Larese Group Hosted Science Olympiad High School Students

April 30, 2014 by chemweb

The Larese’s group at the UT Chemistry Department prepared the chemistry examination for the Tennessee State Science Olympiad on Saturday, April 12. High school students from all across Tennessee came to UTK and were challenged experimentally with a reaction set in which the oxidation state of manganese was altered, as well as chromatography of fountain pen inks. The students were then given a set of advanced questions in various aspects of chemical reactions.

The Science Olympiad is an international nonprofit organization devoted to improving the quality of science education, increasing student interest in science and providing recognition for outstanding achievement in science education by both students and teachers. High school students participate in pre-designed events in earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, computers and technology to develop their teamwork and problem solving skills.

This was the second consecutive year the Larese’s group has organized this event. Previous years, other chemistry research groups such as the Camden’s Group also participated in preparation of Science Olympiad.

Derek Mull Received NSF Fellowship

April 25, 2014 by chemweb

Derek Mull, a first year graduate student in the Jenkins’ Group, received National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Fellowship. Mull is one of the three students at the University of Tennessee Knoxville received the GRFP Fellowship this year.

The GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions. Mull was selected because of his “outstanding abilities and accomplishments”, as well as his “potential to contribute to strengthening the vitality of the US science and engineering enterprise”, stated by his award email.

“I was thoroughly surprised and delighted.” Mull said, “I had spent the previous month keeping my hopes down by enumerating the reasons why I probably wouldn’t get it…so it was very much an ‘I can’t believe it’ moment.”

Mull received his BS in chemistry and BS in biology from the University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, in 2011. He interned at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) from January to August 2011 through the Higher Education Research Experience program through Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), before relocating to Los Angeles in September​ of that year to join the research group of Prof. Omar Yaghi. Prior to commencing his graduate studies at the University of Tennessee, Derek worked in the nonprofit and healthcare sectors in Tampa, FL.

Chemistry Department Held 2014 Honors Day

April 24, 2014 by chemweb

Chemistry Department held 2014 Honors Day on Thursday, April 24 in Buehler Hall 555. Gerald DeVault, Project Manager for Technology at Y12 Uranium Processing Facility, also an alumnus of the Department, gave an invited speech before the awards ceremony. Following is a list of this year’s awardees.

UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS

• CRC Press General Chemistry Award – Allison S. Poget
• C. W. Keenan Outstanding General Chemistry Student Award – William C. Hoskins
• Dr. Lucy E. Scroggie Scholarship – Brittany L. Skyberg
• C. A. Buehler Chemistry Scholarship – Russell T. Smith
• East Tennessee Section, ACS, Award – Desta Bume
• Hach Foundation Scholarship – Madilynn McCollum, Brittany Ramsey
• Melaven-Rhenium Scholarships – Desta D. Bume, Brittany L. Skyberg, James R. Smith, Russell T. Smith, Benjamin T. White
• Honors Chemistry Recognition – Christopher R. Barnes, Jack W. Bell, Rebecca E. Fong, Margaux J. Joe, Reagan E. Long,Sahba Seddighi, Donna Vo

STAFF AWARDS

• Outstanding Service Award – Jillian E. Bodenheimer, Sherri H. Dugger
• Carol Moulton ACGS Service Award – Eddie Farrell Bishop
• James F. Green ACGS Service Award – James W. Gurley

GRADUATE AWARDS

• Second Year Candidacy Award – Alexis C. Dale, Samuel I. Mattern-Schain, Nada Mehio
• Outstanding Teaching Awards – Adam J. Carr, Lena Elenchin, Philip D. Simmons Jr.
• Keenan Teaching Awards – William C. Anderson
• Judson Hall Robertson Fellowship in Analytical Chemistry – Jennifer J. Charlton
• Graduate Fellowship for Achievement in Inorganic Chemistry – Brianna C. Hughes
• Jerome Eastham Fellowship in Organic Chemistry – Shahrina Alam
• Eugene John Barber Fellowship in Physical Chemistry – Ashleigh L. Barnes
• Burchfield Burridge Warner Fellowship in Polymer Chemistry – Fei Fan
• Gleb Mamantov Graduate Chemistry Scholar – Christopher R. Murdock
• East Tennessee Section, ACS, Graduate Fellow – Steven A. Cramer
• NSF Graduate Fellowship – Derek Mull
• Joint Institute of Neutron Sciences Fellowships – Seth C. Hunter, Brian F. Morgan, Nicholas A. Strange
• Eastman Chemical Company Fellowship Award – Weiyu Wang (2013); Hobbie Turley (2014)
• Winners of the Board of Visitor’s Poster Competition – Yundi Gan, Teresa B. Kirchner

FACULTY AWARDS

• Joe Johnson Lifetime Service Award – George K. Schweitzer
• New Faculty – Tessa R. Calhoun
• Retiring Faculty – T. Ffancon Williams
• 1100+ Publications – Georges A. Guiochon
• Gleb Mamantov Professorship in Chemistry – Dr. David Jenkins
• Ziegler Professor Announcement – Dr. Mark Dadmun

Chancellor’s Honors

• Alumni Public Service Award – Al Hazari
• Research and Creative Achievement – Professional Promise – Jon Camden
• Extraordinary Professional Promise – Jonathan K. Fong, Andrew P. Moss

Shelby Stavretis Admitted to NSNXS

April 24, 2014 by chemweb

Shelby Stavretis, first year graduate student in Professor Xue’s group, was recently admitted to the National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering after a nationwide competition. The school is a Department of Energy program and only selected students in physics, chemistry, materials science, or related fields across the country are admitted.

Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, Stavretis went to Butler University (Indianapolis, IN) for her undergraduate degree in chemistry. In 2013, Stavretis joined the UT Chemistry Department, pursing PhD studies in inorganic chemistry under Professor Xue.​ Her research currently focuses on the determination the zero field splitting parameters of metalloporphyrins by Inelastic Neutron Scattering (INS). Xue group is using the Cold Neutron Chopper Spectrometer at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“I’m excited to have hands on experience with the sophisticated instrumentation at Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories so early in my graduate career.”  Stavretis said. “I plan on using the techniques and analysis tools I learn to assist my current research and to devise future research goals.”

Chemistry Faculty and Students Lauded at Chancellor Honors Banquet

April 23, 2014 by chemweb

The Chancellor’s Honors Banquet is held each spring to recognize students, faculty, staff, and friends of the University of Tennessee for their extraordinary achievements. The 2014 banquet was held April 23^rd at the University Center. Following are the chemistry faculty and students who received this year’s honors.

2014 Alumni Public Service Award

AL HAZARI
Science is for students ages two to 102 — that’s the motto of Al Hazari. A lecturer and director of the undergraduate chemistry laboratories, Hazari is a champion for science. His chemistry “magic shows” have been enjoyed by countless kids and adults for over twenty-two years. It started with grant from the American Chemical Society, which allowed him to visit local schools to demonstrate hands-on activities. Since then, hundreds of people of all ages have flocked to see Hazari demonstrate the wonders of chemistry. The real magic in the shows comes from his presentation, which brings an element of fun and excitement that many people would not associate with a scientific lecture. A fixture in the Knoxville community, Hazari has presented for schools, museums, civic organizations, assisted-living facilities, and organizations reaching underserved groups. The American Chemical Society has recruited him for their national speaker tour, so he now presents throughout the United States.

2014 Research and Creative Achievement—Professional Promise

JON CAMDEN
Jon Camden, assistant professor of chemistry, is pioneering plasmon imaging studies of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, or SERS, a technique that enhances light-particle scattering either by molecules adhering to rough metal surfaces or by nanostructures. In this rapidly expanding field, his research is providing solid connections between experiment and theory, which will advance fundamental understanding of SERS enhancement mechanisms. He has developed a comprehensive research program, and his group has imaged structures with single molecule SERS activity and, through experiment and electrodynamic calculations, established conditions of electron activation of SERS hot spots.

Extraordinary Professional Promise – Jonathan K. Fong, Andrew P. Moss

Hobbie Turley Received Eastman Fellowship

April 21, 2014 by chemweb

Hobbie Turley, a chemistry graduate student in Professor Camden’ group received 2014 Eastman Chemical Company Fellowship Award. Established in 2001, the fellowship was designed to assist students in their research as well as help Eastman identify top performers who are in the early stages of their graduate careers.

Each year, selected universities are requested to submit nominations of students and encourage them to apply. A team of scientists from Eastman then rank all of the received applications and award either travel grant or full fellowship to several applicants.

“Hobbie was selected as a fellowship winner because the team was impressed with his track record in his graduate studies at UT.” Dr. Peter Chapman, Eastman Principal Chemist commented, “The team also understood the high degree of difficulty presented by his current research project. Members of the team felt that Hobbie has a promising career as a scientist ahead of him.”

“I was both thrilled and honored to find out they had selected me.” Turley said, “I deeply appreciate their support, but I can’t forget that I couldn’t have done it without the help of my advisor Jon Camden and my fellow lab mates.”

Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Turley attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After he graduated in 2011 with a B.S. in chemistry, Turley returned to Tennessee to pursue a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at UTK under Professor Jon Camden. His current research is focused on developing a nonlinear surface-enhanced spectroscopy (Surface-Enhanced hyper-Raman or SEHRS) for ultrasensitive detection. Since Turley joined the Department, his reserch has rendered two publications. The first was a second author for his contributions to the first observation of single-molecule SEHRS. The second was a first author for his work on exploring these of SEHRS with short-wave IR (SWIR) excitations. Turley also recently presented the SWIR work in a talk at the ACS meeting in Dallas.

Previous recipients of Eastman Chemical Company Summer Fellowship from UT

• 2008 –  Michael Gilbert    Full Fellowship  (Dr. Frank Vogt)
• 2011 –  Rebecca Horton   Travel Grant  (Dr. Frank Vogt)
• 2012 –  Christ Bennett      Travel Grant   (Dr. Jon Camden)
• 2013 –  Weiyu Wang       Full Fellowship  (Dr. Jimmy Mays)
• 2014 – Hobbie Turley       Full Fellowship  (Dr. Jon Camden)

Professor Long Received Army Research Office Young Investigator Award

April 14, 2014 by chemweb

Assistant professor of chemistry Brian Long has received the Army Research Office (ARO) Young Investigator Award in March 2014. The ARO Young Investigator Program was designed to attract “outstanding young university faculty members, to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers.” The award is highly competitive and considered prestigious among young faculty members.

Professor Long plans to utilize these funds “to further elucidate the role that redox activity plays in olefin polymerization catalysis, thereby enhancing fundamental understanding of olefin polymerization activity, selectivity, and stability. Furthermore, those catalysts will be used to synthesize polymers with tailored architectures and microstructures.”

Professor Long obtained his B.S. degree in chemistry from North Georgia College & State University (now the University of North Georgia) in 2003 and his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 2009. After graduating, he moved to Ithaca, NY to pursue his postdoctoral studies at Cornell University. Prof. Long joined the UTK faculty in 2011, and his group’s research has focused on the development of olefin polymerization catalysts, functional polyolefin-based materials, and catalytic biomass conversion. A portion of the Long group’s work in the field of olefin polymerization catalysis was recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135, pp 16316–16319).

Professor Long and the Long group would like to thank the ARO for their generous support of our research.

Jessica Gooding Received NIH Award

March 10, 2014 by chemweb

Dr. Jessica Gooding, a recent Ph.D. graduate from the Campagna Group, received Mentored Research Scientist Development Award in Metabolomics (K01) funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her project titled “Metabolic Regulators of Insulin Secretion and Insulin Resistance”.

This Award will allow Gooding to expand her skill set in metabolomics and apply them on three NIH-funded projects, one with Dr. Newgard focused on understanding of the mechanism of fuel-stimulated insulin secretion, another with Dr. Muoio that probes mechanisms of obesity-related insulin resistance in skeletal muscle, and finally a collaborative project with Drs. Newgard and Hirschey that seeks to understand the metabolic impact of the mitochondrial sirtuin SIRT3 on pancreatic islet cell biology.

“We wanted to tell a story that incorporated more complex metabolomics related skills as the project progressed and I expanded my skill set. I have been working on a lot of collaborative projects here, as I was at UT. We picked three that could benefit from a variety of techniques and expanded on those for the research section.” said Gooding. The funding will also allow Gooding to purchase lab supplies, travel to conferences and support her collaboration with the proteomics core.

Gooding grew up in Raleigh, NC, and completed her undergraduate work at the College of William and Mary and NC State University. At the same time, she interned for Inspire Pharmaceuticals in their molecular pharmacology division. Gooding joined the Campagna research group at UT in 2007 as a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. degree in chemistry, and graduated in December of 2011.

“My combined interests in analytical method development, biochemistry, and synthetic chemistry led me to join the lab of Dr. Shawn Campagna at the University of Tennessee for my graduate work.” Gooding said. “There I was able to apply my organic chemistry background to the development of a derivatizing reagent for the detection of a small sugar used by the marine bacteria V. harveyi for quorum sensing. I then applied this method in combination with our metabolomics platform to study the function of this small sugar in other bacteria.”

After graduation, Gooding obtained a postdoctoral position at Duke University’s Sarah W.Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center. During which time, she has learned a variety of targeted metabolomics methods, developed a new targeted method for measurement of a wide array of nucleotides, and has started to develop non-targeted LC-MS/MS methodologies for the group.

This NIH Mentored Research Scientist Development Award was established in 2011 to provide salary and research support for postdoctoral and clinical fellows or investigators who meet the definition of a NIH New Investigator to pursue intensive research training in the field of metabolomics under the guidance of an experienced mentor who has an established research record in metabolomics. The Award was highly competitive and was aiming to train individuals who understand the field of metabolomics and can work and communicate with clinicians and other health professionals to perform, analyze and interpret the data obtained from metabolomic studies.

Professor Schweitzer Recognized for 65 Years of Service

February 26, 2014 by chemweb

Dr. George K. Schweitzer, Alumni Distinguished Service Professor of Chemistry, has been given the Joe Johnson Lifetime Service Award in recognition of his 65 years of dedicated service to the University of Tennessee. UT President Joe DiPietro and UTK Chancellor Jimmy Cheek presented Schweitzer the Award on December 11th, 2013.

“Dr. Schweitzer’s commitment to lifelong learning and his passion for teaching and leading serve as an example for all of us. He represents the best of the University of Tennessee, and I was honored to have the opportunity to recognize and thank him for his service.”  said Dr. Joe DiPietro, President, the University of Tennessee System.

Schweitzer is the holder of three doctorates, one in inorganic and nuclear chemistry, one in the history and philosophy of religion, and one for his work in the philosophy of science. He came to UT in 1948 to initiate the inorganic division of the newly-established Ph.D. program in chemistry and to participate in the early UT-Oak Ridge graduate instructional and research program. He has mentored over 130 graduate students, has been elected UT Phi Kappa Phi lecturer, served as UT’s first Mace Bearer, gave the 1996 UT commencement address, and has been named a Distinguished Service Professor by the UT Alumni Association.

Schweitzer has lectured at numerous universities, scientific and historical organizations, and has made sizable contributions to associations interested in the intersecting spheres of science and theology.

Schweitzer has done research work in the fields of radiocolloids, nuclear recoil, photoelectron spectroscopy, solvent extraction, rare-earth chemistry, and radioactivity detection, and continues in the area of mechanochemistry. In addition to his scientific interests, Schweitzer serves as an officer of the East Tennessee Historical Society, docent in the Museum of East Tennessee History, and offers monthly courses in family history research.

Jamie Adcock, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Chemistry, has known Schweitzer for almost forty years since she joined the Department in 1974. Schweitzer was her “mentor” at the time. “He was a delight to know and work with. He spoke at my retirement gathering and as always was in top form and funny too. I have never heard an unkind word from him. He always supported me in my career. The perfect colleague!” Adcock said.

Schweitzer is loved by everyone inside the Department. “The one thing that impresses me the most about Dr. Schweitzer, he is always the same, day in and day out.” Sharon Marshall, Business Manager of the Department said. “He treats everyone with respect and enjoys a wonderful sense of humor. He always makes me feel good with his upbeat, happy mood and his funny stories.”

“I thoroughly enjoyed working with him.” John Auxier, a Ph.D. student who worked in his group for three years said. “Dr. Schweitzer was genuinely interested in seeing his students succeed, and was not bent upon trying to see his success through his students. He genuinely cared whether or not you as the student were going to succeed.”

Schweitzer is not only a professor, a teacher, a colleague and a friend, for many people inside the Department, he’s also an inspiration. “It is remarkable that after 65 years Dr. Schweitzer continues to have the enthusiasm and love for his work. It is a true inspiration to see someone at 90 years of age that continues to contribute his knowledge and experiences to the younger generations.” Marshall said.

Dai Group Research Highlighted in Nature Chemistry

February 23, 2014 by chemweb

The work from Dai Group was highlighted in the most recent issue of Nature Chemistry. Nature Chemistry is a monthly journal dedicated to publishing high-quality papers that describe the most significant and cutting-edge research in all areas of chemistry.

Dai group’s development of a new class of mesoporous copolymer was mentioned in an article written by Yi Lu from the University of Illinois, titled “Uranium extraction: Coordination chemistry in the ocean.”

Download to view the article in pdf format.