Professor Fred Grimm Passed Away

February 16, 2013 by newframe

I am sad to report that Dr. Fred Grimm, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee, passed away on Saturday, February 9, 2013.  Fred was born on June 15th, 1937 and is survived by his wife, Pam and daughter, Gail.

Professor Grimm received his B.S. in Chemistry from Rutgers University in 1963 and a PhD in Chemistry from Cornell University in 1968.  He joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee in the same year he received his PhD degree.  As a Full Professor in Chemistry, Dr. Grimm was granted emeritus status upon his retirement in 1999 after 32 years of service to the University.

Fred had a strong reputation in the area of chemical physics, where his research emphasis was in theoretical methods of studying photoelectron dynamics and surface phenomena.  He published over 70 papers in scholarly journals, was a long-time collaborator with Tom Carlson and Manfred Krause at ORNL, and was an invited Research Scientist at the Swedish National Research Council.  Professor Grimm was a dedicated and skilled teacher who taught general chemistry and all levels of physical chemistry.  He served as the Director of General Chemistry for the department for more than a decade.  Fred was always a gentleman and treated colleagues, staff and students with gentleness and respect.  He will be missed.  A memorial service for Fred Grimm will be held on Saturday, March 2nd at 10 AM in the Mann Heritage Chapel at Rose Mortuary, 6200 Kingston Pike.

Chuck Feigerle
Professor and Head
Department of Chemistry
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1600

Professor Jenkins Received NSF CAREER Award

February 12, 2013 by newframe

David Jenkins, an assistant professor of inorganic chemistry at UT, has been announced a recipient of the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. This marks the third CAREER award inside the Chemistry Department in the past 3 years.

CAREER award is one of “the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.”

Jenkins’ award includes a 5-year $650,000 grant to support his research and educational activities. “Being granted a CAREER award is an awesome feeling and a great honor, and more importantly it provides us the financial stability to keep working on a fantastic project — catalytic aziridination using our macrocyclic tetracarbene catalysts.” Jenkins said.

Funding from this award will be primarily used to support graduate students working on the project and to purchase necessary supplies to move the project forward. “We have completed a lot of preliminary work, but I am confident that we have many more productive years of research on this project.” said Jenkins, “We have scratched (or maybe dented) the surface of this exciting new field in organometallic chemistry.”

In fact, Jenkins’ group has published some great results already. Four graduate students from the group, Alan Cramer, Chris Murdock, Heather Bass and Brianna Hughes, will attend an American Chemical Society meeting this April in New Orleans and give talks during the meeting.

“I encourage all of my group members to attend at least one ACS meeting or more before they finish their PhDs.” Jenkins commented, “Oral communication skills are vital for almost any career that they pursue after their time at UT.”

Besides efforts put into scientific research, Jenkins group is also actively engaged with Central High school through the Pre-Collegiate Scholar Program. As part of the CAREER award, they will continue working closely with the school. The group will partner up with one of their high school teachers to develop new teaching materials for AP chemistry labs that focus on sustainable synthesis.

Meng Rowland Received NIH Fellowship

February 1, 2013 by newframe

A recent graduate from the Chemistry Department, Dr. Meng Rowland, received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA)from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a fellowship for individual postdoctoral fellows.

The NRSA provides two year funding starting in January 2013 for Rowland’s proposal entitled “Molecular determinants of DNA sliding and hopping by a DNA repair glycosylase.” The fellowship is highly competitive with less than 10% of applicants funded.

Rowland worked in the research group of Professor Michael Best during her 5 years at the University of Tennessee. “I had 9 publications working with Dr. Best, which weighed heavily in the fellowship evaluation.” Rowland said, “I want to thank Dr. Best for being such an extraordinary mentor and the UT Department of Chemistry for years of training!”

After graduation, Rowland joined the department of pharmacology at Johns Hopkins Medical School and is now receiving postdoctoral training in enzymology and  molecular biology in the lab of Dr. James Stivers.

Orignally from China, Rowland received her B.S. in pharmacology from Jilin University in 2004 and moved to Knoxville, Tennessee when she enrolled in the Chemistry Ph.D. program in 2006. She met her husband Garland Rowland and got married while studying at UT. They now reside in Baltimore, MD with their beloved dog Edgar.