Professor Smith will be joined by honors students Ashleigh Theberge ’05 and Wen-Hsin Kuo ’05. Continuing for her second year is postdoctoral fellow Jennifer Green. Jen completed her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill under the guidance of Michael Crimmins and did postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities with Tom Hoye.
In the classroom this fall, Professor Smith taught Fighting Disease: The Evolution and Operation of Human Medicine (CHEM 111) to 54 eager non-chemistry majors. This course provided an introduction to concepts in medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, and pharmacology. In the spring semester, Professor Smith taught Organic Chemistry, Introductory Level (CHEM 156) to 95 potential chemistry majors and premedical students.
In summer 2004, Professor Jay Thoman worked long distance with Brian Saar ’05 and Professor Henrik Kjaergaard of the University of Otago, New Zealand to model the overtone spectra of hydrofluorocarbons collected in recent years. Saar continued this project for his thesis during the academic year, assisted by Dan Sussman ’07. For her thesis work, Kathleen Carroll ’05 investigated the concentrations of lead in soils Pittsfield, MA sites that have been proposed for use as urban gardens. With help from Luz Gomez ’08, she also grew vegetables in contaminated soils (in the greenhouse) and measured the uptake of lead.
In the fall semester, Thoman returned to Concepts of Chemistry (CHEM 151) the large general chemistry course. During Winter Study, Thoman again taught Glass and Glassblowing (CHEM 016). Students in this course plus 3 independent study students who worked with hot glass put on an exhibition in the Wilde Gallery in the Spencer Studio Art Building in early February. In the spring, Thoman taught Physical Chemistry: Thermodynamics (CHEM 366) for the first time.
CHEMISTRY COLLOQUIA
Professor Mary Carroll, Union College, Charles Compton Lectureship
“Aerogel-Platform Optical Sensors”
Professor Phil Crews, University of California Santa Cruz, Class of 1960 Scholars Program
“Challenges in the Discovery of Significant Biomolecules from Marine-Derived Fungi”
Professor Matthew Francis, University of California Berkeley, Charles Compton Lectureship
“Synthetically Modified Structural Proteins: Building Blocks for Nanoscale Materials”
Dr. Henrik Kjaergaard, University of Otago
“Water Clusters in the Atmosphere”
Professor Jim Leighton, Columbia University
“Silicon As a Lewis Acid: New Strategies and Opportunities for Asymmetric Synthesis”
Professor Frank McDonald, Emory University
“Biomimetic Synthesis of Natural Products: from Polyepoxides to Fused Polycyclic Ethers”
Professor Ricardo Metz, University of Massachusetts Amherst
“Spectroscopy of Gas-Phase Ions Transition Metal Catalysis and Solvation at the Molecular Level”
Dr. Sridhar Ramaswamy, MGH Center for Cancer Research, Charles Compton Lectureship
“Translating Genomic Information into Cancer Medicine”
Professor Amy Rosenzweig, Northwestern University, Class of 1960 Scholars Program
“Biological Methane Oxidation”
Professor John Simon ’79, Duke University, Class of 1960 Scholars Program
“Probing the Structure and Function of Melanin”
Professor Tom Smith, Faculty Lecture Series
“Through the Looking Glass: The Role of Chemical Synthesis in Drug Discovery”
OFF-CAMPUS PRESENTATIONS
Lawrence Kaplan
“Forensic Science: Where Chemistry and Crime Collide in the Undergraduate Curriculum”
Pittsburgh Conference (Pittcon), Orlando, FL, March 2005
“Forensic Science: An Interdisciplinary, Multidisciplinary Course for Teaching Science and Critical Thinking”
18th Biennial Conference of Chemical Education, Ames, IA, July 2004
“Forensic Chemistry: An Example of a Center for Workshops in the Chemical Sciences (CWCS) Workshop”
18th Biennial Conference of Chemical Education, Ames, IA, July 2004
228th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Philadelphia, PA, August 2004
“Where Chemistry and Crime Collide: Aspects of Forensic Science for Teaching Chemical Concepts”
228th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Philadelphia, PA, August 2004
Enrique Peacock-López
“Complex Dynamics in Chemical Self-Replication”
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, January 2005
Enrique Peacock-López and Jeff Ishizuka ’04
“HIV1-Rev Protein and the Regulation of Nuclear Transport of Incompletely Spliced RNAs”
Gordon Research Conference, Colby College, Tilton, ME, August 2004
13th NEBHE Conference, MIT, Cambridge, MA, November 2004
Anne R. Skinner, H. L. Dibble, S. P. McPherron, A. Turq, D. Sandgathe, B. A. B. Blackwell,
S. A. Martin ’05
“Electron Spin Resonance Dating of the Neanderthal and Mousterian Site, Roc de Marsal, Dordogne, France”
Paleoanthropology Society Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 2005
Anne R. Skinner and Ophelia Adipa ’06
“Non-Destructive Measurement of Radiation-Induced EPR Signals in Teeth”
2004 EPR Workshop, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, September 2004
Thomas E. Smith
“Kava, the Pacific Elixir: The Asymmetric Synthesis of Kavain and Other Pyran-Based Natural Products”
Smith College, Northampton, MA, March 2005
Jay Thoman and Kathleen Carroll ’05
“Lead in the Soils of Pittsfield: Chemical Analyses and Community Questions”
CT Valley Section of the American Chemical Society Undergraduate Research Symposium,
Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, April 2005
Jay Thoman and Luz Gomez ’08
“Trace Lead Analysis of Mexican Candy”
CT Valley Section of the American Chemical Society Undergraduate Research Symposium,
Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, April 2005
POSTGRADUATE PLANS OF DEPARTMENT MAJORS
Meghan Ahearn
Working at the National Institutes of Health, then to medical school
Noah Bell
Ph.D. in chemistry, University of California Berkeley
Saroj Bhattarai
Ph.D. in economics, Princeton University
Noah Capurso
Applying to medical school
Kathleen Carroll
M.D., SUNY Upstate Medical University
Pamela Choi
M.D., Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
James Enterkin
Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry, Northwestern University
Salem Fevrier
Work in the chemical industry, then to medical school
YiFan Guo
M.D., University of Pennsylvania
Max Kaganov
Undecided
Renee Kontnik
Ph.D., Chemical Biology Graduate Program, Harvard University
Elizabeth Landis
Ph.D. in chemistry, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Joanna Lloyd
Work at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, then to graduate school
Cameron Marshall
M.D., Columbia University
Edward McGehee
Work at Quantitative Economic Solutions, Cambridge, MA
Marina Mednik-Vaksman
Attending law school
Jonathan Melton
Work at Morgan Stanley, then to medical school
Jennifer Northridge
Work at NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, then to medical school
Eliot Peyster
Work at the National Institutes of Health, then to medical school
Katherine Rutledge
Applying to medical school
Brian Saar
Ph.D. in chemistry, Harvard University
Marie-Adele Sorel
M.D., Harvard Medical School
Robert Tartaglione
Work in research at Massachusetts General Hospital, then to medical school
Emily Welsh
Work in research at Massachusetts General Hospital, then to medical school