CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS A Publication of the Department of Chemistry at Illinois Tech

Fall 2020 Letter from the Chair

opportunity to our young chemists. We members: Professor Joy Chong received have solicited our very own Chemistry a four-year National Institutes of Health Alumni Ambassadors who will help us grant for her project titled “Development with local area high school recruitment of Superior Chelation Chemistry for 89Zr- at their respective schools, as well as ImmunoPET Imaging,” and Assistant career counseling for our prospective Professor Andrey Rogachev received an students. While we continue to have a ACS-PRF (Petroleum Research Fund) larger incoming undergraduate population grant award for his work titled “Deep in recent years as compared to previous Understanding of Catalytic Activity through years, we are determined to focus on High-Level Calculations.” building our undergraduate programs even more. Due to the pandemic, we had to postpone the 39th Kilpatrick Lecture to a future Many thanks to Bob Frey (CHEM ’65) for date—stay tuned. creating the Robert E. Frey Jr. Endowed Term Chair in Chemistry, which was As an African proverb says, “Smooth awarded to Associate Professor David seas do not make skillful sailors.” It’s Minh. Congratulations to David for achieving the hard knocks in life that shape us into the first endowed chair position in the something stronger, wiser, and more Department of Chemistry’s recent history. resilient. We are getting through this tough time together. We hope all is well with you We want to also thank alumnus Ted and your families. We want to thank you Brown (CHEM ’50) for initiating the for your continued support and loyalty. Illinois Institute of Technology Chemistry Graduate Fellowship. This fellowship helps I wish you a happy and healthy 2021! Welcome to the eighth annual issue of attract new Ph.D. students, especially Chemistry Elements. I want to start off those who are dedicated to teaching. this letter by first thanking our faculty for We look forward to more gifts to expand Yuanbing Mao their outstanding job changing over to the breadth of this fellowship. We were Professor and Chair online teaching, of both lectures and labs, able to bring in eight new Ph.D. students Department of Chemistry when the closedown was announced in this fall, two of whom are participating March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. overseas until they can get to campus. December 2020 This was a very challenging new way to teach. They are to be recognized Congratulations are due to Katie Leight, for their dedication and success given who was promoted to senior lecturer these unprecedented circumstances. and became associate chair in January. Our department came through well. Katie brings a lot of energy and ideas to Additionally, our research-active faculty the department in her new role and is quickly stepped up to adopt the new well-liked by the students. She is currently research lab protocols, and we have leading our Chemistry Club to deliver managed to keep things running smoothly virtual presentations to local high schools and safely. Thanks also to our students and community colleges for promotional COVER: Conformations of a small who adapted to online instruction. purposes. Katie also helped initiate our molecule bound to a rigid protein Another round of applause is due to Summer Scholars program that hosts high (ribbon). Image created by Associate our alumni, students, faculty, and staff school and community college students Professor of Chemistry David Minh’s who participated in our first-ever virtual who participate in research projects with computational chemistry research group. end-of-the-academic-year party and our research labs. Thanks are due to Ben award ceremony at the end of April. Zion for his three and a half years of Our graduating students had a virtual dedicated service as associate chair. He commencement in May, as you may continues to teach, advise students, and know. These have been challenging times manage our department’s instrumentation. indeed. To help bring back campus fun while some of us are back on campus, we Congratulations to our Assistant Professor held a socially distanced outdoor pumpkin Jean-Luc Ayitou, who was named a carving event and a department contest Researcher to Know for 2020 by the Illinois for Mole Day for students in October. Science and Technology Coalition (ISTC) for his work in organic and photochemistry, Illinois Tech was recently recognized in addition to being elected vice chair of as No. 1 in the Chicago region for the Argonne National Laboratory Center occupational earnings power by The for Nanoscale Materials User Executive Brookings Institution and No. 39 Best Committee. One of his students, Ph.D. Value University in U.S. News & World candidate Young Ju Yun, was not only Report. For these reasons and many voted in as the 2020–21 Kilpatrick more, we are working hard to promote Fellow, but received the Starr/Fieldhouse our undergraduate programs, along with Research Award to pursue collaborative our graduate ones, to bring an excellent work at Argonne National Laboratory. educational tradition and relevant Congratulations also to two other faculty

2 Chemistry’s David Minh Launches Machine Learning Research Through New Chair Position by Linsey Maughan

Associate Professor of Chemistry David Minh is excited to now explore machine Minh has been named the inaugural learning, a process that is increasingly Robert E. Frey Jr. Endowed Chair in being applied in chemistry research and Chemistry, a five-year position that will utilizes data to inform predictions. enable Minh to expand his computational chemistry research in a new direction by “I am aware of work in which machine applying machine learning to chemistry. learning has been used to predict the products of a chemical reaction; reaction The creation of the chair position is the conditions—such as solvents, catalysts, and result of a donation from Frey (CHEM temperature—that optimize the yield of a ’65), an alumnus whose contributions reaction; quantum mechanical ground-state in support of the university also include energies; and binding affinities of protein- funding the remodeling of the chemistry ligand complexes,” Minh says. “I would department’s office suite. Among its like to predict how small organic molecules benefits, the new chair position offers are polarized when binding to proteins. Minh $40,000 per year in research funding, This could affect how tightly they bind and which he says will primarily pay the salary whether a molecule could be a drug.” of a research scientist to help support his new project. As a precursor to his new research, Minh and his colleagues also published a paper Minh joined the faculty in the Department in 2020 in Physical Chemistry Chemical of Chemistry in fall 2013. His research at Physics titled “On the Polarization of Illinois Institute of Technology has focused Ligands by Proteins.” on computational chemistry. “In this paper we used mixed quantum “The main focus of my group is in mechanics/molecular mechanics developing new computational methods calculations to see how much small to predict how tightly small molecules molecules are polarized by their protein bind to proteins,” Minh says. “We also environment,” Minh says. “Part of what model how proteins move and interact I have proposed to do as Frey chair is to with small molecules, working closely with perform similar calculations using fast experimental groups to better understand machine-learning approaches rather than how biological systems work. Our work has computationally expensive quantum implications for drug and protein design.” chemistry calculations.”

Differences in electron density around a small organic ligand embedded in a protein (3fv1 in the protein data bank) opposed to the gas phase. Blue and red contours illustrate the gain and loss of 0.0005 Bohr^{-3} of electron density.

3 Device Characterization of Dye Summer Learning Sensitized Solar Cell.” Program for Chicago In the award letter, Vice Provost Public School Teachers for Research Fred Hickernell writes that this project “takes Chicago Public Schools advantage of Ayitou’s recent elementary and middle school work on synthesis of a dye that science teachers were linked exhibits an excited electron with Illinois Tech scientists and state that is a triplet exciton.” engineers in August as part of a collaboration with the Academy “Such an exciton has a much for Urban School Leadership longer lifetime and thereby (AUSL) and National Louis may be suitable to enhance the University (NLU). conversion efficiency of dye sensitized solar cells,” Hickernell Associate Professor Adam writes. “This is an important Hock ran a module with biology advancement if successful, with graduate student Mohsin Ishaq potential commercialization.” titled “Density—Not Just for Ayitou Named ISTC Congratulations to Boats and Rocks!” This event Researcher to Know Students involved in this Katie Leight stemmed from a collaboration project will be trained between Illinois Tech, AUSL, The Illinois Science and in organic synthesis and Katie Leight was promoted to and NLU, which received a Technology Coalition (ISTC) photovoltaic device fabrication. senior lecturer and associate U.S. Department of Education named Assistant Professor This is an interdisciplinary effort chair in January 2020. She Teacher Quality Partnership Jean-Luc Ayitou as a Researcher involving the Department of also manages the organic Grant and brought in Illinois Tech to Know for 2020 for his Chemistry and the Department chemistry labs. Leight joined as a subcontractor. work in organic materials and of Mechanical, Materials, and the department in fall 2017 after photochemistry. His lab pursues Aerospace Engineering at receiving her Ph.D. in chemistry the creation of novel organic Illinois Tech. from the University of Arizona. chromophores for applications ranging from solar energy to sustainable chemical syntheses. The ISTC is a “member-driven nonprofit that measures, connects and advocates for the ACHM Program Affiliates Gather at PITTCON 2020 and Axion Labs state’s research and innovation community.” The Researchers Affiliates of the Illinois Tech to Know list is released annually Analytical Chemistry program in conjunction with the R&D (ACHM) attended Pittcon issue of ISTC’s Illinois Innovation (Pittsburgh Conference on Index. This recognition places Analytical Chemistry and Ayitou among a stellar group of Applied Spectroscopy), which leading researchers across the took place from March 1–5 state of Illinois. in Chicago. The group also gathered after the conference The ISTC held a virtual event on March 2 at Axion Labs, in September 2020 for their located in Chicago, for an event announcements, bringing hosted by Lee Polite, president together university and of the company. Present industry professionals, startups, were: Cody Beaumont, senior Lee Polite talks to ACHM members at his company, Axion Labs, Inc. nonprofits, and government director of research and quality officials interested in scientific control, Doterra Inc.; Mary Ellen research and commercialization. McNally, global R&D technical As stated in the award letter fellow, analytical sciences, from ISTC, this recognition FMC Corporation; Brian Leaf, “should amplify Ayitou’s director of analytical R&D at Teva research efforts and bring Pharma; Diep Nguyen, ACHM him closer to his goals for program director; Yuanbing Mao, environmental chemistry and Department of Chemistry chair; converting solar radiation into ACHM student Joseph Lustig; useful energy.” alumna Ilana Lemberger (M.A.S. ACHM ’13); and Amandeep Ayitou was also awarded an Sandhu, assistant professor in Educational and Research the Institute for Food Safety and Initiative Fund from Illinois Health at Illinois Tech. Beaumont, Institute of Technology’s McNally, and Leaf are members [Left to right] Mary Ellen McNally, Yuanbing Mao, Joseph Lustig, Ilana Lemberger, Office of Sponsored Research of the ACHM Industrial Board. Cody Beaumont, Brian Leaf, Diep Nguyen, Lee Polite, and Amandeep Sandhu. and Programs for his project Polite is an adjunct instructor in proposal, “Solar Energy the Department of Chemistry. Conversion Using Triplet Excitons: Synthesis and 4 ‘Green Chemistry’ have a positive impact on “Organic chemistry, which following the same protocol in the environment. Professor Ayitou introduced industry settings. Research Exploring me to during my freshman Possibility of Using Will Blodgett (CHEM, CHE, M.S. year, became one “Water cannot be used CHEM 4th Year), a chemistry of my favorite subjects,” to dissolve many organic Water as a Solvent and chemical engineering Blodgett says. “I talked with compounds, leading many by Linsey Maughan double-major who is enrolled him after class early on in the industries to use large amounts in the accelerated master’s semester, when he introduced of organic solvents, which New research underway degree program in chemistry, me to the organic-water are more harmful to the in Assistant Professor of is leading the project. biphasic project, the principles environment,” Blodgett says. Chemistry Jean-Luc Ayitou’s Blodgett, whose passion of green chemistry, and his “With the addition of phase AJA Laboratory explores the since high school has been interest in photochemistry. It all transfer nanocavities in feasibility of using water as a environmental-based science, aligned perfectly.” water, we are able to use solvent, a “green chemistry” became Ayitou’s advisee after a much smaller amount of project that, if adopted in discovering his professor’s As Ayitou describes it, green organic solvent.” industrial settings, could work in the areas of green chemistry protocols “aim at chemistry and photochemistry. mimicking Mother Nature After the research is complete, with an emphasis on reducing Ayitou and Blodgett hope to chemical wastes downstream.” publish their findings. Ayitou They are “an integral part” of says he is confident the biphasic the research projects underway reaction technique will prove in Ayitou’s lab, he says. viable alongside other green chemical synthetic processes. Blodgett spent two years preparing for the biphasic project “We hope to integrate this new with support from his lab approach with existing green partner, Alysia DeSimone (CHE, chemistry techniques to raise M.S. ENVE 4th Year). Their initial awareness for environmentally testing with milliliter scales was benign synthetic protocols,” “very promising,” Ayitou says. Ayitou says. “These can be This fall Blodgett has begun implemented in the industry in testing large-scale reactions order to minimize the use of to using water as a solvent in toxic reagents or to reduce Illinois Tech student Will Blodgett (CHEM, CHE, M.S. CHEM 4th Year) works order to gauge the feasibility of toxic waste.” in Assistant Professor of Chemistry Jean-Luc Ayitou’s laboratory.

Chemistry Students Environmental Assistant Professor Visit Nalco Water Chemistry Off to a Jean-Luc Ayitou was Chemical Industry Good Start elected as the vice chair Company of the Argonne National This fall Professor Yuanbing Laboratory Center for On February 4 Illinois Tech Mao taught CHEM 472: Nanoscale Materials User chemistry students visited the Environmental Chemistry, the Executive Committee. R&D lab of Nalco Water, an department’s first environmental The Center for Nanoscale Ecolab company located in chemistry course offered in Materials (CNM) User Naperville, Illinois. Nalco is a recent years. As part of the Executive Committee (UEC) supplier of water, energy, and course, Mao hosted two fellows “serves as an advocacy air improvement solutions and from the Metropolitan Water group for the CNM and its services. Another entity is Nalco Reclamation District of Greater user community, provides Water University, a unique, Chicago: Ali Oskouie, senior advice to the CNM Director high-tech learning environment scientist, and Joseph Kozak, Chong Receives on matters affecting dedicated to developing supervising environmental NIH Award the user community, expertise to minimize water research scientist. Kozak gave a and ensures good talk entitled “Wastewater 101” usage. They were hosted by Professor Hyun-Soon “Joy” communication between and Oskouie presented “Water Francois Battlo, R&D director at Chong received an award the CNM user community Chemistry and Wastewater.” Nalco, who arranged a tour that for her research titled and CNM leadership. Illinois Tech has a longstanding included an exhibition room with “Development of Superior The CNM-UEC is also collaborative relationship with equipment, photos, samples, Chelation Chemistry for 89Zr- responsible for organizing the Water Reclamation District. and ideas. The students were ImmunoPET Imaging” from the the scientific content of introduced to the heat/cool water National Institutes of Health the annual joint Advanced system and related detection (NIH/1R01EB029800-01A1). Photon Source (APS)/CNM methods for water components. This is a four-year grant with the Users Meeting.” They viewed a research work current award totaling $403,933. area with XRD, RAMA, UV-Vis, This is a notable achievement microscopy, HPLC, and ICP-MS, for Chong, who has consistently among other instrumentation. gained funding from the NIH in Thank you to Battlo for past years. hosting this informative visit, giving insight into a career option for chemists. 5 Yun Receives 2020 Starr Fieldhouse Award Young Ju Yun, Ph.D. candidate and research assistant in Assistant Professor Jean-Luc Ayitou’s lab, is the recipient of the 2020 Starr/ Fieldhouse Award from the Office of Research at Illinois Tech. Her proposal, “Energy Upconversion Using Organic Donor-Acceptor Dyads: Synthesis and Photophysical Characterization of the Dyads,” featured a strong research plan to collaborate with the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory. Students guessed at the Congratulations to Our number of moles in this Yun also received a third place flask to win the ACS stuffed 2020-21 Kilpatrick Fellow poster presentation award at the “Professor Molarity” for Young Ju Yun, Ph.D. Candidate second Frontiers in Photochemistry Mole Day, October 23. Conference held in February in Nassau, Bahamas.

Influit Energy Startup Co-Founded by Chemistry’s Elena Timofeeva Wins DoD Ventilator Contract by Linsey Maughan A local startup co-founded by incubator that exists to support ventilators will be submitted Illinois Institute of Technology local makers and startups. He for testing by month 10 of the Professor of Physics Carlo then began assembling a team project, and the entire value Segre, Research Associate of technical experts to move supply chain will be Food and Professor of Chemistry the project forward regardless Drug Administration approved Elena Timofeeva, and two- of the competition’s outcome. within a year,” Katsoudas says. time physics alumnus John After winning first place in “I hope this design will be Katsoudas (PHYS ’97, M.S. the hackathon, Katsoudas and sufficiently low cost to disrupt ’04) has been awarded a 20-plus volunteers spent three the existing supply chains contract with the United weeks assembling a benchtop and force a change on how States Department of Defense prototype. The ventilator design these critical medical devices to produce low-cost ventilators is open-source and license-free, are made available to lower- in response to the COVID-19 making it is easy to reproduce income communities and the pandemic. The startup, called at a far lower cost than market developing world.” Influit Energy and founded in models. The parts needed to 2014, develops flow batteries build the ventilator are made with nanofluids. widely accessible. Katsoudas serves as chief executive officer; Segre is the After completing the prototype, Katsoudas submitted the design chief technology officer; and the supply chain would catch to a Department of Defense Timofeeva serves as chief up—and then the supply chain solicitation to develop ventilators operation officer and director wasn’t catching up. There was and was recently awarded a of research. this call out to the auto industry $1.7 million contract to fund to start making [ventilators]. I The ventilator concept was the design’s refinement and said to myself, why don’t we just developed by Katsoudas this commercialization. The contract build a ventilator? It’s nowhere past spring. will begin on December 1, 2020. near as complicated as the “COVID-19 hit and then there things that we do day to day.” “After the mass-producible was a ventilator shortage,” device and its quality- Katsoudas submitted his Katsoudas says. “They’re not management systems are design to a hackathon hosted that complicated, so I thought mapped out, the first five by mHUB, a Chicago-based

6 2019–20 Graduate Student Awards Become an Alumni Ambassador for Illinois Tech Chemistry! Dear Illinois Tech Chemistry Alum, I hope that you and your family are all staying well during this very challenging time. As the chair of the Department of Chemistry, I am writing today in this time of need to encourage you to become an Illinois Tech Chemistry Alumni Ambassador. With your Scarlet Teaching Chemistry Hawk pride, passion, and love, here are a few more formal Assistant Award Department ways to give back by dedicating your precious time to us: Damola Taye Service Award Shuaib Young Ju Yun 1. Communicating with admitted chemistry students in your area (by in-person or virtual meeting, phone call, etc.) 2. Referring prospective students to the chemistry 2019–20 Undergraduate Student Awards programs at Illinois Tech 3. Attending regional college fairs and visiting high schools in your area As you may have heard, Illinois Tech has seen a decrease in our international graduate student enrollment at present, and now—more than ever—we need to increase our undergraduate population, including in the Department of Chemistry. By meeting with high school students, you can share your campus memories and give examples of how your Illinois Junior Award Senior Award Tech education prepared you for your career. An Illinois Aaron Gregory Ashton Dato Tech Chemistry Alumni Ambassador can affect prospective students in a meaningful and personal way, making a dramatic difference in our enrollment. Kilpatrick Tuition Scholarship Awards Another way to serve as an Illinois Tech Chemistry Alumni Ambassador is to offer career counseling for our current students and help them navigate the highly complex and competitive job market. You can help us educate them about your industry and share some of your professional experiences. Help us to get our special equation across to prospective undergraduate chemistry students: big city + small intimate class setting = successful students!

William Blodgett Victoria Sabo Abigail Schulz We hope you will join our chemistry campaign. We would very much appreciate your generosity by giving your time and sharing your enthusiasm for chemistry and an Illinois Tech degree. I look forward to hearing from you soon— please do not hesitate to reach out. When you contact me, I will recommend you to our Office of Undergraduate 2019–20 Degree Recipients Admission for becoming an Illinois Tech Admission Alumni Ambassador (https://admissions.iit.edu/undergraduate/ Bachelor of Science Certificate—Regulatory alumni). In this way, you will be additionally: in Chemistry Science Ashton Dato, Keara Rigg, Abigail Marsha Bures i. Attending Undergraduate Admission events Schulz, Andrew Shahidehpour throughout the year Master of Chemistry in ii. Staying updated with a bimonthly newsletter from Master of Science Materials Chemistry the Alumni Association Nouf Safar H. Almotari, Nalah Karla Torruellas Alqahtani, Dana Alramahi, iii. Becoming part of the formal organization, which Khawlah Hamad A. Alzahid, Doctor of Philosophy recruits the future alumni who will continue the Hanyin Zhang, Shuyao Zheng Shuyang Liu (Adviser: Andrey traditions of Illinois Institute of Technology Rogachev), Elahe Moazzen iv. Joining Alumni Chapters to stay connected with Master of Science in (Carlo Segre), Golbarg Illinois Tech in multiple ways Analytical Chemistry Mohammadiroozbahani (Xiyun Megha Chandrashekha, Wai “Richard” Guan), Siyuan Ren Best regards, Cheung, Kristin DeAngeles, (Hyun-Soon “Joy” Chong), Teresa Di Dio, Meagan Yunjie Xu (Adam Hock), Youwen Yuanbing Mao Eggebeen, Jordan Fritz, Zhang (Xiyun “Richard” Guan), Professor and Chair Elisabeth McKenna, Jansen Yiqing Zhao (Adam Hock) Department of Chemistry Seheult, Michelle Workman [email protected]

7 Department of Chemistry Robert A. Pritzker Science Center, Rm 136 3101 S. Dearborn Street Chicago, IL 60616

Chemistry Pumpkin Carving October 2020

To contact the Department of Chemistry, phone us at 312.567.3278 or email [email protected]