On June 30, 2008, I officially ended my full-time Kennesaw State University career which started in September 1977 at a very different place known as Kennesaw Junior College. Thirty one years and three institutional name changes later, I found myself in a position I often lecture my classes about. Success is a journey, not a

destination. Always be in the process of setting and achieving new goals and dreams. So I needed to practice what I was preaching.

I have had a full career here at KSU. I am the last of the founding faculty members of what is now the largest undergraduate chemistry program in the state if not the entire Southeast, and I certainly won’t take credit for the growth. It was the combined effort of a lot of fine people like some of the other charter faculty including the late Dr. Frank Walker and the late Dr. Vera

Zalkow, two of my mentors as I was just starting my career. With Dr. Mark Mitchell in charge now, I feel it is time to set and achieve new goals and dreams just like I tell my students. To be sure, I will still work in the field of chemistry, especially my areas of interest in synthetic inorganic chemistry and chemical warfare agent destruction, but I would like to further pursue other passions, like spending more time with my wife of 38 years as well as running, traveling, engaging in musical endeavors. I am still teaching the inorganic courses here at KSU on a part-time basis, and I will be leading directed research to a limited extent, but one of my more immediate goals is to organize and compete in road races in the 14 Georgia counties that I have left to do. This is no small task since most of them are way south of here. So it’s really not retirement in the strict sense of the word. I won’t be sitting at home watching Oprah or Jerry Springer (God forbid!). In fact, we’ve been TV free for the past 25 years since we’re rarely home and we have better things to do. I see it as a time to retire and set new goals, and I’m looking forward to it.

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Issue: IV Fall 2008

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Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryAlumni Newsletter Issue: IV Fall 2008 Page: I

Success is a journey, not a dest inat ion.

THOUGHTS ON MY RETIREMENT...by: Dr. Daniel Williams

NEW FACES

Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryAlumni Newsletter Issue IV Fall 2008 Page: II

Dr. Bharat Baruah did his undergraduate studies at Sibsagar College in Assam, India where he was born. He received his M.Sc. at Dibrugarh University, India in 1998. He then pursued a Ph.D. in chemistry (inorganic) under the supervision of Prof. Animesh Chakravorty at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (Affiliated to Jadavpur University), India. After the completion of his Ph.D. in 2003, he moved on to Colorado State University as a postdoctoral researcher in the research group

of Prof. Debbie C. Crans. He was appointed to his current position as a tenure-track Assistant P r o f e s s o r beginning Fall 2008. His research interest is in the area of synthetic inorganic and bio-

inorganic chemistry. Much of his work focuses on the synthesis of metal complexes, organic ligands, molecular structure determination in solution and solid state, molecular properties in the presence of membranes, reactivity studies, pH stability studies of metal complexes, probing the behavior of water in confinement using metal complexes and polyoxometalate chemistry. Major spectroscopic tools utilized are: IR, UV-Vis, multinuclear NMR, solution and solid-state EPR, X-ray diffraction, dynamic light scattering. He is married to Subalita Baruah and is the father of one daughter, Prioska Dishita Baruah.

Dr. Gregory Gabriel has enjoyed teaching undergraduate chemistry since starting graduate school in 1998 at the University of Texas at Austin. There, he taught organic chemistry for pre-med chemistry majors, and engineering majors. Also, he supervised several talented undergraduate research assistants in the labs of Professor Brent Iverson and with their assistance earned his Ph.D. designing protein-like stacking molecules, termed foldamers. While the saying goes “Everything is bigger in Texas,” he learned to make truly large molecules, as big as DNA and enzymes, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. As a postdoctoral researcher with Professor Gregory Tew, he synthesized and screened polymers for biologically important properties such as antibacterial, cell-penetrating, or heparin-binding capabilities. Though raised a Yankee (born and attended college in New York City), he is excited to be returning down South. At KSU he will focus on teaching courses in organic chemistry and biopolymers and supervising undergraduates in research that merges the fields of organic chemistry, molecular biology, and materials engineering.

“Undergraduate research continues to be a focus of the Chemisty and Biochemistry

department.”

Continued...NEW FACES

Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryAlumni Newsletter Issue: IV, Fall 2008 Page: III

Undergraduate research continues to flourish in the Chemistry and Biochemistry department. Dr. Kaledin was recently awarded a Cottrell College Science Award entitled “Computational studies of structure and dynamics of hydrated ions”. Her grant complements the ongoing research grants of our faculty.

Our students have garnered national recognition, in early October, Dr. Koether traveled with her student Brent Ferguson to Reno, Nevada for the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopies Societies Annual Conference. Brent was awarded second place for his poster presentation; he was also the only undergraduate to win an award.

RESEARCH

“Our mission is to provide our students with an

outstanding education...”

Brian K. Keller did his undergraduate studies in chemistry at Montana State University in Bozeman

and received a PhD in physical chemistry at the University of Idaho in Moscow in 2002. He was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry at The University of Montana and worked on a DoD-funded research grant in chemical

sensors in coordination with U.S. Army Research Laboratory. His future research interests include evanescent chemical sensor development and chemical reaction dynamics of organic peroxides.

Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryAlumni Newsletter Issue: IV, Fall 2008 Page: IV

Publications

Publications of current faculty for the 2008-2009 academic year are listed below, KSU undergraduate authors are in bold and faculty members are underlined.Rushton, GT; Hardy, RC; Gwaltney KP; and Lewis, SE. “Alternative Conceptions of Organic Chemistry Topics among Fourth Year Chemistry Students”, Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2008, 9, 122–130.

Farrell, J.R.; Lavoie, D.; Pennell, R.; Cetin, A.; Shaw, J.L.; Ziegler, C.J. Electrochromic polymer films containing Re(I) and Pt(II) metal centers, Inorganic Chemistry 2007, 46(17), 6840-2.

C. R. Dockery, M. J. Blew and S. R. Goode, “Visualizing the Solute Vaporization Interfer-ence in Flame Atomic Absorption Spectros-copy,” Journal of Chemical Education. 2008, 85(6), 854-858.

M.B. Rosenberg and C.R. Dockery, Determin-ing the Lifetime of Detectable Amounts of gun-shot residue on the Hands of a Shooter Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, Ap-plied Spectroscopy. 2008, 62(11, 1238-1241. Brown, T.; Rushton, GT; and Bencomo, M. “Mighty Molecule Models”, Science and Chil-dren, 2008, 46 (1), 33-37.

Mitra, A., Atwood, D.A., Struss, J., Williams, D.J., McKinney, B.J., Creasy, W.R., Mc-Garvey, D.J., Durst, H.D., and Fry, R., “Group 13 chelates in nerve gas agent and pesticide dealkylation,” New J. Chem., 2008, 32, 783.

Tapu, D.; Owens, C.; VanDerveer, D.; Gwalt-ney, K., The First Phenanthrene-Fused Imida-zol-2-ylidene and its Transition-Metal Complex-es, Organometallics 2008, 27, (in press).

Rowlett RM, Chrestensen CA, Schroeder MJ, Harp MG, Pelo JW, Shabanowitz J, Derose R, Hunt DF, Sturgill TW, Worthington MT., (2008) Inhibition of Tristetraprolin (TTP) Dead-enylation by Poly(A) Binding Protein. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2008 Sep;295(3):G421-30.

Rowlett R.M., Chrestensen C.A., Nyce M., Harp M.G., Pelo J.W., Cominelli F., Ernst P.B., Pizarro T.T., Sturgill T.W., Worthington M.T., (2008) MNK kinases regulate multiple TLR pathways and innate proinflammatory cytok-ines in macrophages. Am J Physiol Gastroin-test Liver Physiol. 294(2), G452-9.

Baruah, B., Swafford, L. A., Crans, D.C., Lev-inger, N.E., Do Probe Molecules Influence Water in Confinement? Journal of Physical Chemistry B (2008),112(33),10158-10164. Crans, D.C.; Baruah, B.; Gaidamauskas, E.; Lemons, B.G.; Lorenz, B.B.; Johnson, M.D., Impairment of ascorbic acid’s anti-oxidant properties in confined media: Inter and intra-molecular reactions with air and vanadate at acidic pH. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry (2008), 102(5-6), 1334-1347. Stahla, ML.; Baruah, B.; James, D.M.; John-son, M.D.; Levinger, N.E.; Crans, D.C., 1H NMR Studies of Aerosol-OT Reverse Micelles with Alkali and Magnesium Counterions: Prep-aration and Analysis of MAOTs. Langmuir (2008), 24(12), 6027-6035.

Continued...Publications

Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryAlumni Newsletter Issue: IV, Fall 2008 Page: V

Li, M.; Ding, W.; Baruah, B.; Crans, D.C.; Wang, R., Inhibition of protein tyrosine phos-phatase 1B and alkaline phosphatase by bis(maltolato)oxovanadium (IV). Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry (2008), 102(10), 1846-1853.

Li, M.; Wei, D.; Ding, W.; Baruah, B.; Crans, D.C., Anti-diabetic effects of cesium aqua (N,N’-ethylene (salicylideneiminato)-5-sulfonato) oxovanadium (IV) dihydrate in streptozotocin-in-duced diabetic rats. Biological Trace Element Research (2008), 121(3), 226-232.

Aureliano, M.; Henao, F.; Tiago, T.; Du-arte, R.O.; Moura, J.J.G.; Baruah, B.; Crans, D.C., Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Cal-cium ATPase Is Inhibited by Organic Vana-dium Coordination Compounds: Pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylatodioxovanadium(V), BMOV, and an Amavadine Analogue. Inorganic Chemistry (2008), 47(13), 5677-5684

Bolte, S.E.; Ooms, K.J.; Polenova, T.; Baruah, B.; Crans, D.C.; Smee, J.J., 51V solid-state NMR and density functional theory studies of vanadium environments in V(V)O2 dipicolinic acid complexes. Journal of Chemical Physics (2008), 128(5), 052317/1-052317/11.

Roess, D.A.; Smith, S.M.L.; Winter, P.; Zhou, J; Dou, P.; Baruah, B.; Trujillo, A.M.; Levinger, N.E.; Yang, X.; Barisas, B.G.; Crans, D.C., Ef-fects of vanadium-containing compounds on membrane lipids and on microdomains used in receptor-mediated signaling. Chemistry & Biodi-versity (2008), 5(8), 1558-1570.

Fall Semester 2008 SeminarsSeptember 2008

Dr. Jonathan McMurray presented: “ A Tale of Two Assays: Biolayer Interferometry and Its Application to Protein-Protein and Protein-Small Molecule Interaction Studies”

October 2008

Dr. Linda S. Shimizu, Associate Professor, University of South Carolina presented “Porous materials from self-assembling cyclic ureas”

November 2008

Dr. Gladys Alexandre, Associate Professor, University of Tennessee at Knoxville presented “How bacteria “see” their world: chemotaxis and niche adaptation”

Gabriel, G. J.; Tew, G. N. “Conformationally Rigid Proteomimetics: A Case Study in Design-ing Antimicrobial Aryl Oligomers” Org. Biomol. Chem. 2008, 6, 417–423.

Hennig, A.; Gabriel, G. J.; Tew, G. N.; Matile, S. “Stimuli-Responsive Polyguanidino Oxanor-bornene Membrane Transporters as Multicom-ponent Sensors in Complex Matrices” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 10338–10344.

Shunmugam, R.; Gabriel, G. J.; Smith, C. E.; Aamer, K. A.; Tew, G. N. “A Highly Selective Colorimetric Aqueous Sensor for Mercury” Chem. - Eur. J. 2008, 14, 3904–3907.

Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryAlumni Newsletter Issue: IV, Fall 2008

Page: VI

Thanks once again to Brenda Humble-Bates, Heather Govert and Samar Boulos for a delicious celebration luncheon on April 15, 2008 honoring the 2007-2008 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Award recipients! Dr. Mark Mitchell, who joined the department in July 2007 as Chair, welcomed the faculty, honorees and their guests and reported that the number of graduates for the 2007 – 2008 school year was 59 students. We were pleased to recognize our ACS Certified B.S. recipients from summer 2007 through spring 2009: Dayne Fraser, Christi Gilreath, Lindsay Harris, Tiffani Menhorn, Alex Morrison and Viet Nguyen (Biochemistry ACS Certified). Lindsay Bloodworth was recognized as our Chemistry University Honors Scholar and Suzanne Mays as our Biochemistry University Honors Scholar.

OUTSTANDING STUDENT AWARDS

AWARDS DAY

American Institute of Chemists Award - Chemistry Sean Hipps

American Institute of Chemists Award - Biochemistry.......Richard Newman

Merck Award Judy Heitz

ACS Achievement Award - Organic Chemistry Kremena Dimitrova

ACS Achievement Award - Analytical Chemistry Alex Morrison

CRC Press Freshman Chemistry Award Wissam Charab

Biochemistry Award Kelley Cowart

Physical Chemistry Award Suzanne Mays

Inorganic Chemistry Award Dustin French

Chemistry Education Award Lindsay Bloodworth

Forensic Chemistry Award Matthew Rosenberg

Environmental Chemistry Award Dayne Fraser

Outstanding TA Awards Brandon Huskin

Matthew Rosenberg

Valor Award Brandon Huskins

Continued...AWARDS

Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryAlumni Newsletter Issue: IV, Fall 2008

Page: VII

The 2007- 2008 Inductees into the Phi Lambda Upsilon Honorary Chemical Society: Holly Adams, Jennifer Gionfriddo, Jamilah Hankins, Lindsay Harris, Brandon Huskins, Ank K. Le, Alex Morrison, Joanna Newman, Nicolas Smith, and Joanne Yi.

My name is DJ Dunn, an 18 year old first-year freshman here at KSU. I graduated from

Cherokee High School in Canton, GA and am a

Biochemistry major. I plan to continue my studies of Biochemistry and Psychology to pursue medical

school where I hope to work toward the field of

psychiatry. The NSF scholarship has been a great tool for me so far at Kennesaw, and along with the great staff I’ll be learning under over the next four years, I couldn’t be more excited about my education. Aside from this I’m just a regular guy my age, watching and playing all types of sports and constantly listening to of music. I have a great group of friends and an extremely supportive family at home. KSU is the place to be.

NSF Scholarship Recipents

My name is Joshua Baugh and I am a first year freshman at Kennesaw State University. I was born and raised in Chattanooga, TN. I graduated from Lafayette High School in 2007. I am attending KSU to receive a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. At this moment, I am not entirely sure if this is what I want to do with the rest of my life, but I do know that I love science and that chemistry is involved in every aspect of our lives. The diversity in the field of chemistry is one of the main reasons I have chosen it as my major. Thanks to the scholarship provided to me by the National Science Foundation, I have a great opportunity to pursue my dreams of becoming a chemist. This scholarship makes it possible for me to go to school without working, so I can be fully committed to my academic life. I would just like to thank all the people that have made and given me this opportunity.

Phi Lambda Upsilon Honorary Chemical Society

CHEMISTRY WEBSITE

Take a minute to check out the new Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry website::

http://science.kennesaw.edu/chem/

A Word To Our Alumni

Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryAlumni Newsletter Issue: IV, Fall 2008 Page: VIII

Kennesaw State University’s (KSU) College of Science and Mathematics, in collaboration with Bagwell College of Education, has set the goal of helping both Georgia and the nation meet the demand for highly qualified teachers in critical need areas.

Through this partnership, the College of Science and Mathematics provides discipline-specific education delivered by superior faculty, while the college of Education provides top-notch teaching-method instruction. With these academic resources and expanding external support, KSU is committed to becoming the leading producer of science and mathematics teachers in the state.

KSU’s Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) programs are designed to meet the demand for accelerated teaching certification of those holding a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) to become certified middle school and high school math and science teachers by completing a master’s degree. Candidates will earn initial certification in mathematics or a single science discipline (chemistry, biology, or physics), depending on their interest and previous educational background.

The MAT degree leads to initial certification and is not appropriate for teachers who already hold a clear, renewable certificate. Features of the Master of Arts in Teaching program include:

Field Experiences in both middle school and high school•

Research through field-based action projects•

Infusion of technology competencies as well as multicultural awareness• The program consists of education and science coursework and in-school field experiences. The MAT in Secondary Science is standards-based and is aligned with the requirements of the Georgia Professional Standards Commission. The program is designed to be completed within four semesters for well-qualified students who want accelerated paths into teaching. Participants also have the option of spreading their coursework over two or three years. The MAT in Secondary Science leads to initial (T-5) certification.

For more information, please visit the program’s website at http://www.mathsci.kennesaw.edu.

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MASTER OF ARTS in TEACHING