chemical connections 2012
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CONGRATULATIONS - 2012 Graduates
John Abdou Stanley Hiew
Margaret Abercrombie Allen Kim
Jennifer Brousseau Sarah Ludwig
Ryan Cheu Ryan Lynch (Dec)
Charles Denault Andrew Martinolich
James Ellis Megan Morisada
Carmelino Galang Elena Naderzad
Rachel Gate Marc Nakashima
Max Giammona Fritz Seidl
Paul Henry Dustyn Uchiyama
Jessica is second from right, front row
Chemical Connections
www.scu.edu/chemistry The official newsletter of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053
EMAIL: jgilbert@scu.edu TELEPHONE: (408) 554-4799
SCU graduate Jessica Koehne - among recipients of the Presidential
Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) Editor’s Note: We are delighted to congratulate Jessica for her accomplishment and award, and greatly appreciate her
generosity in sharing her career highlights
Since graduating from the SCU Department of Chemistry in 2000, my career has led me on an
exciting journey. Although I have experienced some
challenges along the way, my foundation in
chemistry from SCU has given me the skills and confidence to adapt and seek
opportunity.
I am currently a research scientist for the NASA Ames Center for
Nanotechnology where I develop biosensors for crew health and water quality
monitoring applications. My research is truly interdisciplinary giving me the
opportunity to work closely with electrical engineers, chemical engineers,
materials scientists, biologists and medical doctors. I also support many
programs through the NASA Office of Education, where I am given the
opportunity to mentor students who are often unsure of career paths in
science. Working with students frequently reminds me of myself at that stage
of my career. In the SCU Department of Chemistry, we are so fortunate to
have the most dedicated group of faculty who are eager to guide and mentor
young aspiring scientists on everything from experimental design to career paths to proper ethical conduct for scientists.
I aspire to pass on the same guidance and values to students coming through my lab.
2012 has been the most exciting year of my professional career thus far. In July, I was awarded a Presidential Early
Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which took me to the White House to meet President Obama and
White House Science and Technology Advisor John Holdren. After getting the news that I was receiving the award, I
immediately shared the announcement with the SCU Department of Chemistry through an e-mail to Dr. Shachter. Much
of my career path and values are rooted in the education and experiences I had while in the department. For the official
White House press release, go to http://wh.gov/Cxdm
2012 GRAND REUNION
The department thanks the following alumni and guests for
joining us at a wine and cheese reception on Grand Reunion
weekend:
Frank DeLorenzo Keoni Murphy Jean Sugikawa Fujiki Peter Reck Cynthia Gonzalves Richard Saita Patty Hora John Takla
A BIG thank you to Keoni Murphy for encouraging his
friends from the class of ’82 to attend the department
reception. Hope you will join us at future Grand Reunions.
Vol. 9 December, 2012
In this issue Award Winner 1
Chair’s Corner 2 Chem Club 3
Sigma X 3
Awards 4
New Courses 5
Faculty News 6
Alumni Corner .9
Donations Report 9
Seminar Program 10
From the Chair’s Corner Jack Gilbert
The past year has again been an
exciting time for the faculty, staff,
and students of our department. I
hope that this column serves to share
some of that excitement with you.
New Faculty From the stand-point of
faculty news, we are delighted to
welcome Paul Abbyad to the
department as a tenure-track assistant professor. Paul is a
biophysical chemist who joins us after earning his Ph.D. at
Stanford University and doing postdoctoral work at the Ecole
Polytechnique in Palaiseau, France, for several years. More
information about Paul’s background and research interests is
provided elsewhere in this newsletter.
The addition of Paul brings the number of our tenure-stream
faculty members to 11. Three are full professors, four are
associate professors, and the remaining four are assistant
professors. In addition, two full-time administrators, Dennis
Jacobs, University Provost, and Atom Yee, Dean of the
College of Arts & Sciences, hold positions as full professors
in our department as well.
Department Majors In last year’s newsletter, I noted that
the number of our chemistry/biochemistry majors was 119, an
all-time high. This figure continues to increase, as it now
stands at 141, about two-thirds of whom are majoring in
biochemistry. We are beginning to bulge at the seams in the
truest sense, but are making every effort to accommodate our
majors not only in classrooms but in research laboratories as
well. Although we don’t truly understand the basis for the
increase, it may be associated with renewed emphasis on
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
majors. In this context, we see growing numbers of students in
our service courses (general and organic chemistry).
Comparing enrollments from five years ago with those this
fall, for example, the number of students in general and
organic chemistry has risen from 411 and 138 students,
respectively, in 2007 to 547 and 238 this year.
Once they graduate, what are our students doing?
The way to find this out is to visit
http://www.scu.edu/cas/chemistry/students/Senior-
Brochure.cfm and read the documents that are there. For
example, what you’ll see for last year’s 21 seniors who appear
in the brochure, most are planning to continue on to graduate
or professional school after working (or resting!) for a year or
more. The career plans include a law degree and an MBA, an
indication that a degree in chemistry/biochemistry can lead in
a number of directions.
Award Winners As you know, our faculty place a high priority on quality teaching, so we were particularly pleased
that Elisabeth Thomas, an academic staff member, received
the Dr. David E. Logothetti Teaching Award from the College
of Arts and Sciences this year. This award is given “In
recognition of having established among colleagues and
students a well-deserved reputation for an energetic,
engaging, and effective teaching style, and having
demonstrated the ability to motivate other teachers and
learners.” Elisabeth fits this description to a tee, having been
an outstanding instructor in our general chemistry program for
some 20 years, and thousands of students have benefited from
her caring instruction. I would note that this is the first time
that a staff member has received this teaching award!
Our alumni and students have been garnering awards too. As
noted above, Jessica Koehne (2000) was one of 96 recipients
of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and
Engineers. Emilee Sena (2011) won an NSF Graduate
Research Fellowship in this year's competition; Stan Hiew
(2012) was awarded an Honorable Mention. I'm delighted to
tell you that Stan has been named as the winner of the Gerald
and Sally DeNardo Senior Prize in Science Research and
Brett Yurash is one of this year’s DeNardo Science Scholars.
Please join me in congratulating them as well as Amelia
Fuller their research mentor.
External Review Finally, the department is engaging in
preparations for an external review, wherein two or more
faculty members from other universities will assess our
program and provide feedback, pro and con, to ourselves and
administrators. The assessments can be of considerable value,
as reflected in the last time such as review was performed.
One of the key recommendations was that we offer more
upper-division electives for our majors. Fortunately, the
administration agreed to this, and we are now able to offer
two such electives, up from one, each year. We need to
increase this figure to at least three, and efforts are underway
to do so.
Parting Note This year marks my last as chair of the
department. It has been a great pleasure for me to serve in this
capacity since January 2007, as it has brought me into contact
with a number of faculty, staff,
and administrators from
throughout the university as well
as our alums. I look forward to
supporting my successor, who
will be selected by the end of the
spring quarter. I am confident that
whoever it is will provide
exceptional leadership during
her/his term as chair. For my own
part, I thank you for all the
support you provide to the
department.
Chem Club Accolade:
Kudos to Dr. Linda Brunauer for her mentorship of the
SCU Chem Club. The SCU Chem Club continued its
20-year uninterrupted string of awards from the
American Chemical Society this year, adding a
Commendable Chapter Award to our collection of
plaques!
This year, besides sponsoring a new “Sweetest Day”
pie event and a TRP Turkey (sandwiches) Break for
the department, Chem Club members continue to
volunteer their services to the community, such as
presenting hands-on scientific activities at MLK
Library during National Chemistry Week. Members
also participate in the scholarly ACS Undergraduate
Research Conference, held at Mills College in Spring
2011.
Seemed like everyone who came was rewarded in one way or another!
Photos courtesy of Drs. Linda Brunauer & Korin Wheeler
Left: Hands-on Activities at MLK Library
Below: Mills College ACS Undergraduate Research Conference,
Spring 2012 (Megan Morisada and Erick Castellanos Jimenez)
Sigma Xi Twelve students were recognized for their substantial research
accomplishments in collaboration with faculty in Chemistry &
Biochemistry through their induction to Sigma Xi, the honor
society for scientific research: John Abdou, Ryan Cheu, Rachel
Gate, Stanley Hiew, Nathaniel May, Megan Morisada, Meagan
Nakamoto, Marc Nakashima, Vincent Nguyen, Fritz Seidl, Emily
Tran, and Dustyn Uchiyama. Newly inducted members presented
their research at a poster session held on campus in the spring quarter.
Clockwise: Stan Hiew, Fritz Seidl, Rachel Gate
Photos Courtesy of Dr. Steve Suljak
SCU DeNardo Awards In case you missed it in the Chair’s Corner, we’re proud to reiterate here that Chemistry/Biochemistry majors swept the DeNardo Awards. Stan Hiew (2012) has been named as the winner of the Gerald and Sally DeNardo Senior Prize in Science
Research. Brett Yurash (2013) is one of this year’s two DeNardo Science Scholars, as is Emily Robinson (2014).
DEPARTMENT NEWS The Sweetest Day is the third Saturday in October. To
celebrate, we had the pre-sweetest day pie social on the
preceding Friday afternoon. Faculty, club officers, and
students came together to share their love of pie!
Do you like pie?
I like pie!
I like pie!
I like pie!
I like pie!
I like pie!
Phi Lambda Upsilon Nominees
Fritz, Stan, Sarah & Megan
NSF Awards As noted in the Chair’s Corner, Emilee Sena (SCU Chemistry '11) won an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in this
year's competition. Stan Hiew received an Honorable Mention.
Chemistry 2012 Award Winners
CRC Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award
Awarded to a freshman student for outstanding
performance in General Chemistry
Recipient: Scott Kravitz
American Chemical Society Polyed Award
Sponsored by the Polymer Education Committee of the
American Chemical Society to honor outstanding
achievement in Organic Chemistry
Recipient: Courtney Holmes
American Chemical Society Award in
Analytical Chemistry Given to an upper-division student for excellence in both
lower- and upper-division analytical chemistry courses
Recipient: Nathaniel W. May
American Institute of Chemists Foundation Award
Awarded to an outstanding senior chemistry major in
recognition of a record of leadership, ability, character,
and scholastic achievement
Recipient: Stanley Hiew
American Chemical Society Award in
Inorganic Chemistry
Awarded to an undergraduate student who has demonstrated
excellence in inorganic chemistry and whose future plans
include a career in chemistry.
Recipient: Stanley Hiew
Phi Lambda Upsilon
Membership-at-large in this National Honor Society in
recognition of a record of leadership, ability, character,
and scholastic achievements.
Nominees: Stanley Hiew, Sarah Ludwig, Megan
Morisada and Fritz Seidl
Joseph Deck Award
Established in 1973, this award is given by the Chemistry
Department faculty to the outstanding student majoring in
chemistry who has excelled in studies and undergraduate
research, extracurricular activities, leadership and
generous tutoring of fellow students, while maintaining at
least a B average,.
Recipients: Max Giammona and Megan Morisada
New Upper-Division Electives in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
In the past year, the department has introduced two new electives to the curriculum. In spring 2012, Dr. Suljak taught a
seminar style course in Bioanalytical Chemistry, and in winter 2013 Dr. Hoggard will be teaching an upper-division elective
focusing on Environmental Chemistry.
Environmental Chemistry (by Patrick Hoggard)
For many years our department has
taught Chemistry 1, Chemistry and the
Environment, to non-majors, who take
it to fulfill a core requirement, but
we’ve never offered a course on
environmental chemistry for students
who actually know some chemistry.
This will change in the winter quarter
of 2013, when I will be offering this
as a Special Topics course (Chem
190). One theme that runs through
many aspects of environmental
chemistry is that so much of it consists
of free-radical reactions. Most of the
reactions taking place in the
stratosphere, including those that
affect ozone formation and depletion,
are free radical reactions. That yellow
layer you see covering Los Angeles as
the plane descends, or as you drive
down into the valley on Highway 395,
develops all over again every day
through free-radical reactions. The
decomposition of many organic
pollutants in the soil – free-radical
reactions. Water purification by
chlorination – more free radicals. In
Chemistry 1, you can scarcely even
mention the term free radical, much
less go into mechanisms, rates, steady
state concentrations, and
photochemical yields, but those are
precisely what make the subject so
interesting.
And then there’s global warming. It’s
one thing to talk about changing all
your light bulbs to compact fluorescents
to save the environment or, on a grander
scale, to pledge to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions to 1990 levels. It’s
another to look at the models that
predict anthropogenic warming, to look
at the equations, to see how many
variables there are, and to evaluate what
the range of variability is for each. As
an example, we’ll look at “radiative
forcing” and “relative instantaneous
radiative forcing” and how they affect
predictions for the future of the climate.
Finally, we’ll examine the problem of
where energy will come from in the
future and what chemistry research is
offering to the solution of that problem,
particularly in the design of cheaper
photovoltaic materials and solar energy
storage possibilities.
I’ve never enjoyed talking about the
chemistry of the environment to
nonmajors. I always feel like I’m
pontificating, that whatever I say the
students have to accept because I’m the
instructor. I’m eagerly awaiting the
chance to teach this special topics
course where students will be able to
see the science behind the issues,
including even the uncertainties in areas
where our knowledge is less than
perfect.
Bioanalytical Chemistry (by Steven Suljak)
Since my arrival at SCU in 2004, I have
looked forward to the opportunity to
teach a course focused on current topics
in bioanalytical chemistry. The
biological realm provides a vast array of
challenges to the analytical chemist.
Biological samples tend to be complex,
unstable, and available only in small
amounts. Modern analytical methods
have been pushed to remarkable limits
by the motivation to gain quantitative
information about the chemistry of
living systems. With each improvement
in instrument sensitivity, spatial
resolution, and temporal response, new
truths about biological systems at the
molecular level have been revealed. The
tandem progression of analytical
methods and biological insights was the
central theme of this new course.
The class was conducted seminar style,
with each lecture session focused on the
discussion of one or two articles from
recent literature in the field. Students
read extensively on topics including
separations of single vesicles,
proteomics (and metabolomics and
peptidomics), microfluidic systems, in-vivo voltammetry, microdialysis, bio-
barcodes, and nanoflares. In addition to
learning about the science itself, a
significant portion of each discussion
was directed at skills in reading
scientific literature – students had the
opportunity to critically evaluate how
effective the papers were in
communicating the science through the
writing, figures, and tables, while also
considering how convinced they were
by the experimental results presented.
Each student also wrote an extensive
review article on a bioanalytical topic
not featured in the course, with subjects
ranging from magnet-activated cell
sorting to single molecule analysis via
electrochemical detection in nanofluidic
devices. In response to student feedback
from this spring, I am also excited to
note that Bioanalytical Chemistry has
recently been approved as a course to
satisfy the Advanced Writing core
requirement at SCU!
New Assistant Professor
Paul Abbyad
Paul Abbyad joined our faculty in
September after
spending four
years at the
Laboratory for
Optics for
Biosciences and
the Laboratory for
Hydrodynamics,
which are located at the Ecole
Polytechnique near Paris. As you might
imagine, it was no mean task to lure
Paul away from that location, but we are
delighted that we managed to do so with
strong support from Dean Yee and his
staff.
Prior to his sojourn in France, Paul
earned his Ph.D. with Steven Boxer at
Stanford, after completing his B.S
(Honors) in Chemistry at McGill
University in Montreal. While at
Stanford, he not only excelled in the
research laboratory and the usual array
of required science courses, but also
took “Science Course Design” and
“Issues in Science Education for
Science and Engineering Grad
Students”, both of which will serve him
well as a faculty member here. He is
currently teaching our upper-division
course in biophysical chemistry and will
continue to offer additional courses in
physical and general chemistry.
Paul has an impressive publication
record, already having 12 papers as a
co-author. These have appeared in
prestigious peer-reviewed journals such
as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Biochemistry, and
Journal of Physical Chemistry B. In
addition, he has made numerous
presentations at international
conferences. We are confident that Paul
will continue his outstanding
scholarship here at SCU.
Speaking of scholarship, Paul’s research
interests are in the field of
microfluidics, studies of the flow of
liquids in micrometer-sized channels.
Within this area, he is particularly
interested in microfluidic droplets, an
emerging technology that expands
applications by confining reagents and
cells in small droplets that do not mix
and therefore represent “test tubes” of
nanoliter volume. Applying this
approach to biological and chemical
assays results in a reduction in the
volume of reagents required and a
concomitant decrease in the costs of
such assays.
We are pleased to welcome Paul as well
as Barbara Stübner, his recent bride,
who is a talented musician and linguist
in her own right.
FACULTY NEWS
The 2012 graduating group Kyle, Paul, Vince, Marc,
Emily, John and Charles
Suljak’s Research Group
Steven Suljak’s research group continues its efforts to develop
aptamers to distinguish between protein variants with specific post-
translational modifications, currently focused on a cancer-linked
protein called thrombospondin-1. In addition, a collaboration with the
Birmingham lab (SCU Physics) and Kim lab (Bioengineering)
involves investigating the changing levels of biogenic amines in crab
hemolymph using a combination of bioanalytical techniques ranging
from LC-MS/MS to micro- fabricated chip electrophoresis with
electrochemical detection (funded by a grant from Research Corporation).
Four group members (Megan Morisada, Nate May, Ryan Cheu, and Dustyn
Uchiyama) presented posters on their research at PittCon 2012 in Orlando.
In addition, several members presented posters at this year’s ACS
Undergraduate Research Meeting. Megan, Ryan, and Dustyn graduated
from the lab this past May;
As seen in the picture Megan clearly won the award for the largest
collection of leis!
Lab alumni report
that they are doing
well. Christian
Paquet and Rob
Pivec are in
residency programs,
seven others are
continuing medical
school, and five alumni are immersed in doctoral research programs.
Chappy Huang recently began pharmacy school at California Northstate University near Sacramento. And in more
personal news, Mary Lucas became Mary Oransky after getting married to David Oransky in July! Wendy and I have
enjoyed meeting with alumni both in Santa Clara and during our travels in the past year.
Updates from the Adalsteinnson Group
Last academic year, the unusual situation came up that
every group member Kyle Tubbs (biochemistry), Paul
Henry (biochemistry), Vincent Nguyen (biochemistry),
Marc Nakashima (biology), Emily Tran (biology), John
Abdou (chemistry) and Charles Denault (Chemistry), were
scheduled to graduate in the spring. This meant a complete
turnover of students, which started in the winter quarter.
The group published one article last year in the Journal of
Physical Chemistry B; "Phase transitions of n-hexadecane
in nanoencapsulated binary solutions of n-hexadecane and
1-octanol." by Kyle W. Tubbs, Vincent T. Nguyen and
Thorsteinn Adalsteinsson.
Other contributions made by this group included a joint
publication with Dr. Barber (physics) and Dr. McNelis
(chemistry and biochemistry) this last academic year;
"Transport and Spectroscopic Studies of the Effects of
Fullerene Structure on the Efficiency and Lifetime of
Polythiophene-based Solar Cells: by E. L. Sena (2011) et
al.; presentations at the local ACS undergraduate research
symposia and the Sigma Xi symposium at SCU.
Emily Tran continued working on her research project
during the summer months. She was joined by a fellow
graduated biology student, Amar Sandhu, in order to
complete the research project.
In October 2012 Dr. Adalsteinsson submitted his petition
for promotion to tenure and the rank of associate professor.
In the spring quarter, Dr. Adalsteinsson recruited and
trained three students to continue the research projects.
New group members are Connor Lynch (bio-engineering),
Kaitlyn Trillo (chemistry), Aakash Agarwal
(biochemistry). Bianca Khishaveh (chemistry) and Julia
Courtney
(Right to left): Andy Martinolich (’12),
Dr. Wheeler, and Meagan Nakamoto (’12)
at graduation.
Nguyen (biochemistry) joined the lab during the Fall
quarter. This current group is working on two new research
projects, one journal article and two research proposals,
which will hopefully serve to maintain the high level of
activity in the group. The hope is to contribute material to
the Gordon conference and to the American Physical
Society meeting this year in addition to the regular
contributions to the ACS meetings. Given these activities,
there are no vacations planned this year.
News from the Fuller Lab
The Fuller lab is continuing research on peptoid structure,
and we’re making slow but steady progress. Last fall the
department bought a new mass spectrometry system with
funds from a grant from the National Science Foundation,
and that’s been a useful instrument in our research.
Currently, three students are doing undergraduate research
on projects in the Fuller lab: Courtney Holmes (’14), Erik
Schaumann (’13), and Brett Yurash (’14). We also
welcomed Belem Avila this fall. Belem is a postdoc who
got her Ph.D. from UC Davis. In addition to teaching a few
courses here at SCU, Belem is working in both the
Carrasco and Fuller labs and starting to get familiar with
peptoids.
In the past academic year, Fuller lab researchers made a
number of research presentations. Both Stan Hiew (’12)
and Fritz Seidl (’12) made oral presentations at Mills
College at the Northern California Undergraduate
Research Symposium last spring. These
two also presented on campus at the
Sigma Xi poster session and gave a
research talk at our final departmental
seminar. In addition, Courtney, Erik
and Brett all attended the 8th Peptoid
Summit in Berkeley, CA with Dr.
Fuller this past August, and Brett
presented a poster.
Several of our lab members earned some
impressive honors for their scientific
excellence this past academic year. Courtney Holmes won
the American Chemical Society Polyed award for
excellence in organic chemistry, Brett Yurash was
recognized as a Gerald and Sally DeNardo science scholar,
and Stan Hiew was awarded the DeNardo Senior Prize in
Science Research as well as the American Institute of
Chemists Foundation Award. Fritz and Stan were also
inducted into Sigma Xi, the science research honor society,
and Phi Lambda Upsilon, the national honor society for
excellence in chemistry.
Fuller lab alumni are doing really well too! Paul Bruno
(’10) is now officially a Ph.D. candidate at the University
of Michigan in Michigan in Anna Mapp’s lab, so congrats
to Paul on passing that milestone! Kanwal Palla (’10) has
joined Matt Francis’s lab at UC Berkeley and will have her
preliminary exams this spring. Lauren Sartor (’11) is
putting the finishing touches on a publication as a graduate
student at CSU Northridge. Marisa Plescia (’11) is teaching
science at a high school nearby.
We bid farewell to three awesome graduates this past June.
Although we’re sad to see them go, I know they’ll do great
things after SCU. Stan Hiew is in the chemistry graduate
program at UC Irvine, and Fritz Seidl just started in the
chemistry graduate program at Stanford. Kasey Conklin is
applying to medical schools this year. You can look
forward to hearing about their accomplishments in future
editions of this newsletter!
News from the Wheeler Lab
We’ve had a busy year in the Wheeler lab. Our research group grew in
the fall with the addition of two new members, Erick Castellanos-Jimenez
(‘13) and Kristian Borofka (‘14). With a total of six members, the lab was
always full and buzzing with activity.
In 2012, our first paper was published! This initial chapter of our research
focused establishing the impact of silver nanoparticles on the structure
and function of copper proteins essential to healthy cells. Since silver
nanoparticles are being incorporated into many new consumer products as
an antimicrobial, this research provides insight into the antibacterial
effects of the particles, as well as potential routes of toxicity. The work
was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Andrew Martinolich (‘12), Meagan Nakamoto (‘12), Grace Park (‘13),
and Rachel Gate (‘12) all made their debut in the scientific literature as
undergraduate coauthors on the paper.
To present the next phase of our work, Rachel Gate and I attended the American Chemical Society meeting in San Diego
in March. Rachel presented a poster on her work in the bioinorganic chemistry poster session. I gave an oral presentation
in the inorganic chemistry session. We both had a great time exploring new restaurants in San Diego. We also met many
great researchers in the field and came back to SCU excited to test new ideas in the lab and expand our research to new
areas.
In the spring we were both proud and sad to see three of our group members graduate. Meagan Nakamoto is headed off
to vet school at Colorado State University. Meagan is still doing research in one of the labs in the vet school during her
spare time. Andy Martinolich and Rachel Gate both stayed in the field of biochemistry and are working closer to their
SCU homes. Andy is at Innova, a small bioenergy start up in the East Bay and Rachel is in Dan Minor’s lab atup
UCSF.Our other group alumni, Alyssa Lampe (2011), left her research position at Lawrence Berkeley Labs this year to
attend medical school at University of Southern California. Although the group is now scattered around the country, it is
great to see everyone find success in their different fields.
We are a smaller and quieter research group this year. Grace (’13), Erick (’13), and Kris (’14) are all working hard and
keeping the instruments in constant use. We are looking forward to sharing an exciting set of new results in the next
installment!
A hearty THANKS to all for the news you sent us! To
our readers: we love to hear from you. Please send us
your stories
Lisa Guzzo (1984) wrote from the mountains in
Switzerland:
I graduated in 1984. Dr Yee arrived
at SCU my junior year and sparked
some life into the department. After
SCU I participated in the wave of
start-up biotech/ medical devices in
the Silicon Valley for almost 20
years. Six years ago adream
prompted me to venture to Europe. I
landed in Belgium (not Italy as intended) in a big company.
In BE I found my path to energy/plants/spirits/healing et
mon amore. Two years ago, Switzerland/Lausanne became
our home... A stunning natural beauty with immediate
access to nature/outdoor sports and activities and work in a
small medical device start-up. My focus is on the
energy/plants/spirits/healing and part-time at the start-up
medical device company. Life is good and full.
This past summer, we asked Emilee Sena (2011) to
share more on how she won the NSF Graduate Research
Fellowship and what she planned to do with it, she
responded:
I have spent the last year as a first-year physical chemistry
graduate student at UC Berkeley, where I worked on
magnetometry in the lab of Alex Pines and taught CHEM
1A to college freshmen in the fall. My proposed graduate
research project was a novel miniaturized NMR
spectrometer that integrates an optically-pumped diamond
magnetometer and remote detection techniques on a
microfluidic device. This was proposed to be done in the
lab of Dr. Pines, my advisor at UC Berkeley, who is known
world-wide for his work in solid state NMR spectroscopy.
A couple of weeks ago I learned that I
was awarded an NSF fellowship.
NSF has some basic guidelines on
how I may use it, for instance I must
be getting a research-based graduate
degree in science or engineering. It is
transferrable with NSF approval. I
intend to use it to get a Ph.D. in Chemistry or Chemical
Engineering, and I am striving to combine my love for
chemistry, math, physics, and materials science. I hope to
use my fellowship and education to encourage young
women and minority students to pursue careers in science
and engineering. This is especially important to me
because I am half Hispanic, even though my red hair
makes that hard to see. ;)
Congratulations to Shawna Hengel (2002) upon her
completion of her Ph.D. She shared her story with us:
I was in the 2002 class at SCU. While at SCU I worked in
Dr. Carrasco's lab, and took many classes from Dr. Nathan
with Dr. Brunauer being my course adviser for the
first few years. I am happy to hear that Dr. Sweeney is still
active in the program, I have fond memories of his lectures.
I worked in biotech in South San Francisco for two years
before going to grad school in the Medicinal Chemistry
department at the University of Washington. I worked for
David Goodlett whose lab primarily focuses on proteomics
using high resolution mass spectrometry. I did global
proteome profiling, but a large majority of my thesis work
was on characterizing the post-translational modification
ADP-ribosylation using mass spectrometry.
After completing my PhD at UW, I did a post-doc at
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the
ALUMNI CORNER
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory. It's a
national laboratory through the Department of Energy,
where I worked with high resolution mass spectrometry. It
is located in eastern Washington, in Richland
http://www.emsl.pnnl.gov/about/
I just started a new job as a staff scientist at Seattle
Genetics in the Bioanalytical Development group, where I
use mass spectrometry to characterize both small and large
molecules. So far so good, but I still feel like I just started!
We recently learned that Jason Tarver (1997) is a
defensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders.
Congratulations, Jason. Good luck to you and the Raiders.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Tarver
This is a gentle but important annual reminder that donations you make as a means of giving back to Santa Clara
University and the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry provide resources to support a variety of needs, many
of which are directed toward students. Included among the diverse uses we make of your contributions are defraying
the expenses of students who are attending scientific conferences, purchasing equipment to support teaching
laboratories and scholarly research, and paying banquet expenses for our majors when they are initiated into honor
societies such as Sigma Xi.
A contribution this fiscal year assumes particular significance because the Leavey Foundation will donate
$1,000,000 to the university if 9,000 undergraduate alumni make a contribution prior to July 1, 2013. We are
confident that our grads have special memories of their experiences at SCU and in the department, so in that
context, please seriously consider making a tax-deductible contribution for the betterment of our program and the
university.
In the newsletter next year, we would dearly like to be able to report a large increase in the number of individual
gifts made. As you can see from the table below, we seem to be “stuck” in the low 20s! Rest assured that no
contribution is too small to provide us with a benefit so please consider making a donation.
Thanks in advance for helping us meet our financial needs and creating an even more vibrant department as a
result!
Fiscal Year No. of
Individual Gifts
Amount ($) No. of Special
Gifts*
Amount ($) Total
Amount ($)
2007 21 4,080 2 46,530 50,610
2008 21 6,025 1 61,201 67,226
2009 20 10,580 2 104,325 124,907
2010 23 11,530 2 110,708 122,238
2011 22 10,440 0 N/A 10,440
2012 22 4,934 0 N/A 4,934
*Sources: Deck Family Trust, Ted Welp Science Fund, Mary Johnson Trust
You can make your gift by mailing it to: Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry,
Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
Attention: Lourdes Barretto
Or you can also make a gift online at:
http://www.scu.edu/give/how-to-give/make-your-gift/index.cfm. Follow the link to the “Online” menu, select
“College of Arts & Sciences” in the box provided, and then under “Gift Information”, specify an amount for the
gift and then either select “Joseph F. Deck Fund” or “Other” in the “Designation” box; for the latter, enter
Chemistry Gifts in the box provided. Finally, click on “Add Donation” Then scroll down to complete the
information requested.
Sounds more complicated than it really is and it’s a very convenient way to donate to us.
Gifts
Seminar Program
Our seminar program features speakers who cover a wide range of scientific topics of interest to our faculty and students.
Overseen by Dr. Korin Wheeler (2011-12)
Term Speaker/Affiliation Title Fall, 2011 Dr. Matthew Francis, UC Berkeley. Using Biological Molecules to Make New Materials
Dr. Jen Heemstra, University of Utah. Small‐Molecule‐Dependent Split Aptamer Ligation
Dr. Babak Sanii, Molecular Foundry Knobs Formanipulating Biomaterials: Bending Lipid Membranes and Buckling Peptoid Monolayers in 2D Nanosheets
Dr. Keir Fogarty, University of Minnesota Fluorescence Fluctuation Spectroscopy to Study HTLV‐1 Virus
Dr. Paul Abbyad, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris Sickling of Red Blood Cells in Microdroplet Arrays
Winter 2012 Advanced Biosciences Initiative Symposium Keynote speaker: Prof. Matt Bogyo, Stanford.
Small Molecule Probes of Protease Function: Applications to Molecular Imaging and Drug Discovery
Dr. Gareth Butland, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Assembly and Functional Characterization of Etalloproteins and Their Cofactors
Dr. Matt Law, UC Irvine. Developing Earth Abundant and Quantum Dot Materials for Thin‐Film
Photovoltaics
Dr. Monika Sommerhalter University of California State, East Bay.
Acetylcholinesterase from Tritonia diomedea
Spring, 2012 Dr. Evan Powers, Scripps Research Institute. The Enhanced Aromatic Sequon for Protein N‐Glycosylation.
Dr. Paul Weiss UC‐Los Angeles.
Designing, Measuring, and Controlling Molecular and Supramolecular Devices
Dr. Matthew Sazinsky Pomona University.
Insights into the Regulation of Enzyme O2 Use and Diabetic Iron Acquisition
Dr. Hilary Godwin, UC‐Los Angeles. Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology
SCU Students Various
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