Undergraduate Chemistry Major Receives Summer Internship

April 17, 2012 by chemweb

Chris Freye, a rising senior in the Chemistry undergraduate program, and a member of the Chancellor’s Honor Program received 2012 undergraduate summer research internship from the UT Office of Undergraduate Research.

Freye will be working in Professor Sepaniak‘s lab on a project labeled Advanced Separation Techniques Employing a Novel Means of Detection.

“I will be integrating thin layer chromatography with surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy.’ Freye said, “The goal of the project is to carry out a separation on a TLC plate, transfer the analytes from the plate to nanocomposite which would be analyzed by raman spectroscopy.”

Freye is extremely excited for receiving this internship opportunity. “I have been working for Dr. Sepaniak for the last year; however, I have had to pay attention to my school work. This summer, I will be able to fully concentrate on my project and hopefully excel.”

Freye is also very thankful that his mentor Professor Sepaniak and UT Office of Research could provide him with this great opportunity.

Undergraduate summer research internships are funded by the UT Knoxville Chancellor’s Office and Office of Research. Up to 75 interhships at $2,000 each are awarded each year to support students who will work on a research or creative project with a UT Knoxville faculty mentor during summer time.

Click to view a list of 2012 recipients

Chemistry Board of Visitors Chair Received The Henry Hill Award from ACS

April 10, 2012 by chemweb

Dr. Diane Grob Schmidt, UT Chemistry Alumnus and Chair of the Chemistry Department Board of Visitors (2011-12) received The Henry Hill Award presented by the American Chemical Society Division of Professional Relations during 2012 ACS National Meeting held in San Diego, CA on March 27.

Schmidt was recognized for her services and leadership in ACS for over twenty years. She has chaired or served on more than 20 ACS task forces and working groups that have helped advance the profession. In addition she was elected to the ACS Board of Directors and its Executive Committee.

Around the same time, Schmidt was also named as a Director-at-Large of the Board of Directors at the Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

The Henry Hill Award was established in 1984 by the ACS Division of Professional Relations to honor distinguished service and achievement towards the advancement of professional relations. It honors Dr. Henry Hill, distinguished chemist, a Director and Past President of the American Chemical Society.

View list of previous awardees

Iberi and Simmons Received ACS Outstanding Poster Award

April 9, 2012 by chemweb

Vighter Iberi and Philip Simmons, two graduate students from Dr. Camden’s Group received American Chemical Society Physical Chemistry Division Outstanding Student Poster Award presented at the 243rd National ACS Meeting in San Diego, CA on March 25.

During the poster session, Simmons and Iberi presented some results of their project aiming to correlate plasmon data obtained from optical microscopy and electron microscopy with theory. “Vighter did the experimental and I did the theory work.” Simmons said.

Iberi and Simmons both described their working experience with each other as fun and rewarding. “Working with DJ (Simmons) has been fun!” Iberi said. “He (Simmons)’s been very helpful in doing all of the complex classical electrodynamics calculations related to our experiments.” Simmons added that while both theory and experiment parts are challenging and call for a tremendous amount of work, “working together we’ve been able to accomplish much more than we would have just working solo.”

They are looking forward to continuing this project. “Work still has to be done in understanding the behavior of electromagnetic hot spots that are responsible for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) when excited by an electron beam.” Iberi said.

Iberi obtained his B.S. degree from Campbellsville University in 2008 and joined Camden Group in 2009. Now a 3rd year graduate student, Iberi’s research area focuses on the plasmonic studies of nobel metallic nanostructures by using the powerful tools of electron and dark-field optical microscopy. After graduation, Iberi hopes to pursue a career in a research institution such as a National Laboratory or a company with an intellectually stimulating Research and Development division.

Hailed from Buckhannon, West Virginia, Simmons joined the Camden Group in 2011 after obtaining his B.S. from Fairmont State University in 2009. His research involves computational electrodynamics of plasmonic nano-structures and Raman spectroscopy. Although it might still be early to think about career after graduation, Simmons hopes to join the computer hardware industry eventually.

Burton Mandrell and David Cooper, two undergraduate students from Camden Group also attended meeting and presented their research.

Two Chemistry Students Won 2012 EURēCA Awards

April 4, 2012 by chemweb

The University of Tennessee’s sixteenth annual Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement (EURēCA) was held March 28-29 at the Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center Ballroom. The event highlights research and creative projects completed by UT Knoxville students in collaboration with a faculty mentor.

Chemistry students Britta Johnson and Andrew Moss won two out of three awards given in the Physical and Earth Sciences division.

Andrew Moss’ winning project entitled Ongoing Synthesis of Galactose Disaccharides for Binding Studies was guided by David Baker, Professor of Chemistry, and Irene Abia, faculty member at the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department of the University of Mississippi, and a recent graduate from Baker’s group.

Working on the project, Moss concentrated on the synthesis of galactose disaccharides for investigation into lectin binding using Atomic Force Microscopy and Förster resonance energy transfer.

Moss was excited for receiving this award. “I have put much effort into my research and enjoyed the opportunity to present it to peers and professors.” Moss was also very grateful for the help from Professor Baker. “Dr. Baker is always very helpful in guiding the synthesis and providing feedback on ideas and problems encountered.” Moss said.

Born and raised in Cookeville, TN, Moss attended Cookeville High School before he joined UT in the Fall of 2010. He has been working in Baker’s lab since the first week of his freshman year. Prior to this research presentation, he also participated in the poster presentation at the National Collegiate Research Conference at Harvard University in Jan. 2012 and gave an Oral presentation at the Annual Undergraduate Research Conference at the University of Memphis in Feb. 2012. Most recently, he gave a presentation at U.T. in the 3rd Annual Honors Symposium.

Another winner, Britta Johnson presented her project entitled Dynamics of He Absorbates on Mg0(100) Surfaces, guided by Robert Hinde, Professor of Chemistry.

More about Britta Johnson

Stefanie Bragg Article Featured in Analytica Chimica Acta

April 4, 2012 by chemweb

Stefanie Bragg, a graduate student from Professor Xue‘s Group recently published an article in Analytica Chimica Acta.

The article entitled “Flower-like self-assembly of gold nanoparticles for highly sensitive electrochemical detection of chromium(VI)” co-aothored with Dr. Ruizhuo Ouyang, Post Doctoral Research Associate in Professor Xue’s group, and Dr. Jim Chambers, Professor Emeritus,, was printed as a Featured article on the outside front cover of an April 2012 issue.

Earlier this year, Bragg received Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC) Student Travel Award and presented her research at 2012 International Pittsburg Conference in Orlando, Florida on March 11th.

Chemistry Undergrad Published in J. Phys. Chem.

February 29, 2012 by chemweb

William Hembree, a chemistry major, published a paper Three-Dimensional Mapping of Microenvironmental Control of Methyl Rotational Barriers last June in the Journal of Physical Chemistry as the first author.

Hembree started working on the project with his mentor Dr. Jerome Baudry, Assistant Professor of the Department of Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology in the summer of 2008. Baudry was proud of what Hembree was able to achieve.

“…it is rare for an undergraduate to be the first author of a peer-reviewed publication, in particular on a paper of ACS caliber.” Baudry said. On top of that, being one of the two authors means Hembree “did the bulk of the work himself.”

Scientific research is not all about glamorous or exciting moments like some might think. Obtaining data can be a boring process. Baudry pointed out that persistence is what leads to success. “William’s project was challenging…he  was willing and able to put a lot of work in  sometimes tedious tasks and never get discouraged or frustrated.”

Hembree is grateful of what this research experience has given him. “I was fortunate enough to work at Oak Ridge National Labs and the University of Tennessee with many top-level scientists. The knowledge and instruction they gave me has been invaluable in my studies. Above all, I owe many thanks to Dr. Baudry for all his help.” Hembree said.

Undergraduate research is much encouraged in all science fields, especially in a Research I Institute like the University of Tennessee. The students who participate will not only gain research experience, but can also find out if doing scientific research is something they will enjoy for their future career.

“…doing good scientific research means that one must like the “journey” as much (if not more) as the ‘destination'” Baudry said, “…if you wake up every morning hoping to get something unexpected and exciting in the lab, then you are a researcher. If you do that in computational chemistry and computational biology, like William did, then you are a scientific researcher. ”

Hembree is graduating this May with a degree in Chemistry and a degree in German. He is excited to see what future will bring him. “My plans are uncertain after graduation;  I am in the process of applying for a post at the IAEA in Vienna, Austria.  I am considering graduate school as well.”

Note:  Out of 127 journals in the Physical Chemistry category, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B ranks #1 in total citations with 113,180 total cites. The Journal received an Impact Factor of 3.603.*

*Based on the 2010 Journal Citation Reports® by Thomson Reuters

Department Hosted 2012 Research Open House

February 28, 2012 by chemweb

The past weekend was truly an exciting one for many faculty members, students, and staff of the Chemistry Department. 35 students from all around the nation (even world) participated in the 2012 Research Open House hosted by the Chemistry Department on Friday, Feb. 24 and Saturday, Feb. 25.

The two-day event started with a meet and greet reception in Four Points, and ended with a dinner banquet inside Neyland Stadium. The Department organized faculty poster session, student and alumni presentations, facility tour, program introduction, meetings with faculty, graduate students panel, and student organization social to introduce the Department as a whole to the prospective students. View more pictures of the event.

Stefanie Bragg Received SEAC Student Travel Award

February 8, 2012 by chemweb

Stefanie Bragg, a graduate student from Professor Xue Group received Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC) Student Travel Award to present her research at 2012 International Pittsburg Conference in Orlando, Florida on March 11th.

Bragg will deliver two oral presentations on “Highly Sensitive Detection of Aqueous Cr(VI) Using Flower-Like Surface Self-Assembly of Gold Nanoparticles” and “Electrochemical Detection of Chromium Based on a Novel Sol-Gel/Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Material.”

SEAC Graduate Student Travel Award was established to help “promising graduate students to offset the cost of travel to the Pittsburgh Conference to deliver an oral presentation in a Conference symposium.”

Born and raised in Glasgow, Kentucky, Bragg graduated from Barren County High School in 2003.  She moved on to Western Kentucky University, where she received a full academic scholarship and completed a B.S. in Chemistry (ACS Certified) and Biology in 2007. In that time she researched with Dr. Les Pesterfield and Dr. Donald Slocum and participated in the NSF-REU program at the University of Cincinnati in 2006.

At University of Tennessee, Bragg has worked with Professor Zi-Ling (Ben) Xue on novel approaches to electroanalysis of metals, and sample pretreatment of biological and environmental samples.  She currently serves as the President of the Association of Chemistry Graduate Students (ACGS).

In 2011, Bragg co-authored a paper with Xue. “Optimization of dry ashing of whole blood samples for trace metal analysis” was published on American Journal of Analytical Chemistry. There are two other articles still in press.

Jim Green Passed Away

January 23, 2012 by chemweb

(better known as Jim) was born on July 7, 1954 in Pueblo, CO.  He was born to Forrest and Sue Green.  He is survived by his sister Jane.  Jim attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received a B.S. in Life Sciences and a B.S. in Chemistry.  He later received a Masters in Biochemistry.  In 1985 he moved to Knoxville, TN where he began his Graduate Career at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville under the direction of George W. Kabalka.  After the completion of his Ph.D., Jim stayed with UT where he became an Instructor.  While Jim was creative researcher, it was no secret that teaching was his calling.  He is most well known throughout the university for his service as an instructor.  Jim stayed with U.T. until the summer of 2010, at which time he became a Professor of Chemistry at Lincoln Memorial University, in Harrogate Tennessee.  Though his days there were short, he made no less of an impact on the student population at LMU than he had here at UT.  After a short battle with pancreatic cancer, Jim passed away on December 23, 2011.  A memorial fund has been created in his honor at Lincoln Memorial University.  If you have questions about donation procedures please contact Kelly Hall.

Written by: Kelly Hall, Graduate Student, Professor Kabalka Group

Graduate Student Shares Perspective on Plutonium Futures

January 18, 2012 by chemweb

Second year graduate student John Auxier from Professor Schweitzer’s group participated in the 2010 Plutonium Futures Science Conference and shared his perspective on plutonium futures on Actinide Research Quarterly (ARQ).

Auxier was invited to the conference at Keystone, Colorado as a session chair and as a volunteer helping set up posters, process registration, and many other tasks that ensure the success of the conference.

Auxier also attended many of the conference invited talks and was inspired by the vast range of topics. How political environmental and science affect each other particularly broadened his mind.

After receiving his B.S. in Chemistry and Math from Adams State College in 2007, Auxier interned at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Actinide Analytical Chemistry Group. He joined Professor Schweitzer’s research group in 2010 and is now working towards his doctorate in inorganic chemistry.

Follow the link to view the full article (p. 8~9) Auxier wrote for ARQ that shared his unique perspective on plutonium futures.