Chemistry

“Charles R. Martin, the Colonel Allan R. and Margaret G. Crow Professor in Chemistry, has been announced as the recipient of the 2010 American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Electrochemistry. The award recognizes a scientist for advancing the field of electrochemical analysis and will be presented at the Boston ACS meeting in August, 2010.”

“Adam Veige, assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Science, has been awarded a 2010 Sloan Research Fellowship. Professor Veige is one of only 23 chemists to receive this award in 2010. Sloan Fellows receive $50,000 for a two-year period to support their research goals. Dr. Veige credits this award to his talented group of student researchers who are studying Inorganic/Organometallic chemistry. Together they are finding new ways to catalytically activate, break and form new chemical bonds that are relevant to asymmetric synthesis, energy conversion, and dinitrogen fixation. In an upcoming manuscript the Veige research group will report an unprecedented sequence of reactions involving C-N bond rupture followed by methyl group dehydrogenation.”

“Professor Ken B. Wagener has been selected as the 2010 Herty Medalist for his discovery of acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization chemistry. Since 1933, this prestigious award has recognized the work and service of outstanding chemists who have significantly contributed to their chosen field. All chemists in academic, government, or industrial laboratories who reside in the southeastern US for more than 10 years are eligible. Among the previous medalists are T. R. Leigh (1942) and G. B. Butler (1978) of University of Florida.”

“Professor Jon Stewart will receive one of the 2009-2010 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Awards. Many fine CLAS teachers were nominated for these awards and success in such a competition is a signal of achievement. An award of $2,000 will be made to recipients in recognition of their contributions to teaching. All Teaching/Advising Award winners will be officially recognized at a reception at the University President’s House. The award committee was very impressed with Professor Stewart’s statement on teaching philosophy. A booklet of these statements from several awardees will soon be available for new faculty and will also be posted on the CLAS website. Congratulations to Professor Stewart for this teaching achievement!”

“February 2010 will see the fiftieth meeting of the Sanibel Symposium on Atomic, Molecular and Solid State theory, organized by the Quantum Theory Project (QTP). As we have done in the past for major anniversaries, we have organized a competition among students in the UF studio art program to produce a poster to celebrate the event. The contributions were juried, and a winner picked. The contributions and a short biographical note on each of the artists are presented below. The contributed projects are to be hung as part of the QTP Art Collection in the corridors of the Quantum Theory Project in the New Physics Building, and prints of the winning poster will be given to the participants in the 2010 Sanibel Symposium.”

“On Saturday October 31st the Center for Catalysis hosted the 4th annual Halloween Molecular Mania at the Oaks Mall. A group of graduate and undergraduate students led by Prof. Adam Veige conducted experiments for mall patrons from 10am to 2pm in the Belks court area. The experiments were designed to teach students about fundamental aspects of chemistry such as vapor pressure, polymerization, crystallization, and the different states of matter. Students Soumya Sarkar and Michelle Jurcak organized the event and the team’s efforts were highlighted in an article in the Gainesville Sun Newspaper and the Alligator. The event was supported by the National Science Foundation, the ACS-Florida Section, the Chemistry Department and the Center for Catalysis.”

“Professor Kenneth Merz has been selected as the recipient of the 2010 ACS Award for Computers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research that recognizes the advances he has made in the use of quantum mechanics to solve biological and drug discovery problems. This highly prestigious international award sponsored by ACS is given to an individual “without regard to age or nationality for outstanding achievement in the use of computers in research, development, or education in the chemical and biological sciences.”

A new fall begins and all over campus the University of Florida has a lot of new faces running around. With the Department of Chemistry opening it’s doors and laboratories to the 39 new Graduates. All of our faculty and staff within each division and department would like to give a big welcome to each and everyone of you.

“Just Arrived! A big welcome to Dr. David Wei, who joins our faculty as an Assistant Professor this fall. Dr. Wei is a scientist and researcher in the areas of Physical and Materials Chemistry. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and trained as a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University. He has also held a research position at the Pacific Northwest National Labs. Dr. Wei has published more than twenty papers during his graduate and postdoctoral careers. He is looking forward to getting his research group started here at UF. For more information about his research, go to his web page or email him at wei@chem.ufl.edu.”