Chemistry N E W S L E T T E R
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University of Michigan Chemistry N E W S L E T T E R and the laboratory. Our success in these Letter from the Chair endeavors is indicated by the all-time I am pleased to send greetings and high number of credit hours taught and Contents to highlight the exciting activities of bachelors degrees awarded by the depart- the Chemistry Department over the past ment last year as well as the increasing Letter from the Chair ........................ 1 year. Our two new faculty members, number of students taking advantage of the Paul Zimmerman and Dominika Zgid, Chemistry minors. We are excited about New Faculty ..................................... 2 add significant strength to the areas of the development of two new majors in the Faculty News.................................... 3 theoretical and materials chemistry. department that increase opportunities for Faculty Profile ................................... 4 Both faculty members are developing undergraduates to experience the chemical innovative theoretical methods based on realm: Interdisciplinary Chemical Sci- Graduate Program News first principles with applications to solids ences and Biomolecular Sciences. Fur- Degrees......................................... 5 (Zgid) and molecular catalysts (Zimmer- thermore, the number of applicants to our Vaughan ......................................... 6 man), as highlighted in this newsletter. graduate program has reached a new high. Finally, the Chemistry faculty members Awards ........................................... 7 We are also proud to announce the have been recognized with a number of promotion of three faculty members Undergraduate Program News teaching awards: Brian Coppola received last year: Kevin Kubarych and Nikolai the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Degrees.......................................... 8 Lehnert to Associate Professor with tenure Teaching as well as the Provost’s Teaching Awards ........................................... 9 and John Wolfe to Professor with tenure. Innovation Prize and John Wolfe received These faculty members were promoted Summer Programs ........................ 9 the LSA Excellence in Education Award based on their outstanding accomplish- and the LSA John Dewey Award. Gifts ................................................. 10 ments in the areas of research, teaching Alumni News .................................. 11 and service. Finally, the research excel- Both educational and research missions lence of the Chemistry faculty members of the Chemistry Department are growing In Memoriam .................................. 12 was recognized with numerous external and thriving, despite budget challenges. Faculty Listing ................................. 14 awards over the past year including: The generous support of our research and Alumni Reply Hashim Al-Hashimi received the Founders teaching efforts by alumni (and others) Form ................. inside back cover Medal from the Conference of Magnetic has become increasingly important for Resonance in Biological Systems; Charles maintaining and enhancing excellence in Donations ..............reply envelope flap L. Brooks, III was the recipient of the all areas of the department, including sup- Protein Society’s Hans Neurath Award, porting undergraduates in research and at- Robert T. Kennedy received the Marcel tracting outstanding faculty. The students Golay Award and the Eastern Analytical and faculty thank all of the benefactors Symposium Award, Mi Hee Lim received of the department, including Professors a Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, Janet Bluemel and John Gladsyz (see Anna K. Mapp received an ACS Arthur C. Alumni News) for their gifts. I hope that Cope Scholar Award and Melanie Sanford you enjoy hearing about the Department was awarded the Theime-IUPAC Prize in in this newsletter and I invite you to visit 2012 Synthetic Organic Chemistry and the Paul the Department anytime that you are in N. Rylander Award. town. I look forward to talking with you. The Regents of the University of Michigan: Julia Donovan Darlow, Laurence B. Deitch, Denise Ilitch, Olivia Best wishes, P. Maynard, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andrew C. Richner, S. In addition to achieving research Martin Taylor, Katherine E. White, Mary Sue Coleman, ex officio. excellence, our Department strives for Carol Ann Fierke, Chair, Jerome and Mary Sue Coleman, president. outstanding pedagogy and innovation in Isabella Karle Professor of Chemistry and The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative teaching chemistry both in the classroom Professor of Biological Chemistry action employer. 2012 U-M DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY Spotlight: Profiles of New Faculty often attainable via other means. However, Faculty News presented by the National Organization for excellence in directing the Sloan many first principles methods are too for Professional Advancement of Black Minority Graduate Program and making We highlight faculty members who have joined the Department since the last newsletter. costly for routine use in realistic systems Hashim Al-Hashimi has received the Chemists and Chemical Engineers. Ted exceptional contributions in mentoring Their appointment speaks well for our future. due to poor scaling with system size. To Founders’ Medal from the International has also been invited to serve as a Sigma minority graduate students. alleviate this problem, our research group Conference of Magnetic Resonance in Xi Distinguished Lecturer. He also Kathleen V. Nolta has received develops and applies state-of-the-art first- Biological Systems (ICMRBS) at their 25th received a 2012 Rackham Distinguished the 2012 Excellence in Concentration Dominika Zgid, Assistant try, physics principles methods and support tools for meeting held in Lyon, France in August Faculty Achievement Award from the UM Advising Award. The award recognizes and materi- the description of molecular catalysts and 2012. The award is made in recognition Rackham Graduate School. Professor her work as a mentor and advisor to PhD: University of Waterloo, Canada als science. solar energy conversion systems. of exceptional contributions by a young Our goal is Robert T. Kennedy received the undergraduate students in the Department PostDoc: Cornell University, Columbia Discovering mechanisms of catalysis scientist for the development and/or to develop 2012 Marcel Golay Award honoring his of Chemistry at UM. University to guide experiments toward increased progress in the field of magnetic resonance theoretical outstanding contributions to important Electronic Structure of Molecules and rates and selectivity. New methods are in biological systems. Ayyalusamy (Rams) Ramamoorthy tools that aspects of chromatography research. Crystalline Systems being developed in the group to navigate received a UM Rackham Faculty give access Charles L. Brooks, III is the 2012 The award was made at the International complex reaction pathways with minimal Recognition Award for 2012. This award Newly emerging “electron correlation” to directly recipient of the Protein Society’s Hans Symposium on Capillary Chromatography computational and human effort. These is given in recognition of his outstanding devices made out of transition metal oxide experimen- Neurath Award. The award recognizes and Electrophoresis held in Riva del tools (one example is the Freezing String contributions to biological solid-state heterostructures (Sr(Zr)TiO3), battery tally rele- an individual who has made recent Garda, Italy on May 27. He also received Method), allow the study and discovery NMR spectroscopy and biophysical materials LiMPO4 (with M = Mn, Fe, vant quan- contributions of unusual merit to basic the 2012 Eastern Analytical Symposium of catalytic processes even with limited chemistry as well as his stellar teaching Co, and Ni) and new molecular magnets tities. We research in the field of protein science, Award for Outstanding Achievements a priori chemical insight. These methods and services to science and the UM. used in quantum computing are at the develop and apply codes that describe including but not restricted to the in Separation Science in November at are applied to difficult energy-related heart of new experimental developments two types of electronic motion (i) weakly chemistry, design, folding, structure or Somerset, NJ. Paul Rasmussen became Professor in materials and chemical sciences. Such problems such as CO2 reduction and meth- biological function of proteins. Brooks Emeritus in 2006 but remains active in correlated electrons originating from the Nancy Kerner is a recipient of the experimental progress poses many ques- ane conversion. This approach identifies was acknowledged at the 26th Annual chemistry. For the past four years he delocalized “wave-like” s- and p-orbitals Sloan Consortium Effective Practice tions to our theoretical understanding. The the strengths and limitations of existing Symposium of the Protein Society in has worked part-time in the laboratory responsible for many electron correlation Award. Nancy and her colleague Brenda answers can be found using a combination catalysts at an atomistic level to aid in San Diego, CA in August with a session of Professor Levi Thompson in the effects in molecules and solids that do not Gunderson received the award for their of modeling and theory to support the the design of improved catalytic systems. in his honor. Department of Chemical Engineering at contain transition metal atoms, (ii) strongly project, “Integration of Technology Into experiment. In our group, to tackle