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Dai Named ORNL’s Top Scientist by UT-Battelle

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Sheng DaiOAK RIDGE, Tenn., — Sheng Dai, professor at the Chemistry Department and researcher in the Chemical Sciences Division of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has earned the UT-Battelle Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology. He was honored by ORNL Director Thom Mason for “world-class leadership in the synthesis and application of novel functional porous materials, nanomaterials and ionic liquids to energy-relevant problems.” Dai, who was also named this year’s distinguished scientist at UT-Battelle’s annual Awards Night, is an internationally recognized leader in the design, synthesis and application of mesoporous materials and ionic liquids to problems related to the nation’s energy challenges. Dai was cited for his innovative breakthroughs in advanced materials that can be applied toward technologies ranging from improved batteries for electric vehicles to catalytic systems for water purification.  He leads his division’s nanomaterials chemistry group and is also a task co-leader for the catalysis research effort in the multiscale functionality group at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences. (http://www.ornl.gov/news)

Horton and Njiojob won 2010 BoV Graduate Student Poster Competition

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Rebecca HortonChemistry Graduate Students Rebecca Horton from Dr. Frank Vogt‘s group and Costyl Njiojob from Dr. David Baker‘s group won 2010 Board of Visitors Graduate Students Poster Competition.

2010 Department of Chemistry Board of Visitors Annual Meeting was held on Nov. 12 and 13 in Buehler Hall 511. Followed by a report and discussion of the news, changes and development inside the department,, the Board of Visitors members served as judges for this year’s Graduate Student Poster Competition.

Eleven groups participated in the competition. The winners Horton and Njiojob are invited to give presentations during the Department’s annual student presentation on April 14, 2011.

“I feel honored to have the opportunity to give a seminar to my peers.
The poster session and seminar are great ways to practice good communication skills and what better way to do so than in front of the faculty and fellow students.” Horton said.

Horton came to UT from Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, TN.  Her recent achievements in research involve growing microalgae under different environmental conditions along with sample preparation methods of species for spectroscopic analyses.

“I am planning for a December 2011 graduation.” Horton mentioned her plan after graduation. “Upon graduating, I would like to work in an industrial setting and later transition into academia at a small college. By having the perspective of both my graduate career and also the industrial experience, I feel I would be better prepared to mentor students on their chosen career paths.”

Costyl NjiojobThe other poster winner Costyl Njiojob, a native Cameroonian, was born in Nigeria (Plateau State) where he received elementary education. Njiojob then moved back to Cameroon with his family and completed high school there. In 1999, Njiojob entered the University of Buea to pursue Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry. After graduation, he remained in the university and conducted a year of graduate research in Natural product chemistry. Njiojob joined Dr. Baker’s group at UT Chemistry Department with a concentration in organic synthesis in 2006.

Njiojob expressed his gratitude toward people inside the Department, “…it feels like a recognition to all the efforts being put in everyday to do research and all what I can say is thanks to everyone in the department who has been of great help to me since I started graduate studies”.

Njiojob is expected to graduate in August 2011 and would like to continue with his research in scientific community.

Besides Horton and Njiojob, the Board also suggested that honorable mention should be made of Michael Peretich from Dr. Barnes group and Belinda Lady from Dr. Foister’s group.

DOE Supports Project Effort to Use Wood as Renewable Energy Source

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George Kabalka, PhDThe Department of Energy recently awarded more than $1 million to a research project, “Imaging Lignin Degradation,” for a three-year period to a research team including George Kabalka, PhD, Professor, Robert H. Cole Neuroscience Endowed Chair and Director of Research, Radiology at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine, and investigators at Pennsylvania State University and Wesleyan University. Their research aims to identify novel enzymes that can be used to convert lignocellulosic material, found in wood, into bioethanol as an energy resource. The project will involve radioligand development and PET imaging, Dr. Kabalka’s area of expertise.

Lignocellulosic material is the most abundant renewable carbon source in the biosphere, however, it is encased in a lignin barrier and the barrier’s chemical recalcitrance is a major obstacle in the efficient utilization of lignocellulosic material. Lignin peroxidase, a lignin-degrading enzyme, was discovered 25 years ago but has proven to be one of the most expensive parts of converting lignocellulosic material to bioethanol. Since that time, the known list of enzymes capable of degrading lignin has not significantly increased, and this research team hopes to identify previously uncharacterized enzymes in the degradation and further utilization of lignin. The team has noted that lignin degradation occurs in complex environmental niches that are yet to be characterized, including within wood-feeding insects and in marine environments, and they hypothesize these niches contain microbial consortia that are distinct from the pure-culture systems where the peroxidases were discovered.

The research team plans to use near infrared fluorescence imaging to detect the initial biological depolymerization reactions of lignin. They then will use positron emission tomography to detect the initial biological depolymerization reactions of lignin and the subsequent degradation of the aromatic monomeric units. Using these methods, the researchers can potentially establish the presence and location of lignin degradation in previously unexplored ecological niches, providing the foundation for discovery of uncharacterized enzymes involved in lignin degradation and ultimately leading to improvements in lignocellulosic biomass utilization.

The primary investigator in this project is Ming Tien, PhD, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University, with Dr. Kabalka and Erika Taylor, PhD, Department of Chemistry, Wesleyan University, participating as co-investigators.

Musfeldt Elected as NHMFL User Committee Chair

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Dr. Janice MusfeldtDr. Janice Musfeldt, Professor of Chemistry, was elected Chair of the Users Committee of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, effective January 2011.

Established by the National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement, the NHMFL’s Users Committee represents the laboratory’s broad multidisciplinary user community and advises the lab’s leadership on all issues affecting users of the facilities.

Musfeldt joined the faculty in 2001. Since then, she has made many contributions to the field of spectroscopy of materials under extreme conditions. She is particularly well known for forwarding high magnetic field spectroscopies of complex solids, although she is also interested in low temperature, high pressure, small size, and frustration effects in functional materials. Her scientific work is extensively cited, and she is in great demand as an invited speaker. Musfeldt serves the materials community via extensive conference, school, and workshop organization.

Graduate Student Peng Chen’s Paper Accepted in Nano Letters

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Peng (Jacky) ChenPeng (Jacky) Chen, a graduate student in Dr. Janice Musfeldt’s research group has one paper accepted in Nano Letters, an ACS publication reporting on fundamental research in all branches of the theory and practice of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Chen, cooperating with Xiaoshan Xu, Dr. Musfeldt from the University of Tennessee and Christopher Koenigsmann, Alexander Santulli and Stanislaus Wong from the State University of New York, in their paper “combined infrared spectroscopy with group theory and lattice dynamics calculations to reveal the displacive nature of the ferroelectric transition in BiFeO3, a room temperature multiferroic” ( abstract from the authors).

The findings, in Chen’s words, could demonstrate “the foundational importance of size effects to elucidate ferroelectric transition mechanisms”, and also illustrate “the far-reaching potential of finite size effects for band gap modification of functional oxides that may have applications in flexible ferroelectric photovoltaic devices and oxide-based electronics”.

Out of 59 journals in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Nano Letters is No. 3 in ISI Impact Factor: 9.991, based on the 2009 Journal Citation Reports® by Thomson Reuters; and No. 2 in citations, with 46,238 total cites.

Chen is very excited about publishing in Nano Letters as a second year graduate student. He also thanked his advisor Dr. Musfeldt for this acheivement. “I cannot achieve it without the guidance of my advisor Dr. Janice  Musfeldt and cooperating with the collaborators. But I know there is a long way to go in the scientific career and I am ready for the challenges.” Chen said.

Chen was born in Hubei, China. He received his B.S. in Chemistry in 2002 and M.S. in Software Engineering in 2005 from University of Science & Technology of China (USTC). After four years of working in the Keenmicro Financial System Inc., Chen joined the research group of Dr. Janice L. Musfeldt in the spring 2009 pursuing his Ph.D. degree in the University of Tennessee. His current research focuses on the study of optical properties of novel transition metal oxides.

Camden Group Attended International Confrence on Raman Spectroscopy

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Chris BennettThe Camden group attended the International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy held at Boston, MA from August 8 to 13.  During the conference, Dr. Camden presented a talk on Wavelength Scanned Surface Enhanced Hyper Raman Spectroscopy.  Chris Bennett and Vighter Iberi both presented posters at the student poster session.

Bennett collaborated with Camden and discussed recent advances in Hyper Raman spectroscopy in his project. Topics include a discussion of wavelength-scanned surface enhanced hyper Raman spectroscopy of various active molecules. Unusually high Hyper Raman signal has been produced on silver colloids from incident laser power as low as 106 W/cm2 average power, as shown in the figure below. This has enabled the discovery of a new two-photon accessible resonant mode in Rhodamine 6G (abstract provided by Bennett, picture on the left).

Vighter IberiThe goal of Vighter, Camden and Guiton’s project is to correlate the optical measurements of nanostructures generated by the surface plasmons using Resonant Rayleigh Scattering, with high resolution structural information obtained by using Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM). This technique will also reveal the different localized surface plasmon modes in the nanostructure as well as the relationship between the optical surface plasmons and the plasmons generated from the inelastic scattering of the electron beam. The measurement of the surface plasmon excitations in a STEM is called Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS)(abstract provided by Vighter, picture on the right).

Dr. Bursten named ACS Fellow

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Bruce BurstenDean of the College of Arts and Science Bruce Bursten has been named to the American Chemical Society (ACS) fellows program. The program began in 2009 to recognize and honor ACS members for their outstanding achievements in and contributions to the science, the profession, and service to the society. Bursten, who was president of ACS in 2008, conducts research in inorganic chemistry, focusing on the correlation of theoretical and experimental electronic structural data with the bonding and reactivity patterns of metal-containing molecules. The 192 new ACS Fellows will be honored at the society’s fall national meeting in Boston later this month. Additional information about the program is available at http://www.acs.org/fellows.

Dr. Best and Dr. Camden presents workshop to science teachers

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Mike Best and Jon Camden, assistant professors in the Department of Chemistry, joined Arthur (Sandy) Echternacht, professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Ted Labotka, professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, to present a day-long professional development workshop to Knox County high school science teachers at West High School on Thursday, June 24. The workshop featured lectures and discussions in chemistry and earth and life sciences. Theresa Nixon, supervisor of science for Knox County Schools, invited Best, Camden, Echternacht and Labotka to speak to provide content enrichment in these sciences for the teachers who teach science in the 13 high schools in the Knox County School District.

Dr. Michael Best selected as Quest Scholar of the Week

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Michael BestMichael Best, an assistant professor of organic chemistry, recently received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. The award includes a 5-year, $580,000 grant to support his laboratory research on the molecular mechanisms by which proteins bind to lipids presented on the surfaces of cellular membranes. Such events control many biological processes and are aberrant in numerous disease states, including cancer. Better understanding of these interactions and the defects associated with them is important to determining the underlying causes of diseases.

Best’s research involves synthesizing derivatives corresponding to important lipids and applying them as probes so the details of cell surface protein binding events can be characterized at the molecular level. The CAREER Award is the NSF’s most prestigious award for young faculty members early in their careers.

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Dr. George Schweitzer publishes book “The Aqueous Chemistry of the Elements”

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The Aqueous Chemistry of the ElementsElements

Co-Author: George K. Schweitzer
Co-Author info: Professor of Chemistry
Publication Date: January 2010
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Synopsis: Most fields of science, applied science, engineering, and technology deal with solutions in water. This volume is a comprehensive treatment of the aqueous solution chemistry of all the elements. The information on each element is centered around an E-pH diagram which is a novel aid to understanding. The contents are especially pertinent to agriculture, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, biology, biomedical science and engineering, chemical engineering, geochemistry, inorganic chemistry, environmental science and engineering, food science, materials science, mining engineering, metallurgy, nuclear science and engineering, nutrition, plant science, safety, and toxicology.