Professor Xue Appointed Associate Editor of Science China Chemistry

December 21, 2011 by chemweb

Ben Xue, Professor of Chemistry was appointed Associate Editor of Science China Chemistry last year and recently edited the December issue on the International Year of Chemistry (IYC).

The December issue includes 29 papers from Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, and the USA. It also features an interview of Professor Robert Grubbs and and a Comments by Professor Ada Yonath, two Nobel Laureates.

Dr. David Jenkins, Assistant Professor in Chemistry Department helped draft questions for the interview of Grubbs.

Another issue Xue helped organize is the November issue for the 80th birthday of Professor Ron Breslow of Columbia University. Xue wrote the prefaces for both issues.

Science China Chemistry is an academic journal co-sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and published by Science China Press. The journal publishes high-quality, original results in both basic and applied research.

Professor Kovac Publishes New Book

December 21, 2011 by chemweb

Jeff Kovac, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and Michael Weisberg, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania published a new book on science history, Roald Hoffmann on the Philosophy, Art, and Science of Chemistry.

They gathered together chemist Roald Hoffmann’s most significant contributions to the field of philosophy and included in the book some unpublished lectures to increase the value of the collection.

Professor Kovac’s honors and awards include election to Phi Beta Kappa, the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  Kovac is the author of over 100 publications including four books.

Abstract from Book

Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann’s contributions to chemistry are well known. Less well known is that over a career that spans nearly fifty years, Hoffmann has thought and written extensively about a wide variety of other topics, such as chemistry’s relationship to philosophy, literature, and the arts, including the role of symbolism and writing in science, the nature of chemical reasoning, and the relationship between art and craft and science.

In Roald Hoffmann on the Philosophy, Art, and Science of Chemistry, Jeffrey Kovac and Michael Weisberg bring together twenty-eight of Hoffmann’s most important essays. Gathered here are Hoffmann’s most philosophically significant and interesting pieces, many of which are not easily found in print. In essays such as “Why Buy That Theory,” “Nearly Circular Reasoning,” “How Should Chemists Think,” “The Metaphor, Unchained,” “Art in Science,” and “Molecular Beauty,” we find the mature reflections of one of America’s leading scientists. Organized under the general headings of Chemical Reasoning and Explanation, Writing and Communicating, Art and Science, Education, and Ethics, these stimulating works provide invaluable insight into the practice of science. Hoffmann also has a reputation as a superb teacher of chemistry–one with a special talent for communicating complex ideas to novice students–and many of the essays here are of special interest to teachers of science in general, and chemistry in particular.

Insightful, thought-provoking, and filled with good humor, Roald Hoffmann on the Philosophy, Art, and Science of Chemistry will fascinate anyone interested in modern science or who enjoys engaging with an exceptional mind.

Darrell Lay Retires After 46 Years of Service

December 13, 2011 by chemweb

A retirement party was hosted for Darrell Lay today in Buehler Hall 511 to honor his 46 years of service to the Department of Chemistry.

With food, flowers, gifts, laughters, tears, speeches, holiday spirit, and even a “money tree”, chemistry faculty, staff, and students joined each other to celebrate the coming holiday and Darrel Lay’s retirement.

“Darrel is an exemplary parachute packer.” Dr. George Schweitzer paused a little, then compared faculty members to parachuters. “All faculty members should remember, we could not do research just by ourselves. We depend on our graduate students and staff.” Dr. George Kabalka patted Darrell on his shoulder and said, “I probably could not have gotten that grant if it were not for him.”

Darrell joined the Department as a Storekeeper on Dec. 6, 1965. At the time, he was responsible to order supplies and dispensed items to labs, faculty, and graduate students, but on a much smaller scale than now. As the Department transformed over the years, Darrell’s job also went through the same process. Darrell joked that he had worked everywhere inside the Department except that he had never had to lecture.

In the past 46 years, Darrell has worked hard to earn everyone’s trust, love, and respect. “Darrell is the most honest person I have ever met.” Dr. William Bull, former Associate Department Head said while returning a key he has kept for years to Darrell. And that act stimulated a room of laughters.

Darrell now lives with his wife Mary Ruth, who just retired from from Oak Ridge National Lab as a Senior Staff Administrator with the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility after 39 years of service. They plan to “do a little travel” in Tennessee first and hope to have “a trip out West” in the near future. While taking care of his blueberries, apple trees, and fig trees are also part of the plan, Darrell said he would come back to visit the Department from time to time. “No one spends half of century working somewhere just because of the job,” Darrell said. “I stayed because of people here. I love all the faculty members, students, and staff I work with.”

Special thanks goes to staff members in the Business Office and Main Office who organized the party and came up with many brilliant ideas.

View Retirement Party Pictures

Congratulations 2011 Graduates!

December 9, 2011 by chemweb

It’s again time of the year that we say congratulations and goodbye to some of our friends. Yesterday, 2011 UT Fall Graduate Hooding Ceremony was hosted in Thompson-Boling Assembly Center & Arena. While more are graduating, four Chemistry Ph.D students were able to attend and being hooded on the stage.

Please join us in congratulating 2011 graduates and wish them good luck with their future career and life! For those who just became alumni of this Department, we hope you could keep in touch with us, and come back to see us!

View more pictures of the hooding ceremony.

Alan Cramer Paper Accepted in JACS

December 6, 2011 by chemweb

Alan Cramer, a third year graduate student in Dr. Jenkins’ group, published a paper about synthesis of Aziridines in Journal of American Chemical Society (JACS).

Co-authored with Professor Jenkins, Cramer is the first author of this paper Synthesis of Aziridines from Alkenes and Aryl Azides with a Reusable Macrocyclic Tetracarbene Iron Catalyst.

In this paper, the two researchers expanded upon previous examples of catalytic aziridination, which utilize the more atom economical azide funtional group as the nitrene transfer reagent.  They demonstrated that their catalyst could perform the first ever examples of catalytic aziridination with tri- and tetra-substituted alkenes, as well as, electron donating aryl azides. “Our new iron tetra-NHC catalyst can perform these reactions not only at very low catalyst loading, but it can also be easily separated and recycled up to an additional three times.” Cramer said. Since the aziridine functional group is found in natural products and also used in pharmaceuticals, broadening the scope of the aziridination reaction is significant.

Born and raised in Powder Springs, GA, Cramer always wanted to be a chemist. He received his Bachor of Science degree in Chemistry from Kennesaw State University in 2008 and joined Jenkins Group a year later.

Working towards Ph.D., Cramer’s rearch has been focusing on organometallic synthesis with a special interest in structure and bonding and how these characteristics can be tuned from a molecular orbital stand point.  His current research involves trying to stabilize high energy metal ligand multiple bonds and performing oxidative group transfer reactions from them with various substrates.

Founded in 1879, JACS is the flagship journal of the American Chemical Society and the preeminent journal in the field. This periodical is devoted to the publication of fundamental research papers in all areas of chemistry and publishes approximately 16,000 pages of Articles, Communications, Book Reviews, and Computer Software Reviews a year. Published weekly, JACS provides research essential to the field of chemistry and is the most cited journal in chemistry field as reported in the 2010 Journal Citation Report© Thomson Reuters.

Last year, Cramer also co-authored a paper 18-Atom-Ringed Macrocyclic Tetra-imidazoliums for Preparation of Monomeric Tetra-carbene Complexes that was published in Organometallics, another American Chemical Society publication with a high Impact Factor of 3.888, ranked in the top ten in citations, impact factor, articles published and immediacy index in both categories.