Chemistry

The Analytical Chemistry Division is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2018 James and Laura Winefordner Summer Graduate Scholarship, Ms. Emily Gill. Emily is a graduate of University of Birmingham and a member of Professor Rick Yost’s research group. Her dissertation research focuses on mass spectrometry and bioanalytical methods for studying Parkinson’s disease. Congratulations Emily!

Nathan is a 5th-year graduate student in the McElwee-White lab. He was chosen for one of two Outstanding Graduate Student awards by the Graduate Student Council at UF. During his time as a graduate student, he served as the head teaching assistant for first-semester general chemistry lab for two years.

In addition to teaching, Nathan has mentored several undergraduate students, graduate students, and visiting scholars who aimed to gain more experience in a fully functioning research lab. As a result of these collaborations, Nathan was an author on four peer-reviewed publications within the McElwee-White lab. More recently, Nathan served as the founding member of the UF Graduate Student Symposium Planning Committee that hosted a symposium at the 255th American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans.

University of Florida Research Foundation named Professor Gail Fanucci as one of 33 UFRF Professors for 2018-2021. UF recognizes faculty members for having distinguished current records of research and strong research agendas likely to lead to continuing distinction in their fields.

“Since 1997, more than 700 faculty members have been named UFRF Professors,” said David Norton, UF’s vice president for research. “Many have gone on to spectacular success, earning grants and fellowships from a wide array of public and private funding sources; publishing in the leading journals in their field; assuming institutional leadership positions, and commercializing their discoveries for the benefit of society.”

Congratulations, Dr. Fanucci!

UF News: UF Research Foundation Names 2018 Professors

Congratulations to Dr. Wagener for receiving the 2018 CLAS Faculty Achievement Award and 2019 Tosoh Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions in the field!

Wagener Research Group

The March 5th issue of American Chemical Society’s weekly magazine, Chemical & Engineering News, features an article about how Dr. Christie Enke and Dr. Richard Yost developed the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The article explains the history and how it became the most commonly used mass spectrometer in the world today.

Read the article “As the triple quadrupole turns 40, mass spec gurus look back on what it’s meant to chemistry”

The Chemistry Department held its annual recruiting weekend March 23rd-25th. We were happy to host nearly 50 prospective students who participated in a mix of professional and social activities. An enjoyable weekend was had by all!

The 18th Florida Heterocyclic and Synthetic Conference (FloHet 2018) was held in Chemistry/Chemical Biology, March 4th-7th. The meeting, organized locally by Profs Aaron Aponick, Alex Grenning, and Bill Dolbier, brought together more than 250 academic and industrial chemists from the state of Florida, from across the country, and from overseas too! FloHet is a celebration of synthetic organic chemistry originally conceived and organized by the late Prof. Katritzky and the Arkat Foundation.

This year, with the help of Eric Scriven, Dennis Hall, and Vicki Tyson (Arkat, USA), the meeting was moved from the Reitz Union to the UF Chemistry Complex.  The format remained largely unchanged with plenary lectures, a short course, breakout sessions, and poster presentations each day keeping the legacy of heterocyclic chemistry at UF alive, well, and prospering.  The meeting will now be held biennially and we look forward to an equally successful FloHet 2020!  For more information, visit flohet.chem.ufl.edu.

University Distinguished Professor Weihong Tan, also the V. T. and Louis Jackson Professor, has been selected to receive the 2018 ACS (American Chemical Society) Award in Spectrochemical Analysis. This award is given annually by the ACS Analytical Chemistry Division to analytical chemists who “advance the fields of spectrochemical analysis and optical spectrometry.” This award recognizes Professor Tan’s influential role “in the development of this field and in the use of chemical instrumentation,” with the award citation: “Tan has made pioneering contributions in spectrochemical analysis: ultrasensitive bioanalysis with DNA probes, ultrasmall optical biosensors, development of biophotonic nanomaterials and aptamer-based chemistry and biotechnologies.” He will be recognized at the 2018 Fall ACS meeting in Boston this August.

The Department of Chemistry welcomes Daniel Seidel and his research group to the University of Florida. Professor Seidel received his Ph.D. from UT Austin with Jonathan Sessler and did postdoctoral work at Harvard University with David Evans before joining the faculty at Rutgers University where he established a research program in synthetic organic chemistry with a focus on asymmetric catalysis and C?H bond functionalization. Daniel brings an internationally recognized research portfolio that will further diversify the synthetic chemistry program at UF. We welcome him as an esteemed new member of our faculty.

Research group website: http://www.seidel-group.com/