Autumn 2013 ChemLetter Volume XXXI • No. 4 Dear Friend of Chemistry, Greetings from UW Chemistry! I hope this edition of the ChemLetter finds you and yours well. It is my pleasure to provide this update on our activities. In this era of rising student demand for science coursework, each successive year brings record-breaking enrollment levels in our courses. To provide a sense of scale, a few more than 6,000 students started as freshmen this year at the UW; our fall quarter enrollment in freshman-level chemistry classes was over 3,000! Nearly 2,000 students are presently enrolled in just one course, CHEM 142, first quarter chemistry for those Nancy Wade Nancy who enter with a high school-level chemistry background. When I began as department chair, enrollment in this course was just half this number. I am glad no one told me Paul Hopkins, Chair Wade Nancy that on my watch enrollment in this resource-intensive course, which was already our largest, would double. At the other end of this “student pipeline” are the many students who complete bachelor’s degrees in chemistry or biochemistry, or both. The size of this program has now stabilized at about 400 degrees per year, an unusually large number even for a large public university. In this issue I am pleased to report a landmark event. Longtime readers will know that it has been an institutional goal for a great many years to renovate to modern standards the Letter from the Chair 1 rooms in which our freshmen do their laboratory work. We have four large rooms on the second floor of Bagley Hall dedicated to this purpose. About a decade ago, Focus on Research 3 we received funding to renovate the first of these four rooms. This past summer, we Faculty Awards & learned that funding has been approved to renovate the fourth and final lab. Our quest Honors 6 to modernize these spaces, called “something out of Dickens” by a former dean of Undergraduate Education, thus appears to have come to a successful close. This leaves 63rd Lindau Nobel just one final undergraduate laboratory space in Bagley Hall (for students beyond the Laureate Meeting 7 freshman year) in need of renovation. Before leaving this subject, I will note a longer Graduate Fellowships term goal concerning our facilities, the construction of a new building to replace the & Awards 8 now outdated research space in Bagley Hall. Pursuing this goal will no doubt provide a healthy challenge to one or more future chairs. Undergraduate Fellowships & Another new development of the past few months has its origin in the state budget Awards 10 that began on July 1, 2013. At the urging of Governor Inslee, whose interest in and support for affordable clean energy is longstanding, our state legislature allocated funds Doctoral Degrees earmarked for the creation of a Clean Energy Institute at the UW. The center will focus Awarded 12 on advancing the science and engineering of the capture and storage of solar energy. Giving Profile 13 Many of our current chemistry faculty members are expected to contribute to and benefit from the existence of this new institute. I presume that articles on this subject Our Donors 14 will appear in future editions of this publication. New Chemistry Earlier this year, it was our sad duty to report to you the December 2012 passing Endowment 16 of Professor Emeritus Bruce R. Kowalski. Bruce was a luminary, who served for many years on our analytical faculty. He was a pioneer in the field of chemometrics, and a person of great vision, energy, and creativity. We were all saddened to see his life cut AUTUMN 2013 AUTUMN short. Bruce was to me more than an outstanding analytical chemist and a friend; he was also a valued advisor. Long after his retirement from our faculty, I would call him —continued on next page ChemLetter 1 Letter from the Chair, continued from page 1 at his new home in Durango to seek his advice on difficult issues. To honor Bruce’s life, and to further his lifelong goal of excellence and innovation, I am pleased to announce that in October the Department established an endow- ment bearing his name, the Bruce R. Kowalski Endowed Fund in Chemistry. Like all other endowed funds, this one will exist in perpetuity. The proceeds of this fund can be spent flexibly by the Department to support students, faculty, or staff. As a founding leader of the Center for Process Analytical Chemistry, Spotlight on Bruce understood the extraordinary value to leaders of funds like this one that Chemical Sciences can be spent flexibly. To encourage you to consider giving to this fund, I am committing the Department to match dollar-for-dollar gifts to this fund during • Professors David Ginger 2013 and 2014, up to a total match of $25,000. Gifts to this fund can be sent to and Alex Jen, along my attention. If you were among the many that knew and admired Bruce, with other researchers, I hope you will consider making a gift. recently reported on the It is my very great pleasure to thank Duane and Barbara LaViolette, who role of electron spin have pledged an extremely generous planned gift to the Department. An article in creating efficient about them and their gift is included in this edition. Duane and Barbara have organic solar cells. been regular attendees of department events, especially our annual awards Their findings were dinner at which we honor student awardees, among others, and at occasional published in the scientific lectures. Their friendship and support have been exemplary; their gift journal Nature. will have great impact. • Professor Sarah Keller As this calendar year draws to a close, I feel that I can in good conscience and Affiliate Professor report to you that the state of the Department of Chemistry at the UW remains of Bioengineering Roy strong. We are fortunate to have an outstanding current group of both faculty Black have helped to and students, and to receive applications every year from those who aspire to unravel some of the be the next generation of faculty and students. We have weathered a stunning mystery surrounding the period in which we witnessed breathtaking declines in the level of state- origin of cells in Earth’s provided financial support that funds the core of our instructional programs, ancient oceans. Their and perhaps turned a corner in the current fiscal year with about 20% of the work describes the lost state funding restored. The latter made possible—for the first time in many unexpected selectivity years—not one, but two years in which we do not need to raise tuition levels of interaction of the for undergraduate students who are state residents. That said, we live in a chemical components competitive world, nationally and even internationally, and the pressure is high of RNA with fatty acids, to be at the top of our game. Your gifts help us to be outstanding in both our which may play a educational and research programs. If you are not already a regular contributor, role in stabilizing the please consider joining the many friends of Chemistry who value what we do, precursors to cellular and help to keep us strong. membranes. As always, I hope you enjoy this edition of the ChemLetter. Please accept my best wishes and please stay in touch. Sincerely, AUTUMN 2013 AUTUMN Paul B. Hopkins Professor and Chair ChemLetter 2 F O C U S O N R E S E A R C H New Directions in Energy Research Earlier this year, Governor Jay Inslee and the State of lyst photoelectrodes for solar water splitting. This pro- Washington announced the creation of the Clean Energy cess bypasses photovoltaic energy conversion by storing Institute at the University of Washington. The Clean Energy solar energy directly in the form of hydrogen (H2). Institute “aims to accelerate the creation of a scalable clean • In Professor James Mayer’s lab, researchers explore the energy future by advancing the next generation solar energy fundamental science behind the interconversion of and electrical energy storage materials and devices, and their electrical and chemical energies as well as the catalysis integration with systems and the grid. The Institute is an of the production and utilization of chemical fuels. The interdisciplinary initiative focused on developing innovative efficient and inexpensive interconversion of chemical people and programs in the areas of Advanced Materials and electrical energies is one of the great challenges of for Energy and Energy Systems & Integration.” A number our century. This would enable, for instance, much more of Chemistry faculty members at the UW are engaged efficient fuel cell vehicles and the storage of energy from in energy research to further these goals. Here are some intermittent sources such as solar or wind. The materials highlights: for these processes need to be “earth-abundant” (not • Professor Daniel Gamelin’s group is involved in the rare) in order to meet the high demand. They must also development of new inorganic nanocrystal-based be non-toxic, benign materials. Research in the Mayer luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs). LSCs are inex- group is approaching this challenge in a variety of ways. pensive and flexible plastic waveguides that collect solar Simple new catalysts have been discovered for the oxi- ➔ + - energy and concentrate it onto photovoltaics. Made by dation of water to O2, 2 H2O O2 + 4 H + 4 e . These inexpensive solution processing, they can lower the cost are the first examples using copper. This reaction is key of solar energy conversion by reducing the photovoltaic to the formation of chemical fuels, since it provides cell areas needed and by increasing cell efficiencies.