–

Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry

Fusce mollis tempus felis.

Contents

2014-2015 Lucy Pickett lecture

Page 2

Professor Browne to retire in 2015 In recognition of Professor Mary Campbell

Page 3

Welcome to MHC, Dr. Katie Berry Chemistry Faculty members received awards and funding

Issue 3|Spring 2015

Page 8

Activities abound

Page 5

2014-15 Awards Luncheon

Page 6

Annual Chemistry Department Luncheon

Award Ceremony in

recognition of students’ academic rigor and

excellence

+

Page 7

Congratulations to class of 2015! Stay in touch with Chemistry Department

Page 4

Recent publications and presentations New courses

Chemistry faculty members received awards for excellence in teaching and research

Professor Polly Arnold of the University of

Edinburg visits Mount Holyoke

College as 2014-2015 Lucy Pickett

lecturer

2 News

Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry Issue 3|Spring 2015

Dr. Arnold as 2014-2015 Lucy Pickett Lecturer

1

The MHC Chemistry Department was honored to present Professor Polly Arnold – Crum Brown Chair of Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Edinburg as the 2014-2015 Lucy Pickett lecturer. Her talk titled “Some chemistry with U: In search of interesting reactions at the bottom of the table” took place on March 26, 2015. Professor Arnold received her undergraduate degree from University of Oxford in 1994 and doctoral degree from Sussex in 1997. In 1997 she received Fulbright Scholarship for postdoctoral research at MIT.

The Arnold Group studies d- and f-block organometallic chemistry and small molecule

2

activation chemistry. Dr. Arnold is the recipient of various awards, including the Bessel Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Chancellor’s Prize of the University of Edinburg and the Sir Edward Frankland Prize Lectureship from the UK Royal Society of Chemistry.

Dr. Arnold describes herself on her twitter profile as “putting the F in chemistry; making f-block molecules; shouting about feminism; swearing too much. Proud maker of A Chemical Imbalance”. 'A Chemical Imbalance' is a film and book by Dr. Arnold that celebrates women in science, and explores the issues that contribute to their continuing under-representation. The

The History of the Lucy Pickett Lecture

1

The Lucy Pickett lectureship was established in honor of distinguished Mount Holyoke College Chemistry professor Lucy Pickett in1968 after her retirement. Lucy Pickett was a Massachusetts native and a 1925 graduate of Mount Holyoke College. She earned a Doctorate from the University of Illinois and taught there and then at Goucher College before returning to Mount Holyoke as a faculty member in 1930. Her

2

research in X-ray crystallography and ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy of organic molecules received numerous honors including American Chemical Society’s Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal.

The Lucy Pickett lectureship now acknowledges outstanding women scientists and brings distinguished speakers to the college to inspire young women in chemistry.

3

website http://www.chemicalimbalance.co.uk contains the film and the book, and a call to action to make the simple changes to our workplaces that will enable the best and most diverse population to produce the best science.

3 News

Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry Issue 3|Spring 2015

Professor Sheila E. Browne to retire in 2015

1

June 30, 2015 marks the retirement of Professor Sheila Ewing Browne as Bertha Phillips Rodger Professor of Chemistry. In her 39 years at MHC, Prof. Brown has been a phenomenal mentor, who has advised more than 80 students during their independent research projects. Professor Browne received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 1998 and the Compact for Faculty Diversity’s Faculty Mentor of the Year Award in 2001. In 2005, she received the American Association for

2

the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Award for Lifetime Achievement – an honor to her significant mentoring of students from underrepresented groups and leadership in promoting doctoral careers for underrepresented groups, primarily women, in chemistry. With recognition of her substantial contribution to Mount Holyoke College in particular and in mentoring women in science in general, the college expresses profound gratitude and wishes Professor Browne a happy and fulfilling retirement.

In recognition of Professor Mary K. Campbell

1

It is with deep regrets that we learned of the passing of Professor Mary K. Campbell. Professor Campbell passed away on May 21, 2014. For 36 years, she taught courses in almost all the subfields of Chemistry at Mount Holyoke College, where she held the title of Virginia Apgar Class of 1929 Professor of Chemistry. She is the co-author, with Shawn O. Farrell from Colorado State University of a text book, “Biochemistry”, now in its eighth edition.

2

The textbook, which has become a standard in the field, has been translated into a number of languages. Professor Campbell was also part of the writing team that periodically updated General, Organic and Biochemistry – the textbook launched by Fred Bettelheim and widely used by students.

Professor Campbell retired from Mount Holyoke College in 2004.

4 News

Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry Issue 3|Spring 2015

1

Dr. Berry will be joining the Chemistry Department in Fall 2016. Dr. Berry received her undergraduate degree from

3

at Harvard Medical School in the lab of Dr. Ann Hochschild in the department of Microbiology and Immunobiology. Her research focuses on the mechanism of transcription regulation, RNA folding and non-coding RNA function in E.coli. Dr. Berry will be teaching BIOCHEM-311 in the Fall 2016 and BIOCHEM-314 in the Spring 2017.

2

Swarthmore College and her doctorate from University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Berry is an NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow

Welcome to Mount Holyoke

College

Dr. Katie Berry

Professor Maria Gomez (fourth from left - top photo) was honored with the 2015 Meribeth E. Cameron Faculty Award for Scholarship in recognition of her contributions to research at Mount Holyoke College. Her lab focuses on reducing petroleum dependency by improving conduction and maximizing efficiency of fuel cells. The ceremony took place on March 3, 2015 at Willits-Hallowell Conference Center. (Link to full article: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/media/faculty-recognized-research-teaching)

Professor Kyle Broaders (lower photo) received the first ever Fund the Future Research Endowment, which provides $150,000 to pre-tenured MHC faculty over the course of 3 years to fund his research. Professor Broaders’ lab uses chemical tools in order to prepare precisely controlled substrates for living cells.

CHEMISTRY FACULTY MEMBERS RECOGNIZED FOR THEIR TEACHING AND RESEARCH

5 News

Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry Issue 3|Spring 2015

Schramma, K.R., Bushin, L.B., & Seyedsayamdost, M.R. 2015. Structure and biosynthesis of a macrocyclic peptide containing an unprecedented lysine-to-tryptophan crosslink. Nature chemistry, 7, 431-437.

Macdonald, B., McCarley, S., Noeen, S., & van Giessen, A. E. 2015. Protein- Protein interactions affect alpha helix stability in crowded environments. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 119(7), 2956-2967.

Shamsuddin, R., Doktorova, M., Jaswal, S., Lee-St John, A., & McMenimen, K. 2014. Computational prediction of hinge axes in proteins. BMC Bioinformatics, 15.

Rachel A Krueger, Frederick G Haibach, Dana L Fry, and Maria A Gomez. 2015. Centrality measures highlight proton traps and access points to proton highways in kinetic Monte Carlo Trajectories. J. Chem.

Recent publications, presentations

Bhanushee and Akchheta presenting at ACS Undergraduate research

conference

CHEM 226 Poisons: Death by Chemistry by Alan Van Giessen This course discusses the classification of poisons; the physiologic effect of toxins on different systems of the body; dosage effects and pharmacokinetics; antidotes mechanisms and analytical techniques used in toxicology.

A.E. Cerchiari, J.C. Garbe, N.Y. Jee, M.E. Todhunter, K.E. Broaders, D.M. Peehl, T.A. Desai, M.A. LaBarge, M. Thomson, Z.J. Gartner. 2015. A strategy for tissue self-organization that is robust to cellular heterogeneity and plasticity.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (112)2287-2292. Nguyen, L.; Hang, M.; Wang, W.; Tian, Y.; Wang, L.; McCarthy, T. J.; Chen, W. 2014. Simple and improved approaches to long-lasting, hydrophilic silicones derived from commercially available precursors. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. 6:22876−22883. Kuboki, T.; Chen, W.; Kidoaki, S.2014. "Time-dependent migratory behaviors in the long-term studies of fibroblast durotaxis on a hydrogel substrate fabricated with a soft band" Langmuir. 30, 6187. Zhang, L.; Nguyen, Y.; Chen, W.2014. 'Coffee Ring' Formation Dynamics on Molecularly Smooth Substrates with Varying Receding Contact Angles. Colloid Surface A. 449C, 42.

New Chemistry courses CHEM 212 Chemistry of Biomolecules by Kathryn McMenimen Chem 212 offers non-Biochemistry majors an introduction to biochemical molecules, concepts, and systems. Students study proteins, nucleic acids, and their structure, as well as metabolic pathways. In the laboratory, students express and purify a molecular chaperone protein and analyze its function. CHEM 224: Art Analysis Lab by Himali Jayathilake This half-semester course introduces concepts of analytical chemistry under the theme of "Chemistry in Art". Experimental techniques -- such as gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, X-ray fluorescence, UV visible spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy -- are incorporated for the analysis of paintings and art objects.

Dr. Himali Jayathilake (left) is removing a microsample from a painting for Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis. MHC Art Museum curator Wendy Watson (right) is making suggestions on sampling locations.

6 News

Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry Issue 3|Spring 2015

2014 Mole Day celebration

Chem/Biochem Social The Chemistry Department presented a new activity for students this Spring:

The Chem/Biochem Social - where majors and prospective majors meet and have discussions on various topics related to Chem/Biochem including courses, internships and on-campus activities with our faculty and staff.

Collaboration between the Chem/Biochem Club and the

Biology Club

The Chemistry and Biochemistry Club encourages students to nurture and share their appreciation of these subjects through casual presentations and group discussions. Additionally, the club organizes events featuring fun activities with educational value to generate interest in these fields within the general student population. With support and guidance from the chemistry department, they hope to promote cooperative learning outside the classroom.

Mole Day Celebration 2014 marked the collaboration between the Chem/Biochem Club and the MHC Biology Club. Various activities including pipetting competition, Who is the Molelionnaire and cupcake decoration received the excitement from a body of not only science students but also those from other disciplines of social sciences and humanities. The event took place at Kendade Atrium on Thursday, October 23 with this year’s Mole Day theme “Mole-O’Ween”.

7 News

Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry Issue 3|Spring 2015

2

LOUISA STONE STEVENSON PRIZES (for Juniors)

Awarded annually to students in their Junior year for excellence in chemistry, as determined by Grade Point Average and/or class rank.

Brown E., Dietrich E., Eshun A.,

Feng V., Bui P., Capi A.,

Crocker S., Dang H., Long J.,

Norris K., O’Leary E., Park E.,

Shi X., Xu S.

CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT

TEACHING ASSISTANT AWARD

Bryanne MacDonald

Shuying Linda Xu

For Sophomores

ALBERT WALTER AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

Awarded annually to an outstanding scholar in organic chemistry.

Jie Venky Feng

For First-year students

ALBERT WALTER AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN GENERAL CHEMISTRY

Awarded annually to an outstanding scholar in first year chemistry.

Kathleen Smith

Muhammadaha Areeb Shaukat Kichi

TAYLOR FRANCIS CRC AWARD: Caley Butler

2014-2015 Awards

1

RACHEL BROWN AWARD (for a Senior) Awarded annually to the outstanding chemistry or biochemistry major.

Ye Tian

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY AWARD—CONNECTICUT VALLEY SECTION

Two awards, annually, one each to an outstanding chemistry major and biochemistry major.

Bryanne MacDonald

Cindy Yao

EDNA H. GRAHAM PRIZE

Awarded at the department’s discretion, to a chemistry major and a biochemistry major who give promise of continued professional activity in their discipline.

Elizabeth Laudadio

Ana Capi

ACS UNDERGRADUATE AWARD IN ANALYTICAL & INORGANIC CHEMISTRY

Awarded annually for demonstrated aptitude in analytical and inorganic chemistry.

Jie Venky Feng – Analytical

Gillian Kwan - Inorganic

For someone dear to our hearts:

CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT BOOK AWARD

Awarded at the Department’s discretion in recognition of outstanding contributions to the life and work of the department.

Hannah Arbach

C.

8 News

Send your news or stories to Himali Jayathilake

(hjayathi@mtholyoke.edu)

Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry

Issue 3| Spring 2015

Class of 2015 Graduates Akchheta Karki – University of California, Santa Barbara

Arda Kotikian – Harvard University

Elizabeth Laudadio – University of Wisconsin-Madison

Gladys Saruchera – Continuing with chemical engineering degree at University of Massachusetts

Bhanushee Sharma – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Barsha Shrestha –

Tarnuma Tabassum – University of California, Santa Barbara

Ye Tian – Pennsylvania State College of Medicine

Cindy Yao – University of Michigan

Stay in touch with the Chemistry Department

Congratulations to Chemistry graduates and those who will continue their academic career in graduate school.

Chemistry department website puts on a new

appearance Check out the new features on the

new department website here

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/chemistry/

MHC Chemistry

Alumnae is now on

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Mount-

Holyoke-College-Chemistry-Alumnae-

4998186