Campagna Honored at Annual Faculty Awards Banquet

December 16, 2016 by newframe

Each year, faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are recognized for their contributions to the college, the university, and the impact of their teaching and research at the annual faculty awards dinner. One member of the Department of Chemistry received an award at this year’s event, which took place Thursday, December 1, 2016.

Shawn Campagna, associate professor, received the Interdepartmental Collaborative Scholarship and Research award for his work with Professors Helen Baghdoyan and Ralph Lydic in the Department of Psychology.

The psychology/chemistry collaboration uses state-of-the-art chemical techniques to identify known and unknown brain molecules that regulate naturally-occurring and drug-induced states of consciousness. The long-range goal is to establish causal relationships between specific molecules and behavioral states and physiological traits. Their collaborative research will quantify the effect of different drug classes on different brain regions and further our basic science knowledge of brain function.

Congratulations to Professor Campagna on his achievement.

Chemistry Professor Led Group Won R&D 100 Awards

November 8, 2016 by newframe

Chemistry professor Sheng Dai led a group of scientists at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and 525 Solutions developed U-Grabber, an adsorbent material designed to extract uranium and other metals from water inexpensively and efficiently. The project received 2016 R&D 100 Award, known as the “Oscars of Invention”, honoring innovative breakthroughs in materials science, biomedicine, consumer products and more from academia, industry and government-sponsored research agencies since its inception in 1963.

U-Grabber is made from polyethylene fibers, similar to PVC, woven into braids and grafted with chains of a uranium-attractive chemical called amidoxime. The free-floating uranium in the water binds with the fibers and can be extracted, purified and sold as nuclear fuel.

The fibers can be reconstituted and reused, are cheap to produce at scale and can bolster dwindling terrestrial supplies of uranium. They can also be customized to bind with other toxic or valuable aqueous metals, providing an environmentally sound method of cleaning bodies of water such as mines or fly ash ponds.

The development team was Sheng Dai, Suree Brown (UT), Robin Rogers (525 Solutions), Christopher Janke, Richard Mayes, Tomonori Saito and Ronnie Hanes (525 Solutions).

“Suree Brown played the most important role in developing this technology,” said Dai. Brown is a chemistry alumna and now a Research Associate working in Dai’s group at UT.

Brown was born and raised in Thailand. After obtaining her B.S. in chemistry from Chulalongkorn University, she came to UT to pursue a PhD in chemistry under professor Craig Barnes, during which time she acquired skills and experiences in organometallics and olefin polymerization.

Brown started working with Dai during the final year of her PhD study. After obtaining her PhD in 2002, she continued to work with Dai at ORNL and later on at UT.

“I had the privilege to work with various advanced materials, including nanomaterials, polymers, and hybrid materials, for a wide variety of applications, including radiation detection and uranium recovery from seawater.”Brown said. “We cannot do the work we do without the help and support from the chemistry department as a whole and the staff here.”

Brown is happily married. She and her husband enjoy reading, swimming, and spending time with children and animals.

U-Grabber is one of the seven winning projects at the Lab this year. Read the full article on ORNL’s website.

Larese Group Alumnus Barbour Part of the Team Find Static “Stripes” of Electrical Charge in Copper-Oxide Superconductor

October 31, 2016 by newframe

Chemistry alumnus Andi Barbour (first from right), member of the Brookhaven Lab research team, found static “stripes” of electrical charge in copper-oxide superconductor. The team published their research results on October 11 in Physical Review Letters. Barbour obtained his PhD degree in chemistry in 2009 studying with Professor John Larese.

Read the full article on Brookhaven National Lab website.

Professor Campagna Part of the Team Identified Bacterial Genes that Could Lessen Severity of Malaria

October 26, 2016 by newframe

KNOXVILLE—Researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have identified a set of bacterial genes that may help them find ways to lessen the severity of the disease malaria.

Their findings could also aid the research of fellow scientists working in malaria-stricken regions around the world.

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

Collaborators in this work include Steven Wilhelm, the Kenneth and Blaire Mossman Professor in the UT Department of Microbiology; Shawn Campagna, UT associate professor of chemistry; Gary LeCleir, UT research assistant professor of microbiology; Joshua Stough, UT doctoral student in microbiology; and Nathan Schmidt, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Louisville.

Read the full article on UT News

Graduate Student to Help Organize International Symposium on ‘Green Chemistry’

October 5, 2016 by newframe

The past summer was not ordinary for chemistry graduate student Roberto Federico-Perez, a member of Xue’s Research Group at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He participated in a week-long Green Chemistry & Sustainable Energy Summer School that took place at the Colorado School of Mines campus in Golden, Colorado from June 21 to 28. During the Summer School, Federico-Perez was introduced to Network of Early-career Sustainable Scientists and Engineers (NESSE), and was selected to work with NESSE in La Rochelle, France next May to organize the 2017 International Symposium on Green Chemistry (ISGC).

Sponsored by American Chemical Society, the Summer School hosted 55 participants from US, Canada and several countries in South America. Participants attended sessions throughout the day with topics ranging from green chemistry, ionic liquids to life-cycle assessment and policy-making. They were also offered workshops on grant proposal writing, entrepreneurship, and career planning.

To encourage interactions among participants, the program included group projects. “We had to analyze the life cycle of an organic synthesis and make a group presentation on it as part of our program.” Federico-Perez said. “I enjoyed working with people from different institutions and backgrounds on it. It was though, a labor-intensive task to be accomplished on a short deadline. However, we acquired some valuable working knowledge on the subject by participating on this hands-on exercise. ”

Green chemistry is a field that started as a result of a long discussion on how to make a more effective use of available resources. The term and field have become more widespread in the past 25 years. “The opportunity to observe how the principles of sustainability are incorporated on chemical research was a real benefit I obtained from this summer school.” Federico-Perez commented. “The ACS Summer School was a valuable experience to communicate the current trends on this field. This event has become an exceptional tool to foster a new generation of professionals with a different view on the application of chemistry.”

Federico-Perez’s endeavor into green chemistry did not stop when the Summer School ended. He was excited about NESSE, an organization established after the 2013 Summer School to provide a platform in order to create a community of next generation sustainable scientists connected globally.

“NESSE has members from all over the world, and organizes activities that range from maintaining a blog for communication of events in the field, hosting career workshops on green chemistry, and promoting the development of sustainable science groups.” Federico-Perez said.

As part of their agenda, NESSE participated in organizing the 2015 ISGC. They put out a call for volunteers to serve on 2017 ISGC committee, to which Federico-Perez responded and was selected along with another participant from this year’s Summer School.

“A big part of our current tasks is the communication of the event.” Federico-Perez explained the priority of the ISGC committee. “ISGC 2017 is the perfect inter-disciplinary platform to exchange the most recent advancements in the field, meet experts in public and private sectors, and network with the growing community of green chemistry. Over 800 attendees are expected to share their knowledge in multiple parallel sessions. The call for abstracts is open, and the submission deadline is October 31^st.”

Follow the link to find out more about 2017 ISGC.

Related article: Roberto Federico-Perez Received Eastman Travel Award

Al Hazari Chairs National Chemistry Week Theme Team

September 28, 2016 by newframe

Al Hazari, a retired director of labs and lecturer in chemistry at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, chaired the theme team for the 2016 National Chemistry Week (NCW). Sponsored by the American Chemical Society, the 2016 NCW is scheduled to take place October 16-22 with the theme, “Solving Mysteries Through Chemistry,” focusing on the chemistry of forensics and more.

William (Bill) Bass, the world-renowned forensic anthropologist and the founder of the UT’s  “Body Farm,” is featured in this year’s NCW publication titled, “Celebrating Chemistry.” (En Español)

NCW holds a series of events all around the country to “encourage chemists and chemistry enthusiasts to build awareness of chemistry at the local level.” Find out more on this website.

Hazari will perform a free chemistry magic show on Tuesday, Oct. 18th in Buehler Hall 555 on UT campus from 7 to 8 pm. The event is open to the public. Free parking is available at the 11th street garage from 6 to 9pm. More information can be found on this flyer.

Chemistry BOV Member Wilbur Shults Named ACS Fellow

September 8, 2016 by newframe

Wilbur (Dub) Shults, member of the Chemistry Board of Visitors at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was inducted into the 2016 Class of  Fellows of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The announcement was made in the July 18, 2016 issue of Chemical & Engineering News. The new fellows were honored at the August ACS meeting in Philadelphia.

Shults was named an ACS Fellow because of his contributions both to the scientific society and to the ACS community. Shults was “recognized for creating electrochemical techniques essential for precisely determining the composition of nuclear materials and for developing the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Analytical Chemistry Division into a world-leading organization.” Stated on the 2016 Fellow website, “as Chair of the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry, he implemented a new Division Management System and was instrumental in establishing the Division’s Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Analytical Chemistry, both of which continue today.”

Shults hails from Atlanta, Georgia, born to a railroad family in 1929. He moved to Greenville, South Carolina to complete his high school education and attended Emory University to pursue a bachelor’s degree. After he completed a master’s degree in chemistry, Shults moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 1951 and got his first job as a technician at a radiochemistry lab in the Division of Analytical Chemistry at Oak Ridge National Lab.

In 1955, Shults was drafted by the Army and sent to Fort Jackson for basic training and later reported to Denver Colorado to work in a nerve gas plant operated by the Army. After spending two and half years in the Army, Shults finished his tour of duty and came back to ORNL in 1957 to work in a research development group. With the encouragement of his mentor Myron Kelley at ORNL, Shults went back to school in 1962 to pursue a Ph.D. degree in chemistry at Indiana University. He completed two years of study there and came back to ORNL to finish his research in 1964, and was awarded the Ph.D. degree in 1966. Since then, Shults has lived in the Oak Ridge and Knoxville areas with his wife, Sue, and their three children.

Shults was promoted to Division Director at ORNL in 1976. During his long and fruitful career, he also served as the Head of the Analytical Chemistry Division of ACS. Shults retired from ORNL at the end of 1994 and became heavily involved in community service. He served on the Board of Visitors of the Department of Chemistry UT and was the president of Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees from 2008 to 2013.

The ACS Fellows program was created in 2008 to recognize members of ACS for “outstanding achievements in and contributions to science, the profession, and the Society.” Find out more on the website.

Note: Dub Shults’ bio was summarized based on an interview conducted in 2012 and archived in the Center for Oak Ridge Oral History. 

Chemistry Alumnus Reggie Hudson Elected Chair of ACS Astrochemistry Subdivision

September 8, 2016 by newframe

Chemistry Alumnus Reggie Hudson was elected the Chair of the Astrochemistry Subdivision of the American Chemical Society, the largest scientific society in the world with more than 157,000 members globally. Hudson obtained his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1978 studying with Ffrancon Williams, now Professor Emeritus of Chemistry.

After leaving UT, Hudson took a job teaching at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, staying there for 30 years and simultaneously collaborating with NASA researchers. In 2009, Hudson became a full-time employee at NASA to lead a small research group studying chemistry at low temperatures.

Hudson is now the Associate Chief for the Astrochemistry Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center just outside of Washington, DC. “About half of my work is administrative in nature and the other half is scientific research related to NASA missions.” Hudson said.

Besides his NASA job, Hudson also teaches at the Department of Astronomy in University of Maryland and is an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at Eckerd College.

Musfeldt Group Received $1.6 Million NSF-DMREF Award for Advanced Materials Research

September 8, 2016 by newframe

Janice Musfeldt, Ziegler Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in collaboration with David Vanderbilt, Sang-Wook Cheong, Kristjan Haule, and Valery Kiryukhin from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, recently won a $1.6 million Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) Award from National Science Foundation for their project titled “Collaborative Research: Emergent functionalities in 3d/5d multinary chalcogenides and oxides.”

The winning project will consist of “a concerted theoretical and experimental exploration of materials in which 3d and 5d transition-metal sites coexist in multicomponent chalcogenide and oxide crystals and films.” As stated in their proposal.

“The research results from this award show promise for identifying new materials with improved properties such as stronger or more tunable magnets, materials whose electrical conduction can be switched in novel ways, and materials to serve in future generations of optical devices.” Vanderbilt said.

The program will also bring broader impacts to advance science education by organizing summer or winter schools for interested students and providing mentorship. Their first effort was the Quantum Materials Synthesis (QMS) Symposium that was held on August 30 and September 1 in 7 World Trade Center, New York. The development of new workshops on spin-orbit coupling in quantum materials as well as an international network for quantum materials research is part of the outreach of this collaborative project.

Graduate student Michael Yokosuk in Musfeldt’s group presented his recent research on magnetoelectric coupling at the QMS Symposium. His research paper was also accepted at Physical Review Letters. “Working with the DMREF team has really opened my eyes up to the world of materials science and physics.” Yokosuk said. “Working with this high-class team has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my science career. Their understanding of the subject matter really drives me to learn and become more independent as a researcher, while keeping close contact with collaborators.”

This is the second time that Musfeldt and her team have received this award. The first one titled “Collaborative Research: Enhanced functionalities in 5d transition-metal compounds from large spin-orbit coupling“ also in the amount of $1.6 million was awarded in 2012.

“It was very productive.” Musfeldt commented on their 2012 project, “one metric of science impact is publications. This collaboration produced a total of 24 papers in four years, with 11 in Physical Review Letters and two in Nature Communications.”

“Our collaborations with the Musfeldt group have been extraordinarily useful.” Vanderbilt added. “One aspect that has been especially rewarding is our series of working meetings, held three or four times per year, where we get together for two concentrated days of informaltalks to share our research visions and results.  As a result of this NSF-DMREF collaboration, I find that I, as a theorist, am working more closely with experimentalists than at any previous time in my career.”

“The new award supports work in a different but related direction – this time with greater focus on novel phases in multinary materials.” Musfeldt said. “Now that the program has been renewed by NSF, I hope to involve another student or two.”

As a participant in the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), the National Science Foundation awards a limited number of grants to researchers for Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF). Initial DMREF awards in 2012 total $12 million were earmarked for 22 grants in support of 14 DMREF efforts. In 2014, NSF has issued a solicitation for up to $22 million in awards under DMREF program. And in 2016, the total funding has grown to $36 million.

Picture above: DMREF team enjoys dinner at their favorite Greek restaurant. From left: David H Vanderbilt, Sang-Wook Cheong, Valery Kiryukhin, Jak Chakhalian, Janice Musfeldt, and Kristjan Haule.

Picture on the right: 2016 QMS Participants

A Synthesis of Science and Art

August 18, 2016 by newframe

Preeti Chandrachud, a fifth-year graduate student had her third paper published in the journal Organometallics in June 2016. The editorial board selected this article as a top manuscript and designated it for a cover selection. Since she is an amateur painter, Chandrachud also got the opportunity to design the cover art for the issue.

“I think it shows a great combination of science and art,” says Rachel Rui, director of recruiting, communication, and development in the Department of Chemistry.

Chandrachud’s research group investigates new methods for homogeneous aziridination catalysis. Homogenous catalysis involves preparing catalysts that dissolve in solutions to accelerate a chemical reaction, in this case aziridination. Aziridination is the process of forming a triangular ring with one nitrogen and two carbon atoms.

“Aziridines are important because of their presence in many biologically significant compounds, some of which have anti-tumor and antibacterial properties,” says Chandrachud. “More importantly, aziridines are intermediates for making complicated pharmaceuticals. One example is in the synthesis of Tamiflu.”

Despite their importance, aziridines are difficult to synthesize. In the paper, Chandrachud and her research group describe a general method for preparing a wide variety of aziridines using a novel catalyst. This method is of particular significance because it is environmentally-friendly. The only waste product is nitrogen gas. The group also prepared bicyclic aziridines, which are very important structures for biologically-relevant molecules.

The paper is based on the group’s second generation catalyst. Organometallics is a renowned journal in synthetic chemistry. Chandrachud and her group are especially proud because the editor accepted the paper without any changes, featured it on the cover, and allowed Chandrachud to create the artwork.

“We were very pleased with this decision,” says Chandrachud, whose advisor, David Jenkins, associate professor of chemistry, gave her creative freedom to design the cover art.

The cover design was a collaborate process. Chandrachud drew some rough sketches and while discussing them, Jenkins suggested a winery motif.

“As a wine connoisseur, I loved the idea,” says Chandrachud. “Although I am an amateur painter, Dr. Jenkins trusted me to paint the cover myself.”

After a couple rough paintings, the duo decided on the final design, which appears on the cover of the issue.

“The process was exciting and fun for me because I got to make my own painting for the cover article, which is not a common for many scientific journals. Most covers simply show diagrams or data figures. The editorial staff at Organometallics loved the contrast and original art,” says Chandrachud, who would like to thank UT and NSF for funding the project. “I feel really privileged for the opportunity to finish off my Ph.D. this way.”

Cover art description: Catalytic R₂C=CR₂ + NR aziridination has improved markedly over the last decade, but some of its first vintages were in the early 1980s. The first R₂C=CR₂ + NR aziridination reactions focused on hypervalent iodine reagents as the nitrene (NR) source and conjugated alkenes, such as styrene. Improvements in the early 2000s included the first enantioselective versions of the reaction as well as the first examples with aliphatic alkenes. In the last decade, aryl azides have been employed with both conjugated (2008) and aliphatic alkenes (2011) for more atom-economical aziridinations that do not require protecting groups on the nitrogen. This article showcases the first fully aliphatic R₂C=CR₂ + NR aziridination with aliphatic alkenes and alkyl azides.

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By: AMANDA WOMAC*, PREETI CHANDRACHUD**
*College of Arts and Sciences
** Department of Chemistry