Chemistry News COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES · DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY · 2012 INSIDE Lewis Integrative Science Building Opens 2 Green Product Design Course The building promises to cement the UO’s status in materials research. 3 Department Heads’ Perspective 4 UO Science Literacy Program 4 Green Chemistry News Briefs 5 UO Team Wins NSF I-Corps Top Prize 8 New NOBCChE Statewide Chapter 9 Faculty Awards 11 Graduate Student Awards Exterior of the recently opened Robert and Beverly Lewis Integrative Science Building. 12 Undergraduate Student Awards hat is “integrative entists working in green nano- and analysis equipment. The science”? How do technology and solar energy. new labs have been designed 14 Carol Gross W studies of the human One-third of the building will for inorganic materials research, Receives Alumni brain, molecular biology, nano- be devoted to laboratory space. and the architects have been Award technology, and solar energy The remaining two-thirds will be fantastic about working with us relate to each other? offices, an atrium, and “dry” labs. to design a really usable space.” 15 Alumni News These are questions that Shannon Boettcher, as- The UO is a leader in the 19 Honor Roll are common among people sistant professor in inorganic concept of collaborative sci- who are discussing the and materials chemistry and ence, and the Lewis building University of Oregon’s new an Oregon Nanoscience and will further cement the UO’s Robert and Beverly Lewis Microtechnologies Institute reputation as a leading research Integrative Science Building (ONAMI) Signature Researcher, university. The shared instrument (LISB). Construction on the is one of the researchers that will facilities within the Lorry I. Lokey 100,000-square-foot building benefit from the new lab space. Laboratories, home to Oregon’s began in August 2010, and is “The new laboratories in high-tech extension servic- now nearing completion. the Lewis Integrative Science es—the Center for Advanced With its grand opening on Building will be state-of-the-art Materials Characterization October 26, 2012, the build- and will provide ideal space in Oregon (CAMCOR), the ing will be home to strategic for my research group,” says Support Network for Research research clusters that will fos- Boettcher. “For example, the lab and Innovation in Solar Energy ter collaborative opportunities we currently occupy is designed (SuNRISE), and Partnership among scientists studying cog- for organic chemistry—many Laboratories (camcor.uoregon. nitive development, molecular fume hoods but no space for edu/)—will expand into the biologists studying cancer and solid-state materials synthesis stem cells, and materials sci- (i.e. furnaces, vacuum chambers) CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Integrated Green Product Design Course Debuts Course brings together students in several disciplines to improve product design. t would be nice to believe that bringing instance, if people were going to a charging differently. And this could also lead to more new products to the global marketplace station and leaving their car plugged in, it rapid adoption by the market.” Iis the result of a series of well-informed would be nice to have the car charge much Haack’s new course brings together decisions. But this is not always the case. more quickly, perhaps in the time it takes to chemists, marketing majors, designers, jour- We can look at electric vehicles and their get a meal or shop for groceries. nalists, and business majors to look at how charging stations as an example of the well- “If chemists had more information during to solve these types of problems early on intentioned but often flawed manner in which the design phase it could drive innovation to in the design and development phase. The products are designed. meet those usage specifications,” says Julie chemists in the laboratory likely didn’t know For normal charging of a car connected to Haack, instructor for the new Green Product what the final result of their battery research the electrical network using 230 volt AC cur- Design course. “But now here we are with would be. If they had, they would have been rent, the charging time is six to eight hours, a mismatch of systems. What the consumer able to ask questions such as, “What are the and a car must be charged every couple of wants is not met by what the manufacturers charging stations going to look like? How days, on average. But the rate of charging created. If chemists had had more informa- will they be accessed? How long will the car is a variable that could have been taken into tion at the point of invention they would have consideration during the design phase. For designed the batteries very differently. Really CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Lewis Integrative Science Building Opens CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 basement space of LISB. These facilities, opportunities the new building will provide. which were featured in the 2009 newsletter “The Lewis building provides the Center (chemistry.uoregon.edu/pdf/news/news09. for Sustainable Materials Chemistry the op- pdf), foster interdisciplinary partnerships be- portunity to pioneer a more collaborative tween academia and industry. A large portion research experience for both undergraduate of the fourth floor of the Lewis building will and graduate students,” he explains. “The be the home of the Center for Sustainable ability to shift from individual faculty-centered Materials Chemistry, an NSF-funded $20 labs to a ‘collaboratorium’ provides a fantas- million Center for Chemical Innovation. tic opportunity to evolve graduate education, “The labs will host students who are co- providing students the ability to, for example, supervised by several center faculty members prepare a new inorganic cluster, make ultra- working on high-impact collaborative re- thin films of the cluster via prompt inorganic search projects,” Boettcher says. “The LISB condensation, characterize the films using basement will house large, shared materials the equipment in CAMCOR, and measure properties while working with national lead- ers Darren Johnson, Douglas Keszler [direc- tor, Center for Green Materials Chemistry at Oregon State University], and Mark Lonergan. It’s a unique opportunity.” In addition to the leading-edge collab- Main entrance to the new Lewis Integrative orative nature of the labs and offices, the Science Building. Lewis Integrative Science Building is one of developed some cutting-edge techniques only a handful of Leadership in Energy and to create an energy performance 58 per- Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certi- cent better than building code regulations. fied science facilities in the country. Science Beverly Lewis surveys the construction site One of those strategies involved cutting buildings present unique energy-usage chal- of the Lewis Integrative Science Building in into a utility tunnel system under the univer- lenges, because health and safety regulations October of 2011. sity campus. Using a series of coils, excess and the need for superior ventilation and heat from the tunnel system will be used to analysis equipment, such as x-ray diffractom- waste systems prevent some of the typical preheat the science building, a strategy that eters, thin-film deposition equipment, and energy-reduction strategies, such as recy- could potentially be used in the future with optical laser tables. The open layout of the cling air in large buildings. building will encourage collaboration.” The plan did not initially include LEED other buildings on campus. In addition, LISB Dave Johnson, a UO professor of solid- certification, but as the project continued, the will be outfitted with exterior solar shading state chemistry, electrochemistry, and mate- design teams at Portland’s THA Architecture and interior light shelves, advanced lighting rials science, also praises the collaborative and builders Lease Crutcher Lewis of Eugene CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 2 DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY Department Heads’ Perspective UO Chemistry: Past, Present, and Future his is a first—a perspective from two will extensively utilize microwave reactors panel since 1995. This overdue “decennial department heads! While I (MH) am purchased in part with monies from the review” provided an opportunity to describe Tspending the fall term on a “study Chemistry Instructional Space Improvement the strengths of the department in research leave” catching up on proposal and paper Fund. Students will be able to synthesize in and education, many of which Mike has high- writing, Vickie DeRose is filling in as interim minutes what used to take hours, allowing department head. I return winter 2013 to fin- precious lab time to be utilized for learning ish out the remaining eighteen months of my important purification and characterization term as head. More from Vickie below. techniques as opposed to watching a pot Looking back over the past year, it can boil. Only a very small number of schools use be summed up in one word—BUSY! On microwave reactors as part of the undergrad- the educational front, the new General uate curriculum, so this will be something that Chemistry Laboratories as well as the reno- will really set Oregon chemistry students vated Barnhard Chemistry Resource Center, apart. More on this in the next newsletter! featured in last year’s newsletter, are great On the research side, things are equally successes as both spaces have proven exciting. Faculty members and students alike to be very popular with students and staff continue to garner well-deserved national members alike. Not wanting to stop there, we and international accolades, many of which Vickie DeRose and Mike Haley completely renovated the 171 Onyx Bridge are described on pages 9–12. By the time classroom this past summer and have added you read this, the new Lewis Integrative lighted above and in previous newsletters. a number of new course offerings. Science Building will have opened, provid- The review also gives us an opportunity to In addition to the new Science Literacy ing top-notch research space for Shannon focus on strategic planning in order to build and Green Product Design classes featured Boettcher’s lab and for the Center for on our current strengths and envision new in this newsletter, we are debuting a new Sustainable Materials Chemistry.