Congratulations go out to professors Steve Bruner, Rebecca Butcher, Jon Stewart, and David Wei who were selected to receive University Term Professorship Awards this year. These UF professorship awards have a duration of three years and recognize faculty for their superior academic accomplishments. Thank you Steve, Rebecca, Jon, and David for your outstanding work in research and teaching and helping to make the Department of Chemistry a place of academic distinction with your scholarship.
A look back at the birth of the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer
The triple quadrupole mass spectrometer has become the most common mass spectrometer in the world today, with sales of over $1 billion per year. It is today the gold standard for quantitative analysis in metabolomics, clinical analysis, drug discovery and development, environmental analysis, and a wide variety of other application areas. That invention, by Professors Yost and Enke, along with related research in their labs, has helped propel mass spectrometry into the one of the most commonly used analytical methods in the world.
Prof. Christou’s group publishes three Nature papers in three months
Distinguished Professor George Christou’s group has published three papers in Nature journals during the fall semester. They are the initial publications from three new directions in his program. Two are in ‘molecular nanoscience’ projects targeting bottom-up syntheses of monodisperse nanoparticles of important metal oxides: “Molecular analogue of the perovskite repeating unit and evidence for direct MnIII-CeIV-MnIII exchange coupling pathway”, A. E. Thuijs et al., Nature Commun. 2017, 8, 500 (doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00642-0); “Atomically-precise colloidal nanoparticles of cerium dioxide”, K. J. Mitchell et al., Nature Commun. 2017, 8, 1445 (doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01672-4). They were based on work by graduate students Annaliese Thuijs (now at Intel Corp.) and Kylie Mitchell (now at Innophos Inc.), respectively. The third is in a bioinorganic project to develop structural and functional models of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) in plant and cyanobacterial photosynthesis: “A bioinspired soluble manganese cluster as a water oxidation electrocatalyst with low overpotential”, G. Maayan et al., Nature Catalysis, online article doi:10.1038/s41929-017-0004-2, with his postdoc Galia Maayan (now Assistant Professor at the Technion, Israel).
Prof. Christou’s research is in synthetic and physical-inorganic chemistry of the transition metals, and spans molecular nanoscience, bioinorganic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, and molecular magnetism.
Sebastian Acosta-Calle receives the 2017 Keaffaber Scholar Award
Congratulations to Sebastian Acosta-Calle, who has been named the recipient of the 2017 Keaffaber Scholar Award. The award has been made possible through the generosity of Dr. Jeffrey Keaffaber, a longtime friend and supporter of the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Keaffaber received his Ph.D. from the Department in 1989 (with Prof. William Dolbier, Jr.) and has enjoyed a career in industry, entrepreneurship, consulting, and teaching. Within the Department of Chemistry he has served as a senior lecturer, undergraduate advisor, and pioneer of new teaching initiatives.
The Keaffaber Scholar Award recognizes the overall excellence in research and academic scholarship of one of our senior chemistry majors. To be eligible for the award, the undergraduate must be research active within the Department of Chemistry and committed to pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry. This year’s recipient, Sebastian Acosta-Calle, is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science degree in chemistry. He has been working in the lab of Dr. David Wei for two years, conducting research in physical chemistry. His research involves the design and synthesis of a plasmonic photo-catalyst with LSPR-mediated photothermal effects. The purpose of his research is to enhance the utility and performance of palladium nanoparticles in catalytic hydrogenation reactions of olefins. In the spring of 2017, Sebastian was awarded the University of Florida’s University Scholars Program Award and the Department of Chemistry’s Chemical Physics Scholarship for his undergraduate research. In the fall of 2017, Sebastian was named NSF Florida-Georgia LSAMP Scholar for his academic achievements. Sebastian plans to pursue a PhD in chemistry with a focus in synthetic chemistry. His goal after earning his PhD is to obtain a research position in academia.
Wei Group published in Chemical Reviews
“A paper from the�Wei group�has been published in Chemical Reviews. The article titled “Surface-Plasmon-Driven Hot Electron Photochemistry” reports the recent theoretical and experimental approaches for understanding the underlying photophysical processes in hot electron generation and discusses various electron-transfer models on both plasmonic metal nanostructures and plasmonic metal/semiconductor heterostructures. The review highlights the plasmon-driven hot electron photochemical reactions and specifically pointed out the remaining challenges in the field and future opportunities for addressing the low reaction efficiencies in hot-electron-induced photochemistry. The research was supported by the Air Force Office of Science Research and National Science Foundation.”
Simple installation of α-substituents on unprotected amines
The Seidel group has recently published a method for the direct α-C–H bond functionalization of cyclic secondary amines, ubiquitous core structures of bioactive natural products and pharmaceutical drugs. No protecting groups or transition metals are required, enabling the synthesis of α-substituted amines in a simple one-pot process.
Article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2871
Article highlight: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41570-017-0104
Simple installation of ?-substituents on unprotected amines
“The Seidel group has recently published a method for the direct ?-C?H bond functionalization of cyclic secondary amines, ubiquitous core structures of bioactive natural products and pharmaceutical drugs. No protecting groups or transition metals are required, enabling the synthesis of ?-substituted amines in a simple one-pot process.”
Leigh Prizes Announced
The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce the recipients of the annual Townes R. Leigh Prizes for outstanding achievement by first year graduate students. This award recognizes excellence in coursework, teaching, research, and written qualifying examinations.
The recipients from the 2016 Ph.D. class are, pictured from left to right, John Usala, Jacob Lessard, Elham Yaaghubi, Kaylee Todd, Gaurav Dahiya, and Florian Diot. Congratulations all!
Professor Ron Castellano receives SEC Faculty Travel grant
Professor Ron Castellano recently received a Southeastern Conference (SEC) Faculty Travel grant from the Office of the Provost. More than 100 faculty members from all 14 Southeastern Conference universities will take part in the 2017-18 SEC Faculty Travel Program. The program, in its sixth year, provides support for selected individuals to collaborate with colleagues at other SEC member institutions.
Prof. Castellano will be traveling to the University of Kentucky in October 2017 to present a seminar entitled “Programming pi-System Structure and Function by Hydrogen Bonding”, interface with students, and exchange research ideas with colleagues in the area of organic materials chemistry.
Click here for a full list of 2017-18 SEC Faculty Travel Program participants.
Click here for for more information about the 2017-18 SEC Faculty Travel Program.
Professor Adam Veige wins JSPS Fellowship–Will travel to Japan
Congratulations to Adam Veige for winning a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship for Research in Japan. JSPS invitation fellowships are designed to enable Japanese researchers to invite their overseas colleagues to Japan to participate in cooperative work and other academic activities. As such, Dr. Veige will travel to Japan and spend 18 days visiting various institutions.
Researchers of all countries having diplomatic relations with Japan are eligible. Japanese researchers who wish to host overseas researchers in Japan can submit applications. Dr. Veige was nominated by his host researcher, Yasuyuki Tezuka, of Tokyo Institute of Technology. Their research theme was, “Precision Designing of Cyclic Polymers for Innovative Soft Materials.”
For more information, visit https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-inv/.