Newsletter November 2014

Santa Clara Valley Section American Chemical Society Volume 36 No. 11

NOVEMBER 2014 NEWSLETTER TOPICS November Seminar Meeting • November Seminar Meeting: Come Come to a Celebration of the Periodic Table! to a Celebration of the The periodic table has been a mainstay addition, over 40 students from local colleges Periodic Table! in classrooms for over 100 years. will exhibit posters on elements. See what • Chair's Message Students are taught about the way the ele- they have to say about their favorite element! • Understanding Asymmetric Phase ments are presented and how their posi- Transfer Catalysis Through tions predict their properties. But what Chemoinformatics about the history of the table? Was Dmitri Chair's Message • Professor Scott E. Denmark Mendeleev really the first person to propose The Recipient of the 2014 the Harry this idea? The format of the table enabled www.nobel.se in chemis- and Carol Mosher Award scientists to predict the properties of as yet try was announced in • November Seminar Meeting undiscovered elements. The tales of the October. • Chemistry Quiz periodic table fill books. Come to Foothill (Howard Hughes • New Members for October College on November 13 to hear some of Medical Institute), Stefan these stories and celebrate the periodic W. Hell (Max Plank table’s history and significance. Institute for Biophysical The Santa Clara Valley Section has elect- Chemistry), and William E. Moerner ed to sponsor the elements scandium (Sc) and (Stanford University) won the prize for “the vanadium (V). With 95 total votes, these ele- development of super-resolved fluorescence ments garnered the most votes, with the most microscopy". I always look forward to the likely reason being that the symbols comprise announcement by the Nobel committee the abbreviation for our local section: Santa since it gives me an opportunity to learn Clara (Sc) Valley (V). After a talk on the peri- about seminal, albeit historical, develop- odic table, students will give presentations on ments in different fields of chemistry. As Sc and V. Come hear what they have to say with many Nobel research projects, this one about these two transition metal elements. In continued on page 3

RESERVATION FORM Foothill College Periodic Table Dinner and Poster Session Foothill College Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering Building, November 13 Deadline for reservations: Thursday, November 6 Name(s): ______Please list all names so we can make a name tag for every member of your family.

______Telephone No.: (______)______Number of Adults at $16.00...... ______x $16.00 = $______Number of of Students Not Doing a Poster at $5.00 ...... ______x $5.00 = $______Total Amount Enclosed ...... $______Make check payable to: Santa Clara Valley Section – ACS Mail check and reservation form to: Karl Marhenke, 1710 Wilshire Drive, Aptos, CA 95003-2836 Note: our usual dinner meeting discounts (students, job-seekers, 50+ members, members attending first section meeting) apply to this meeting just as they do to our regular dinner meetings. Chemistry (ACS), and the Harry and Carol Professor Scott E. Denmark Mosher Award (Santa Clara Section, ACS). Recipient of the 2014 the Harry and Carol Mosher Award He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Scott E. Denmark was born in ment and application of tandem het- Chemistry and the American Chemical New York on 17 June 1953. He erodiene cycloadditions for the syn- Society. He has received numerous honorary obtained an S. B. degree from M.I.T. thesis of complex natural (alkaloids) lectureships and visiting professorships and in 1975 and his graduate studies were and unnatural (fenestranes, phase has served on many editorial advisory boards. carried out at the ETH-Zürich under transfer catalysts) nitrogen containing He edited Volume 85 of Organic Syntheses, the direction of Professor Albert compounds. In recent years, his was Editor of Volumes 22-25 of Topics in Eschenmoser, culminating in a D. Sc. group has investigated the use of che- Stereochemistry and was a founding Associate Tech degree in 1980. That same year moinformatics to identify and opti- Editor of Organic Letters (1999-2004). In he began his career as assistant professor at the mize catalysts for a variety of organic and 2008 he became Editor in Chief and University of Illinois. He was promoted to organometallic reactions. President of Organic Reactions, Inc. associate professor in 1986, full professor in Professor Denmark has won a number of Representative Publications 1987 and then in 1991 named the Reynold honors for both research and teaching. These (out of over 340) C. Fuson Professor of Chemistry. include: A. P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, 1. The Interplay of Invention, Discovery, Professor Denmark is primarily interested NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, Development and Application in Organic in the invention of new synthetic reactions Stuart Pharmaceuticals Award, A. C. Cope Synthetic Methodology: A Case Study J. and elucidating the origins of stereocontrol in Scholar Award (ACS), Alexander Von Org. Chem. (Perspective) 2009, 74, novel, asymmetric reactions. The current Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, Pedler 2915-2927. emphasis in his laboratories focuses on the Lecture and Medal (RSC), the ACS Award 2. Mechanistic Duality in Palladium- relationship between structure, reactivity and for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions of stereoselectivity in a variety of organoelement Chemistry, the Yamada-Koga Prize, the Prelog Aryldimethylsilanolates. Intermediacy of processes. He has pioneered the concept of Medal (ETH-Zürich), the H. C. Brown an 8-Si-4 Arylpalladium(II) Silanolate chiral Lewis base activation of Lewis acids for Award for Creative Research in Synthetic (with R. C. Smith) J. Am. Chem. Soc. catalysis in main group synthetic organic Methods (ACS), Robert Robinson Lecture 2010, 132, 1243-1245. chemistry. His group has also developed palla- and Medal (RSC), the ISHC Senior Award in 3. Silicon-Based Cross-Coupling Reactions in dium-catalyzed cross-couplings with organo- Heterocyclic Chemistry, Paul Karrer the Total Synthesis of Natural Products functional silicon compounds. In addition, his Lectureship (Uni Zürich), the Frederic Stanley (with J. H.-C. Liu) Angew. Chem. Int. research program encompasses the develop- Kipping Award for Research in Silicon Ed. 2010, 49, 2978-2986.

Understanding Asymmetric Phase Transfer November Seminar Catalysis Through Chemoinformatics Meeting Although asymmetric phase transfer substituents in a convergent region of space Date: Thursday, November 13, 2014 catalysis has been known and practiced for using parallel synthesis methods to generate over 25 years, the fundamental issues of what large libraries of ammonium ions. The chiral Time: 6:00 p.m. Social Hour and constitutes reactive and selective phase transfer ammonium salts are evaluated for their cata- Poster Display catalysts are still unknown. This lecture will lytic potential by standard kinetic and analyti- 7:00 p.m. Dinner describe a multifaceted program designed to cal methods. A Quantitative Structure- 8:00 p.m. Presentation learn the “rules” that govern rate and enanti- Selectivity Profile is developed to explain the Location: Foothill College oselectivity for simple phase transfer catalyzed roles of the different substituents so that the Physical Science and alkylation reactions. The approach involves most important controlling features can be Engineering Center the creation of different chiral scaffolds for systematically identified and their properties (PSEC 4212) quaternary ammonium salts that are embel- incorporated in designs for more reactive and 12345 El Monte Road lished with a variety of different functional selective catalysts. Los Altos Hills, CA Cost: $16.00 Reservations: www.scvacs.org or Dr. Ashley Piekarski [email protected] Deadline for reservations is Thursday, November 6th. If you are unable to honor your reservation please cancel by Wednesday, November 12th. Chair's Message, continued from front page combines chemistry and physics. been announced.) The Bay Area usually has Interestingly, the application of this break- a prizewinner or two and this year, one of through has been in biology. As I have men- the awardees, William Moerner of Stanford Chemistry Quiz Somali tribesmen and other groups tioned in the past (i.e., my Chair’s message University shared the prize for Chemistry. have used this molecule to poison from November 2000), the remarkable To recognize top-notch researchers in the hunting arrows. A dart tipped with thing about the Nobel Prizes is that they not Bay Area, including Monterey Bay, I would this molecule can bring down a Hip- only capture the attention of scientists, but like to hear your nominations for Nobel- popotamus as the result of respira- the imagination of the public as well. Even quality research. If you were to nominate a tory and/or cardiac arrest. What is those people who are not familiar with sci- person or people for a prize, who would it the common name of this molecule? ence and scientific research know that win- be, what is their research topic and why is it ning a Nobel Prize means something big. important? Who do you think will get a The prizes are a fantastic opportunity to Nobel Prize in the future? Who do you educate the public on the contributions of think deserves a Nobel, but may not get chemistry and science to society. And in one? Send in your nominations and I will reviewing news articles, they have done just print the best ones next month. that: the articles present a description of the Remember to vote in the ACS Last Month's Quiz scientific breakthrough and why it is impor- National Elections by November 14. Answer: Technetium tant. The existence of this element was This year, three awardees are from the confirmed in 1936 by Carlo Perrier US, three from Japan, two from Norway, Happy Thanksgiving and Emilio Segrè examining dis- and one from each of Romania, France, carded radioactive parts from Ernest India, and Pakistan. (As of this writing, the Lawrence's cyclotron. It is the lightest awardees of the Economics Prizes have not element with no stable isotopes.

Welcome to the Santa Clara Valley Section of ACS Each month the section receives a often the 3rd Thursday of the month at a spreadsheet from national ACS with the local spot, somewhat convenient to the names of members new to our section. The entire section. If you are unable to attend in members are either new to ACS, have trans- the evening, perhaps you would join us for ferred in from other areas, or are the newest an outreach event, like judging a science fair, members -- students. To welcome you to participating in the Chemistry Olympiad, the section and get to know you, the or a National Chemistry Week event in Executive Committee offers new members a October. Then, there is our annual wine free dinner! To encourage you to attend a tasting and awards picnic in July. The local monthly section seminar meeting, we would section is a volunteer organization. Please like you to be our guest. When you register, attend an event, volunteer to help, and get make certain to mention that you are a new to know your local fellow . member and you and a spouse (or friend) Welcome! will be our guests. The seminar meetings are v v v New Members for October Dr. Deeba Ansari Steven A. Henck Dr. Jonathan S. Steckel Raymond Francis Berkeley Chao-I Hung Dr. Benjamin Stokes Tao Chen Amandeep Kaur Mihai Ioan Truica Zhi Cheng Sujit S. Mahajan Bryan G. Vo Christian Lyns Etienne James Thomas Masters Katherine Leigh Walker Marc Fasnacht Yasuo Miyazawa Sarah Weaver Jia Gao Andrea Morris Dr. Todd A. Wenderski Brad Anthony Haubrich Priera Panescu Steven Akira Yamada Dr. Maija Iris Heller Soheil Pourshahian SANTA CLARA VALLEY SECTION AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY P.O. Box 395, Palo Alto, CA 94302

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SANTA CLARA VALLEY SECTION FUTURE MEETINGS 2014 Section Officers Chair Ean Warren 650-329-4554 [email protected] Nov 13 Celebration of the Foothill College Chair Elect Ashley Piekarski 408-855-5269 [email protected] Periodic Table Past Chair Peter Rusch 650-961-8120 [email protected] Buffet Dinner and Secretary Karl Marhenke 831-688-4959 [email protected] Student Poster Session Treasurer Ihab Darwish 650-594-1654 [email protected] Nov 15/Dec 6 Hayward Fault Walking Tour: Tule Councilors Ponds at Tyson Lagoon 2012-2014 Abby Kennedy 209-640-2005 [email protected] Fremont Community Center 2012-2014 Ean Warren 650-329-4554 [email protected] http://msnucleus.org/haywardfault/hayward.html 2013-2015 Linda Brunauer 408-554-6947 [email protected] Nov 29 Science Saturday: Monarch Magic 2013-2015 Sally Peters 650-854-4614 [email protected] 2013-2015 Peter Rusch 650-961-8120 [email protected] Pacific Grove Museum of Natural 2014-2016 George Lechner 408-226-7262 [email protected] History 2014-2016 Herb Silber 408-924-4954 [email protected] www.pgmuseum.org/museum-events/2014/11/29/ science-saturday-monarch-magic Alternate Councilors 2012-2014 David Parker 408-615-4961 [email protected] Dec 3 Imaging the Universe: Dr. Mae Jemison 2014-2014 Howard Peters 408-854-4614 [email protected] CEMEX Auditorium, Stanford, CA 2014-2014 Ashley Piekarski 408-855-5269 [email protected] http://events.stanford.edu/events/450/45087 2013-2015 Stephanie Bachmann 408-429-9681 [email protected] Feb 5 Mosher Awardee: Dr. Scott Denmark 2013-2015 Lois Durham 650-322-3507 [email protected] Understanding Asymmetric Phase 2013-2015 Natalie McClure 650-906-7831 [email protected] Transfer Catalysis Through 2014-2016 Mark Kent 408-736-0989 [email protected] Chemoinformatics Newsletter Biltmore Hotel & Suites Editor Kevin Greenman 408-634-2309 [email protected] Santa Clara, CA Assoc. Editor Partha P. Bera [email protected] Feb 19 Teacher Scholar Award Presentation ChemPloyment Abstracts Mission College campus Director: Liang Cao [email protected]