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
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Mary Beth Anzovino
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Kathleen Beutel
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Joanna Demakis
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Surekha Gajria
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Kimberley Heard
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Creston Herold
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Wen-Hsin Kuo
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Andrew Lee
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Geoffrey O’Donoghue
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Rachel Selinsky
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Hang Song
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Analia Sorribas
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Ashleigh Theberge
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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.
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
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Ph.D. in chemistry, University of Wisconsin at Madison
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Joanna Lloyd
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Work at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, then to graduate school
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Cameron Marshall
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M.D., Columbia University
|
Edward McGehee
|
Work at Quantitative Economic Solutions, Cambridge, MA
|
Marina Mednik-Vaksman
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Attending law school
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Jonathan Melton
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Work at Morgan Stanley, then to medical school
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Jennifer Northridge
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Work at NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, then to medical
school
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Eliot Peyster
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Work at the National Institutes of Health, then to medical school
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Katherine Rutledge
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Applying to medical school
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Brian Saar
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Ph.D. in chemistry, Harvard University
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Marie-Adele Sorel
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M.D., Harvard Medical School
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Robert Tartaglione
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Work in research at Massachusetts General Hospital, then to medical
school
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Emily Welsh
|
Work in research at Massachusetts General Hospital, then to medical
school
|
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