2006 Newsletter
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Michigan hemistry C N E W S L E T T E R Letter from the Chair I am pleased to send greetings and to To move forward with some of these ideas, Contents highlight the activities of the Chemistry we organized an alumni dinner associated Department this past year – my first full with Professor Morris’ Sokol Award lecture Letter from the Chair ........................ 1 year as Chair of the Department. Faculty last spring. Furthermore, we are organiz- Advisory Board Meeting .................... 3 and graduate student recruiting and depart- ing an alumni event this spring (May 11 New Faculty ..................................... 4 mental development activities continue to & 12; see attached story) to celebrate the be major priorities. I am pleased to report 150th anniversary of the establishment of Faculty News.................................... 7 that the Department had tremendous success a Chemistry laboratory at the University 150th Birthday ................................... 8 on these fronts. of Michigan. This weekend will include Graduate Program News The Chemistry Department and I are research seminars, educational seminars very thankful for the receipt of a significant and a poster session to highlight ongoing Graduate Awards .......................... 8 bequest from the wills of Margaret and efforts in the department. This will be Graduate Degrees........................ 11 held in conjunction with the annual Pfizer Herman Sokol. These funds are being used GS Council News ......................... 13 to establish an endowed Professorship in symposium on May 11. In addition, the Chemistry entitled the Margaret and Herman Department will be awarded a 2006 Cita- Undergraduate Program News Sokol Professorship in Medicinal (or Syn- tion for Chemical Breakthroughs from the REU Program ............................... 14 Division of the History of Chemistry of the thetic) Chemistry as well as two endowed Undergraduate Awards ................ 15 graduate fellowships entitled the Margaret American Chemical Society in recognition and Herman Sokol Fellowship Fund in the of work by Moses Gomberg. Professor Undergraduate Degrees .............. 17 Chemical Sciences. In addition, the Sokols Harold Kroto, awarded the 1996 Nobel Gifts ................................................. 18 Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of provided funds to LSA for a faculty award Alumni News .................................. 19 and to Rackham for a Summer Graduate fullerene, will be the keynote speaker for Fellowship. These endowed positions in this event. Please save these dates. De- In Memoriam .................................. 20 Chemistry provide a great boost to our tailed information about this event will be Faculty Listing ................................. 22 recruiting efforts and a lasting memorial provided early next year. Alumni Reply to the Sokol family. My colleagues and I are very proud Form ................. inside back cover The Chemistry Department is interested that we hired three outstanding junior in strengthening contacts with alumni and faculty candidates who started as assistant alumnae. To this end, Bob Kuczkowski professors in Chemistry on August 1. With and I organized a meeting last fall for the these hires, the Department has a cohort of 2005-2006 department’s external advisory board, and 11 assistant professors (1/3 female). Dr. other interested alums where we discussed Nicolai Lehnert received his Ph.D. from ways to enhance our alumni outreach efforts. the Institute of Inorganic and Analytical The Regents of the University of Michigan: David A. Brandon, Laurence B. Deitch, Olivia P. Maynard, Re- Michigan Chemistry Celebrates its 150th becca McGowan, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andrew C. Richner, S. Martin Taylor, Katherine E. White, Mary Sue Coleman, ex Birthday in May, 2007 officio. Mary Sue Coleman, president. The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative See page 8 action employer. 2006 U-M DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY Chemistry at Johannes Gutenberg Uni- Karbstein received her Ph.D. degree from been promoted from Assistant Professor versity, Mainz, Germany working with the Biochemistry Department at Stanford to Associate Professor with tenure: Eitan Drs. F. Tuczek and P. Gutlich and was a University where she was awarded a Geva, Anna Mapp and Adam Matzger. postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Boehringer Ingelheim Predoctoral Fel- All three have established themselves as Professor Ed Solomon in the Chemistry lowship working with Professor Daniel outstanding teachers and researchers. The Department at Stanford. Following this, Herschlag. She then moved to the labora- faculty, staff and students of the Chemistry he moved to Christian-Albrechts Univer- tory of Professor Jennifer Doudna at the Department applaud the outstanding ef- sity Kiel, Germany where he completed University of California, Berkeley as a forts, summarized below, of these newly his Habilitation with Professor F. Tuczek. Damon-Runyon Postdoctoral fellow. At promoted faculty members. Throughout his career, Dr. Lehnert has the University of Michigan, Dr. Karbstein Professor Geva has garnered praise and focused on synthesizing and character- has been recognized as a Biological Sci- respect as one of the best young theoreti- izing inorganic complexes that model the ences Scholar. Katrin is an expert in the cal chemists in the country. He has been active sites of important metalloenzymes. function of RNA and RNA-protein com- a leader in developing both methods At the University of Michigan he proposes plexes and in her own research program and theory in the simulation of quantum to investigate the synthesis, function and she plans to investigate the assembly of dynamics of molecules in the condensed degradation of nitric oxide in the bio- eukaryotic ribosomes at the molecular phase. Within the Chemistry Department, sphere by synthesizing heme-nitrosyl level combining enzymology techniques, Eitan is playing a key leadership role model complexes and investigating their chemical biology tools and yeast genetics in the creation of a first-rate theoretical electronic structures and reactivities using to dissect the roles of proteins required for chemistry group. He has been active in spectroscopic methods and density func- correct assembly of the small ribosomal recruiting both graduate students and tion calculations. As part of his start-up subunit. Katrin is an outstanding addi- faculty in the area of Physical Chemistry. package, the Chemistry Department and tion to the Chemical Biology faculty and Professor Geva is an enthusiastic teacher the College of Literature, Science and Arts significantly strengthens the subgroup of who brings humor to his physical chem- have provided funds to purchase magnetic Chemistry faculty whose research focuses istry lectures. circular dichroism and resonance raman on the structure and function of RNA. spectrometers which will significantly Professor Mapp has been praised as a Our third recruit, Dr. Kate Carroll, creative researcher and leader in the area enhance the spectroscopic facilities in the was hired jointly with the Life Sciences department. Dr. Lehnert is an important of Chemical Biology, ranking among the Institute at the University of Michigan. best academicians in her peer group. She addition to the Department’s research effort Dr. Carroll received her Ph.D. degree in inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry. has received numerous awards, notably from the Stanford University Biochemis- the 2007 Eli Lilly Award (ACS), the As part of our ongoing effort to further try Department where she worked in the 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for strengthen the Chemical Biology research laboratories of both Professor Dan Her- Scientists & Engineers (along with UM group in Chemistry, we hired two new schlag and Professor Susan Pfeffer as an chemistry professor Melanie Sanford) faculty members in this area. Dr. Katrin American Heart Association fellow. As a and the 2006 Class of 1923 Memorial Damon-Runyon postdoctoral fellow in the Teaching Award (LSA). Anna’s research laboratory of Professor Carolyn Bertozzi is at the interface of organic chemistry, Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley biochemistry and medicinal chemistry she focused on identifying pathogenic Newsletter where she has focused on the synthe- pathways in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. sis, discovery and mechanism of small is published once a year by the Department Dr. Carroll has also been designated a molecules that can mimic the function of Chemistry at the University of Michigan, University of Michigan Biological Sci- Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1055 of biological macromolecules to activate ences Scholar. Kate’s research focuses on gene transcription. Professor Mapp has problems at the intersection of chemical been active in graduate education where biology, organic chemistry and medicinal she has contributed to the development chemistry. She is particularly interested of the new Interdepartmental Graduate in investigating novel metabolic pathways Program in Chemical Biology, worked to Printed on Recycled Paper that can be targeted for anti-tuberculosis bring a more diverse student population therapy and in developing new chemical into our graduate program and now serves tools to identify and study oxidative post- as Chair of the Graduate Committee. Chair: Carol A. Fierke translational modifications associated with Editor: Robert Kuczkowski, Tim Wade age and neurodegenerative diseases. Kate Professor Matzger has