from the chair of chemistry - ithaca college · project titled “enhanced diffusion of water by an...

16
2016 • page 1 FROM THE CHAIR OF CHEMISTRY Greetings to all friends and family of IC Chemistry! This is IC Chemistry Year 2016 in Review – covering the period since January 2016, when the last Alumni Newsletter came out. In March 2016 a group of seven IC students travelled to the National ACS meeting in San Diego and successfully presented seven research talks. You can read more details on that in the individual lab news excerpts in the Newsletter below. As always, our gratitude goes to generous support from IC endowed funds allowing our students to have this invaluable experience. The department has gone through some more staffing changes this year. In July 2016, after six months with IC Chemistry Department our Administrative Assistant Joshua Ellis has abandoned us for a science teacher position with Boston City Charter school system. In his short time at IC Josh befriended many of us and provided invaluable help with numerous projects. We were sad to see Josh go, while wishing him all the best in his new teaching career. As of August 2016 IC Chemistry has a new Administrative Assistant – Ms. Paula Larsen (no relation to Anna). Paula has been with Ithaca College for 18 years Paula Larsen Joshua Ellis From left to right: Megan Wirth (16), Ben Morse (17), Adam Scott (’16), Katrina Piemonte (16), Taylor Reeves (16), .Jameson Martin (16), Joshua Speer (17) Anna Larsen

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2016 • page 1

FROM THE CHAIR OF CHEMISTRY

Greetings to all friends and family of IC Chemistry! This is IC Chemistry Year 2016

in Review – covering the period since January 2016, when the last Alumni

Newsletter came out.

In March 2016 a group of seven IC students travelled to

the National ACS meeting in San Diego and successfully

presented seven research talks. You can read more details

on that in the individual lab news excerpts in the

Newsletter below. As always, our gratitude goes to

generous support from IC endowed funds allowing our

students to have this invaluable experience.

The department has gone through some more staffing

changes this year. In July 2016, after six months with IC

Chemistry Department our Administrative Assistant

Joshua Ellis has abandoned us for a science teacher

position with Boston City Charter school system. In his short

time at IC Josh befriended many of us and provided

invaluable help with numerous projects. We were sad to see

Josh go, while wishing him all the best in his new teaching

career. As of August 2016 IC Chemistry has a new

Administrative Assistant – Ms. Paula Larsen (no relation to

Anna). Paula has been with Ithaca College for 18 years Paula Larsen Joshua Ellis

From left to right: Megan Wirth (’16), Ben Morse (’17), Adam

Scott (’16), Katrina Piemonte (’16), Taylor Reeves (’16),

.Jameson Martin (’16), Joshua Speer (’17)

Anna Larsen

2016 • page 2

within the Office of Facilities. She is excited to have the opportunity to work closely with the

faculty, staff and students of the chemistry department.

Dr. Adam Steeves decided to leave his faculty position here after the Spring 2016 semester.

Adam was a much-liked professor, in particular with the student survivors of the Experimental

Chemistry 3 and 5, who even dedicated a Christmas Carol to him! We wish great new things for

Adam in his future, wherever the path may take him.

In August 2016 we were fortunate to welcome Dr. David Richens, who joined our faculty as

Visiting Professor of chemistry. Dr. Richens area of expertise is Physical/Inorganic/

Bioinorganic chemistry. He comes to us after a long distinguished career in research and

education, both in the UK and in the USA. In addition to General Chemistry instruction, our

students will benefit from Dr. Richens teaching senior elective classes in Environmental and

Bio-inorganic Chemistry.

IC students are also lucky to have excellent part-time teaching faculty: Dr. Kristina Hugar (IC

’07 alumni, now with Eco Lectro in Ithaca, NY) and Dr. Chris Ptak (Postdoctoral Research

Associate with Cornell University department of Molecular Medicine in the College of

Veterinary Medicine at Cornell) who both continue helping us out with the Chemistry

Laboratory and Experimental Chemistry 1 and 2 classes.

We had an excellent class of chemistry and biochemistry graduates in 2016 and are looking

forward to hearing great things about their accomplishments in the nearest future. We also

hosted a number of recent and not-very-recent alumni speakers in our most active Fall 2016

seminar series, as well as learning about exciting summer 2016 research that our students did at

IC and other institutions. (Again, see more details about these events inside the Newsletter). All

in all, it was very busy year.

As always, we are looking forward to hearing from all of the IC Chemistry people, so please stay in touch! You

can contact us by email at [email protected], or email any of the faculty or staff.

- Anna Larsen,

Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, [email protected]

Dr. David Richens

Dr. Adam Steeves

Dr. Kristina Hugar

Dr. Chris Ptak

2016 • page 3

ERIKA G. BRAVO (’17) AWARDED THE DR. GLENN C. VOGEL AND

MARJORIE CHELLY CHEMISTRY EDUCATION FUND AWARD

The Glenn Vogel and Marjorie Chelly Chemistry Education Fund award is given to

a student that embodies Dr. Chelly’s tremendous work ethic and has achieved

excellence through extraordinary effort.

LAUREN J. HODKINSON (’18) AWARDED THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL

SOCIETY BOOK AWARD & ACS UNDERGRADUATE AWARD IN

ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

The American Chemical Society Book Award is given to the top student within a

given chemistry year sequence. The award supports the recipient’s academic

advancement by providing financial assistance for the cost of books related to their

degree studies. The ACS Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry is given to

the top student in Experimental Chemistry III.

BENJAMIN C. MORSE (’17) AWARDED THE RUSSELL DRAGO

CHEMISTRY AWARD

The Russell Drago Chemistry Award is given to rising seniors based on academic

achievement, laboratory skills, and greatest promise in the field of chemistry.

MARCUS LIEBENTHAL (’19) AWARDED THE ACS AMERICAN

CHEMICAL SOCIETY CORNELL LOCAL SECTION’S OUTSTANDING

FIRST-YEAR CHEMISTRY AWARD

The Cornell Section ACS Award recognizes the top student at the end of their first

year in Chemistry. This award is intended to help pay for books needed to further

the recipient’s studies in Chemistry or Biochemistry.

Chemistry & Biochemistry Student Scholarships & Awards

REBECCA DIFABIO (’16) AWARDED THE NM MORRIS FAMILY

FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP

The NM Morris Family Foundation Scholarship is given to a student majoring in

biochemistry, biology, chemistry, or physics based on academic excellence and

faculty nominations.

2016 • page 4

Chemistry & Biochemistry Student Scholarships & Awards

DALLAS FONSECA (’18) WAS AWARDED THE LARRY METZGER, M.S.

’87, MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP AWARD.

The Larry Metzger, M.S. ’87, Memorial Scholarship award was established by

Ithaca College in recognition of his many contributions and great dedication to the

College community for over 30 years. The award is given to an outstanding junior

or senior intending to pursue an advanced degree in science. Congratulations

Dallas!

Ithaca College Summer Research

Back Row: Greg Smith, Pierce Pfaff, Marcus Liebenthal, Mike Haaf, Anna Larsen, Noah Budin, Matthew Chiriboga, Omar A.

Chaarawi

Front Row: Molly DeTuri, Vincent DeTuri, Chan Hee Shin, Erika Bravo, Akiko Fillinger, Samantha Hilston, Jamie Ellis, Chun Li

2016 • page 5

External Summer Research Benjamin Morse ’17

Texas A& M

Was awarded NSF REU 2016 summer internship at Texas A&M Department of Chemistry, working in Professor Oleg Ozerov’s Laboratory on “Synthesis and Reactivity Studies of Rhodium Complexes Supported by the PNSi Pincer Ligand”

Joshua Speer ’17

Penn State University

Was awarded NSF REU 2016 summer internship at Penn State University, working on the project titled “Enhanced Diffusion of Water by an Endothermic Enzyme Studied by Diffusion NMR Spectroscopy”.

Kayla Plummer ’17

Utah State University

Was awarded REU internship at Utah State University Chemistry Department, working in the laboratory of Professor Lisa Berreau on the project titled “Controlled Carbon Monoxide Release by Novel Transition Metal Complexes”.

Benjamin Morse ’17 and Professor Janet Hunting

2016 • page 6

Alumni News

Left: 2012 IC Graduate Samantha Schrell (Cary)

at her wedding with fellow IC Grad Yuta Naro

(’12) where she marries Adrian Schrell (pictured

right) in North Carolina in October 2016.

Glenn Vogel , Michael Haaf (’94), Mark Hedglin (’05) and Mike Macauley (’05) at the Penn State football game. Three generation of chemists from IC!

Samantha Schrell (Cary) was awarded a prestigious Marie

Curie Distinguished Postdoc Fellowship in 2016!

Chemistry Division: Inorganic, Isotope, and Actinide Chemistry

(C-IIAC)

Education: Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry-Florida State

University; B.S. in Chemistry-Ithaca College.

Research: Samantha is currently working the area of actinide chemistry. Specifically

she is interested in exploring how to control covalency in actinide-ligand bonding.

Unraveling the nature of covalent bonding for actinides remains a computational and

experimental challenge. These efforts can directly impact actinide separations,

coordination chemistry, solid-state synthesis, and superconductivity.

Bio: Samantha Schrell (formally Samantha Cary) received her Ph.D. under the

guidance of Professor Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt. Her thesis focused on studying the

structure and bonding of late actinide systems. During this time Schrell developed

proficiency in handling large (mg scale) quantities of Np, Pu, Am, Cm, Bk, and Cf in

support of the coordination chemistry studies associated with her thesis. In 2015

she received the Innovations in Fuel Cycle Research Awards sponsored by the U.S.

Department of Energy for her work with californium. In 2016, she joined the lab as

an Agnew National Security Postdoctoral Fellow, before becoming a Marie Curie

Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow.

2016 • page 7

Class of 2016: Where Are They Now?

Siera Rosen

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Research

Technician in the Stem Cell

Core Facility at Memorial

Sloan Kettering Cancer

Center in New York, NY

Emily Sherman

Major: Chemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Ph.D. Program

in Chemical Biology at the

University of Michigan.

Adam Scott

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Technician at

Q2 Solutions

Andrew Schultze

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Obtaining NYS

Paramedic license

Alumni News

Kaylee Underkofler ’12

“After graduating from IC, I enrolled in the chemistry graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There, I studied the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and other valuable chemicals using ionic liquids. After earning my master’s degree in chemistry, I moved to Boston to study medicine at Tufts University. I am currently in my third year of the combined MD/MPH program at Tufts. In the next few months, I will begin the process of applying to residency programs in obstetrics and gynecology, and hope to pursue research in reproductive endocrinology and infertility. This past fall, I had the opportunity to return to IC and give a talk about life in graduate school in the sciences and life in medical school. It was wonderful to be back on campus, see how the department has grown, and be able to share what I’ve learned with the current students. I would like to say thank you again to the department for that opportunity, and the many other opportunities it has provided me over the years. Five years later, returning to IC still feels like going home!”

Auryana DeChick

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Lake Erie

College of Osteopathic

Medicine

Taylor Reeves

Major: Chemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Legal Assistant

at Silverman Law Group

2016 • page 8

Jaime Lisack

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Fulbright Biology

Researcher at Universität

Würzburg, Germany

Katrina Piemonte

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Attending M.D./

Ph.D. program at Case

Western Reserve University

School of Medicine

Megan Wirth

Majors: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Research

Assistant at Boston

Children's Hospital

Class of 2016: Where Are They Now?

Kaitlyn DeHority

Major: Chemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Attending medical

school at SUNY Upstate

Medical University

Henry Beaman

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Michaela Clouden

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Research

Assistant Cornell

University

Ian Prudhomme

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Gabrielle Cordaro

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Saba University

School of Medicine

Benjamin Grove

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: United States

Army

Benjamin Jung

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Cayuga Medical

Center Hospital

Lauren Ryan

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Ph.D. Program

in Evolutionary of Biology,

Maryland

Kathleen Luckett

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Technician at

Sloan Ketttering

Blaine Pattavina

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Attending joint

Master's program at

Dominican University of

California and Buck Institute

for Research on Aging.

George Clause

Major: Biochemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Vermont Law

School

Connor Shea

Major: Chemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Enjoying the West

Coast

Jameson Martin (above)

Major: Chemistry (B.S.)

Currently: Regeneron

Pharmaceuticals

2016 • page 9

News From Faculty Labs News from Anna Larsen’s Lab:

This year has been pretty eventful for our lab.

In Spring 2016 freshmen Melissa Raymond and Rain Talosig (pictured below) joined our lab and started working on

the low-melting ionic materials project. Now they have synthesized many new compounds and successfully solved

their own first X-ray structure, that has never been determined before, - using the data collected on the department X

-ray diffractometer (structure also shown on the inset).

In March 2016 two other members of our lab - Ben Morse (’17) and Megan Wirth (’16) traveled to the National

ACS meeting in San Diego and successfully presented their research posters in the CHED division. Megan’s

presentation also had a digital component from the teaching lab technique video clips they produced together with

Ben.

In August 2016 our paper on ruthenium complexes reactivity with alcohols came out in Polyhedron, a major peer

reviewed journal on Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry. The

paper is a part of the Special Issue on Undergraduate Research. Ben

Morse and Megan Wirth were a huge help with the final manuscript

preparation and revisions. The three undergraduate coauthors

featured in this publication are our past lab members: Jason Diaz -

currently a teaching/research postdoc in U Penn, Kallee Rich -

ophthalmology resident in NH, and Semeret Munie - currently

completing her Surgery MD residency in Detroit, MI.

In summer 2016 Ben Morse was a recipient of a competitive NSF

REU research internship in Texas A&M, where he worked in the

organometallic group of professor Oleg Ozerov. This joint project

concerns rhodium pincer complexes and is continuing in our lab –

now also involving the newest members of the lab - chemistry seniors

Josh Speer and Kayla Plummer.

Akiko Fillinger’s Lab

At the end of May 2016 Noah Budin (Chemistry ’18), who had been working on Cu2O

research project for nine months, did an oral presentation titled “Underpotential

Deposition of Nickel on Cu2O Films and Its Effects on Reactivity and Stability of Cu2O

Films” at the Electrochemical Society (ECS) National Meeting at San Diego, CA. This

was his very first science research presentation of any sort. Noah courageously played a

pinch-hitter role for Akiko, who was unable to attend due to other commitments, at the

meeting where the presence of undergraduates was extremely rare. He continued to

work on this project during the summer and presented it at the Ithaca College

Chemistry & Biochemistry Seminar. This time he looked quite relaxed. Currently,

Noah has been working on the last experiment, which examines whether an electron

donor in anode facilitates hydrogen generation at Cu2O photocathode and should be

included in our most recent publication on Cu2O. Noah Budin at the

Electrochemical Society

Melissa Raymond and Rain Talosig & Their X-ray

Structure

2016 • page 10

Angela Asala (Chemistry ’16) and Samantha Hilston (Biochemistry ’18),

who started to work on a new research project on Fe2O3 with Akiko in the

spring of 2016, continued to work as summer research students. Angela

and Sam presented their progress on the project at Ithaca College

Chemistry & Biochemistry seminar as a team. Angela responded to

questions very well, and Sam found herself a natural at the public science

talk. Angela has been continuously working on the Fe2O3 project as

Senior Research Experience requirement under the new curriculum. In

January 2016 Akiko gave an invited talk at University of Hyogo, Himeji,

Japan. This was her first science presentation in Japanese, and she found it

surprisingly difficult without knowing technical vocabulary in Japanese

because she learned them in the U.S. Nevertheless, the presentation was

very well received and she enjoyed a tour of the materials engineering

department afterward.

During the summer of 2016 Akiko participated in two workshops on

Computational Chemistry. The first one was NSF sponsored cCWCS

(Chemistry Collaborations, Workshops & Communities of Scholars) in

Atchison, KS. On the way to the workshop Akiko had a chance to

have a lunch with a former research student, Delbert Shoals

(Chemistry ’13) in Kansas City, KS. It was great to catch up with a

former student! The second one was MoleCVUE (Molecular

Computation and Visualization in Undergraduate Education) at

Bethlehem, PA. She is excited to incorporate computational chemistry

that she learned at the workshops in her teaching courses (although she

found it not for her research because she was tired of sitting in front of

a computer for many hours).

Updates from Vince DeTuri’s Lab

There have been a couple of big changes in the lab. The delicious smell of coffee brewing in the afternoon has been

relocated to another building and the computational lab is now super-sized. Projects have increased in size and

complexity such that farming calculations out to a supercomputer

was the only realistic way to make progress. Many of our recent

calculations were done using the supercomputing resources

through XSEDE, Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery

Environment, through grant support. The outside grant for

computational resources on a supercomputer was the catalyst to

bring supercomputing to Ithaca College. Marcus Liebenthal (’19)

was funded by a Dana grant during the summer of 2016 to continue

calculations on the acetylacetone-chloroform system. In between

analyzing data he built a 5 node 20 processor cluster. Based on

News From Faculty Labs

Samantha Hilston Imaging Electrodeposited

Fe203 Surface with a Scanning Electron

Microscope at the Cornell Center for Materials

Research

Angela Asala Preparing for Experiments in

Our Lab

2016 • page 11

positive results we built a second cluster with 8 nodes and 32 processors. While not quite a supercomputer we have

seen big gains in throughput.

A big congratulations to Marcus who presented his research at the 15th Annual MERCURY Conference on

Undergraduate Computational Chemistry in July 2016 and a big congratulations to Taylor Reeves who graduated in

May. The lab space is being shared with Greg Smith who is currently in the second year of a teaching postdoc

position and Heinz still comes in every other Wednesday and shares stories. I’m still free of wooden nickels.

Michael Haaf’s Lab

It was a busy summer in the Haaf lab! Omar Charaawi (’17)

started work on a brand new project synthesizing a relative

new class of materials: polymers of intrinsic microporosity

(PIMs). We are trying to make a new version of a PIM that

has photoisomerable azo functional groups in the backbone.

This new “twist” (pun intended!) would allow one to control

the pore size of the polymer with light, which could be very

interesting. Omar has made excellent progress so far – we

have this novel PIM in hand, and now have a lot of

experiments to do in order to characterize its properties. It

also has the added bonus of being an intensely yellow color.

Erika Bravo (’17) spent the summer working on a project inspired by exciting new results from Professor Will

Dichtel’s (Northwestern University) research lab. [Fun fact: two recent Ithaca College graduates, Rachel Snyder (’16)

and Max Klemes (’16), are now graduate students in this lab!!] Erika synthesized a network polymer of cyclodextrin

subunits interconnected by rigid linkers, creating a porous material shown by the Dichtel lab to be exceptionally

effective at removing organic micropollutants from water. Erika explored the use of this material in a teaching lab

setting, and designed experiments to demonstrate important concepts in chemistry such as intermolecular forces,

organic synthesis, and the use of UV/Vis spectroscopy and Beer’s law to determine concentrations of pollutants. We

hope to use these experiments in our teaching labs down the road.

Work on each of these projects is continuing, and results from both will be presented at the ACS meeting in San

Francisco next year. Thanks for a fun and productive summer Omar and Erika!!

Gregory Smith’s Lab

This past summer was a busy and exciting time for our lab, as I had my first summer research student, Chan Hee Shin

’17, who did great work investigating a bacterial enzyme found in Mycobacterium tuberculosis using molecular

dynamics simulations. Chan Hee capped off the summer by presenting a poster at the 2016 Mercury Conference on

her work, and she is continuing her work this fall.

I’ve also picked up a new research student, Khalil Castillo-Aponte ’17, who is working on quantum calculations of an

enzyme active site to try to understand details of the catalytic mechanism. Getting a model small enough to calculate,

but large enough to be representative of the enzyme, is definitely an art, but we are slowly iterating and getting a good

base model to explore reaction paths. Teaching thermodynamics and kinetics for the second time has been a great, as I

News From Faculty Labs

2016 • page 12

get to correct all my rookie mistakes from last year, and hopefully

not make too many new ones! Students are working hard to

understand both the equations and math, as well as making

connections to the concepts.

I’m also developing and teaching a full semester computational

chemistry course this fall. The first half is based on classical

simulation methods and we’re just now starting the second half

based on quantum mechanics. Some interesting student projects

from the first half, so I can’t wait to see the second half!

Janet Hunting’s Lab

This past year was another good one in the Hunting research lab.

Kito Gilbert-Bass (Chem. ’19), joined Connor Shea (Chem./

Physics ’16), Jameson Martin (Chem. ’16), Joshua Speer (Chem.

’17), and Kayla Plummer (Chem. ’17) in our lab. In a short time, Kito became very adept at working with our single-

crystal X-ray diffractomer – no small feat!

Kayla worked with characterizing the

electrical and magnetic properties of

lanthanum-based perovskites. She presented

her research at the April 2016 NCUR meeting

in Asheville, NC; her poster was entitled:

Towards cheaper and more efficient

perovskite compounds: lanthanum “A” sites

with alternating dopants.

Jameson researched transition metal oxide/

nitride syntheses, mixing two metal oxide

powders to make a ternary metal oxide, then

reacting these oxides under flowing ammonia to produce new nitrides and oxynitrides. In March 2016, Jameson

presented his research poster at the 251st ACS National meeting in San Diego, CA, entitled Ternary Transition Metal

Nitrides through Ammonolysis: Synthesis and Characterization.

Josh worked on an independent project comparing two different synthetic methods: the glycine-nitrate process (metal

nitrates and glycine react exothermically to produce the high temperatures necessary for the reaction), and the co-

precipitation method (uses a strong base instead of a high temperature to form the desired product). He presented his

research at the ACS National meeting in San Diego in an excellent presentation: Comparative Synthesis between the

Glycine-Nitrate Process and Facile Co-precipitation of Lanthanum- and Cerium-based Perovskites.

Connor continued his independently designed research studying a new class of photovoltaic materials with great

potential in the realm of solar energy conversion. The foundational material, methylammonium lead iodide, is a hybrid

organic-inorganic material adopting the versatile perovskite crystal structure. Connor presented his research at the

NCUR meeting and produced an outstanding honor’s thesis: The Effects of Cation Substitution on Moisture Stability

in Methylammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Photovoltaics.

News From Faculty Labs

Josh Speer (left) and Jameson Martin (right) presenting their research the

ACS national meeting in San Diego, California

Chan Hee Shin (Biochemistry 2017) Presents her

Research at the 2016 Mercury Conference

2016 • page 13

News From Faculty Labs Jamie Ellis’s Lab

Research in the Ellis lab continues to expand. Our work explores structure-function relationships in a family of

transcription factors regulating growth and development in plants. Each project in the lab takes on separate domains

within larger protein to define the behavior of each distinct part. Adam Scott (Biochemistry ’16) and Omar Chaawari

(Chemistry ’17) continued their work in the lab joined by Katrina Piemonte (Biochemistry ’16) for the year. Adam

successfully developed protocols for fluorescence characterization of intrinsically disordered proteins. After

graduation, he has excitedly started work at Q2 solutions where he will prepare preclinical/clinical trial samples.

Omar continued with the protein:protein

interaction domains joined by Katrina to

resolve changes in structure and motion of the

proteins in isolation versus in pairs by our first

NMR trials. Katrina successfully defended her

thesis before graduation; she is now working

toward a PhD/MD at Case Western University.

Matt Chiriboga (Bioc ’17) joined the lab in the

summer; his research focuses on

troubleshooting a difficult protein expression

and purification as well as labeling of proteins

with fluorophores for further analysis that he

continues through in this academic year. Our

work in fluorescence will be greatly expanded

with a new fluorimeter that arrived just at the

end of the summer. We will now be able to

explore biochemical events occurring on a

rapid nanosecond timescale.

Lots of the lab members made it to national

meetings this year. Adam and Katrina presented posters at the 251st American Chemical Society National Meeting in

March 2016 while Omar presented at the NCUR meeting in April 2016. I spoke at a special symposium “Synthetic

Biology and Genetically Modified Organisms” in a session focused on Policy Challenges & Opportunities at the

252nd American Chemical Society National Meeting. The session explored both advancements and public debates in

the field GMOs. I joined to discuss the strategies used in the textbook Chemistry in Context for a nonSTEM-targeted

discussion of biochemistry and genetic engineering.

We are looking forward to more transcription factor excitement as Matt will be joined in the lab by four new

research students. Allan Bowen (Biochemistry ’17) is generating a larger library of intrinsically disordered proteins

to explore with Adam’s protocols. Margaret Carroll (Biology ’18) will compare and contrast the DNA binding

domains of a transcription activator and repressor. Shelby Johnston (Biochemistry ’19) and Jeffrey Taylor

(Biochemistry ’19) will join Matt in exploring the protein:protein interaction domains.

Omar, Adam, and Katrina making Ukrainian eggs in Fall 2015.

2016 • page 14

The Class of 2017 ~ Good Luck!

Kristen Keene Biochemistry

Justin Bird Biochemistry

Erika Bravo Biochemistry

Matthew C. Bixby Chemistry

Khalil Castillo-Aponte Chemistry

Omar Chaarawi Chemistry

Matthew Chiriboga Biochemistry

Matthew Finegan Biochemistry

Allan Bowen Biochemistry

2016 • page 15

The Class of 2017 ~ Good Luck!

Philip Monka Biochemistry

Adriana M. Morales Biochemistry

Ryan Murtagh Chemistry

Kayla J. Plummer Chemistry

Chan Hee Shin Biochemistry

Joshua M. Speer Chemistry

2016 • page 16

From left to right:

Kito Gilbert-Bass, Adam Steeves, Eva Chebishev, Anthony DiBernardo, Claire Levitt, Rain Talosig, Ari

Libenson, Kaitlyn DeHority, Ben Morse, Joshua Speer, Jamie Ellis, Megan Wirth

Chemistry Club 2016 Trip to the Corning Museum of Glass