Department of Chemistry PARKER COMMUNICATIONS DECEMBER 15, 2016 A Note From e Department In is Issue: Dear Alumni and Friends at local, national, and international Departmental Highlights: conferences. This year, one of the Honoured Chemistry Alumnus: of the Department research laboratories of Prof. Jennifer Dr. R. J. Dwayne Miller van Wijngaarden was renovated and the of Chemistry, New Research Centre in Parker Building COGRAD research center was brought Global Crisis: It is my honour and privilege to share to operational conditions by Drs. Gregg U of M breakthrough with you, departmental highlights Tomy and Jörg Stetefeld. We are also from the past year. This year, we excited about a new Departmental web- Lab Renovations in Parker revived the tradition of sending page, which will become active at the Students: departmental semi-annual newsletter beginning of January. to our former graduates and friends Notes from Graduate Chair as we, as a Department, would like All our Departmental accomplishments Meet Ph. D. student Matt McDougall to stay connected with you. Last in education, research, and service are Undergraduate Student Research year, the Department graduated signicantly enhanced by the generous Undergraduate Chemistry Society support of friends and alumni. Your 34 undergraduate and 12 graduate Featured Undergraduate Students chemistry and biochemistry students. contribution will help us to provide Western Canadian Undergraduate With the help of donors, alumni, our deserving undergraduate and Chemistry Conference and central administration, our graduate students with scholarships, undergraduate Physical Chemistry maintain summer undergraduate News from 2015/2016 Laboratories were renovated last research programs, support Chemistry New Hire: Dr. Victor Nemykin summer, while thanks to an amazing Club activities, update our instructional Biophysical Society of Canada donation from Dr. David McBride, and research laboratories, and improve Annual Meeting we were able to equip our Physical Departmental research infrastructure. Betts Lectureship Chemistry, Biochemistry, and the We will be delighted to learn about your rst-year chemistry laboratories with recent accomplishments and success Celebrated Individuals: cutting-edge educational instruments. stories. Please stop by if you are in the We are in the process of nalizing the area and we will be happy to share Our 2016 Graduates Student Awards design of the new rst-year laboratories, with you our news. We hope to stay 2016 Chemistry Research Publications which will be renovated during the connected with you for a long time! Summer of 2017 and 2018. This year, our Please share our newsletter with others undergraduate Chemistry Club moved we haven’t reached at this time - it would WE WANT TO HEAR into a remodeled spacious room on the be greatly appreciated. We will provide rst oor of the Parker Building. As usual, you with many new and exciting updates FROM YOU! students in the Chemistry Club are busy in our next issue. Do you have any news that you with a large variety of outreach activities would like us to feature in our next as highlighted in the report below. The With best regards, issue? We are eager to hear from our Departmental research prole is very alumni and friends and support their Victor Nemykin strong as evident from the numerous endeavors. Please contact us! research papers and presentations Department of Chemistry, given by our faculty members as well as University of Manitoba undergraduate and graduate students [email protected] UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA, FACULTY OF SCIENCE, DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY umanitoba.ca/science/chemistry DEPARTMENTAL HIGHLIGHTS Honoured Chemistry Alumnus: Dr. R. J. Dwayne Miller He has since taken up the Directorship scientific organizations including the of the Max Planck Group for Atomically Scientific Advisory Board of the Stanford Resolved Dynamics at the Center for Linear Accelerator to name just one. He Free Electron Laser Science in Hamburg is on the Editorial Board of the Journal and now splits his time between the of Chemical Physics; the Advisory University of Hamburg and the University Editorial Board of Chemical Physics of Toronto. At Hamburg Miller has built a and Chemical Physics Letters; and has new Max Planck Institute in the field he been Program Chair and General Chair has pioneered. of Ultrafast Phenomena, the most prestigious meeting in his field. Dr. Miller has published over 190 research articles, one book, and several By designing a new seminal reviews. His achievements have generation of electron guns, been recognized with an abundance of In 2016, the Faculty of Science very prestigious awards from scientific his group was the first to established seven Honoured Alumni bodies and universities in Canada, the be able to capture atomic Awards to celebrate the extraordinary United States, Europe and Japan. In motions with femtosecond accomplishments and contributions of 2016, Professor Miller was awarded time resolution. graduates from our seven Departments. the British Royal Society of Chemistry On top of his scientific exploits, The inaugural awardee in Chemistry Centenary Prize and in 2015 the E. Dwayne is also dedicated to the was Professor R. J. Dwayne Miller Bright Wilson Award for Spectroscopy promotion of science education who obtained a BSc in Chemistry and by the American Chemical Society through high school outreach and Immunology in 1978. Dr. Miller earned in recognition of his discoveries that teacher training programs. He has a Ph.D. in 1983 from Stanford University have created an entirely new field of served as a Board Member and moving directly to a faculty position at the science. Dr. Miller has received the Chair of Scientists in School that University of Rochester upon graduation. highest prizes available to Chemistry has helped bring interactive science In 1995, he relocated his research group and Physics researchers in Canada experiments to the classrooms of to the University of Toronto to take up including the John Polyani Award, and now over 500,000 children yearly. the NSERC Lumonics Chair in Quantum the Royal Society of Canada Rutherford His most significant accomplishment Optics. The motivation for this move Medal. Internationally, he has earned came with his founding of Science was to dedicate his group to the study the Humboldt Award, the US National Rendezvous. This annual event of fast atomic dynamics in biological Science Foundation Young Investigator exposes the general public to the systems. By designing a new generation Award and a NATO Science Fellowship. importance of science and provides of electron guns, his group was the first to Notable too are the many lectureships a means to keep the public engaged be able to capture atomic motions with he has been awarded in recognition and active in support of science that femtosecond time resolution. This work of his groundbreaking discoveries as is so critical to our collective future. has realized a long held dream to watch well as his leadership in teaching; the This event has now gone National atoms in real time during a chemical Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher- in Canada and with over 150,000 event, i.e. to watch atoms move during Scholar Award is one example of the attendees and 4000 volunteers it has the breaking or making of a chemical recognition he has earned for his become the largest event of its kind. bond. A fifteen-year effort was finally outstanding teaching. Professor Miller Professor Miller was awarded the realized in 2003 with the cover story of was also elected to the Royal Society of McNeil Medal in 2011 from the Royal Science first announcing it to the world. Canada and is a board member of many UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA, FACULTY OF SCIENCE, DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENTAL HIGHLIGHTS Society of Canada for his strong advocacy and leadership in the promotion of science to the A New Research Centre general public. in Parker Building The Department was delighted to receive a visit from Professor Miller on January 21 and 22, 2016. Dr. Miller visited with students and faculty over the two days, received his Award and participated in a panel discussion with Science students meant to highlight the value of a Science degree and the limitless career opportunities it aords. He also presented a general seminar on atomic dynamics aimed at undergraduates and a more advanced seminar to our Department on his research. Current and past members of the Department were thrilled by his visit and his highly thought-provoking talks, and rightly proud of our small contribution to his extraordinary success. For more information about some of the Dr. R. J. Dwayne Miller’s science education projects, please visit: www.scientistsinschool.ca www.sciencerendezvous.ca On January 17, 2015 the Federal high-resolution time-of-ight mass Government announced the formation spectrometer to ngerprint complex of a new Research Centre to be located crude oil residues in the environment. on the 5th oor of the Parker Chemistry This will be done to support Canada’s oil building. Led by Drs. Gregg Tomy and and gas industry. Stantec Consulting Ltd., Jörg Stetefeld the Canadian Oil and a Canadian oil and gas consultant, has Gas Research and Development Centre identied a largely unmet demand for (COGRAD) is an internationally accredited government-mandated environmental Centre funded in part by a $2.4 million monitoring in connection with, for grant from the Western Economic example, existing and proposed Diversication fund. There is no other pipelines. The new research centre Centre in Western Canada that has the not only will provide state-of-the-art capacity of COGRAD and some of the environmental monitoring but will instrumentation in the Centre is also work to support private sector unique in Canada. monitoring companies. The intent is not to compete with the private sector but to COGRAD has two components. The support it and at the same time improve Ste Baum, Dean, Faculty of Science rst component is based on Dr.