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DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
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PERMIT NO. 2535
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news items to Karen Klein at [email protected] or to:
Ms. Karen Klein, Campus Box 1134, One Brookings Drive, St.
Louis, MO 63130.
Washington University Department of Chemistry
Chemistry Periodical
2011, ISSUE 2
Fall 2011
Catalysts for Change:
Gaining Momentum for Women in STEM Fields
Inside this issue:
CHEMISTRY! (Louderman Hall) (credit: Alyssa Hoog, Jack of Hearts Photography)
Welcome Back to WUCHEM, Prof. Gary Patti (continued from page 5)
biological system. Patti looks forward to developing new technologies to go after unmet challenges in the clinic. “I
hope to do something in the lab that won’t only affect theory, but will affect patients.” With the wealth of samples
available at WU Med School and Barnes Hospital, he will have opportunity to study a variety of interests.
Patti is also looking forward to his teaching responsibilities. He will be teaching Biochemistry, “It’s a very interesting
time to teach biochemistry. For the last couple of decades metabolism has been largely overshadowed by excitement
in molecular biology. It seems that now there has been a resurgence of interest in metabolism and new discoveries
are shaping our vision of modern-day biology and medicine.”
Regarding a career in academics, Patti offers advice for aspiring professors: “There are lots of challenges involved – it
can be daunting but if you’re really excited about research they aren’t insurmountable barriers.” The opportunity to
create your own research program and to go wherever your results take you is exciting. Academics are allowed a high
degree of intellectual freedom which is necessary to solve important problems in an interdisciplinary way.
Another reason Patti is excited to return to the Chemistry Department at Washington University?
The annual (now defunct) Faculty-Student softball game at the summer Departmental picnic. “In
my first year of grad school, the Faculty destroyed the grad students. So, we got very serious, and
started having organized practices. In my 2nd year, the game was really close and went into extra
innings, but we were unable to edge the Faculty by a single run on what proved to be a controversial
play.” His grad student team formed an intramural softball team and called it the Adiabats – the Tshirt had an adiabatic curve with baseball bats as the axes and baseballs as the data points.
Sounds like Patti is ready to end the controversy once and for all…… re-match, anyone?
Adiabats Team Uniform
Harnessing the Sun’s Power (continued from page 8)
Oxidation reactions are of significant interest in organic chemistry
because they introduce functionality
into molecules. “Molecules interact
with each other through combination of atoms known as functional
groups,”
Moeller
explains.
“Ketones, alcohols, or amines are all
functional groups. The more functional groups you have on a molecule, the more you can control how
the molecule interacts with others.”1 Members of the Moeller lab
have shown that many types of oxidation reactions can be controlled
using this experimental set-up: recycling of cerium (IV) oxidants used
for amide oxidation, the oxidation of
an enol ether to form a C-glycoside
analog, the oxidation of a vinylsulfide to generate a pyrrolidine
derivative, among others. These
reactions are particularly elegant
because the oxidation potential can
be finely tuned to allow for selective
oxidation to be achieved in complex
molecules.
source
to
drive
industriallyimportant chemical reactions have
caught the eye of the public. The
Moeller group’s publication has
been highlighted in Chemical and
Engineering News, Science Daily,
Physics News, and other scientific
news sources. The Moeller group
plans to continue research in this
arena, investigating ways to apply
this technology to recycling of chemical oxidants.
“Solar electrochemical” reactions
which use the sun as an energy
1
Science Daily, www.sciencedaily.com/
releases/2011/06/110609123340
Fulbright Scholar Kimberly
Hartstein
2
Symposium to Honor
Prof. Weissman
3
A Career of Insight and
Innovation at DuPont
3
News Around the
Chemistry Department
4
Welcome Back to WU,
Prof. Gary Patti!
5
Alumni Spotlight - John
Glennon, Ph.D.
6
Midwest-Great Lakes
Regional ACS Meeting
7
Investigating Glyphosate
Resistance in Plants
8
Harnessing the Sun’s
Power for Oxidations
8
2011 Kennedy Lecurer Prof. Mougi Bawendi
9
Dr. Steven Kinsley
Honored by Student
9
Chemistry Department
Staff News
10
Chemistry Department
Renovations
11
Prof. Rich Loomis beating
graduate student Jen Bartels in
the washers tournament at the
department picnic in June
In Spring 2011, faculty,
postdocs, and graduate
students from the Chemistry Department worked
with collaborators in
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies to develop
and launch Catalysts for
Change: Gaining Momentum for Women in STEM
Fields.
Women in Science Focus
Program.
This program brought
female
ninth-graders
from the St. Louis area to
Washington University’s
campus for a series of day
-long Saturday workshops. Each workshop
focused on a separate area in STEM: Biology/
Biotechnology, Physical
Sciences, or Engineering.
Workshops included activities the students completed in small groups,
facilitated by a female
undergraduate from the
Through a threetiered mentoring
program,
graduate, undergraduate,
and high- Graduate student Hannah Malcolm instructing stuschool
students dents participating in the workshop.
gained leadership
soc. Dir. of Women, Genskills, self-confidence, and
der, and Sexuality Studknowledge of how to sucies) headed up the WU
ceed in STEM fields.
Organizing Team, with
the help of two underGina Frey (Professor of
graduate team leaders
the Practice in Chemistry
from the Women in Sciand Director of The
ence Focus Program,
Teaching Center) and
(continued on page 6)
Barbara
Baumgartner
The participants
also learned about
different paths to
careers in STEM
fields by hearing
presentations from
local female STEM
professionals.
Chair’s Corner
The
Department of
Chemistry
is welcoming
new
faces
and
new spaces. I am pleased
to introduce two new faculty members, Professors
Gary
Patti
(metabolomics) and Jay
Ponder (computational
chemistry), who joined
the Department last summer. We also welcomed
(Senior Lecturer and As-
several new staff members,
Dr.
Megan
Daschbach (Lecturer),
Mr.
Michael
Miller
(Faculty Assistant), Ms.
Cassandra
Parker
(Course Secretary), and
Mr.
James
Smith
(Faculty Assistant). The
Department is also engaged in two faculty
searches, in biological,
physical, and organic
chemistry, broadly defined. Numerous renova-
tions of Department facilities are underway or just
completed, in lecture,
research, and administrative spaces, to accommodate new and existing
activities. This newsletter highlights the many
changes now occurring.
Finally, I note with sadness the passing of Ms.
Maria Littrell, who was
a faithful member of the
Department for seventeen
years.
PAGE 2
2011, ISSUE 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
Kimberly Hartstein — Fulbright Scholar
While other recent WUCHEM gradProgram from her research advisor,
uates were beginning their medical
Prof. Sophia Hayes. Kimberly is
school classes or brushing up on
spending this year in Münster, Gertheir chemistry for their placement
many to work with Sophia’s graduexams in graduate school, Kimberate advisor, Prof. Hellmut Eckert at
ly Hartstein (WU A.B., 2011) was
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität
taking an intensive German lanMünster.
guage course and starting indeTo complete the applicapendent research in
tion process, first KimberGermany. Kimberly, a
ly spoke with Prof. Eckert
winner of a Fulbright
to develop a research
U.S. Student Program
plan.
She wrote a
scholarship in Chemis“Statement
of Grant Purtry,
has
traveled
pose”,
a
description
of her
abroad for the 2011proposed research project
2012 academic year to
in Prof. Eckert’s laboratoperform research in a
ry – a world leader in solGerman
University.
id state nuclear magnetic
She is one of over 1,600
Kimberly at work in the Hayes Lab.
resonance (NMR) specU.S. citizens involved (credit: Alyssa Hoog, Jack of Hearts
troscopy.
in the program.
Photography)
The Fulbright Program is an international exchange program sponsored by the government of the U.S.
designed to improve mutual understanding between U.S. citizens and
people of other countries. Participants are selected based on their
academic and research achievements and their aptitude for leadership. This program has produced
several winners of prestigious
awards such as the Nobel Prize and
the Pulitzer Prize; former Fulbright
Scholars have achieved distinction
in the government, arts, business,
education, and philanthropy.
Kimberly is excited to be living in
Münster, “the bicycle capital of Germany” where more bicycles are used
in traffic than vehicles. She has
never been to Europe, and is looking forward to traveling in Europe
this year. She is excited to embrace
the German culture, to bike extensively, and enjoy German food.
Kimberly speaks glowingly of her
time at Washington University.
She feels fortunate to have had the
opportunity to get to know several
of the faculty members – although
many of them seemed intimidating
at first, she found that “the faculty
is so supportive in class and in mentoring.” Furthermore, she described
the Department as a friendly place,
where everyone is very welcoming
and where she received invaluable
guidance both during and after her
undergraduate studies.
Kimberly’s
solid-state
NMR research in Germany will
have two main areas of interest.
She will be studying amorphous
When Kimberly finishes her year in
glasses, synthesized from solutionGermany, she will return to the
gel phase, with potential functionalU.S. to begin her graduate studies
ity in optical applications.
The
in inorganic materials at the Uniglasses that Kimberly will be workversity of Washington in Seattle.
ing with in the Eckert lab are yttriTo learn more about
um
aluminobothe Fulbright Prorates doped with
gram or the U.S. DeKimberly is one of over 1,600
rare-earth
elepartment of State’s
ments.
These
U.S. citizens involved in the
Bureau of Educational
types of glasses
and Cultural Affairs,
program
for
the
2011-2012
may be used in
please visit: http://
lasers.
academic year.
fulbright.state.gov
Kimberly learned of the Fulbright
Are you LinkedIn with Wash U Chemistry?
Present and Past Members of the
Department are welcomed to join
the Washington University Department of Chemistry Group on
LinkedIn.
Use this group to get in touch with
your colleagues, network for jobs,
and discuss your current research.
We look forward to seeing you in
our LinkedIn group soon!
Search for Washington University
Department of Chemistry on
www.LinkedIn.com and request to
join the group.
2011, ISSUE 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
Chemistry Department Renovations
A series of renovations in the Chemistry Department have been undertaken in 2011. Soon after classes
ended in May, the Louderman 458
lecture hall was gutted and rehabbed. New walls, carpet, window
coverings, lighting, seats, and A/V
equipment were installed. The seats
for the lecture hall
were installed just
days before classes
began
in
Fall
2011.
The new
lecture hall has
slightly
fe wer
seats but is a
much more inviting place to attend
a Chemistry lecture!
lights have lower energy consumption, a longer lifetime, a smaller
size, and greater durability and reliability than incandescent bulbs.
LEDs consist of a chip of semiconducting material doped with impurities to create a p-n junction; when
an electron meets a hole, it falls into
a lower energy
level and releases
energy in the form
of a photon.
We will soon see
some more changes
around
the
Chemistry Department. This Fall,
renovations to the
Chemistry
Administrative OfIn keeping with Soon this messy old lab space will be renovated as a fice are planned to
the
University’s computational chemistry lab for Prof. Jay Ponder! make the office
(credit, Gary Broyles, WUSTL)
commitment
to
more inviting to
sustainability, the
new students and
lighting was replaced with light
visiting faculty, as well as more
emitting diode (LED) lights. These
functional for our staff. The Hayes
News Around the
Chemistry Department
(continued from page 4)
Sobotka/Charity
News
A Career of Insight and
Innovation at DuPont
(continued from page 3)
Group
Dr. Robert Charity recently was
named a Fellow of the American
Physical Society. Election to APS
Fellowship is recognition by his
peers of his outstanding contributions to physics. Dr. Charity also
became a U.S. citizen in September.
Prof. Lee Sobotka spoke about the
nucle ar disaste r in Ja pa n,
“Fukushima: The Science and
Health Effects of the Nuclear Disaster in Japan,” at the WU Assembly
Series and at the St. Louis Science
Center.
http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2011/sep/centersustainable-materials-chemistry-earns-phase-ii-20million-funding
1
Louderman Hall (credit: Alyssa Hoog, Jack
of Hearts Photography)
PAGE 11
luggage and in other applications,
the first successful use of plastics in
hot water heaters, and some of the
technology and materials used for
military cruise missiles. He traveled worldwide, developing and
marketing products for DuPont. He
produced/wrote 30+ patents and
papers, numerous brochures, and
lots of pamphlets. “When you are in
the Corporate World as I was, you
don’t write for the Journal of the
American Chemical Society.
Instead you write for marketing journals, create brochures, and pen
pamphlets.”
Solenberger’s praise for his Washington University education and
Professor Wahl is almost endless.
He concluded his letter to the Department with the following: “In
conclusion, I can’t imagine where I
would have been without the Wash-
Lab renovation is also scheduled to
begin soon. The McMillen 205 suite
will host Hayes’ graduate student
offices, a laser table, and two new
NMRs for solid state NMR measurements of inorganic materials.
The additions of two new faculty
members, Jay Ponder and Gary
Patti, require even more renovations to lab space. The Ponder labs
and offices will be housed in the 4th
floor of Louderman (Louderman 453
and 455) in the former Taylor lab
space. The Ponder computational
chemistry lab will consist of student
offices and computer spaces. The
Patti labs and offices will be in
McMillen 207 and 208. The installation of several mass spectrometers
and other specialized instrumentation for metabolomics will require
special facilities and utilities. We
look forward to the completion of
these renovations in 6 – 12 months!
ington University Chemistry Department and especially Professor
Wahl. The basic foundation provided me in St. Louis is something I
was able to build on and develop to
the betterment of our World. I do
hope you can agree.”
We agree, and we thank you for
your contributions to electrical and
automotive safety and modern living!
Solenberger won an award for helping develop plastics
for use in microwave ovens.
PAGE 10
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
2011, ISSUE 2
Dr. Megan Dashbach has joined
the education staff
as a Lecturer and
the Director of the
Chemistry
PeerLed-TeamLearning (PLTL)
program. Megan is
not completely new
to WUCHEM; she
matriculated as a graduate student
here in 2005. She worked in the lab
of Prof. Gokel, who moved his lab
to the University of Missouri – St.
Louis in 2006. She graduated with
her Ph.D. from WU in 2010, and
continued to work in Prof. Gokel’s
lab at UMSL as a postdoc. She was
hired as a Chemistry Lecturer and
re-joined our Department in August
of 2011. Megan had only a bit of
time to get settled before jumping
into teaching the 900 students taking Chem 111A this Fall. When she
finally gets a break from her hefty
teaching responsibilities and manages to leave her office and the
classroom, we look forward to enjoying her as a new member of the Department!
Ms. Cassandra Parker also joined
the
education
staff
as
the
Course Secretary
for
the
Chem
111A/112A, Chem
151/152,
and
Chem
261/262
course sequences.
Cassandra has worked in WU’s
School of Engineering and Applied
Science – Sever Institute for over 25
years, and has great experience in
the function and culture of Washington University. She stepped into
a role with myriad varied responsibilities, and she has demonstrated
her high level of professionalism in
learning and completing her new
tasks. We are delighted to welcome
her to the Department!
Mr. Michael Miller joined the education staff as a Faculty Assistant
for Chem 151/152. Michael earned
a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.S. in
Secondary Education from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville where
he gained experience supervising undergraduate
chemistry laboratories.
He has
eleven years of experience teaching
chemistry at the secondary school
level in the Missouri, Illinois, and
Wisconsin public school systems.
His primary responsibilities at WU
include supervision of general
chemistry laboratories under the
direction of Dr. Kit Mao.
Mr. James Smith
joined the education
staff as a Faculty
Assistant for Chem
151/152. Jim has
earned a B.S. in
Secondary Education from University of Missouri-St.
Louis, with a major in biology and a
minor in chemistry. He has also
earned an M.S. in Secondary Education at UMSL, which included
taking graduate level biology and
chemistry classes. Jim has taught
secondary school for over thirty
years. His primary responsibilities
at WU include supervision of general chemistry laboratories under
the direction of Dr. Kit Mao.
(photo
credit:
WUSTL)
Greg
Noelken,
Maria Littrell
“When you were born, you cried and
the world rejoiced. Live your life in
a manner that when you die, the
world cries and you rejoice.” –
Native American Proverb
Whether you knew her as
Maria, she was a devoted
try Department employee,
a brave and encouraging
friend, and a kind soul.
Maria worked in the
Chemistry Department for
seventeen years, starting
out as a secretary for the
faculty in the Radiochem-
istry building, and eventually serving the entire Department and hundreds of students every semester as
the Chemistry course secretary.
She acted as a mother figure to the
Mari or
many Chemistry students; she
Chemisdemonstrated compassion to students having a difficult time in
their courses. And as a good
mother would do, she also encouraged them to “grow up”
and take on their responsibilities as hard-working students
and adults. She supported the
Maria Littrell
Chemistry Faculty with gentle
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
PAGE 3
Symposium to Recognize Prof. Weissman’s 100th Birthday
Welcome New Chemistry Staff!
The Fall 2011 semester brings
many new faces to the Chemistry
Department’s Staff.
I2S0S1U1E, I2S S U E 2
reminders…
which
sometimes
turned into more stern reminders
when work needed to be completed
so she could meet her deadlines.
She was indispensable in the
smooth functioning of the Chemistry courses. In May 2011, Maria
lost her battle with cancer and we
lost an amazing coworker. In a true
depiction of her dedication to her
Chemistry family and her own family, Maria worked up until just a few
days before she passed away. We
miss our co-worker and our friend,
Maria Littrell.
addition to the keynote lecturer,
Prof. Charles Slichter (U of Illinois,
Physics). His presentation is tentatively titled, “Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance: a Scientific
Evergreen.” It will be an
explanation of NMR and
the history of how this
technique, invented to
study nuclear physics,
The first Weissman
moved first into conLecture was given in
densed matter physics,
April 2011 by Prof. Robthen into chemistry, then
ert Griffin of MIT, a
biology, and finally into
distinguished expert on
medicine. He will give a
magnetic resonance.
second talk titled, “The
Discovery and DemonSpring 2012 marks Prof. Sam Weissman in his laboratory.
stration of Dynamic NuProf. Weissman’s 100th
clear Polarization—a Personal and
birthday. To celebrate this occaHistorical Account.”
sion, a one-day symposium with
several speakers and a banquet will
The Department of Chemistry is
be held on May 10 and 11, 2012, in
Prof. Weissman touched many in
his long life in science, and the generous response from many donors
resulted in the establishment of a new endowed lecture fund for
the
Department
of
Chemistry at Washington University.
soliciting speakers for the symposium and presenters for the poster
session. If you are interested in
presenting a talk or poster describing your research, please contact
Prof. Tom Lin ([email protected]; 314935-65890) or Ms. Karen Klein
([email protected]; 314-935-6593).
Abstracts for posters/talks are
due to Prof. Tom Lin by March
31, 2012.
This symposium is a homecoming of
sorts for Sam’s former students and
postdocs. However, the focus of the
research posters or talks is not limited to magnetic resonance research. Former students, postdocs,
or friends of Sam are welcomed and
encourages to present posters on
any research topic.
A Career of Insight and Innovation at DuPont
The members of the Chemistry Department look forward to hearing
about the careers, lives, and successes of our alumni and we were
delighted this Fall to receive a detailed letter from a very successful
alumnus! Dr. John Solenberger
(WU Ph.D., 1969) came to Washington University to work with
Prof. Wahl with the intention of
moving back to his home state of
New Mexico to work at Sandia or
Los Alamos National Labs as a nuclear chemist. After teaching undergraduate chemistry with Prof.
Wahl, Solenberger decided instead
to study oxidation-reduction and
solution chemistry. Upon graduation, he headed East rather than
West, and began his career at
DuPont Experimental Station Laboratory in Delaware.
In Dr. Solenberger’s words,
“A few years later I was, like
Dustin Hoffman in the classic
movie, ‘The Graduate’, invited to ‘go into plastics’. I did,
and the result was spectacular…” As a result of his
work, our home dishwashers
run better, we can plug in our PCs
standing and identifying chemistry
using smaller transformers, and
as it applies to practical applicadrag racers are
tions. Solenberger
thundering to new
and a team from
“A few years later I was, like
speed records. He
DuPont were able
Dustin Hoffman in the classic
also made it possito develop a global
ble for the fluoresstandard for intermovie, ‘The Graduate,’ invited to
cent lighting balnational electrical
lasts installed in
insulation systems
‘go into plastics.’ I did, and the
our homes, offices,
that is still used
result was spectacular…”
and factories to be
today in the manureduced significantfacturing of electrily in size and weight.
cal applications such as transformers, motors, solenoids, relays, and
Solenberger was also integral in the
lighting. For this development and
worldwide success of microwave
for his work in polymers used in
ovens, identifying the best plastic to
microwave ovens, and other applicause in the ovens to withstand the
tions.
Solenberger won three
high temperature environment:
DuPont Corporate Awards,
DuPont Rynite*, a modified poly“hundreds of millions of dollars of
ethylene terephthalate (PET) polybusiness for DuPont, and enhanced
ester. The use of the modelectrical safety benefitting the enified PET allowed for the
tire world.” He also won the Interproduction of the more
national Coil Winding Association’s
compact microwave ovens
(ICWA) Marketing Award.
of today.
During his career at DuPont, SolenSolenberger credits his
berger played a part in the developtraining with Prof. Wahl
ment of a variety of other products,
at Washington University
including plastic buckles used on
Dr. John Solenberger,
for his successes in underWU Ph.D. 1969
(continued on page 11)
PAGE 4
2011, ISSUE 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
News Around the Chemistry Department
Ackerman Group News
Xiaoyu Jiang is the happy father
of a new baby girl, Olivia (pictured).
Jie Luo and Shiyi Zhang (Wooley
group) married on November 30,
2011 in a civil ceremony at the St.
Louis Courts Building in Clayton,
MO. They will have
another wedding in
Jie’s hometown, Beijing, in January of
2012.
M. Gross Group
News
Summer Scholar, Brady Summers,
from UMKC in Summer 2011.
Dr. Lisa Jones won a 2nd place
poster prize at the Gordon Research
Conference: Biological Molecules in
the Gas Phase and In Solution.
The paper titled “Fast Photochemical Oxidation of Proteins
for Epitope Mapping” by
Lisa M. Jones, Justin B.
Sperry (Pfizer, Inc.),
James A. Carroll (Pfizer,
Inc.), and Michael L.
Gross was highlighted in
Chemical and Engineering News.
Brian Gao defended
The Gross group was
his thesis titled “The
active in presenting 12
Advancement of Mass
Spectrometry-Based Baby Olivia, daughter of happy father posters and lectures at
the 59th Conference on
Hydroxyl Radical Pro- Xiaoyu Jiang
Mass Spectrometry and
tein Footprinting: ApAllied
Topics
in Denver, CO in
plication of Novel Analysis Methods
Summer
2011.
to Model Proteins and Apolipoprotein E” on May 9, 2011. Brian is
Hayes Group News
looking for an academic position in
a college or small university.
Prof. Sophia Hayes is part of the
Jaiwei Chen defended her thesis
titled “Mass Spectrometry for Determination of Conformation and
Dynamics of Proteins and Structure
and Biosynthesis of Bacterial Peptidoglycan” on September 12, 2011.
She has accepted a job at Sigma as
a Senior Scientist and started on
October 3.
Hao Zhang, who defended in February 2011, is a Staff Scientist in
the Blankenship/Gross labs.
Yuetian Yan had a baby girl,
Ameila Wang, on April 17, 2011.
She weighed 6 lb. 3 oz.
Dr. Sergio Castro is a new postdoctoral research associate in the
Gross lab. His Ph.D. is from Yale,
and he was a postdoc at Cornell.
He joined the Gross lab to work on
protein assemblies by Fourier
transform MS, a project supported
by the NSF.
The Gross lab hosted an Amgen
Fulbright year abroad.
Muhan Cao graduated in Summer
2011 with a master’s degree. She
took an internship at Peabody Energy Corp., in global energy analytics.
David Hirsch was awarded an
Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
Mirica Group News
Prof. Liviu Mirica received the
Sony Electronics Award. The Sony
program was designed to recognize
top tenure-track junior faculty at
select institutions throughout the
U.S.
Dr. Anuj Sharma got married to
Komal Sharma on March 10, 2011.
Dr. Emi Evangelio finished her
Fulbright fellowship and is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Barcelona, Spain.
Nick Hawco graduated in May
2011 and is currently a graduate
student in marine biology at MIT/
Woods Hole Oceanography Institution.
leadership team of a 5-year ($20
million) NSF Phase 2 Center for
Chemical Innovation (CCI) “Center
for Sustainable
Darren Finkelstein
Materials.”
In
graduated in May
Phase 2, collabo2011 and is currently
WUCHEM is involved in the
rating researcha graduate student in
leadership team of a 5-year
ers from ten unichemistry at Stanford
versities and naUniversity.
($20M) NSF Center for
tional labs in the
Chemical Innovation (CCI)
Moeller
Group
U.S. and Canada
will develop films
News
a n d
3 D
Guoxi Xi is doing an internship
nanostructures from water-based
with Sigma-Aldrich in China this
precursors, new nanochemistry
Fall.
based on interleaving structural
elements to yield unprecendented
Libo Hu has just accepted a postperformance, synthetic techniques
doctoral position with Argonne Nato make precursor clusters, and
tional Lab and will be departing in
films with intentional nanoDecember 2011.
architectures and new properties.
Under an open knowledge model,
Jason Moeller (Kevin Moeller’s
all innovations will be shared after
son) was married in Bloomington,
appropriate patents are recorded. 1
Indiana. Jason is currently the onsite education coordinator and a
Kimberly Hartstein is currently
teacher at the Knoxville Zoo in Tenin Germany at WWU Münster for a
nessee.
(continued on page 11)
2I0S1S1U, EI S2S U E 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
PAGE 9
2011 Kennedy Lecturer – Prof. Moungi Bawendi
Prof. Moungi Bawendi visited
and combining quantum dots with
Washington University’s Chemistry
various optical and electronic strucDepartment as the Kennedy Lecturtures to study their device properer of Fall 2011 to speak about his
ties. His work has also included the
research in the field of semiconducapplication of quantum dots in biotor quantum dots. One of his leclogical and biomedical imaging and
tures focused on
sensing, in lightthe technology and
emitting devices,
applications of the
photodetection,
quantum dots –
and solar energy
their use in comconversion. Prof.
mercial
lighting,
Bawendi has publasers, and seleclished over 200
tive drug delivery
papers on quanapplications. His
tum dots, and has
second lecture dehelped three startscribed the exciup companies in
tonics of semiconco mme rcia li zi ng
ductor
quantum
quantum dot techdots.
nology.
MIT Prof. Moungi Bawendi, 2011 Kennedy Lecturer
Prof.
Bawendi
joined the faculty of MIT in 1990.
His research program probes the
science and technology of chemically
-synthesized nanocrystals.
Prof.
Bawendi has been at the forefront
of the semiconductor-nanocrystal
field for the last two decades. This
work has included the synthesis
and processing of quantum dots,
studying the fundamental optical
properties of quantum dots using a
variety of spectroscopic methods,
leagues Arthur C. Wahl and Glenn
T. Seaborg, Nobel Laureate (in
1951). Professor Kennedy was active on the Manhattan project during World War II. Professor Kennedy’s research interests included the
determination of the chemical properties of new elements and the application of isotopic-tracer techniques to study the diffusion of reaction kinetics.
Prior to 1946, the Department of
Chemistry at Washington University was small and devoted almost
entirely to undergraduate teaching.
When Prof. Kennedy arrived in
1946, he brought a group of young
scientists and gave the Department
a new orientation. It is now recognized not only for its commitment to
The Kennedy Lechigh quality undergraduate educature is given in memory
tion, but also to
and honor of the late
strong research
Professor Joseph W.
Prof. Bawendi has been at the
programs and
Kennedy, who served
to education at
forefront of the semiconductor as chairman of the Dethe
graduate
partment of Chemistry
level. The nananocrystal field for the last two
at Washington Univertional stature
decades.
sity from 1946 - 1956.
that the DeBorn in Nacogdoches,
partment
has
Texas in 1917, he made history in
acquired over the past-half century
1941 with the discovery of the eleis a direct consequence of the impement plutonium along with his coltus provided by Prof. Kennedy.
Dr. Steve Kinsley — Honored by Student as Exemplary
Faculty Member of the College of Arts and Sciences
“Professor Steven Kinsley deserves
to be honored as an exemplary faculty member in the College of Arts
and Sciences because he is a teacher who loves teaching,” was the introduction to the speech written by
student nominator Ali Robinson for
the Arts and Sciences School Council Faculty Award in May 2011. Six
faculty members in the School of
Arts and Sciences were honored.
Dr. Steve Kinsley, the Organic
Chemistry Laboratory Director, is
passionate about teaching organic
chemistry.
In her letter about
Kinsley, Ali praised him for his excellence in teaching and his desire
to ensure that all students understand and are interested in the
course material. Ali has served as a
TA for Dr. Kinsley.
She notes
“when he knows that a particular
lab is going to be stressful for the
students, he writes on the teaching
assistant reminder sheets that we
should ‘smile a lot and be encouraging’ which demonstrates his compassion for the students. He tries to
keep student morale high in a
course well-known to be challenging.”
In an anecdote describing Dr. Kinsley,
Ali explains that she
was unable to complete a lab because
she was ill.
Even
though the lab points
would not count, she
Chemistry Lab
wanted to perform Organic
Director, Dr. Steve
the
experiment. Kinsley
Kinsley allowed her
to do the work she had missed and
satiate her curiosity. That Dr. Kinsley inspires that desire for knowledge
in his students is his most impressive
accomplishment.
PAGE 8
2011, ISSUE 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
Using 31P NMR to Understand Glyphosate Resistance
Glyphosate, the active ingredient
used many herbicides including
Monsanto’s Roundup, was introduced in 1974.
Resistance to
glyphosate was first documented in
1997, and now several weed species
are known to be glyphosateresistant.
phosphorus NMR ( 31 P NMR).
Horseweed is prevalent and persistent; it invades soybean fields in
nineteen U.S. states. The 31P NMR
studies proved to be effective in
monitoring metabolites in the
horseweed plants treated with phosphorus-containing glyphosate.
A team of scientists from Monsanto
The results of the study were pubrecently collaborated with the Dilished in two papers in Pest Manrector of the High Resolution Nucleagement Science in 2010 and 2011.
ar Magnetic Resonance (NMR) FaThe scientists were able to distincility in the Chemistry
guish between applied
Department of Washglyphosate, and glyphoington University, Dr.
sate that had been partiAndre d’Avignon, to
tioned between the cell
work to identify the
cytoplasm and the plant
mechanism of glyphovacuoles.
The vacuoles
are the “trash compartsate
resistance
in
weeds. The scientists
ments” of the plants – any
chose
gl ypho sa te glyphosate in the plant
resistant
horseweed
vacuoles does not contrib(Conyza canadensis) to
ute to the death of the
Andre d’Avignon working in
investigate the metabo- Dr.
weed. “It’s really a race,”
the NMR laboratory. (credit: Alyssa
says d’Avignon.
“Once
loism of glyphosate by Hoog, Jack of Hearts Photography)
glyphosate gets to the vacuole it is
trapped,” he says.
“Because
[glyphosate] resistant horseweed
rapidly shuttles glyphosate into the
vacuole, there’s less of it available
for translocation to rapidly growing
parts of the plants.”1
The scientists postulated that by
applying the glyphosate to horseweed at lower temperatures, more
of the herbicide would remain in the
cell cytoplasm, and result in a higher kill rate for the weed. “As chemists, we knew that many reactions
are temperature dependent,” explains d’Avignon.1 The results of the
31P NMR studies at Washington
University and previous field trials
completed by Monsanto suggest a
method for farmers to increase
glyphosate sensitivity in weeds –
spraying with the herbicide in early
spring when the weather is cooler.
1http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22329.aspx
Harnessing the Sun’s Power to Drive Chemical Reactions
Washington University’s dedication
to sustainability as it applies to the
environment and energy consumption is a driving force behind many
endeavors on campus. The goal of
creating a campus and workplace
committed to sustainability can be
seen in smaller programs like campus recycling and in grander efforts
like the formation of the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (ICARES;
See
http://ica res . wust l .e du/ a nd ht t p: / /
www.wustl.edu/initiatives/sustain/
for more information on campus
sustainability efforts).
Dedication to sustainability, recycling,
and
conscientious
energy use can be
seen in research conducted in the Chemistry Department at
Washington University. Prof. Kevin
Moeller’s group has developed a
and can regenerate transition metal
means to harness the sun’s energy
catalysts at the electrode. However,
to perform useful organic oxidation
when considering the environmenreactions
with
tal friendliness of elecreasonable effitrochemistry,
one
...when considering the
ciencies
and
needs to take into acenvironmental friendliness of
yields.
Laura
count the source of the
Anderson, Alielectricity.
electrochemistry, one needs to
son
Redden,
take into account the source of
Electricity is often genand
Kevin
erated by coal-fueled
Moeller recentthe electricity.
power stations, which
ly published in
also create environGreen Chemistry (Green Chem.,
mentally harmful greenhouse gases.
2011, 13, 1652-1654) the results of
To cut the coal mining and burning
their studies in which they used
out of the equation and make a truphotovoltaic cells to conduct electroly “green” electrochemical process,
chemical oxidation reactions. ElecProf. Moeller’s group experimented
trochemistry is often
with using photovoltaic cells to colconsidered inherentlect the sun’s energy and initiate
ly “green”, since electhe reactions.
The photovoltaic
trochemical
reaccells
are
inexpensive
and available
tions do not need
on
the
internet
for
$
10
- $ 20. The
additional stoichiocells
can
be
hooked
directly
to the
metric reagents, do
electrodes
of
an
electrochemical
renot create stoichioThe Moeller group’s solar powered oxidation
action
cell
and
used
to
power
oxidametric by-products
reaction experimental set-up. (credit: David
tion reactions. (continued page 12)
Kilper/ WUSTL)
to be disposed of,
I2S0S1U1E, I2S S U E 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
PAGE 5
Welcome Back to WUCHEM, Prof. Gary Patti!
The Chemistry Periodical got a fantastic two-in-one interview with
new Assistant Professor and Alumnus, Gary Patti (WU Ph.D., 2008).
Prof. Patti, with a dual appointment
in the Chemistry Department and
the Genetics Department of WU
Medical School, represents
success in academic research achieved by our
graduates.
Patti joined
the faculty at WU in November 2011 and is looking forward to continuing
his research in metabolomics in his new position.
tool to study disease. I got interested in mass spec as that tool.” For
the last year of his graduate school
research, Patti primarily collaborated with Prof. Michael Gross’
Mass Spectrometry (MS) lab and
developed new methods to study
metabolites.
experiments are quick and you get
mounds of data. You don’t spend as
much time thinking about the questions because it’s easier and faster
to just do the experiments.” This
type of research is untargeted, and
fundamentally different from his
NMR-based research projects. Patti
thinks that this type of untargeted
research, where interpretation
skills are highly valued as more
data becomes easier and easier to
collect, is one direction in which
science is evolving. A few years
ago, fewer than five research groups
were active in the field of metabolomics; the number of people interested in the field is escalating rapidly.
Metabolomics is the
broad
comprehensive
study of metabolites.
The field was in its infancy during Prof. Patti’s time in graduate
school. During his postdoc at The Scripps ReAssistant Professor Gary Patti
After graduating from St.
search Institute in La
Louis University with his B.S., PatJolla, CA, Patti worked with the
ti started medical school. During a
scientist who pioneered the field of
weekend trip to Washington Unimetabolomics. The field is now very
Patti is very excited to return to
versity to visit and study with his
‘trendy’, but Patti’s path to metaboWashington University to begin his
twin sister who was pursuing her
lomics was very natural: “MS and
independent academic career.
Ph.D. in math, he visited the new
metabolomics were tools to study
Wash U is a world leader in “omic”
profiling – starting with the human
Lab Sciences building. It happened
clinical samples and disease pathoto be the graduate recruiting weekgenesis, which is really where my
genome project in the 1990’s. While
end; Patti saw a poster on antibiotic
interests lie.”
the spirit for this
resistance presented by the
project was very
Patti’s postdoctoral
Schaefer group and his interest
high when it be“I hope to do something in the
experience was an
was piqued. When he left medical
gan, and the proamazing one – he
school to start research as a graduject provided much
lab that won’t only affect theory,
started
studying
ate student, he was genuinely interinsight, solving the
but will affect patients.”
metabolomics by MS
ested in conducting research in a
human genome left
just as the field took
field that was clinically relevant
many
human
off. The technology
and using the knowledge that he
health
problems
was applicable to studying patient
gained in his medical school studies.
incompletely solved. Patti explains,
samples, which is the goal that has
“That is because disease happens at
While in graduate school, Patti used
always driven his research. Philothe phenotype level. A lot can hapNuclear Magnetic Resonance
sophically, he describes his grad
pen in a biological system between
(NMR) spectroscopy to study and
school and postdoctoral research
phenotypes and genes. Metabolomunderstand metabolites.
He exexperiences as very different. NMR
ics is the most
plained, “NMR allowed us to make
experiments
can
downstream science
insights into cell processes and cell
take months, so he
– it is easier to cordivision. It got me really interested
and Prof. Schaefer
relate metabolites
in studying metabolites.” Patti’s
spent a lot of time
with disease sympmain focus of his graduate school
deliberating
what
toms than genes
research, postdoctoral research, and
questions to ask
and proteins which
what colors his research interests
with their experiare subject to biopresently is his interest in studying
ments.
The work
chemical
regulareal clinical samples to understand
was “extremely hytion.”
Metabolites
metabolites and disease. “NMR has
pothesis
driven”,
provide a direct
only limited resolution and I really
Patti clarifies. On
read-out of what is
Adiabats, circa 2004. (Back row:
wanted to find a tool to use so I
the
other
hand, WUCHEM
happening
in
a
Jeremy Bartels, Matt van Duzor, Justin Sperry,
could look at clinical samples. I
“Mass spec enables Charles Constantine, David Bouche, Manmilan
(continued on page
really wanted to work with patients
unbiased and untar- Singh, Garry Patti, Brian Barnes, Carl Jenks,
12)
Elwood Mullins; Front row: Brooke van Horn,
– to take their samples and use a
geted studies. The Ryan Niendevaal, Josh Darr, John Glennon,
Dallas)
PAGE 6
2011, ISSUE 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
Funding
for
the
Catalysts
for
support for the workshops was provided by members of the St. Louisbranch of the AAUW and by Mary
Stewart (The Teaching Center).
For more information, please visit:
teachingcenter.wustl.edu/
catalysts
Graduate student Jill Smith and
Prof. Gina Frey
Change workshops during the inaugural year (2011) was provided by a
Campus Action Project grant from
the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Logistical
The workshop participants with Prof. Gina Frey
Alumni Spotlight — John Glennon, Ph.D.
So many career opportunities are
available to Chemistry graduates
outside of the ‘typical’ career paths
of academia and chemical industry.
John Glennon (WU Ph.D., 2007)
found one of those careers and
works with electrical engineers and
optical physicists developing optical
sensors for government contracts
and commercial products at Lockheed Martin in Boulder, CO.
Glennon describes the Lockheed
Martin atmosphere as the interface
of the government and industry;
many of the products and technologies he works on are destined for
government customers. “It’s different than working in general industry – there are a lot of processes
involved. Sometimes the pace at
which you move is not hindered by
your ambition or time or even material; it’s hindered by some process
you have to adhere to,” explains
Glennon. Sometimes projects are
slowed down by the need to maintain stringent records or because of
procedures that are meant to provide security. These sorts of delays
are necessary to get work down on
the exciting projects in which scientists are developing technology that
is important to national security.
He wanted the opportunity to explore something new, rather than
The projects that Glennon is inbuild on work that had been done
volved with include designing and
previously. Prof. Loomis, in a colbuilding active optical sensors for
laboration with Prof. Buhro, had a
customers. Their instruments gennew project and Glennon saw it as a
erate light using a laser, the lasers
chance to start from scratch on a
are used to hit a target, and then
project, build his own instrumentathe radiation that bounces back to
tion, and test his own hypotheses.
the instrument
When
he
finished
is sensed. Using
graduate school, he
Glennon’s
team
at
Lockheed
such technology,
wanted to continue in
scientists
can
Martin consistently achieves
an environment where
identify targets,
he could keep learning,
world firsts in the fields of laser
determine how
continue
performing
fast targets are
science and active optical
basic and applied removing, define if
search, and have a
sensing.
the targets are
more
team-oriented
vibrating,
perapproach to projects.
form 3-D holographic imaging, and
Prof. Loomis put him in touch with
accomplish sensing of chemicals
a technical team leader looking to
and biological agents. Of course,
expand his team of engineers and
Glennon can’t describe his projects
scientists at Lockheed Martin. “I
in too much detail…or he’d have to
guess the moral to that story is
kill you.
‘don’t tick off your Ph.D. advisor’,”
Glennon jokes.
Glennon decided to earn his Ph.D.
at Washington University after
working as a technician from September 2001 to February 2003
Prof. Gelb’s group doing computational theoretical chemistry. He
wanted to do experimental physical
chemistry for his graduate studies.
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
PAGE 7
Joint 2011 Midwest Regional ACS and Great Lakes Regional ACS Meeting
Catalysts for Change (continued from page 1)
Jen Lapp and Ashley Brosius.
Steve Kinsley (Lecturer and Organic Chemistry Lab Supervisor)
helped coordinate the Chemistry
Department’s support, which included laboratory space and equipment. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from Chemistry and
Earth & Planetary Sciences developed the activities and assisted as
activity leaders. The participating
graduate students and postdocs in
Chemistry were Michelle Harris,
Rhiannon Iha, Bryn Lutes, Hannah Malcolm, Alison Redden,
Jill Smith, Virginia Wayman,
and Ziyan Zhang.
I2S0S1U1E, I2S S U E 2
When working in industry, two days
are never the same.
Glennon
spends his days writing proposals,
researching technical reports, designing new sensors, computing
(continued on page 7)
In October, the Midwest Regional
our Faculty, Postdocs, and GradACS and the Great Lakes Regional
uate Students attending and preACS chapters held a joint regional
senting research posters or talks:
conference in St. Louis, at the SherJill Smith, Ginny Wayman, Jessica
aton Westport Plaza in Creve
Hoy,
Matt
Hynes,
Natalie
Coeur, MO. Several WU faculty
LaFranzo, Eun Kyung Yang, Sophia
and scientific staff members hosted
White, Dustin Wheeler, Greg Orf,
symposia or gave talks at the meetJake Smith, Sakshi Uppal, Matt
ing: Sophia Hayes (NMR: The
Strulson, Alison Redden, Katie
Next Generation (of Techniques)
Wentz, Sarah Mattler, Libo Hu,
Symposium,
Jake
Matt
Graaf,
Erica
Schaefer (Carbon PartiWunderlich
Majumder,
tioning in Leaves Under
Michelle
Harris,
Hao
Elevated CO2 Conditions
Yang, Hannah Malcolm,
Using 11C and 13C LabelBarrie Gordon, Ashleigh
ing), Henry Rohrs and
Castner, Dawn Johnson,
Michael
Gross
Valentina Bumbu, Bich(Biological Mass Speclein
Nguyen,
Yufei
trometry Symposium; Michelle Harris at the poster session Shen, Foster Mbaiwa,
Mass Spectrometry Based Protein
Fengzhi Tang, Yang Zhou, PJ MorFootprinting: The Fourth Pillar of
rison, Waynie Schuette, Yuanyuan
Proteomics), Bill Buhro (Synthetic
Wang, Ziyan Zhang, Andy Surface,
Pathway To and Optical Properties
Richard Yu-Cheng Huang, Brian
of CdSe Quantum Belts), Steve
Gau, Ying Zhang, Yining Huang, Bo
Kinsley (Chemical Education ReBi, Jia Luo, Fengrui Qu, Xia Ge,
search), Gina Frey (Incorporating
Kaitlyn Fairies, and Hao Zhang.
Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL)
Some of our Chemistry underinto Lower-Level Chemistry CoursWUCHEM made quite an
es: Implementation and Insights),
and Peter Gaspar (Germylenes
impression at the meeting, with
R2Ge: with Triplet Electronic
many of our Faculty, Postdocs, and
Ground States).
Graduate Students attending and
WUCHEM made quite an impression at the meeting, with many of
presenting research posters or talks.
Hannah Malcolm and Prof. Joshua Maurer enjoying the toasted ravioli at the WUCHEM Happy Hour
grads (Sungho Park, Martin Fan)
even participated, presenting posters of their undergraduate research!
On the second night of the meeting,
WU hosted a reception at the Trainwreck Saloon. The reception was
well-attended by faculty and undergraduate students from other universities and colleges in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. Students from SLU, Augustana College, Northwestern Oklahoma State
University, Principia College, The
Ohio State University, and other
institutions were present. Faculty
from University of WisconsinMadison, Notre Dame University,
Marquette University, and several
other institutions attended as well.
The WU students and faculty spent
time chatting with our visitors, describing our program, talking about
chemistry, and introducing them to
St. Louis.
Alumni Spotlight — John Glennon, Ph.D. (continued from page 6)
sensor prediction and modeling,
building and experimenting with
new sensor technology. He enjoys
working in industry because he
finds the research practical and “it’s
easier to talk about at a cocktail
party.” The products he helps deliver will be used for applications that
are a priority for national security.
“It’s working in a different context,
and that is what keeps it exciting
and brings meaning to your work,”
Glennon clarifies. He enjoys having
the opportunity to attack a variety
of problems, but concedes that he
does not get to choose the projects
and problems he works on. While
these projects are not at the frontier
of fundamental knowledge they are
at the frontier of applied knowledge.
Glennon’s team at Lockheed Martin
consistently achieves world firsts in
the fields of laser science and active
optical sensing.
Glennon advises undergraduate and
graduate students who are interested in careers in industry to focus on
building a general “toolset” of lab
techniques and approaches to solving
problems – these are the skills that
industry covets and will provide you
with success. He says that he was
able to land his job at Lockheed Martin not because of knowledge in his
specific field of research, but rather
because he knew how to set up experiments, write code, program a data
acquisition, predict outcomes, and
understand
computer
modeling.
These are “great physical scientist
skills” that industry looks for in a
new scientist.
PAGE 6
2011, ISSUE 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
Funding
for
the
Catalysts
for
support for the workshops was provided by members of the St. Louisbranch of the AAUW and by Mary
Stewart (The Teaching Center).
For more information, please visit:
teachingcenter.wustl.edu/
catalysts
Graduate student Jill Smith and
Prof. Gina Frey
Change workshops during the inaugural year (2011) was provided by a
Campus Action Project grant from
the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Logistical
The workshop participants with Prof. Gina Frey
Alumni Spotlight — John Glennon, Ph.D.
So many career opportunities are
available to Chemistry graduates
outside of the ‘typical’ career paths
of academia and chemical industry.
John Glennon (WU Ph.D., 2007)
found one of those careers and
works with electrical engineers and
optical physicists developing optical
sensors for government contracts
and commercial products at Lockheed Martin in Boulder, CO.
Glennon describes the Lockheed
Martin atmosphere as the interface
of the government and industry;
many of the products and technologies he works on are destined for
government customers. “It’s different than working in general industry – there are a lot of processes
involved. Sometimes the pace at
which you move is not hindered by
your ambition or time or even material; it’s hindered by some process
you have to adhere to,” explains
Glennon. Sometimes projects are
slowed down by the need to maintain stringent records or because of
procedures that are meant to provide security. These sorts of delays
are necessary to get work down on
the exciting projects in which scientists are developing technology that
is important to national security.
He wanted the opportunity to explore something new, rather than
The projects that Glennon is inbuild on work that had been done
volved with include designing and
previously. Prof. Loomis, in a colbuilding active optical sensors for
laboration with Prof. Buhro, had a
customers. Their instruments gennew project and Glennon saw it as a
erate light using a laser, the lasers
chance to start from scratch on a
are used to hit a target, and then
project, build his own instrumentathe radiation that bounces back to
tion, and test his own hypotheses.
the instrument
When
he
finished
is sensed. Using
graduate school, he
Glennon’s
team
at
Lockheed
such technology,
wanted to continue in
scientists
can
Martin consistently achieves
an environment where
identify targets,
he could keep learning,
world firsts in the fields of laser
determine how
continue
performing
fast targets are
science and active optical
basic and applied removing, define if
search, and have a
sensing.
the targets are
more
team-oriented
vibrating,
perapproach to projects.
form 3-D holographic imaging, and
Prof. Loomis put him in touch with
accomplish sensing of chemicals
a technical team leader looking to
and biological agents. Of course,
expand his team of engineers and
Glennon can’t describe his projects
scientists at Lockheed Martin. “I
in too much detail…or he’d have to
guess the moral to that story is
kill you.
‘don’t tick off your Ph.D. advisor’,”
Glennon jokes.
Glennon decided to earn his Ph.D.
at Washington University after
working as a technician from September 2001 to February 2003
Prof. Gelb’s group doing computational theoretical chemistry. He
wanted to do experimental physical
chemistry for his graduate studies.
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
PAGE 7
Joint 2011 Midwest Regional ACS and Great Lakes Regional ACS Meeting
Catalysts for Change (continued from page 1)
Jen Lapp and Ashley Brosius.
Steve Kinsley (Lecturer and Organic Chemistry Lab Supervisor)
helped coordinate the Chemistry
Department’s support, which included laboratory space and equipment. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from Chemistry and
Earth & Planetary Sciences developed the activities and assisted as
activity leaders. The participating
graduate students and postdocs in
Chemistry were Michelle Harris,
Rhiannon Iha, Bryn Lutes, Hannah Malcolm, Alison Redden,
Jill Smith, Virginia Wayman,
and Ziyan Zhang.
I2S0S1U1E, I2S S U E 2
When working in industry, two days
are never the same.
Glennon
spends his days writing proposals,
researching technical reports, designing new sensors, computing
(continued on page 7)
In October, the Midwest Regional
our Faculty, Postdocs, and GradACS and the Great Lakes Regional
uate Students attending and preACS chapters held a joint regional
senting research posters or talks:
conference in St. Louis, at the SherJill Smith, Ginny Wayman, Jessica
aton Westport Plaza in Creve
Hoy,
Matt
Hynes,
Natalie
Coeur, MO. Several WU faculty
LaFranzo, Eun Kyung Yang, Sophia
and scientific staff members hosted
White, Dustin Wheeler, Greg Orf,
symposia or gave talks at the meetJake Smith, Sakshi Uppal, Matt
ing: Sophia Hayes (NMR: The
Strulson, Alison Redden, Katie
Next Generation (of Techniques)
Wentz, Sarah Mattler, Libo Hu,
Symposium,
Jake
Matt
Graaf,
Erica
Schaefer (Carbon PartiWunderlich
Majumder,
tioning in Leaves Under
Michelle
Harris,
Hao
Elevated CO2 Conditions
Yang, Hannah Malcolm,
Using 11C and 13C LabelBarrie Gordon, Ashleigh
ing), Henry Rohrs and
Castner, Dawn Johnson,
Michael
Gross
Valentina Bumbu, Bich(Biological Mass Speclein
Nguyen,
Yufei
trometry Symposium; Michelle Harris at the poster session Shen, Foster Mbaiwa,
Mass Spectrometry Based Protein
Fengzhi Tang, Yang Zhou, PJ MorFootprinting: The Fourth Pillar of
rison, Waynie Schuette, Yuanyuan
Proteomics), Bill Buhro (Synthetic
Wang, Ziyan Zhang, Andy Surface,
Pathway To and Optical Properties
Richard Yu-Cheng Huang, Brian
of CdSe Quantum Belts), Steve
Gau, Ying Zhang, Yining Huang, Bo
Kinsley (Chemical Education ReBi, Jia Luo, Fengrui Qu, Xia Ge,
search), Gina Frey (Incorporating
Kaitlyn Fairies, and Hao Zhang.
Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL)
Some of our Chemistry underinto Lower-Level Chemistry CoursWUCHEM made quite an
es: Implementation and Insights),
and Peter Gaspar (Germylenes
impression at the meeting, with
R2Ge: with Triplet Electronic
many of our Faculty, Postdocs, and
Ground States).
Graduate Students attending and
WUCHEM made quite an impression at the meeting, with many of
presenting research posters or talks.
Hannah Malcolm and Prof. Joshua Maurer enjoying the toasted ravioli at the WUCHEM Happy Hour
grads (Sungho Park, Martin Fan)
even participated, presenting posters of their undergraduate research!
On the second night of the meeting,
WU hosted a reception at the Trainwreck Saloon. The reception was
well-attended by faculty and undergraduate students from other universities and colleges in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. Students from SLU, Augustana College, Northwestern Oklahoma State
University, Principia College, The
Ohio State University, and other
institutions were present. Faculty
from University of WisconsinMadison, Notre Dame University,
Marquette University, and several
other institutions attended as well.
The WU students and faculty spent
time chatting with our visitors, describing our program, talking about
chemistry, and introducing them to
St. Louis.
Alumni Spotlight — John Glennon, Ph.D. (continued from page 6)
sensor prediction and modeling,
building and experimenting with
new sensor technology. He enjoys
working in industry because he
finds the research practical and “it’s
easier to talk about at a cocktail
party.” The products he helps deliver will be used for applications that
are a priority for national security.
“It’s working in a different context,
and that is what keeps it exciting
and brings meaning to your work,”
Glennon clarifies. He enjoys having
the opportunity to attack a variety
of problems, but concedes that he
does not get to choose the projects
and problems he works on. While
these projects are not at the frontier
of fundamental knowledge they are
at the frontier of applied knowledge.
Glennon’s team at Lockheed Martin
consistently achieves world firsts in
the fields of laser science and active
optical sensing.
Glennon advises undergraduate and
graduate students who are interested in careers in industry to focus on
building a general “toolset” of lab
techniques and approaches to solving
problems – these are the skills that
industry covets and will provide you
with success. He says that he was
able to land his job at Lockheed Martin not because of knowledge in his
specific field of research, but rather
because he knew how to set up experiments, write code, program a data
acquisition, predict outcomes, and
understand
computer
modeling.
These are “great physical scientist
skills” that industry looks for in a
new scientist.
PAGE 8
2011, ISSUE 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
Using 31P NMR to Understand Glyphosate Resistance
Glyphosate, the active ingredient
used many herbicides including
Monsanto’s Roundup, was introduced in 1974.
Resistance to
glyphosate was first documented in
1997, and now several weed species
are known to be glyphosateresistant.
phosphorus NMR ( 31 P NMR).
Horseweed is prevalent and persistent; it invades soybean fields in
nineteen U.S. states. The 31P NMR
studies proved to be effective in
monitoring metabolites in the
horseweed plants treated with phosphorus-containing glyphosate.
A team of scientists from Monsanto
The results of the study were pubrecently collaborated with the Dilished in two papers in Pest Manrector of the High Resolution Nucleagement Science in 2010 and 2011.
ar Magnetic Resonance (NMR) FaThe scientists were able to distincility in the Chemistry
guish between applied
Department of Washglyphosate, and glyphoington University, Dr.
sate that had been partiAndre d’Avignon, to
tioned between the cell
work to identify the
cytoplasm and the plant
mechanism of glyphovacuoles.
The vacuoles
are the “trash compartsate
resistance
in
weeds. The scientists
ments” of the plants – any
chose
gl ypho sa te glyphosate in the plant
resistant
horseweed
vacuoles does not contrib(Conyza canadensis) to
ute to the death of the
Andre d’Avignon working in
investigate the metabo- Dr.
weed. “It’s really a race,”
the NMR laboratory. (credit: Alyssa
says d’Avignon.
“Once
loism of glyphosate by Hoog, Jack of Hearts Photography)
glyphosate gets to the vacuole it is
trapped,” he says.
“Because
[glyphosate] resistant horseweed
rapidly shuttles glyphosate into the
vacuole, there’s less of it available
for translocation to rapidly growing
parts of the plants.”1
The scientists postulated that by
applying the glyphosate to horseweed at lower temperatures, more
of the herbicide would remain in the
cell cytoplasm, and result in a higher kill rate for the weed. “As chemists, we knew that many reactions
are temperature dependent,” explains d’Avignon.1 The results of the
31P NMR studies at Washington
University and previous field trials
completed by Monsanto suggest a
method for farmers to increase
glyphosate sensitivity in weeds –
spraying with the herbicide in early
spring when the weather is cooler.
1http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22329.aspx
Harnessing the Sun’s Power to Drive Chemical Reactions
Washington University’s dedication
to sustainability as it applies to the
environment and energy consumption is a driving force behind many
endeavors on campus. The goal of
creating a campus and workplace
committed to sustainability can be
seen in smaller programs like campus recycling and in grander efforts
like the formation of the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (ICARES;
See
http://ica res . wust l .e du/ a nd ht t p: / /
www.wustl.edu/initiatives/sustain/
for more information on campus
sustainability efforts).
Dedication to sustainability, recycling,
and
conscientious
energy use can be
seen in research conducted in the Chemistry Department at
Washington University. Prof. Kevin
Moeller’s group has developed a
and can regenerate transition metal
means to harness the sun’s energy
catalysts at the electrode. However,
to perform useful organic oxidation
when considering the environmenreactions
with
tal friendliness of elecreasonable effitrochemistry,
one
...when considering the
ciencies
and
needs to take into acenvironmental friendliness of
yields.
Laura
count the source of the
Anderson, Alielectricity.
electrochemistry, one needs to
son
Redden,
take into account the source of
Electricity is often genand
Kevin
erated by coal-fueled
Moeller recentthe electricity.
power stations, which
ly published in
also create environGreen Chemistry (Green Chem.,
mentally harmful greenhouse gases.
2011, 13, 1652-1654) the results of
To cut the coal mining and burning
their studies in which they used
out of the equation and make a truphotovoltaic cells to conduct electroly “green” electrochemical process,
chemical oxidation reactions. ElecProf. Moeller’s group experimented
trochemistry is often
with using photovoltaic cells to colconsidered inherentlect the sun’s energy and initiate
ly “green”, since electhe reactions.
The photovoltaic
trochemical
reaccells
are
inexpensive
and available
tions do not need
on
the
internet
for
$
10
- $ 20. The
additional stoichiocells
can
be
hooked
directly
to the
metric reagents, do
electrodes
of
an
electrochemical
renot create stoichioThe Moeller group’s solar powered oxidation
action
cell
and
used
to
power
oxidametric by-products
reaction experimental set-up. (credit: David
tion reactions. (continued page 12)
Kilper/ WUSTL)
to be disposed of,
I2S0S1U1E, I2S S U E 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
PAGE 5
Welcome Back to WUCHEM, Prof. Gary Patti!
The Chemistry Periodical got a fantastic two-in-one interview with
new Assistant Professor and Alumnus, Gary Patti (WU Ph.D., 2008).
Prof. Patti, with a dual appointment
in the Chemistry Department and
the Genetics Department of WU
Medical School, represents
success in academic research achieved by our
graduates.
Patti joined
the faculty at WU in November 2011 and is looking forward to continuing
his research in metabolomics in his new position.
tool to study disease. I got interested in mass spec as that tool.” For
the last year of his graduate school
research, Patti primarily collaborated with Prof. Michael Gross’
Mass Spectrometry (MS) lab and
developed new methods to study
metabolites.
experiments are quick and you get
mounds of data. You don’t spend as
much time thinking about the questions because it’s easier and faster
to just do the experiments.” This
type of research is untargeted, and
fundamentally different from his
NMR-based research projects. Patti
thinks that this type of untargeted
research, where interpretation
skills are highly valued as more
data becomes easier and easier to
collect, is one direction in which
science is evolving. A few years
ago, fewer than five research groups
were active in the field of metabolomics; the number of people interested in the field is escalating rapidly.
Metabolomics is the
broad
comprehensive
study of metabolites.
The field was in its infancy during Prof. Patti’s time in graduate
school. During his postdoc at The Scripps ReAssistant Professor Gary Patti
After graduating from St.
search Institute in La
Louis University with his B.S., PatJolla, CA, Patti worked with the
ti started medical school. During a
scientist who pioneered the field of
weekend trip to Washington Unimetabolomics. The field is now very
Patti is very excited to return to
versity to visit and study with his
‘trendy’, but Patti’s path to metaboWashington University to begin his
twin sister who was pursuing her
lomics was very natural: “MS and
independent academic career.
Ph.D. in math, he visited the new
metabolomics were tools to study
Wash U is a world leader in “omic”
profiling – starting with the human
Lab Sciences building. It happened
clinical samples and disease pathoto be the graduate recruiting weekgenesis, which is really where my
genome project in the 1990’s. While
end; Patti saw a poster on antibiotic
interests lie.”
the spirit for this
resistance presented by the
project was very
Patti’s postdoctoral
Schaefer group and his interest
high when it be“I hope to do something in the
experience was an
was piqued. When he left medical
gan, and the proamazing one – he
school to start research as a graduject provided much
lab that won’t only affect theory,
started
studying
ate student, he was genuinely interinsight, solving the
but will affect patients.”
metabolomics by MS
ested in conducting research in a
human genome left
just as the field took
field that was clinically relevant
many
human
off. The technology
and using the knowledge that he
health
problems
was applicable to studying patient
gained in his medical school studies.
incompletely solved. Patti explains,
samples, which is the goal that has
“That is because disease happens at
While in graduate school, Patti used
always driven his research. Philothe phenotype level. A lot can hapNuclear Magnetic Resonance
sophically, he describes his grad
pen in a biological system between
(NMR) spectroscopy to study and
school and postdoctoral research
phenotypes and genes. Metabolomunderstand metabolites.
He exexperiences as very different. NMR
ics is the most
plained, “NMR allowed us to make
experiments
can
downstream science
insights into cell processes and cell
take months, so he
– it is easier to cordivision. It got me really interested
and Prof. Schaefer
relate metabolites
in studying metabolites.” Patti’s
spent a lot of time
with disease sympmain focus of his graduate school
deliberating
what
toms than genes
research, postdoctoral research, and
questions to ask
and proteins which
what colors his research interests
with their experiare subject to biopresently is his interest in studying
ments.
The work
chemical
regulareal clinical samples to understand
was “extremely hytion.”
Metabolites
metabolites and disease. “NMR has
pothesis
driven”,
provide a direct
only limited resolution and I really
Patti clarifies. On
read-out of what is
Adiabats, circa 2004. (Back row:
wanted to find a tool to use so I
the
other
hand, WUCHEM
happening
in
a
Jeremy Bartels, Matt van Duzor, Justin Sperry,
could look at clinical samples. I
“Mass spec enables Charles Constantine, David Bouche, Manmilan
(continued on page
really wanted to work with patients
unbiased and untar- Singh, Garry Patti, Brian Barnes, Carl Jenks,
12)
Elwood Mullins; Front row: Brooke van Horn,
– to take their samples and use a
geted studies. The Ryan Niendevaal, Josh Darr, John Glennon,
Dallas)
PAGE 4
2011, ISSUE 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
News Around the Chemistry Department
Ackerman Group News
Xiaoyu Jiang is the happy father
of a new baby girl, Olivia (pictured).
Jie Luo and Shiyi Zhang (Wooley
group) married on November 30,
2011 in a civil ceremony at the St.
Louis Courts Building in Clayton,
MO. They will have
another wedding in
Jie’s hometown, Beijing, in January of
2012.
M. Gross Group
News
Summer Scholar, Brady Summers,
from UMKC in Summer 2011.
Dr. Lisa Jones won a 2nd place
poster prize at the Gordon Research
Conference: Biological Molecules in
the Gas Phase and In Solution.
The paper titled “Fast Photochemical Oxidation of Proteins
for Epitope Mapping” by
Lisa M. Jones, Justin B.
Sperry (Pfizer, Inc.),
James A. Carroll (Pfizer,
Inc.), and Michael L.
Gross was highlighted in
Chemical and Engineering News.
Brian Gao defended
The Gross group was
his thesis titled “The
active in presenting 12
Advancement of Mass
Spectrometry-Based Baby Olivia, daughter of happy father posters and lectures at
the 59th Conference on
Hydroxyl Radical Pro- Xiaoyu Jiang
Mass Spectrometry and
tein Footprinting: ApAllied
Topics
in Denver, CO in
plication of Novel Analysis Methods
Summer
2011.
to Model Proteins and Apolipoprotein E” on May 9, 2011. Brian is
Hayes Group News
looking for an academic position in
a college or small university.
Prof. Sophia Hayes is part of the
Jaiwei Chen defended her thesis
titled “Mass Spectrometry for Determination of Conformation and
Dynamics of Proteins and Structure
and Biosynthesis of Bacterial Peptidoglycan” on September 12, 2011.
She has accepted a job at Sigma as
a Senior Scientist and started on
October 3.
Hao Zhang, who defended in February 2011, is a Staff Scientist in
the Blankenship/Gross labs.
Yuetian Yan had a baby girl,
Ameila Wang, on April 17, 2011.
She weighed 6 lb. 3 oz.
Dr. Sergio Castro is a new postdoctoral research associate in the
Gross lab. His Ph.D. is from Yale,
and he was a postdoc at Cornell.
He joined the Gross lab to work on
protein assemblies by Fourier
transform MS, a project supported
by the NSF.
The Gross lab hosted an Amgen
Fulbright year abroad.
Muhan Cao graduated in Summer
2011 with a master’s degree. She
took an internship at Peabody Energy Corp., in global energy analytics.
David Hirsch was awarded an
Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
Mirica Group News
Prof. Liviu Mirica received the
Sony Electronics Award. The Sony
program was designed to recognize
top tenure-track junior faculty at
select institutions throughout the
U.S.
Dr. Anuj Sharma got married to
Komal Sharma on March 10, 2011.
Dr. Emi Evangelio finished her
Fulbright fellowship and is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Barcelona, Spain.
Nick Hawco graduated in May
2011 and is currently a graduate
student in marine biology at MIT/
Woods Hole Oceanography Institution.
leadership team of a 5-year ($20
million) NSF Phase 2 Center for
Chemical Innovation (CCI) “Center
for Sustainable
Darren Finkelstein
Materials.”
In
graduated in May
Phase 2, collabo2011 and is currently
WUCHEM is involved in the
rating researcha graduate student in
leadership team of a 5-year
ers from ten unichemistry at Stanford
versities and naUniversity.
($20M) NSF Center for
tional labs in the
Chemical Innovation (CCI)
Moeller
Group
U.S. and Canada
will develop films
News
a n d
3 D
Guoxi Xi is doing an internship
nanostructures from water-based
with Sigma-Aldrich in China this
precursors, new nanochemistry
Fall.
based on interleaving structural
elements to yield unprecendented
Libo Hu has just accepted a postperformance, synthetic techniques
doctoral position with Argonne Nato make precursor clusters, and
tional Lab and will be departing in
films with intentional nanoDecember 2011.
architectures and new properties.
Under an open knowledge model,
Jason Moeller (Kevin Moeller’s
all innovations will be shared after
son) was married in Bloomington,
appropriate patents are recorded. 1
Indiana. Jason is currently the onsite education coordinator and a
Kimberly Hartstein is currently
teacher at the Knoxville Zoo in Tenin Germany at WWU Münster for a
nessee.
(continued on page 11)
2I0S1S1U, EI S2S U E 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
PAGE 9
2011 Kennedy Lecturer – Prof. Moungi Bawendi
Prof. Moungi Bawendi visited
and combining quantum dots with
Washington University’s Chemistry
various optical and electronic strucDepartment as the Kennedy Lecturtures to study their device properer of Fall 2011 to speak about his
ties. His work has also included the
research in the field of semiconducapplication of quantum dots in biotor quantum dots. One of his leclogical and biomedical imaging and
tures focused on
sensing, in lightthe technology and
emitting devices,
applications of the
photodetection,
quantum dots –
and solar energy
their use in comconversion. Prof.
mercial
lighting,
Bawendi has publasers, and seleclished over 200
tive drug delivery
papers on quanapplications. His
tum dots, and has
second lecture dehelped three startscribed the exciup companies in
tonics of semiconco mme rcia li zi ng
ductor
quantum
quantum dot techdots.
nology.
MIT Prof. Moungi Bawendi, 2011 Kennedy Lecturer
Prof.
Bawendi
joined the faculty of MIT in 1990.
His research program probes the
science and technology of chemically
-synthesized nanocrystals.
Prof.
Bawendi has been at the forefront
of the semiconductor-nanocrystal
field for the last two decades. This
work has included the synthesis
and processing of quantum dots,
studying the fundamental optical
properties of quantum dots using a
variety of spectroscopic methods,
leagues Arthur C. Wahl and Glenn
T. Seaborg, Nobel Laureate (in
1951). Professor Kennedy was active on the Manhattan project during World War II. Professor Kennedy’s research interests included the
determination of the chemical properties of new elements and the application of isotopic-tracer techniques to study the diffusion of reaction kinetics.
Prior to 1946, the Department of
Chemistry at Washington University was small and devoted almost
entirely to undergraduate teaching.
When Prof. Kennedy arrived in
1946, he brought a group of young
scientists and gave the Department
a new orientation. It is now recognized not only for its commitment to
The Kennedy Lechigh quality undergraduate educature is given in memory
tion, but also to
and honor of the late
strong research
Professor Joseph W.
Prof. Bawendi has been at the
programs and
Kennedy, who served
to education at
forefront of the semiconductor as chairman of the Dethe
graduate
partment of Chemistry
level. The nananocrystal field for the last two
at Washington Univertional stature
decades.
sity from 1946 - 1956.
that the DeBorn in Nacogdoches,
partment
has
Texas in 1917, he made history in
acquired over the past-half century
1941 with the discovery of the eleis a direct consequence of the impement plutonium along with his coltus provided by Prof. Kennedy.
Dr. Steve Kinsley — Honored by Student as Exemplary
Faculty Member of the College of Arts and Sciences
“Professor Steven Kinsley deserves
to be honored as an exemplary faculty member in the College of Arts
and Sciences because he is a teacher who loves teaching,” was the introduction to the speech written by
student nominator Ali Robinson for
the Arts and Sciences School Council Faculty Award in May 2011. Six
faculty members in the School of
Arts and Sciences were honored.
Dr. Steve Kinsley, the Organic
Chemistry Laboratory Director, is
passionate about teaching organic
chemistry.
In her letter about
Kinsley, Ali praised him for his excellence in teaching and his desire
to ensure that all students understand and are interested in the
course material. Ali has served as a
TA for Dr. Kinsley.
She notes
“when he knows that a particular
lab is going to be stressful for the
students, he writes on the teaching
assistant reminder sheets that we
should ‘smile a lot and be encouraging’ which demonstrates his compassion for the students. He tries to
keep student morale high in a
course well-known to be challenging.”
In an anecdote describing Dr. Kinsley,
Ali explains that she
was unable to complete a lab because
she was ill.
Even
though the lab points
would not count, she
Chemistry Lab
wanted to perform Organic
Director, Dr. Steve
the
experiment. Kinsley
Kinsley allowed her
to do the work she had missed and
satiate her curiosity. That Dr. Kinsley inspires that desire for knowledge
in his students is his most impressive
accomplishment.
PAGE 10
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
2011, ISSUE 2
Dr. Megan Dashbach has joined
the education staff
as a Lecturer and
the Director of the
Chemistry
PeerLed-TeamLearning (PLTL)
program. Megan is
not completely new
to WUCHEM; she
matriculated as a graduate student
here in 2005. She worked in the lab
of Prof. Gokel, who moved his lab
to the University of Missouri – St.
Louis in 2006. She graduated with
her Ph.D. from WU in 2010, and
continued to work in Prof. Gokel’s
lab at UMSL as a postdoc. She was
hired as a Chemistry Lecturer and
re-joined our Department in August
of 2011. Megan had only a bit of
time to get settled before jumping
into teaching the 900 students taking Chem 111A this Fall. When she
finally gets a break from her hefty
teaching responsibilities and manages to leave her office and the
classroom, we look forward to enjoying her as a new member of the Department!
Ms. Cassandra Parker also joined
the
education
staff
as
the
Course Secretary
for
the
Chem
111A/112A, Chem
151/152,
and
Chem
261/262
course sequences.
Cassandra has worked in WU’s
School of Engineering and Applied
Science – Sever Institute for over 25
years, and has great experience in
the function and culture of Washington University. She stepped into
a role with myriad varied responsibilities, and she has demonstrated
her high level of professionalism in
learning and completing her new
tasks. We are delighted to welcome
her to the Department!
Mr. Michael Miller joined the education staff as a Faculty Assistant
for Chem 151/152. Michael earned
a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.S. in
Secondary Education from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville where
he gained experience supervising undergraduate
chemistry laboratories.
He has
eleven years of experience teaching
chemistry at the secondary school
level in the Missouri, Illinois, and
Wisconsin public school systems.
His primary responsibilities at WU
include supervision of general
chemistry laboratories under the
direction of Dr. Kit Mao.
Mr. James Smith
joined the education
staff as a Faculty
Assistant for Chem
151/152. Jim has
earned a B.S. in
Secondary Education from University of Missouri-St.
Louis, with a major in biology and a
minor in chemistry. He has also
earned an M.S. in Secondary Education at UMSL, which included
taking graduate level biology and
chemistry classes. Jim has taught
secondary school for over thirty
years. His primary responsibilities
at WU include supervision of general chemistry laboratories under
the direction of Dr. Kit Mao.
(photo
credit:
WUSTL)
Greg
Noelken,
Maria Littrell
“When you were born, you cried and
the world rejoiced. Live your life in
a manner that when you die, the
world cries and you rejoice.” –
Native American Proverb
Whether you knew her as
Maria, she was a devoted
try Department employee,
a brave and encouraging
friend, and a kind soul.
Maria worked in the
Chemistry Department for
seventeen years, starting
out as a secretary for the
faculty in the Radiochem-
istry building, and eventually serving the entire Department and hundreds of students every semester as
the Chemistry course secretary.
She acted as a mother figure to the
Mari or
many Chemistry students; she
Chemisdemonstrated compassion to students having a difficult time in
their courses. And as a good
mother would do, she also encouraged them to “grow up”
and take on their responsibilities as hard-working students
and adults. She supported the
Maria Littrell
Chemistry Faculty with gentle
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
PAGE 3
Symposium to Recognize Prof. Weissman’s 100th Birthday
Welcome New Chemistry Staff!
The Fall 2011 semester brings
many new faces to the Chemistry
Department’s Staff.
I2S0S1U1E, I2S S U E 2
reminders…
which
sometimes
turned into more stern reminders
when work needed to be completed
so she could meet her deadlines.
She was indispensable in the
smooth functioning of the Chemistry courses. In May 2011, Maria
lost her battle with cancer and we
lost an amazing coworker. In a true
depiction of her dedication to her
Chemistry family and her own family, Maria worked up until just a few
days before she passed away. We
miss our co-worker and our friend,
Maria Littrell.
addition to the keynote lecturer,
Prof. Charles Slichter (U of Illinois,
Physics). His presentation is tentatively titled, “Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance: a Scientific
Evergreen.” It will be an
explanation of NMR and
the history of how this
technique, invented to
study nuclear physics,
The first Weissman
moved first into conLecture was given in
densed matter physics,
April 2011 by Prof. Robthen into chemistry, then
ert Griffin of MIT, a
biology, and finally into
distinguished expert on
medicine. He will give a
magnetic resonance.
second talk titled, “The
Discovery and DemonSpring 2012 marks Prof. Sam Weissman in his laboratory.
stration of Dynamic NuProf. Weissman’s 100th
clear Polarization—a Personal and
birthday. To celebrate this occaHistorical Account.”
sion, a one-day symposium with
several speakers and a banquet will
The Department of Chemistry is
be held on May 10 and 11, 2012, in
Prof. Weissman touched many in
his long life in science, and the generous response from many donors
resulted in the establishment of a new endowed lecture fund for
the
Department
of
Chemistry at Washington University.
soliciting speakers for the symposium and presenters for the poster
session. If you are interested in
presenting a talk or poster describing your research, please contact
Prof. Tom Lin ([email protected]; 314935-65890) or Ms. Karen Klein
([email protected]; 314-935-6593).
Abstracts for posters/talks are
due to Prof. Tom Lin by March
31, 2012.
This symposium is a homecoming of
sorts for Sam’s former students and
postdocs. However, the focus of the
research posters or talks is not limited to magnetic resonance research. Former students, postdocs,
or friends of Sam are welcomed and
encourages to present posters on
any research topic.
A Career of Insight and Innovation at DuPont
The members of the Chemistry Department look forward to hearing
about the careers, lives, and successes of our alumni and we were
delighted this Fall to receive a detailed letter from a very successful
alumnus! Dr. John Solenberger
(WU Ph.D., 1969) came to Washington University to work with
Prof. Wahl with the intention of
moving back to his home state of
New Mexico to work at Sandia or
Los Alamos National Labs as a nuclear chemist. After teaching undergraduate chemistry with Prof.
Wahl, Solenberger decided instead
to study oxidation-reduction and
solution chemistry. Upon graduation, he headed East rather than
West, and began his career at
DuPont Experimental Station Laboratory in Delaware.
In Dr. Solenberger’s words,
“A few years later I was, like
Dustin Hoffman in the classic
movie, ‘The Graduate’, invited to ‘go into plastics’. I did,
and the result was spectacular…” As a result of his
work, our home dishwashers
run better, we can plug in our PCs
standing and identifying chemistry
using smaller transformers, and
as it applies to practical applicadrag racers are
tions. Solenberger
thundering to new
and a team from
“A few years later I was, like
speed records. He
DuPont were able
Dustin Hoffman in the classic
also made it possito develop a global
ble for the fluoresstandard for intermovie, ‘The Graduate,’ invited to
cent lighting balnational electrical
lasts installed in
insulation systems
‘go into plastics.’ I did, and the
our homes, offices,
that is still used
result was spectacular…”
and factories to be
today in the manureduced significantfacturing of electrily in size and weight.
cal applications such as transformers, motors, solenoids, relays, and
Solenberger was also integral in the
lighting. For this development and
worldwide success of microwave
for his work in polymers used in
ovens, identifying the best plastic to
microwave ovens, and other applicause in the ovens to withstand the
tions.
Solenberger won three
high temperature environment:
DuPont Corporate Awards,
DuPont Rynite*, a modified poly“hundreds of millions of dollars of
ethylene terephthalate (PET) polybusiness for DuPont, and enhanced
ester. The use of the modelectrical safety benefitting the enified PET allowed for the
tire world.” He also won the Interproduction of the more
national Coil Winding Association’s
compact microwave ovens
(ICWA) Marketing Award.
of today.
During his career at DuPont, SolenSolenberger credits his
berger played a part in the developtraining with Prof. Wahl
ment of a variety of other products,
at Washington University
including plastic buckles used on
Dr. John Solenberger,
for his successes in underWU Ph.D. 1969
(continued on page 11)
PAGE 2
2011, ISSUE 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
Kimberly Hartstein — Fulbright Scholar
While other recent WUCHEM gradProgram from her research advisor,
uates were beginning their medical
Prof. Sophia Hayes. Kimberly is
school classes or brushing up on
spending this year in Münster, Gertheir chemistry for their placement
many to work with Sophia’s graduexams in graduate school, Kimberate advisor, Prof. Hellmut Eckert at
ly Hartstein (WU A.B., 2011) was
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität
taking an intensive German lanMünster.
guage course and starting indeTo complete the applicapendent research in
tion process, first KimberGermany. Kimberly, a
ly spoke with Prof. Eckert
winner of a Fulbright
to develop a research
U.S. Student Program
plan.
She wrote a
scholarship in Chemis“Statement
of Grant Purtry,
has
traveled
pose”,
a
description
of her
abroad for the 2011proposed research project
2012 academic year to
in Prof. Eckert’s laboratoperform research in a
ry – a world leader in solGerman
University.
id state nuclear magnetic
She is one of over 1,600
Kimberly at work in the Hayes Lab.
resonance (NMR) specU.S. citizens involved (credit: Alyssa Hoog, Jack of Hearts
troscopy.
in the program.
Photography)
The Fulbright Program is an international exchange program sponsored by the government of the U.S.
designed to improve mutual understanding between U.S. citizens and
people of other countries. Participants are selected based on their
academic and research achievements and their aptitude for leadership. This program has produced
several winners of prestigious
awards such as the Nobel Prize and
the Pulitzer Prize; former Fulbright
Scholars have achieved distinction
in the government, arts, business,
education, and philanthropy.
Kimberly is excited to be living in
Münster, “the bicycle capital of Germany” where more bicycles are used
in traffic than vehicles. She has
never been to Europe, and is looking forward to traveling in Europe
this year. She is excited to embrace
the German culture, to bike extensively, and enjoy German food.
Kimberly speaks glowingly of her
time at Washington University.
She feels fortunate to have had the
opportunity to get to know several
of the faculty members – although
many of them seemed intimidating
at first, she found that “the faculty
is so supportive in class and in mentoring.” Furthermore, she described
the Department as a friendly place,
where everyone is very welcoming
and where she received invaluable
guidance both during and after her
undergraduate studies.
Kimberly’s
solid-state
NMR research in Germany will
have two main areas of interest.
She will be studying amorphous
When Kimberly finishes her year in
glasses, synthesized from solutionGermany, she will return to the
gel phase, with potential functionalU.S. to begin her graduate studies
ity in optical applications.
The
in inorganic materials at the Uniglasses that Kimberly will be workversity of Washington in Seattle.
ing with in the Eckert lab are yttriTo learn more about
um
aluminobothe Fulbright Prorates doped with
gram or the U.S. DeKimberly is one of over 1,600
rare-earth
elepartment of State’s
ments.
These
U.S. citizens involved in the
Bureau of Educational
types of glasses
and Cultural Affairs,
program
for
the
2011-2012
may be used in
please visit: http://
lasers.
academic year.
fulbright.state.gov
Kimberly learned of the Fulbright
Are you LinkedIn with Wash U Chemistry?
Present and Past Members of the
Department are welcomed to join
the Washington University Department of Chemistry Group on
LinkedIn.
Use this group to get in touch with
your colleagues, network for jobs,
and discuss your current research.
We look forward to seeing you in
our LinkedIn group soon!
Search for Washington University
Department of Chemistry on
www.LinkedIn.com and request to
join the group.
2011, ISSUE 2
C HE MI S T R Y P E R I O D I C A L
Chemistry Department Renovations
A series of renovations in the Chemistry Department have been undertaken in 2011. Soon after classes
ended in May, the Louderman 458
lecture hall was gutted and rehabbed. New walls, carpet, window
coverings, lighting, seats, and A/V
equipment were installed. The seats
for the lecture hall
were installed just
days before classes
began
in
Fall
2011.
The new
lecture hall has
slightly
fe wer
seats but is a
much more inviting place to attend
a Chemistry lecture!
lights have lower energy consumption, a longer lifetime, a smaller
size, and greater durability and reliability than incandescent bulbs.
LEDs consist of a chip of semiconducting material doped with impurities to create a p-n junction; when
an electron meets a hole, it falls into
a lower energy
level and releases
energy in the form
of a photon.
We will soon see
some more changes
around
the
Chemistry Department. This Fall,
renovations to the
Chemistry
Administrative OfIn keeping with Soon this messy old lab space will be renovated as a fice are planned to
the
University’s computational chemistry lab for Prof. Jay Ponder! make the office
(credit, Gary Broyles, WUSTL)
commitment
to
more inviting to
sustainability, the
new students and
lighting was replaced with light
visiting faculty, as well as more
emitting diode (LED) lights. These
functional for our staff. The Hayes
News Around the
Chemistry Department
(continued from page 4)
Sobotka/Charity
News
A Career of Insight and
Innovation at DuPont
(continued from page 3)
Group
Dr. Robert Charity recently was
named a Fellow of the American
Physical Society. Election to APS
Fellowship is recognition by his
peers of his outstanding contributions to physics. Dr. Charity also
became a U.S. citizen in September.
Prof. Lee Sobotka spoke about the
nucle ar disaste r in Ja pa n,
“Fukushima: The Science and
Health Effects of the Nuclear Disaster in Japan,” at the WU Assembly
Series and at the St. Louis Science
Center.
http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2011/sep/centersustainable-materials-chemistry-earns-phase-ii-20million-funding
1
Louderman Hall (credit: Alyssa Hoog, Jack
of Hearts Photography)
PAGE 11
luggage and in other applications,
the first successful use of plastics in
hot water heaters, and some of the
technology and materials used for
military cruise missiles. He traveled worldwide, developing and
marketing products for DuPont. He
produced/wrote 30+ patents and
papers, numerous brochures, and
lots of pamphlets. “When you are in
the Corporate World as I was, you
don’t write for the Journal of the
American Chemical Society.
Instead you write for marketing journals, create brochures, and pen
pamphlets.”
Solenberger’s praise for his Washington University education and
Professor Wahl is almost endless.
He concluded his letter to the Department with the following: “In
conclusion, I can’t imagine where I
would have been without the Wash-
Lab renovation is also scheduled to
begin soon. The McMillen 205 suite
will host Hayes’ graduate student
offices, a laser table, and two new
NMRs for solid state NMR measurements of inorganic materials.
The additions of two new faculty
members, Jay Ponder and Gary
Patti, require even more renovations to lab space. The Ponder labs
and offices will be housed in the 4th
floor of Louderman (Louderman 453
and 455) in the former Taylor lab
space. The Ponder computational
chemistry lab will consist of student
offices and computer spaces. The
Patti labs and offices will be in
McMillen 207 and 208. The installation of several mass spectrometers
and other specialized instrumentation for metabolomics will require
special facilities and utilities. We
look forward to the completion of
these renovations in 6 – 12 months!
ington University Chemistry Department and especially Professor
Wahl. The basic foundation provided me in St. Louis is something I
was able to build on and develop to
the betterment of our World. I do
hope you can agree.”
We agree, and we thank you for
your contributions to electrical and
automotive safety and modern living!
Solenberger won an award for helping develop plastics
for use in microwave ovens.
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
Campus Box 1134
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
NON-PROFIT ORG.
Alumni News?
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Please submit news items to print in the Departmental Newsletter.
ST. LOUIS, MO
We’d love to hear about your careers, lives, and the impact your
PERMIT NO. 2535
Washington University education has had on you. You may submit
news items to Karen Klein at [email protected] or to:
Ms. Karen Klein, Campus Box 1134, One Brookings Drive, St.
Louis, MO 63130.
Washington University Department of Chemistry
Chemistry Periodical
2011, ISSUE 2
Fall 2011
Catalysts for Change:
Gaining Momentum for Women in STEM Fields
Inside this issue:
CHEMISTRY! (Louderman Hall) (credit: Alyssa Hoog, Jack of Hearts Photography)
Welcome Back to WUCHEM, Prof. Gary Patti (continued from page 5)
biological system. Patti looks forward to developing new technologies to go after unmet challenges in the clinic. “I
hope to do something in the lab that won’t only affect theory, but will affect patients.” With the wealth of samples
available at WU Med School and Barnes Hospital, he will have opportunity to study a variety of interests.
Patti is also looking forward to his teaching responsibilities. He will be teaching Biochemistry, “It’s a very interesting
time to teach biochemistry. For the last couple of decades metabolism has been largely overshadowed by excitement
in molecular biology. It seems that now there has been a resurgence of interest in metabolism and new discoveries
are shaping our vision of modern-day biology and medicine.”
Regarding a career in academics, Patti offers advice for aspiring professors: “There are lots of challenges involved – it
can be daunting but if you’re really excited about research they aren’t insurmountable barriers.” The opportunity to
create your own research program and to go wherever your results take you is exciting. Academics are allowed a high
degree of intellectual freedom which is necessary to solve important problems in an interdisciplinary way.
Another reason Patti is excited to return to the Chemistry Department at Washington University?
The annual (now defunct) Faculty-Student softball game at the summer Departmental picnic. “In
my first year of grad school, the Faculty destroyed the grad students. So, we got very serious, and
started having organized practices. In my 2nd year, the game was really close and went into extra
innings, but we were unable to edge the Faculty by a single run on what proved to be a controversial
play.” His grad student team formed an intramural softball team and called it the Adiabats – the Tshirt had an adiabatic curve with baseball bats as the axes and baseballs as the data points.
Sounds like Patti is ready to end the controversy once and for all…… re-match, anyone?
Adiabats Team Uniform
Harnessing the Sun’s Power (continued from page 8)
Oxidation reactions are of significant interest in organic chemistry
because they introduce functionality
into molecules. “Molecules interact
with each other through combination of atoms known as functional
groups,”
Moeller
explains.
“Ketones, alcohols, or amines are all
functional groups. The more functional groups you have on a molecule, the more you can control how
the molecule interacts with others.”1 Members of the Moeller lab
have shown that many types of oxidation reactions can be controlled
using this experimental set-up: recycling of cerium (IV) oxidants used
for amide oxidation, the oxidation of
an enol ether to form a C-glycoside
analog, the oxidation of a vinylsulfide to generate a pyrrolidine
derivative, among others. These
reactions are particularly elegant
because the oxidation potential can
be finely tuned to allow for selective
oxidation to be achieved in complex
molecules.
source
to
drive
industriallyimportant chemical reactions have
caught the eye of the public. The
Moeller group’s publication has
been highlighted in Chemical and
Engineering News, Science Daily,
Physics News, and other scientific
news sources. The Moeller group
plans to continue research in this
arena, investigating ways to apply
this technology to recycling of chemical oxidants.
“Solar electrochemical” reactions
which use the sun as an energy
1
Science Daily, www.sciencedaily.com/
releases/2011/06/110609123340
Fulbright Scholar Kimberly
Hartstein
2
Symposium to Honor
Prof. Weissman
3
A Career of Insight and
Innovation at DuPont
3
News Around the
Chemistry Department
4
Welcome Back to WU,
Prof. Gary Patti!
5
Alumni Spotlight - John
Glennon, Ph.D.
6
Midwest-Great Lakes
Regional ACS Meeting
7
Investigating Glyphosate
Resistance in Plants
8
Harnessing the Sun’s
Power for Oxidations
8
2011 Kennedy Lecurer Prof. Mougi Bawendi
9
Dr. Steven Kinsley
Honored by Student
9
Chemistry Department
Staff News
10
Chemistry Department
Renovations
11
Prof. Rich Loomis beating
graduate student Jen Bartels in
the washers tournament at the
department picnic in June
In Spring 2011, faculty,
postdocs, and graduate
students from the Chemistry Department worked
with collaborators in
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies to develop
and launch Catalysts for
Change: Gaining Momentum for Women in STEM
Fields.
Women in Science Focus
Program.
This program brought
female
ninth-graders
from the St. Louis area to
Washington University’s
campus for a series of day
-long Saturday workshops. Each workshop
focused on a separate area in STEM: Biology/
Biotechnology, Physical
Sciences, or Engineering.
Workshops included activities the students completed in small groups,
facilitated by a female
undergraduate from the
Through a threetiered mentoring
program,
graduate, undergraduate,
and high- Graduate student Hannah Malcolm instructing stuschool
students dents participating in the workshop.
gained leadership
soc. Dir. of Women, Genskills, self-confidence, and
der, and Sexuality Studknowledge of how to sucies) headed up the WU
ceed in STEM fields.
Organizing Team, with
the help of two underGina Frey (Professor of
graduate team leaders
the Practice in Chemistry
from the Women in Sciand Director of The
ence Focus Program,
Teaching Center) and
(continued on page 6)
Barbara
Baumgartner
The participants
also learned about
different paths to
careers in STEM
fields by hearing
presentations from
local female STEM
professionals.
Chair’s Corner
The
Department of
Chemistry
is welcoming
new
faces
and
new spaces. I am pleased
to introduce two new faculty members, Professors
Gary
Patti
(metabolomics) and Jay
Ponder (computational
chemistry), who joined
the Department last summer. We also welcomed
(Senior Lecturer and As-
several new staff members,
Dr.
Megan
Daschbach (Lecturer),
Mr.
Michael
Miller
(Faculty Assistant), Ms.
Cassandra
Parker
(Course Secretary), and
Mr.
James
Smith
(Faculty Assistant). The
Department is also engaged in two faculty
searches, in biological,
physical, and organic
chemistry, broadly defined. Numerous renova-
tions of Department facilities are underway or just
completed, in lecture,
research, and administrative spaces, to accommodate new and existing
activities. This newsletter highlights the many
changes now occurring.
Finally, I note with sadness the passing of Ms.
Maria Littrell, who was
a faithful member of the
Department for seventeen
years.