Spring 2001 In 1991, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was only marginally involved in com- munity outreach. Richard Jones’ occasional alarming demonstrations of chemical wizardry notwithstand- ing, the department was focused inward, on UT stu- dents. But over the next decade, new grant requirements, new personnel, and a new sense of the University’s responsibilities combined to push the department into a new role. It’s safe to say now that nearly every faculty member and many staffers and 2 FROM THE CHAIRMAN just returned from the Spring graduation ceremony for the College of INatural Sciences. Of the 440 students in attendance from seven depart- ments, about 90 students “walked” to publicly receive their Bachelor’s degrees in chemistry or biochemistry; and I had the pleasure of shaking hands and giv- ing out diplomas to these graduating seniors. We had quite a presence! (Many of these students were previously in one of my classes, and I was gratified to see them smiling, since they rarely wore this expression during my lectures. Until that moment, I had worried that these particular facial muscles had atro- phied during their tenure as students.) During the organizational activities in the bowels of the Erwin Center before the march into the arena, I was walking through the “ranks” of students reminding them where the restrooms were located since there was no escape Jim Holcombe once they were seated in the ceremonial grounds. Talking with the students I spotted Olivia Ornelas (’01), who had been a work study student in our office during her first three years at UT. Jokingly I asked, “What are you doing here?” She only beamed and said, “I made it!” Once on the dais I was seated next to Sarah Faulkner (’01), a biochemistry major who would deliver the keynote student address to the new graduates, their families and friends. We had quite a presence! At the same instant that this was taking place, the Ph.D. recipients were being hooded in the Bass Concert Hall. On stage were Prof. Jennifer Brodbelt (the Chemistry graduate adviser) who was being honored as the recipient of an Outstanding Graduate Adviser Award and Barbara McKnight (our departmental graduate coordinator) who was honored as an Outstanding Graduate Coordinator. We had quite a presence! These graduation activities followed on the heels of a dinner held the previous week where Prof. Brent Iverson received the prestigious Jean Holloway Award for Teaching Excellence given to the outstanding teacher in the colleges of liberal arts and natu- ral sciences, the two largest colleges at the University. Also present were previous award recipients, which included six other chemistry and biochemistry faculty, the largest number of winners of any department. We had quite a presence! I take pride in these events since it is too often assumed that faculty at a major uni- versity like UT are only interested in research. Not to be misunderstood, research excel- The Dean’s office provided flowers lence is also a major part of the multifaceted character of the faculty as you will see from for the Chairman to present to sev- the professional accolades received these past few months (p.6), not the least of which is eral College award winners. the announcement of Prof. Allen Bard as the recipient of the 2002 Priestly Medal, the Chairman Holcombe and teaching award winner David Vanden Bout highest honor bestowed by the American Chemical Society. In short, on the national and ham it up with the formal presenta- international science scene you will note that we again had quite a presence! tion of the Dean’s flowers. The attitude and stature exhibited by the faculty and these recent graduates are a (The editorial staff should not be historical accumulation of departmental participation by many individuals, which include held responsible for our former students, friends and faculty of the department. The continued support that provides Chairman’s sense of humor.) job opportunities, scholarships and camaraderie to the current undergraduate and graduate students sponsors a healthy appreciation of the department and a sense of continuity from one class to the next. The production of this year’s graduating scientists is not simply the culmination of efforts by hardworking students and a dedicated faculty and staff. It also required the efforts of many of you who have assisted in the professional development of these young men and women. At the graduation ceremonies, you had quite a presence! —Jim Holcombe 3 4 Marye Anne Fox - CNS Hall of Honor Awardee Former faculty member and current Chancellor of North Education, and will serve next year as national president FCarolina State University, Marye Anne Fox, was the of Sigma Xi, a national science honorary society. recipient of a College of Natural Sciences’ Hall of Honor Marye Anne is married to Jim Whitesell, another former organic faculty member from our department Award on February 22nd, 2001 Marye Anne is familiar to many of (1974-1998) who is currently you, having served as a member of our Professor of Chemistry at NCS department from 1976 until 1998 when she University. Jim and Marye Anne are became the Chancellor of North Carolina the parents of five children between State University. Marye Anne received her them and coauthors of an undergradu- BS in chemistry from Notre Dame College ate textbook for Organic Chemistry. in 1969. After a Master’s degree from Some of their children were on hand Cleveland State University, she was award- for the celebration, and our own Al ed her Ph.D. from Dartmouth College in Bard was the presenter for Marye 1974. Following a postdoctoral appoint- Anne’s award at this year’s banquet. ment at the University of Maryland, she The Hall of Honor Award is joined the faculty as an assistant professor Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, CNS Hall of Honor presented annually to individuals who in 1976, rising to the rank of full professor Awardee, receives congratulations from Dean have distinguished themselves both Mary Ann Rankin and President Larry Faulkner. in 1985. From 1986-1991 she held the professionally and through demon- Rowland Pettit Centennial Professorship in strated interest in UT’s CNS. Chemistry and served as the Director of the Center for Fast Awardees must be alumni, ex-students, former faculty Kinetics Research. In 1992 she was named to the Waggoner members, or outstanding supporters of the College. Marye Regents Chair in Chemistry and became VP for Research at the Anne joins Norman Hackerman and William Shive as for- University in 1994. mer faculty members from our department to be honored Marye Anne is a noted physical organic chemist, having as awardees of this prestigious award. Other awardees this published over 300 refereed papers, 20 book chapters, and year were Robert Boyer, noted geologist and long time three books. She has supervised 27 doctoral and 15 master’s Dean of the CNS, and John Jackson, geologist and philan- degree students, and was awarded a CNS Teaching Excellence thropist. Our congratulations to all three for receiving this Award in 1986. She has served on 14 editorial boards and high honor, and our thanks for their contributions to our more than 70 advisory panels. Her list of honors also includes College and The University of Texas. election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1994, where —Marv Hackert she currently chairs its Committee on Undergraduate Science C&E News The March 26, 2001 issue of C&E News celebrating the 125th birthday of ACS, contains articles by four chemists with UT-Austin ties: John Fourkas, a professor in the chemistry department at Boston College, was a postdoctoral fellow at UT-Austin and wrote “Moving Beyond Our X’s,” p. 158. Bryant C. Nelson, a research chemist in the analytical chemistry division of the National Institute of Standards & Technology, received a B.S. from UT-Austin. His article is entitled, “Making Health Care More Affordable,” p. 288. Colin Nuckols, an assistant professor of organic chemistry at Columbia University who received a B.S. in chemistry from UT-Austin in 1993 authored “The Promise of Organic Molecules,” p. 136. Jonathan Sessler, a professor of chemistry at UT-Austin wrote “Designing Functional Pharmaceuticals,” p. 223. 5 New Faculty - Dmitrii Makarov y research field can be broadly described as theory and computer simulation of quantum Mdynamics in condensed phases and polyatomic molecules. One particular area of current interest involves theoretical studies of single molecules. In traditional chemical kinetics, the essential questions are: •How do the concentrations of the chemicals participating in the reaction evolve in time? •What are the elementary steps of the reaction and how can these be deduced from the kinetic data? With the advent of experimental methods such as scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and single molecule optical spectroscopy, observation of the time evolution of individual molecules became possible. This leads to new kinds of questions, for example: •What is the probability that a single molecule undergoes a chemical transformation? •What are the statistics of such transformations? •What are the statistics of photons emitted by a single photoexcited molecule? •How are the dynamics of a single molecule manifested in its photoemission? We are trying to answer these questions through Monte Carlo simulations of individual molecules. We also study how the dynam- ics of individual molecules can be controlled by lasers. Of special interest to us are the dynamics of proteins. Recent experiments have revealed an intriguing relationship between proteins’ topology and their folding rates. By using kinetic Monte Carlo methods to simulate protein folding, we have been able to shed some light on this relationship. We also use kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to study the mechanical properties of proteins that are stretched at their ends by external forces.