2699 GW Graphics - Department of Chemistry

D ep ar t m en t o f
C h em i st r y
The Theodore P. Perros Newsletter | Volume 29
W
ith this edition, we have renamed the Newsletter as the Theodore P. Perros Newsletter in honor of Professor Emeritus Perros’s
role in initiating this tabloid in 1980 along with Professor Robert Vincent and for his sustained financial support for our program
through the years.
Chair’s Report
In the summer of 2011, the department assembled materials to submit to the Committee on Professional Training of American
Chemical Society for our periodic report,
part of the process leading to program approval and student certification by the ACS
Prof. King
for the next five-year period. As many of
you will have noted from materials published in Chemical and Engineering News in recent years, the
guidelines and expectations for this “accreditation” have evolved
considerably in recent years from checklists of courses and curricular requirements to a greater focus on skill building across the curriculum to ensure richer preparation for the post baccalaureate
experience, be it employment or a graduate or professional school
trajectory. These skills include critical thinking and problem solving, oral and written communication, teamwork, and understanding
and practicing proper safety steps as well as conducting oneself in
an ethical manner. Interestingly, these same considerations overlap
extremely well with the newly enacted General Education Curriculum of the Columbian College here at GW, which include “enhanced analytic skills in quantitative and scientific reasoning and
critical and creative thinking, along with a global and cross-cultural
perspective, local/civic engagement, and effective communication
skills.
achieve the goals of the skill building we would like to see for our
students.
I am delighted to report that our self assessment has been very positive, substantiating the views of our graduates that the program
provides a rigorous chemistry education. The results from seniors
taking the ACS comprehensive senior exam (without any preparation) place our students in the upper quartile. Participation in undergraduate research, a particularly important component of our
program, continues to grow, while the reports and presentations by
our students have become evermore dazzling in both form and content. These documents reflect both a comprehensive underpinning
of chemistry content and a demonstration of the skills in critical
thinking, communication, and teamwork we are striving to achieve
in our program. More of our majors are starting to engage in some
research earlier in their program of study and staying for most of at
least one summer for a richer, in depth experience. We have indeed been fortunate in having several endowed funds, including
the A.D. Britt Scholarship, the Madeleine Reines Jacobs Undergraduate Fund, and the Charles R. and Elma M. Naeser Memorial
Chair’s Fund to provide that summer support, along with University funding in the form of the competitive Luther Rice, George
Gamow, and OVPR Undergraduate Research Funds. Additionally,
continual reinvestment in replacement and new instrumentation
In reflecting upon the materials we put together, from copies of
course and laboratory syllabi to undergraduate research reports, we
found ourselves giving careful thought to our entire program, its
quality, the learning outcomes we were striving to achieve and the
standards and metrics that are used to determine whether we are
achieving those goals. As I have often said to our Deans, the content of most of our lecture courses is text-book driven, such that by
selecting current mainstream texts we are generally both up to date
with content and comprehensive in our course coverage. But it is
the experiential learning opportunities in the laboratory where we
have the greater flexibility in content selection and undoubtedly
have the opportunity to move more aggressively in working to
Alumni Madeleine Reines Jacobs and Nancy Jackson
with Prof. King
Department of Chemistry
Volume 29 | Page 1
through careful stewardship of our resources from the Education and Research Fund supported by our alumni assures a “modern and wellmaintained infrastructure” to accomplish our goals and provide hands-on opportunities with the resources our graduates will find in government or private sector employment or a first-tier graduate program.
The next stage of major improvement is transformation of the facilities, which are now showing significant aging since the 1987 renovation of the teaching and research labs in Corcoran Hall. Fortunately, as many of you know, this stage of renewal is now underway. In
October of 2011, I am delighted to note, a ground-breaking ceremony was held for the new Science and Engineering Hall, a facility
many had thought might never be realized. Members of the department have been heavily engaged along with the other science departments and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences colleagues for almost two
years in benchmarking and building design and evaluating core needs. A series
of meetings over some nine months and a number of iterations of design documents have led to the specifications and layouts for some very thoughtful, forward-thinking teaching laboratory spaces. These spaces will reflect our
commitment to a state of the art, flexible and striking infrastructure whereby we
can continue to provide a rigorous program with a “coherent chemistry curriculum that incorporates modern pedagogical approaches” in the experiential component of our curriculum.
Not only will the new Science and Engineering Hall prove transformative in our
teaching environments, but as we moved forward into the design stages for the research facilities, we have had great opportunities for growth in our graduate program and our research activities, which by the way also means more room for
undergraduates in our research laboratories. Already we are experiencing growth
view of future SEH site: July 6, 2012
in the size of the faculty thanks to anticipation of expanded facilities. As you will
read in the following pages, we have added two faculty colleagues in the 201112 academic year, and we have added more colleagues in the current acadmic year. These are very exciting and enervating times for your
department and we hope that you will continue to play a substantial part in our future and our growth in size and reputation. Your ideas
and support will make many of our dreams a reality. So by all means, please stay in touch. Let us know how we are doing, what you
are doing and where you think we might do better. Also, stayed tuned as the George Washington University Science and Engineeri,ng
Hall becomes a reality. http://www.gwu.edu/scienceandengineeringhall/
Undergraduate Research
Once again, we honor our undergraduate students who have excelled in research. It is one of the hallmarks of our program to provide
our talented undergraduate majors with the opportunity to engage in a well-defined research project during some portion of their studies. In addition to the potential to earn course credits, endowed funds in chemistry set up by the Britt family in memory of Prof. A.D.
Britt, the Naeser family and friends in honor of Prof. Charles and Mrs. Elma Naeser, and alumna Madeleine Reines Jacobs provide
stipend support for our undergraduate students in the summer. During recent summers, we were delighted to host the following undergraduates on these funds:
Megan Buonaiuto (2010), Katherine Baldwin (2010), Adam Kutnick (2010), Getachew Mengistu (2011),
Julian Broad (2011), Daniel Foreman (2012), Yoo Jeong (2012), Tarek Mansour (2012), Alexander Yepikhin
(2012)
A.D. Britt
Madeleine Reines
Jacobs
Charles & Elma
Naeser
Julia Lister (2010, 2011), Kuanlin Wu (2012), Emma Edelstein (2012)
John St. Angelo (2010)
William Atkins / The George Washington University
Chair’s Report continued from page 1
President Steven Knapp recognized distinguished student scholars at
the annual Academic Honors Dinner, including Chemistry major Megan
Buonaiuto (back row, 2nd from left). She also received an Outstanding
Academic Achievement Award.
These scholars were joined by other chemistry students who won funding from other University and College offices for Luther Rice and
George Gamow Research Awards:
Scott Caplan
Rice Scholar (2010)
Philip Cho
Rice Scholar (2012)
Jeremy Barr
[left to right] Prof. Tossell, Anna Korovina,
Emily Jackson
Prof. King at the department bocce ball tournament
Ilya Kavalerov
Erica Walters
Yoo Jeong
Rahul Gupta
Page 2 | Volume 29
Department of Chemistry
Rice Scholar (2012)
Stability of a 4-Iodo-isohistidine Model
Investigations in Lipids and Plaque Diseases
Supported Nanoparticles as Reusable Catalysts for
an Important Reaction in the Pharmaceutical Industry – Alcohol Amine Couplings
Synthesis of Lanthanide Framework Materials for
Gamow Scholar (2010)
CO2 Storage
Gamow Scholar (2011)
Ubiquitination of Mutated Midline-1 Proteins
Atmospheric Ultrahigh Frequency Air Plasma Jet
Gamow Scholar (2012)
for Chemical Analysis of Volatile Compounds
Provost/OVPR Undergraduate Characterization of Lipid Membrane Bilayer Elastic
Research Fellowship (2012)
Properties
Department of Chemistry
Volume 29 | Page 3
Welcoming Faculty
In 2011-2012, the Chemistry Department welcomed Dr. Adelina Voutchkova-Kostal to the faculty. She joined us directly from the
Center for Green Chemistry at Yale University. Dr. Voutchkova received her Bachelors Degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry
from Middlebury College in 2004 and then completed her Ph.D. with Professor Robert Crabtree at Yale University in 2009. Her
doctoral work resulted in seven papers in top-tier publications, one of which was an Editor’s Choice Article, as well as the Wolfgang Prize for the Best Thesis of 2009 at Yale University. During this period she was supported at Yale on several competitive, named
fellowships. For her postdoctoral studies, Dr. Voutchkova joined the Center for Green Chemistry at Yale, working with Professor
Paul Anastas. Professor Anastas was until recently on leave in the administration of President Obama as Assistant Administrator,
Office of Research and Development in the EPA.
The Department was also delighted to welcome Professor Michael Massiah to GW as an Associate Professor in August. Professor
Massiah had been serving as an Associate Research Professor with us during the previous year. He came to GW from a position as
an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK).
Dr. Massiah did his doctorate at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, with a subsequent postdoctoral appointment at
Sloan-Kettering in New York. After serving as a Research Associate at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, he joined the faculty at
Oklahoma State and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009. Professor Massiah has authored a substantial number of papers
and reviews which have appeared in high impact publications and have an excellent citation record. He has been the holder of a
number of grants, one of which was a five-year NSF Career Award.
The Department is proud to welcome three more new professors this year: Hanning Chen, Scott Daly, and LaKeisha McClary. Find
out more about these faculty members in the next issue.
Cahill Research Group
It’s been a great year for the Cahill group. Hard to believe 2011
marks the eleventh year at GW! Funding continues to be strong
from two DOE grants that support research into hydrothermal uranium chemistry as well as a new award from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The latter is a curriculum development
award where Chris (along with colleagues in Physics) will develop
a series of modular courses targeting non-scientific professionals
within the nuclear policy arena. The plan is to foster scientific literacy surrounding all things nuclear for policy makers and other
non-technical individuals. This course rolls out in Fall 2012 and
will include significant hands-on laboratory components.
Group productivity has been excellent over the last year with some
eight peer-reviewed publications. Current graduate students Andrew Kerr, Paula Cantos, Sonia Thangavelu, Robert ‘Gian’
Surbella, and Nick Deifel are hard at work on a number of fronts.
Andrew celebrated his first paper this past September with a solid
contribution to the ACS Journal Crystal Growth & Design. Nick
has been off campus for the past year or so as he has taken a dream
job of Visiting Assistant Professor at Washington College. Nick
will defend this summer, yet could not pass up the opportunity to
gain experience at an undergrad institution—a position he ultimately wants to
land. Post-doc Michael Andrews entered
his third year with the group and is bringing us in completely new directions with
respect to uranyl supramolecular chemistry.
Recent alums Karah Knope and Clare
Prof. Cahill
Rowland are at Argonne National Lab
and Northwestern University as a post-doc and graduate student
(respectively). Both continue to fly the actinide flag. Prof. Daniel
de Lill is now an Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University
and reports to be loving his first year on the job.
Chris has had a great year himself as well. He was promoted to full
Professor in July and had a few enviable speaking invitations. Besides the Rare Earth Research Conference in Santa Fe this past
June, Chris was the faculty speaker at the Columbian College Celebration in May—an honor and moment he’ll never forget.
Gillmor Research Group
Chemistry Faculty, Spring 2012
Prof. Ramaker lines up his shot.
Welcome event at Upton Hill
Regional Park
Page 4 | Volume 29
Over the past few years at GW, Professor Gillmor and
her students have concentrated on research projects
investigating lipid headgroup interactions and tuning
cell membrane behavior. The lab investigates crosslinking on lipid bilayer and the resulting lipid sorting.
In collaboration with our colleagues in the GW mathematics department (F. Baginski and X. Ren), these
efforts have resulted in a mathematical analysis that
lipids sort at curvature maxima, which gives us a
Prof. Gillmor
greater understanding of lipid trafficking in the golgi
and endoplasmic reticulum (Physica D Dec 1, 2011). On the experimental side,
we pursue lipid behavior from headgroup cross-linking and have recently submitted a paper on this topic. Cross-linking is a common membrane event and
(left to right) Prof. Gillmor, Rahul Gupta, Mike Kessler, and
part of cellular signal transduction. We are venturing into immunology and BRobin Samuel
cells, which relies on immunoglobulin-antigen cross-linking at the B-cell surface
to activate the immune system. There are many open questions and we expect this area to be relevant to membrane and immunology researchers. In addition, we have begun collaborating with colleagues from George Mason University to investigate peptide interactions
with lipid bilayers. We expect to submit our first joint paper on lysing behavior before January 2012.
Of course, none of this is possible without the diligent work of both undergraduate and graduate students and without funding. In 2010,
Katie Baldwin and Rahul Gupta both participated in the lab and contributed to these and other projects. Katie won the A. D. Britt Memorial award to support her summer research in 2010 and graduated in May 2011. She is currently part of Amina Woods’s research group
at NIH. Rahul Gupta won the prestigious GW Undergraduate Research Fellowship, which provides funds for him through the summer
of 2012. He will graduate in May 2012. Mike Kessler (4th year grad student) won the Benjamin D. Van Evera Memorial Prize in the
spring of 2010 as the most effective graduate teaching assistant. He has made numerous presentations of his research in 2010 and 2011
at local and national conferences. Robin Samuel (3rd year grad student) has recently been selected to present her research in a platform
session at the Biophysical Society Conference in February of 2012. We have received funding from the GW University Facilitating
Fund and GW Research Enhancement Funds.
Goodbye party for Paula Binari, department secretary; Prof.
Miller [left], Paula [right]
Department of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
Volume 29 | Page 5
Dowd Research Group
Prof. Dowd
The Dowd lab combines organic synthesis with medicinal and computational chemistries to develop small molecule inhibitors of important biological processes. Projects in the lab currently center on Mycobacterium tuberculosis and related organisms. Our research group is currently comprised of graduate students Emily Jackson
(5th), Gail Clements (4th), and Carl Brothers (2nd), postdoctoral scientist Dr. Geraldine San Jose, and undergraduate student Michael Forman. This year we had the pleasure of hosting Julia Lister (GW undergraduate) and
Johneice Pearson (high school student from School Without Walls). We are currently synthesizing and evaluating novel small molecules against two important mycobacterial enzymes, Dxr and the Mtb proteasome.
We have had a great year achieving several significant goals. Highlights from the last year include:
Papers/Patents: Peer-reviewed articles describing our work are now starting to come out. Our first independent paper came out in October 2011 in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters. The first author was former undergraduate student Eugene Uh. We have also
submitted two additional papers—one, a peer-reviewed review with Emily Jackson as first author, and a second manuscript with our collaborators at George Mason University. In addition, we have submitted a provisional patent on our work using Dxr inhibitors as antituberculosis agents. Meetings: Our work was accepted and presented at two significant meetings this year. Emily and Cindy traveled to
Barga, Italy (just north of Pisa) to present posters at the Tuberculosis Drug Development
Gordon Research Conference. This biennial meeting is the most important in the field,
and we were fortunate to be accepted. In August, Geraldine traveled to Denver, CO to
present her work at the most recent American Chemical Society meeting. Both meetings
generated a lot of new ideas, and we received great positive feedback!
Awards: In 2011, Cindy was awarded the prestigious Bender Teaching Award from GW.
This is one of the University’s highest teaching honors and was awarded, in part, for her
use of technology in her undergraduate Organic Chemistry course. Our students have also
received several honors this year. Gail Clements was awarded a fellowship from the
ARCS Foundation as well as an honorable mention for the Philips Amsterdam Graduate
Teaching Award for Outstanding Teaching. Julia Lister (an undergraduate student in the
group 2010-2011) was awarded a Madeleine Jacobs Fellowship from the Department of
Chemistry. Academic achievement: Both Emily Jackson and Gail Clements completed
cumulative exams and defended their written candidacy proposals. These are significant
milestones toward their PhD degrees, and both students have done an outstanding job!
Continuing our tradition of hosting a local high school student during the summer, we had
the pleasure of welcoming Johneice Pearson from the School Without Walls for summer
2011. It was a pleasure hosting Johneice, who is now an undergraduate at the [left to right, back] Prof. Dowd, Michael Forman, Carl
University of Alabama Birmingham. Zack Sheldon, who joined us in 2010, is Brothers [front] Emily Jackson, Geraldine San Jose, Gail
now an undergraduate student at Oberlin College. Both students are majoring Clements
in chemistry!
Professor Joan Hilderbrandt
Joan Hilderbrandt officially retired at the end of the Spring 2012 Semester. She had been with the university
on a full-time basis since the Fall of 1990. The nature of her position at GW evolved over time.
Prof. Hilderbrandt
Originally, Professor Hilderbrandt was the Coordinator of the laboratory courses for Honors Chemistry (Honors 33/34), Contemporary Science (Chem. 3/4), and General Chemistry (Chem. 11/12.). These laboratories took
place in Corcoran 402 and in Acheson Hall on the Mount Vernon Campus. In reflection, Professor Hilderbrandt
notes that when she began as the Coordinator for the introductory laboratories in 1990 the combined total for the
Fall 1990 Semester was 697 students. The enrollment in Fall 2006, for just Chemistry 3, was 720 students.
Joan states ,“My records indicate that the peak registration for the laboratory program in a single academic
year was reached in Fall 2004 (over 1100 students) and Spring 2005 (over 1000 students).” She adds, “I requested to be relieved from
my duties as the Laboratory Coordinator during the 2005-2006 academic year. This responsibility was changed to a full-time staff position.” She notes, “Managing the introductory labs also allowed me to come into contact with chemistry graduate students. I really missed
the weekly interactions with the GTAs.”
Professor Hilderbrandt taught general chemistry from 1991 to 2012. She lectured Chem. 11 and 12. She also was the instructor for a
Chemistry 3/4 course sequence offered on the Mount Vernon Campus. When asked, Joan believes that she has taught between 50006000 students in the span of her 22 years at GW. Most of the lectures were in Chem. 11/12 and until recently were given in Corcoran
302. (This space has now become the shared research laboratory of Dr. Cynthia Dowd and Dr. Adelina Voutchkova. If you are in the area,
stop and take a look!)
Professor Hilderbrandt has participated over the years in service to the university. She took part in the Graduate Teaching Assistant Program (GTAP) Orientation from August 1996 to August 2011. Joan was the last faculty Pre-Health Professions Advisor (1998-1999).
She served as the 7 year BA/MD Advisor from August 2003 and continued until August 2009. (Both of these positions became part of
the CCAS Undergraduate Academic Staff Advising.) In addition, Professor Hilderbrandt has worked with the Office of Admissions and
the Columbian College with Regional Visits, Colonial Inaugurations and Major’s Fairs. She has also served on university committees
dealing with undergraduate education.
Professor Hilderbrandt was given sole responsibility, in 2009, for the quantitative analysis laboratory associated with the Chemistry
22 lecture. This course is currently a 1 credit “writing in the discipline” (WID) class. It continues to be a work in progress. Joan will return to GW, on a part-time basis, for both the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 Semesters to continue fine tuning Chem. 2123W.
Finally, Professor Hilderbrandt was the advisor for declared chemistry majors that graduated in 1997, 2001, 2005, and 2009. She will
participate in the ceremonies for the class of 2013 held in May.
Our alumni continue to do well. Elizabeth Hirst (BS 2009) is completing a PhD in chemistry at Boston University. Eugene Uh (BS 2010)
has been in the postbaccalaureate program at NIH in Dr. Clif Barry’s lab, Cindy’s former mentor. Eugene intends to go to medical school
in 2012. Elizabeth Humes (BS 2010, former REU student from Dickenson College) is also in a postbaccalaureate program at NIH. She
plans to pursue a Masters in Public Health.
In September 2009, we were awarded a highly competitive RC1 Challenge Grant from NIH. Since then, we moved the Dxr project into
high gear, hired postdoc Geraldine San Jose, and are now starting to publish the results. We will continue to publish our work this year
and have submitted two large grant proposals to (hopefully) continue our funding stream. We have been fortunate to receive significant
internal resources from GW. These pay for important preliminary studies that then become the basis for large, multi-year proposals sent
to the federal granting organizations.
It’s a fantastic time to be in science at GW! Our community is looking forward to completion of the new Science and Engineering Hall
and is currently enjoying the increase in Chemistry faculty over the last few years. The Dowd lab is enjoying the much anticipated new
laboratory, shared with the Voutchkova group, which is the result of an extensive renovation on the third floor of Corcoran Hall. This
new space allows us to expand our group, learn from each other, and move our science forward faster than our previous space allowed.
I look forward to this year and the progress that it will bring in many areas. As always, I encourage you to visit if you have a chance.
To find out more about our group, please go to our webpage at http://home.gwu.edu/~cdowd/.
Page 6 | Volume 29
Department of Chemistry
[left to right] Prof. Hilderbrandt, Prof. Zysmilich, Prof. Cahill
Tarek Mansour, Chemistry major [left], Prof.
Hilderbrandt [right]
Department of Chemistry
Volume 29 | Page 7
Licht Research Group
Massiah Research Group
Our research group is working intensively to provide chemical solutions to global climate and energy challenges. 2010 and 2011 have been the years for experimental confirmation of our new solar theory published in
2009 as “STEP: A solar chemical process to end anthropogenic global warming”.
STEP uses solar energy to produce chemicals, rather than electricity, and converts solar energy at efficiencies
higher than that of any solar cell. STEP produces materials using new carbon dioxide free chemistries.
The Licht group has introduced STEP carbon capture, which converts carbon dioxide to useful fuels at over 50%
solar energy conversion efficiency, and STEP carbon dioxide free iron, which replaces the millennia-old, carbothermal carbon dioxide process used by industry to make iron. The portfolio of STEP generated materials is
rapidly increasing, and in addition to fuels and iron already also includes hydrogen, magnesium, and bleach.
Prof. Licht
Resources and funds are urgently needed to build larger demonstrations of our STEP process to combat climate change. Any contributions to the GW Chemistry Department would expedite the research and would be greatly appreciated. A detailed recent overview of the
STEP process is published as: Licht, “Solar Thermal Electrochemical Production of Energetic Materials: STEP, a different solar energy
conversion process” Advanced Materials, 2011.
The group has grown, and the level of excitement risen, since the opening of
our solar and battery chemistry labs in 2009. The group includes graduate students Jason Lau, Ulyana Cubeta, Jessica Stuart, Bryan Leone, Maryam Farmand (co-mentored with Prof. Ramaker), Postdoctoral Fellows Chaminda
Hettige and Hongjun Wu, returning Visiting Scientist Dr. Baohui Wang, Research Assistant, Joseph Asercion, undergraduate Harry Bergmann, and group
alumni who finished last year include Dianlu Jiang, Zhonghai Zhang, and undergraduates Andrew Dick and Olivia Chityat, and international visitor Susanta
Ghosh.
The group is also actively increasing the capacity of batteries using new multiple electron per molecule storage chemistries. The nano-chemistry enhancement of both our super-iron and VB2/air batteries was introduced and recently
Prof. Massiah
lymphocytes.
Prof. Massiah was able to set up his lab with funding he received from the National Science Foundation as part of a CAREER award, prior to joining the department, and with a new award he received
after joining the department. Since joining, Prof. Massiah has published a lengthy research article in
the Journal of Molecular Biology on the function of MID1 that describes how MID1 may target itself, alpha4 and another protein, PP2A, for degradation; protein degradation is a mechanism of maintaining balance in cellular processes. He also has another article on the structure of alpha4 accepted
in PLoS ONE Biology. Prof. Massiah has also presented a poster and given a short talk at the Keystone Symposia in Big Sky Montana. In addition, he has presented seminars at the
National Children’s Hospital in DC,
Catholic and George Mason Universities, and in the Biology department at GW.
The Licht group’s Joe Asercion explains a working STEP (Solar
published. Group members Jason Lau and Chaminda Hettige had a productive Thermal Electrochemical Production) process to GW President
vanadium boride battery research experience in an industrial setting in College Steven Knapp (middle), Virginia Secretary of Technology, Jim Duffey, State Sen. Mark Herring, VA House of Delagates Tag GreaStation Texas last summer funded through our NSF grant, and Maryam Far- son, and GW Science and Technology Campus Dean Ali
mand has spent time probing super-iron battery chemistry at the Brookhaven Eskandarian (left).
National Labs. Last June the group, led by undergraduate Harry Bergmann,
presented lectures and demonstrations to the School Without Walls, a high school in Washington, DC.
In 2010 and 2011, the group has published ~30 peer reviewed studies, chapters, and patents, and presented at a number of national and
international Chemical, Electrochemical and Solar Energy conferences. The Licht group is funded by a multi-year grant from the National Science Foundation, grants from several corporations, a small French/US partnership grant (in collaboration with GW’s high performance computing Center) and a University Facilitating Fund grant.
The new STEP process has garnered national and international media attention, a few examples include:
Wheaton High School students. Prof. Massiah organized a
visit to the department, giving the students an opportunity to
explore chemistry as an academic pursuit and to motivate
them to pursue chemistry in the future.
Chemical & Engineering News, Aug. 2, 2010, Science Concentrates: “Solar Photo-Thermal Electrochemistry Demonstrated”
Department of Chemistry
Prof. Massiah is teaching undergraduate Biochemistry courses to CCAS
students.
Miller Research Group
Discover Magazine “Turning Carbon Dioxide Into Bioplastics,” Sept. 26, 2011:
http://www.discovermagazine.com/2011/sep/26-carbon-dioxide-into-bioplastics-2-birds-1-stone
German Public Radio “U.S. chemists developed climate-friendly methods of metal production,” July 4, 2011:
http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/forschak/1496894/nature.comblogs, Sept. 23, 2010, “Beautiful Photochemistry: The Iron Age
Reinvented?”
In his lab, Prof. Massiah has a post-doctoral fellow, Haijuan Du, and a bountiful group of bright-eyed excited undergraduates. The undergraduate students are
learning critical biochemistry and biotechnology skills. A couple of talented ones,
Erica Walters and Manar Zaghlula, are making great strides towards the overall
goal of the lab. Erica Walters was awarded the prestigious Gamow Scholarship
to continue her research in the lab during the summer of 2011, and she also mentored a high school student, Leanne Yuen, from Wheaton High School in Montgomery County in MD.
Prof. Miller’s lab continues to develop laser diagnostics for application
to problems in biotechnology, atmospheric, and combustion
chemistries. Specific projects underway include the development of
cavity enhanced absorption (CEA) sensors, the use of nanoparticles as
sensor platforms in biological systems, and combustion chemistry of
fossil and bio-derived fuels.
PhysOrg - 22 July 2010, “Solar-powered process could decrease carbon dioxide to pre-industrial levels in 10 years”
http://www.physorg.com/news199005915.html
Page 8 | Volume 29
Dr. Michael Massiah recently joined our department as a structural biochemist/NMR spectroscopist. His group employs multi-dimensional Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and other biophysical
techniques to characterize the structures of proteins, and to probe proteindrug and protein-protein interactions. The goal is to elucidate the mechanism of function of proteins associated with key cellular processes. His
group is focusing on the structural and functional studies of human MID1
and alpha4 proteins. Mutations of either protein, but more predominantly
in MID1, result in ventral midline abnormalities that include wide-spaced
eyes, cleft lip, palate and/or laryngoesophageal, and defects in the brain
and genitalia. Both proteins are also important for maturation of immune
Prof. Miller
In more recent news, Prof. Miller won a Bender Teaching Award. Also,
graduate student Esra Yonel graduated with her Ph.D., and Liesl Baumann received her Master’s degree. New students Hilary Melroy and
Erin Webster have joined the group, and they are already making great
contributions.
Department of Chemistry
[left to right, back] Esra Yonel, Prof.
Miller, Liesl Baumann
Volume 29 | Page 9
Ramaker Research Group
Prof. Ramaker and his group continued
work on the utilization of x-ray absorption
spectroscopy (XAS) to study operating fuel
cells and also began a series of studies on Li
ion batteries.
The following group changes occurred.
Badri Shyam obtained his PhD in May 2010
and accepted a postdoctoral position at ArProf. Ramaker gonne National Lab in Chicago, where he is
continuing to use synchrotron radiation to
study battery materials. Dr. Smitha Vasudevan, a Ph.D. graduate of
the University of Virginia, continued her postdoctoral work on a
cooperative agreement funded by the Naval Research Lab. Anna
Korovina and Maryam Farmand continued as graduate students this
year, and Keegan Caldwell was added to the group.
New research opportunities also occurred. The Ramaker group
began collaboration with Profs. Licht and Wagner in the Department to study Li ion batteries as well as iron ferrates. The ferrate
materials are unique in that they can transfer three electrons per Fe
atom, thus offering very high capacities. The Ramaker group also
obtained funding through a DOE Energy Frontier Research Consortium project with General Motors as lead investigator, along with
MIT, Northeastern University, Johnson Mathey, and Technical University of Darmstadt. The project involves looking at Pt-M (M =
Cu, Co, or Ni) materials which have been electrochemically de-alloyed to form a core-shell particle with a Pt outer layer and a Pt-M
inner core. These materials exhibit oxygen reduction activities 45 times larger than Pt, but the reasons for this are not clear. Our
group uses x-ray absorption spectroscopy to follow the adsorbate
coverage of oxygen reduction intermediates while under operando
conditions in a fuel cell, and this data is providing answers.
Our collaboration with Prof. Christina Roth from the Technical University of Darmstadt continued this year with two of her graduate
students spending 2- 3 weeks with us, and a third student spending
a summer. This collaboration has continued now for several years
and has been very productive, resulting in 2 papers this year.
Again the members of the group were very productive this year,
publishing 5 papers in such high impact journals as the Journal of
Physical Chemistry, and authoring or coauthoring 9 presentations
at conferences such at the Electrochemical Society meeting in
Boston in October, and the 5th International Conference on Green
and Sustainable Chemistry organized by the American Chemical
Society.
Thanks to prolific contributions by the current and some former lab members, Jessica Stolee, Bennett Walker,
Peter Nemes, Bindesh Shrestha, Yong Chen and Prabhakar Sripadi, the 2010–2011 period saw a high level of
research output. This was reflected in 14 publications in high impact peer reviewed journals, including 2 cover
page articles and 1 paper featured on the back cover, as well as 2 book chapters. In 2010 Professor Vertes also
served as a guest co-editor for the Special Issue of Applied Physics A, entitled “Laser Ablation: Fundamentals.”
Prof. Vertes
In the LAESI-related papers the efficacy of this technique was demonstrated for mouse and rat brain analysis and chemical imaging of
tissue sections. New approaches to single cell analysis and cell-by-cell imaging were demonstrated using LAESI mass spectrometry. We
also showed that the degradation of old books and other paper-based historic documents could be followed by this method. Two of our
contributions in this group took advantage of new possibilities in publishing based on video articles. With an Internet connection you can
view these articles by following the http://www.jove.com/index/details.stp?id=2097 and
The concept of nanophotonic ion sources, introduced by the group, has also
been featured in wide ranging publications, including “Polarization dependent
fragmentation of ions produced by laser desorption from nanopost arrays,” “Assessment of laser-induced thermal load on silicon nanostructures based on ion
desorption yields,” “Tailored Silicon Nanopost Arrays for Resonant Nanophotonic Ion Production,” and “High-Energy Fragmentation in Nanophotonic Ion
Production by Laser-Induced Silicon Microcolumn Arrays.”
[left to right, back] Keegan Caldwell, Maryam Farmand [front]
Anna Korovina, Prof. Ramaker
Sadtchenko Research Group
Page 10 | Volume 29
The group continued to explore enabling analytical techniques to study biological and medical problems. Although the theme of lasers and mass spectrometry was retained in this endeavor, the focus of our efforts has
shifted to the analysis of single cells and very small cell populations. The two main techniques the lab has introduced are laser ablation electrospray ionization (LAESI) mass spectrometry for larger, e.g. plant cells, and
silicon nanopost arrays (NAPA) mass spectrometry for smaller, e.g. yeast cells.
http://www.jove.com/index/details.stp?id=2144 links.
Prof. Sadtchenko and his group continue to focus on experimental studies of chemical and physical phenomena in condensed aqueous phase
(ice, supercooled water, cryogenic aqueous solutions) with emphasis on
interfacial and nanoscale phenomena. The group is primarily interested
in the numerous important chemical phenomena which occur at surfaces
of molecular solids under conditions where such surfaces are dynamic,
disordered, and difficult to characterize. Over past years, the
Sadtchenko group has developed a unique scientific instrument. It comProf. Sadtchenko
bines such typical high vacuum techniques as Time-of-Flight Mass
Spectrometry and Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy with Fast Scanning Calorimetry and makes it possible to study phase transitions, molecular kinetics, transport
phenomena, and reactions in nano- and micrometer scale vapor-deposited ice and deeply supercooled water films at temperatures from cryogenic to near ambient. Because of the critical role
of water in the environment and in biological systems, the results of these experiments are of great
interest in environmental chemistry, materials science, and biochemistry.
[left to right] Prof. Sadtchenko,
Deepanjan Bhattacharya
Vertes Research Group
In more recent news, grad student Deepanjan Bhattacharya has completed his candidacy exam, and
he looks forward to making even more progress with his research. The Sadtchenko lab also hosted
2 high school students over the summer. Daniel Morgan Rivers attends Wheaton High School in
Maryland, and Alejandra Torres received an ACS-SEED scholarship to do her summer research.
Department of Chemistry
During the 2010–2011 period, our work was featured by the national and international media on 11 separate occasions. Some of these reports have generated
significant international response. For example, on September 8, 2010, Protea
[left to right] Brian Smith, Aparna Sajja, McKenzie Floyd, Dan Biosciences, Inc., the company that pursues the commercialization of the LAESI
Foreman, Sylwia Stopka, Shellie Jacobson, Prof. Vertes,
invention, issued a press release with the title “Protea Biosciences Finalizes
Laine Compton, Amy Li, Tarek Mansour, Linwen Zhang,
New Technology License Agreement: LAESI technology identifies viral-inBindesh Shrestha
fected cells in minutes.” Within days, over 50 media outlets reported on the announcement. In addition to numerous US accounts, there were reports in France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Finland, and Japan.
German, French, and Dutch translations also appeared. Among the better known sites were: Bloomberg, CNBC, Drug Discovery and Development, Forbes, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, MSNBC, Reuters, Spiegel, TD Ameritrade, The Medical News, and
Yahoo! Finance.
Similarly, on June 6, 2011, Protea Biosciences, Inc., announced the availability of LAESI mass spectrometry services including two-dimensional and three-dimensional tissue analysis. They also had the first commercial version of the instrument on display at the 59th
Meeting of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry in Denver, CO. Within days, over 250 media outlets around the world picked
up the story.
Professor Vertes delivered a number of distinguished lectures at international venues. Among other speaking engagements, in 2011 he
was a keynote speaker at the 14th Beijing Conference and Exhibition on Instrumental Analysis (BCEIA 2011), Beijing, China, and delivered a plenary lecture at the Fifth Meeting of the Spanish Society of Mass Spectrometry, Malaga, Spain. In 2010, he received the
Velmer A. Fassel Award in Analytical Chemistry and delivered the corresponding lecture.
During the past year, Professor Vertes became an Academic Editor for the journal PLoS ONE and served as a member of the Committee of Visitors reviewing the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation.
Department of Chemistry
Volume 29 | Page 11
Teng Research Group
Professor Teng continues to research interfacial processes at mineral surfaces in aqueous environments. He
is joined by Post Doc, Jie Xu. Grad student Mina Hong is also making excellent progress on her research, and
she traveled to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory this summer to learn new techniques.
Using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), the Teng group observes molecular scale surface processes in an
ambient atmospheric environment as well as under solution flow-through conditions. Data collected from
AFM experiments help them to understand how growth/dissolution starts and proceeds in fluid, and where on
mineral surfaces bio-molecules and even bacteria prefer to interact. They also investigate bulk solution
processes of mineral-water interactions by analyzing temporal solution chemistry changes. These bulk
Prof. Teng
processes concern both dissolution and crystallization and various solution chemistry effects. Results of these
studies find wide implication and applications in both geosciences and environmental sciences.
Henry Teng is current funded by DOE’s Basic Energy Science Geoscience program and NSF’s Sustainable Energy Pathways program.
In addition, he has extensive collaboration with colleagues at Nanjing University sponsored by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Land and Natural Resources. Prof. Teng traveled to Nanjing again this summer, and he plans to return next year.
Tossell Research Group
Research Professor Tossell received the 2011 ACS GEOC (Geochemistry Division) medal at a symposium in
his honor at the Spring ACS Meeting in Anaheim. This is the premier prize awarded every two years by the
ACS GEOC and is for fundamental advances in Geochemistry. The award was presented by past President of
the ACS Professor Joseph Francisco. Several of Tossell’s former students and colleagues spoke at the symposium.
Tossell is using computational chemistry to explore new methods for the capture and mitigation of CO2, now
focusing on molecules containing pyridyl and pyrrol groups. He is also studying a number of topics in sulfur,
antimony and arsenic geochemistry, some with his long time collaborator Professor George Helz at Univ. of
Maryland. He is also collaborating with Professor Henry Teng and his graduate student Mina Hong in a study
of boric acid and borate incorporation into calcite.
Prof. Tossell
While he has no current research funding, he does have a fine computational environment provided by previous grants.
Wagner Research Group
Dr. Wagner’s group had a highly productive year. Chao Yan (Jerry) and Cliff Cook completed their Ph.D.’s.
Jonathan Cox was offered a job that he felt was perfect for him and left GW while still writing his Ph.D. thesis, which should be done soon. The year has also been highly “reproductive” with former group member
Sumin Li having a child, as did Jonathan’s wife. Congratulations! Jerry’s wife is expecting their first child this
summer. Congratulations! Kevin Hayes and Minjie Li continued their Ph.D. thesis research on high rate of
charge Li-ion batteries and a new Ph.D. student, Nathan Banek, joined the battery team. Our patent application for this advanced battery is in the final stages of approval. Ming Zhang has taken over Jerry’s project developing a rapid, highly efficient method of producing nanocrystals with very small size distributions,
essentially identical in size. On a personal note, my eldest son, Richard, started kindergarten this year. Watching my sons Richard and Caivs grow up so fast is really amazing and a bit scary; seems like if I turn around
for a moment they will run off to college.
Prof. Wagner
Professor Martín G. Zysmilich
Professor Zysmilich is responsible for the chemistry program for non-science majors and, as such, he has been
teaching Contemporary Science for Non-Science Majors (Chem1003 and 1004) for a number of years. An upto-date curriculum with discussion topics “ripped from the headlines” and the use of the state-of-the-art teaching technologies have kept these two courses the most sought-after science courses among GW undergraduates.
In collaboration with the GW Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL), he has developed several
instructional videos and tutorials to improve the laboratory experience of these two courses. Professor Zysmilich
is also a faculty member in the University Honors Program, teaching the highly praised Honors General Chemistry I and II courses. In January 2010, Professor Zysmilich published the preliminary edition of his book
Prof. Zysmilich
“Over-the-Counter Chemistry,” Cognella/University Readers. A revised edition was published in January 2011.
Professor Zysmilich has participated as “facilitator” in Problem-Based Learning (PBL) workshops for prospective science high-school teachers and for high-school students in Argentina. He has also participated in the production of an instructional
video for the award-winning magazine ChemMatters.
Professor Zysmilich serves as an academic advisor for chemistry majors ,and he was the acting Director of Graduate Studies at the chemistry department for the 2011-2012 academic year. He also served in the Health Professions Advisory Committee (2010-2011), in the General Curriculum (GPAC) Science review committee, and he is presently the chairman of the Columbian College Undergraduate Studies
Committee.
Voutchkova Research Group
Dr. Voutchkova’s group aims to address the urgent need to develop environmentally benign synthetic methodologies for the fine chemicals industry. Specifically, they are exploring new classes of catalysts that improve
atom/energy economy, allow the use of renewable feedstocks, and minimize the toxic waste streams released
into the environment. Currently, the group is examining the electronic and steric effects of various metal oxides supports on homogeneous catalysts and nanoparticles in order to identify interactions that are particularly
beneficial to catalysis. Such interactions could be tailored to facilitate a variety of otherwise challenging synthetic and energy-related transformations, such as CO2 activation and utilization. In addition to developing
greener synthetic methods, Dr. Voutchkova is also interested in understanding how to rationally design chemProf. Voutchkova- icals used in commercial products such that they are not toxic to humans and the environment. This work uses
computational chemistry and toxicology to probe how chemical structure and properties are related to toxicKostal
ity. She will be developing new coursework that incorporates toxicology and green chemistry into existing curricula. With these interests in green and sustainable chemistry Dr Voutchkova will also contribute to the
Environmental and Resource Policy program.
Grad student Gail Clements poses with George at the GW
holiday party
Grad student Robin Samuel at the annual chalk-in
Page 12 | Volume 29
Department of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
Volume 29 | Page 13
Graduate Students
Liesl Baumann, MS, May 2011
Working at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
Jennifer Herdman, PhD, May 2012
Starting a post doctoral position at the University of Groningen in
the Netherlands
Karah Knope, PhD, May 2010
PostDoc at Argonne National Lab
Adam Lentscher, MS, Aug. 2010
Teaching high school chemistry in Michigan
Undergraduate Students
Khameinei Ali, May 2010
A year of research with NIH and then medical school
Cory Antonakos, May 2010
PhD program in chemistry at UC Berkley
Kathrine Baldwin, May 2011
Working
Dana Berman, May 2011
Working at NIH for a year then applying to grad schools
Julian Broad, May 2012
Megan Buonaiuto, May 2012
PhD program in chemistry at Stanford University
Scott Caplan, May 2012
PhD program in organic chemistry at University of Pittsburgh
Taylor Carrington, May 2011
Applied to Physicians Assistant School; for fall semester will
be home and volunteer
Michael Chung, May 2012
Working and applying to dental school
Kristine Colquett, Aug. 2011
Jennifer Day, May 2010
University of Minnesota Medical School
Ashley De Chelfin, May 2011
Complete Master's in Forensic Science-GW
Page 14 | Volume 29
Undergraduate Students
Graduation
Continued
Jessica Rodriguez, May 2011
Medical school-GW
Jelena Lusic, MS, May 2010
Anil Shah, May 2012
Medical Science Master's at Boston University
Anice Mathew, MS, Aug. 2010
Eric Shapiro, May 2012
Attending Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
Badri Shyam, PhD, May 2010
Post doc at Argonne National Lab
Samantha Sherman, May 2011
Doing research then applying to medical school
Chao Yan, PhD, May 2011
Esra Yonel, PhD, May 2011
Teaching chemistry part time at GW and George Mason University
Alex Sotolongo, May 2012
Working for Dr. Murad in Biochemistry Dept. for 1 year and
applying for MD/PhD programs
2012 graduating class
Robert Ge, Aug. 2010
Graduate program in Forensic Chemistry-GW
Philip George, May 2010
Medical school-GW
Nancy Guan, May 2011
Applying to pharmacy school and working
Anila Khan, May 2012
Medical school-Creighton University
Abby Knop, May 2011
Applying to dental school and working
Zoë Krohn, May 2012
Master's degree in Forensic Science at Towson University
Adam Kutnick, May 2011
Complete Master’s in Forensic Science at GW
Graduation continued from page 14
Looking for full-time lab position, then attend grad school for
masters in public health in epidemiology or pharmacoepidemiology
Catherine Munro, May 2012
Working in the Voutchkova lab this fall, then grad school
Kwasi Osae-Kwapong, May 2012
Working and applying for medical school
Georgina Pappas, May 2011
Will work at the Naval Medical Research Center/Walter Reed
Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, MD in the NeuroTrauma Dept. Plans to apply to medical school and graduate
programs in biochemistry and neuroscience
Candace Payne, Jan. 2011
PhD program in chemistry at University of Aberdeen in Scotland
John St. Angelo, May 2011
Work in Vertes lab and attending Temple University Medical
school in Fall 2012
Eugene Uh, May 2010
A year of research at NIH (C. Barry's group)
Evangeline Van-Dunem, May 2011
Applying to graduate programs in biochemistry
Deana Vranas, May 2011
Tiffany Wong, May 2010
Medical school-GW (early selection)
Jingcheng Wu, May 2011
Instructional assistant with Chemistry Department and applying to medical school
Maggie Yuen, May 2012
(Arthur) Eun Jung Lee, May 2010
Graduate school at Yonsei University (Korea)in nanomedical
program
Julia Lister, May 2012
Medical school-University of Minnesota
Getachew Mengistu, May 2011
Medical school at Howard University
Sarah Millman, May 2012
Medical Science Master's at Boston University
Mary Moreno, May 2012
Department of Chemistry
Prof. Wagner (left) and Tarek Mansour (right) at the undergraduate research poster session
Department of Chemistry
[left to right] Ashley Dechelfin, Jessica Rodriguez, Samantha Sherman, John St. Angelo, Getachew Mengistu
Page 15 | Volume 29
Chemistry Department
Prizes and Awards
Prizes continued from page 16
Alpha Chi Sigma:
Chemical Rubber Company Freshman Chemistry
Achievement Award:
American Chemical Society:
2010: Holly Boyum, Erin Crawford, Ilya Kavalerov, Nicholas McGlynn, & David Neary
Awarded to the graduating senior with the highest academic record in chemistry courses (with at least 16 hours at GW): Jennifer Day
(2010), Jingcheng Wu (2011), Megan Buonaiuto (2012)
Awarded to a student completing his or her junior year and who has demonstrated excellence in Analytical Chemistry: Jingcheng Wu (2010),
Tarek Mansour (2011), Emma Edelstein (2012)
American Chemical Society– Division of Inorganic Chemistry Undergraduate Award:
Awarded to a student who has demonstrated excellence in inorganic chemistry at the undergraduate level and whose future plans include
a career in chemistry: Cory Antonakos (2010), Jincheng Wu (2011), Yebo Fu (2012)
American Institute of Chemists:
Awarded to a senior graduate student and graduating senior majoring in chemistry who excel in scholarship, integrity, and leadership.
Undergraduate: Michael Holland (2010), John St. Angelo (2010), Anila Khan (2012) Graduate: Karah Knope (2010), Badri Shyam
(2010), Chao Yan (2011)
Awarded to one or more freshmen who have achieved the highest records in their respective sections of Introductory Chemistry:
2011: Woojin Lee, Madeline Mador, Thomas Savage, Noor Tarazi, & Manar Zaghlula
2012: Evin Feldman, John Kopriva, Steven Lee, & Brinda Mysore
Benjamin D. Van Evera Memorial Prize:
Awarded to the most effective Graduate Teaching Assistants in Chemistry: Gail Clements (2010), Michael Kessler (2010), Liesl Baumann (2011), Esra Yonel (2011), Robin Samuel (2012), Ming Zhang (2012)
A. D. Britt, Charles R. & Elma M. Naeser, and Madeleine Reines Jacobs Funds:
Awarded to one or more outstanding junior or senior undergraduate majors to carry out research in the summer:
A.D. Britt: Megan Buonaiuto (2010), Katherine Baldwin (2010), Adam Kutnick (2010), Getachew Mengistu (2011), Julian Broad
(2011), Daniel Foreman (2012), Yoo Jeong (2012), Tarek Mansour (2012), Alexander Yepikhin (2012)
Madeleine Reines Jacobs: Julia Lister (2010, 2011), Kuanlin Wu (2012), Emma Edelstein (2012)
Charles R. & Elma M. Naeser: John St. Angelo (2010)
Chemical Society of Washington Prize:
Awarded to the outstanding junior majoring in chemistry: Megan Buonaiuto (2010), Julia Lister (2011), Tarek Mansour (2012)
Byrne Thurtell Burns Memorial Prize:
Awarded to the graduating chemistry major who has shown the greatest proficiency in organic chemistry as demonstrated by a written examination: Eugene Uh (2010), Adam Kutnick (2011), Megan Buonaiuto (2012)
William E. Fitch Prize:
Awarded to the graduating chemistry major with the best written comprehensive examination in chemistry: Jennifer Day (2010), Adam Kutnick (2011), Megan Buonaiuto (2012)
[left to right] Julia Lister, Tarek Mansour, John St. Angelo
Alumni News
Lee Silverburg (BS ’86) accepted a tenure-track position at Penn
State Schuylkill as an Assistant Professor. He is very excited about
teaching and running a small undergraduate research program.
Cory Antonakos (BS ’10) received an NSF research fellowship to
support her work on her PhD at UC Berkley.
After graduation, Ryan Brennan (PhD ’09) moved to Massachusetts. He and his wife are very proud of their first child, Aidan Garrett.
Prof. Vertes met up with Kathrine Baldwin (BS ’11) at ASMS.
She reports that she is doing well in Amina Woods’ lab at NIH.
Anice Mathew (MS ’10) married Jaideep Khapre whom she met
while studying at GW. They traveled home to India for the wedding.
Alumna Renee Verdecchio (BS ’11) works at BASF as a staff scientist.
Prof. Sadtchenko (left) and Erica Walters (right) at the
Chemistry Department’s 1st annual undergraduate research poster session
Page 16 | Volume 29
Sarah Millman and Kwasi Osae-Kwapong at the Chemical
Society of Washington dinner
Department of Chemistry
Nancy Guan (BS ’11) is attending the University of Maryland
Pharmacy school.
Gunjan Shah (BS ’04) finished medical school at Temple, following up with a residency in Internal Medicine at Jefferson University.
Department of Chemistry
Spring 2011 graduates and award recipients
She plans to do a fellowship Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at
Tufts University.
Joel Shulman (BS ’65) was elected an ACS Fellow. Congratulations!
Best of luck to Zohra Olumee-Shabon (PhD ’99), who accepted
a Staff Fellow position with the Center for Veterinary Medicine at
the FDA.
Olesya Chornoguz (BS ’05)spent a year at PNNL after graduating with her BS, before moving on to UMBC.
Another former member of the Vertes group has also accepted a
position with the FDA. Peter Nemes (PhD ’09) became a Staff
Fellow after completing a post doc at the University of Illinois.
Glauco Souza (PhD ’04) is doing well at n3D Biosciences, Inc.
He passed on articles that were published in Nature, http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v5/n4/full/nnano.2010.23.html and in Nanotechnology
Now,
http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=37240.
Kaveh Kahen (PhD ’06) is a Principle Research Scientist at AB
Sciex in Ontario, Canada.
Volume 29 | Page 17
Alumni News continued from page 17
Kaveh Jorabchi (PhD ’06) accepted a tenure track Assistant Professor position at Georgetown University.
Najmeh Izadpanah (BS ’09) worked as a medical scribe at
INOVA Fair Oaks’ Emergency Department before moving on to
medical school.
After a brief hiatus from chemistry, Jonathan Congmon is planning to start a Masters program in chemistry.
Chase Bovaird (BS ’08) got a job at PNNL after graduation.
Tiffany Wong (BA ’10) attended the GW Medical School after
being accepted early decision.
Candace Payne (BS ’11)is doing graduate research in Prof. James
Anderson’s lab at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Her project involves synthesizing Pt and Pd nanoparticles and using them in
catalysis.
Carly (Levin) Filgueira (BS ’03) accepted a position at the
Methodist Hospital Research Institute in the Texas Medical Center
in Houston., where she works for the department of genomic medicine under the direction of Dr. Paul Webb. She also works under
Drs. Berkenstam and Phillips and with Dr. Gustaffson at University
of Houston.
Alumnus Terry Schull (PhD ’99) spent many months in
Afghanistan on a contract with his company, Six3 Systems. He recently came back to the DC area looking for his next contracting
opportunity.
Scott Dantley (BS ’92) is an Associate Vice President at Copping
State University in Maryland.
Scott Keeler (MD ’82, BA ’78) stopped by the department while
visiting GW with his daughter on their college tour. Scott is an
MD, and worked in Colorado before moving on to a hospital in
Southern Mississippi about 10 years ago.
After graduation, Ali Khameinei (BS ’10) spent one year doing research with the NIH while applying to medical school.
Stephanie McCartney (PhD ’09) reports that her two boys are
doing well, and they’re getting bigger every day. Stevie is 3, and
Fenton is already approaching 1 year. Stephanie continues to work
for Southern Polytechnic University in Marietta, GA.
Xiaodong (Daniel) Tang (PhD ’97) is VP of Operations of
DMPK/Bioassay of Frontage Laboratories in Shanghai.
2011 Department Fall Retreat at Alpine Lake Resort, WV
A nice way to support the department would be to endow the annual departmental retreat.
W
Chemistry Department Gifts
July 2010-June 2012
e are deeply appreciative of the gifts from our alumni to the Department. Each gift, whatever the amount, allows us to further our research and educational goals. If your check is made out to the Chemistry Department, the money is earmarked for
our use. If not, it goes into the general fund. So please remember to cite the Chemistry Department E&R Account on any gift.
Many thanks to each of you for your thoughtfulness, and a special thanks to donors who gave $1000 or more.
Mrs. Davette E. Abkowitz
Mr. Sotirios Antonakos
Mr. Phillip J. Aruscavage
Mr. Garet A. Bornstein and Mrs. Ann Bornstein*
Mr. Robert Bowen*
Mrs. Shelesa A. Brew *
Dr. Elise A. Brown
Ms. Megan Buonaiuto
Mr. Benjamin F. Calvo, M.D.* *
Dr. Mary Widmark Carrabba**
Dr. Edward and Dr. Virginia Caress***
Ms. Soyun Choi
Dr. Roy S. Clarke***
Mr. John C. Cooper, III*
Ms. Dorothy Steimel-Crespi and Mr. Charles Crespi*
Mr. Timothy Cullen and Dr. Claire Cullen*
Dr. and Mrs. Courtland Davis*
Mr. Daniel Day and Dr. Deborah Day*
Mrs. Elizabeth B. Donaldson*
Dr. Kathleen Duda and Dr. Christopher Duda**
Mr. Richard J. Evans*
Ms. Katherine Ann Fedor*
Mr. Lawrence Fertel*
Dr. Mark Dominick Fili*
Mrs. Carly Levin Filgueria***
Dr. David Firestone*
Mr. and Mrs. James Funkhouser*
Ms. Stephanie D. Gibbs-Watts
Mr. Dwayne R. Gamble and Ms. Susan Gillmor
Mr. James Wilson Gladden
Dr. David E. Goldberg**
Dr. Thomas M. Hall***
Dr. Forest K. Harris*
Dr. Lee S. Harrow*
Ms. Susan Heald
Dr. R. Gerald Heinze*
Mr. and Mrs. C. Michael Hoffman**
Dr. John C. Hoffsommer
Prof. Emanuel Horowitz*
Dr. Charles R. Hurt***
Dr. Madeline R. Jacobs and Mr. Joseph Jacobs***
Dr. Frank Louis Joe, Jr.*
Dr. Randall Kaye**
Mr. Gerald J. Keefe
Ms. Anila N. Khan
* = $100 or more
Page 18 | Volume 29
Department of Chemistry
Dr. Usha Khatri-Chhetri
Ms. Linda King
Drs. Carolyn and Charles Knobler***
Dr. Stuart and Dr. Rosalind Kornfeld***
Mr. Charles Marshall
Dr. Maria E. Martins**
Mr. and Mrs. Harry D. McCament, Jr.*
Ms. Le-Nhung McLeland***
Dr. Charalambos Menelaou*
Ms. Diana S. Millman
Mr. and Mrs. Alan S. Nadel***
Ms. Ellen and Mr. Stanley Nesheim
Dr. Marriner Krumm Norr
Dr. James H. O’Mara***
Ms. Georgina Pappas
Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Perkins
Dr. Theodore P. Perros***
Protea Biosciences Inc.***
Dr. David Ramaker and Mrs. Beverly Ramaker* *
Dr. Richard Reeves and Mary Reeves* *
Eric J. Reines, M.D. *
Dr. Wilbert J. Robertson*
Dr. Mitchell Neal Ross *
Dr. David A. Rowley and Ms. Elaine H. Rowley**
Mrs. Pamela L. Russ*
Dr. William Edward Schmidt***
Dr. Terence L. Schull
Dr. Joel Shulman**
Dr. Jay A. Siegel*
Dr. Reynolds Reed and Mrs. Jennifer Leigh Skaggs*
Dr. Karen J. Skinner*
Jere B. Stern, M.D.
Mr. Albert Stewart
Jerremy M. Stipkala, Esq.*
Mrs. Shirley M. Stuntz**
Dr. Peter Tarasoff***
Dr. Paul A. Thomas*
LCDR John F. Van Patten, MSC, USN*
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Verdecchio**
Ms. Reema Vora
Mr. Charles Wales*
Dr. David G. White and Estate of Marjory W. White***
Mr. Frank R. Wojcik
Mr. Zelalem S. Wollie
Ms. Tiffany C. Wong
** = $500 or more
Department of Chemistry
*** = $1000 or more
Volume 29 | Page 19
Department of Chemistry
725 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
Phone: 202-994-6121
Fax: 202-994-5873
Newsletter publications and editing-Michael King and Shanna Roth
Corcoran Hall, Home of the Chemistry Department
Dr. Michael M. King, Chairman
Chemistry department interpretation of the periodic table of
elements. GW Chalk-In.
Page 20 | Volume 29
University Photography The George Washington University
email: [email protected]
departments.columbian.gwu.edu/chemistry
http://www.facebook.com/gwchemistry
Department of Chemistry