department of chemistry and biochemistry

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry North Dakota State University

Annual Report 2009-2010

Prepared by Gregory R. CookProfessor and Chair

July 2010

NDSU Chemistry and Biochemistry 2009-2010 Annual Report,

Mission

With dedication to education, research, scholarship and creative endeavors, the North Dakota State University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry creates and disseminates new

knowledge in the molecular sciences for the betterment of the Community, Society and the University.


HighlightsThe 2009-2010 fiscal year has seen significant change and growth for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Change in LeadershipOn July 1, 2009 Prof. Gregory Cook assumed the role of department chair succeeding Prof. John Hershberger. Dr. Hershberger served in this role for almost eight years.

Name ChangeThe department officially changed it’s name to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry better reflecting the educational activities and scholarship of the faculty.

New Faculty Arriving in Fall 2010The department was successful in recruiting a tenure track assistant professor in theoretical chemistry. Dr. Svetlana Kilina will join the department in August. Her research interests align well with ongoing efforts in the department and in the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering in the area of energy and materials research. The position is currently funded by non-appropriated dollars from the department and college with assistance from CNSE/DOE. Dr. Christopher Colbert, a structural biologist recruited a year ago will also be joining this August.

New Faculty On BoardTwo new faculty joined the department in Fall 2009. Dr. Muhammet Erkan Köse is a tenure track assistant professor with research interests in photovoltaic energy research. Dr. Sangita Sinha is a structural biologist with protein X-Ray crystallography experience.


Cook

Köse Sinha

Faculty AwardsThis year the James A. Meier Senior Professorship was awarded to biochemistry faculty Dr. DK Srivastava. This award recognizes a full professor who has contributed in excellence in all three areas of academic duties; Teaching, Research and Service. The College of Science and Mathematics Research Award was won by Assistant Professor Sivaguru Jayaraman. In addition, Dr. Jayaraman is the recipient of the 2010 Swiss Chemical Society Grammaticakis-Neumann Prize for independent research in photochemistry, photophysics or molecular photobiology. Dr. Sangita Sinha was also honored with an IDeA Young Investigator Award at the national 2010 IDeA meeting in Bethesda, MD.

Staff and Student AwardsThe College of Science and Mathematics award for excellence in service was awarded to Wendy Leach. Wendy is an administrative assistant in the main office in Ladd Hall and has been an outstanding staff member for the department. Two graduate students in the lab of Dr. Sivaguru Jayaraman have won highly competitive graduate fellowships and research awards. Barry Pemberton was this year’s recipeint of the College of Science and Mathematics graduate Research

Award. Barry is also a recipient of a ND EPSCoR Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. Anoklase Ayitou was awarded the UNC-MERCK Graduate Research Fellowship for 2010. He also won a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship. In addition, several students have received scholarships and travel awards to attend conferences.

Record ResearchThe Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry set new records in research last year publishing over 90 papers, book chapters and reviews, presenting over 100 conference presentations and invited seminars, and 15 new grant awards started. Research expenditures of individual PI grants and competitive EPSCoR dollars totaled about $2.6 million in fiscal year 2009-2010.


Srivsatava Jayaraman

Ayitou

PeopleFaculty and Lecturers

Professors Associate Professors Assistant Professors Lecturers

Gregory R. CookJohn HershbergerKenton RodgersMukund SibiDK Srivastava

Uwe BurghausDenley JacobsonSeth RasmussenWenfang Sun

Christopher Colbert*Glenn DorsamStuart HaringSivaguru JayaramanSvetlana Kilina*,**M. Erkan KöseGuodong LiuErika Offerdahl***Sangita Sinha**Pinjing Zhao

Karla RadkeGregory OswaldGudrun Lukat-Rodgers****Heldur Haak****Erin Brachman****

*starting August 2010. **non-appropriated money. ***80% appointment in Chem/Biochem, 20% appointment in Education. ****Ad-hoc temporary lecturers.*starting August 2010. **non-appropriated money. ***80% appointment in Chem/Biochem, 20% appointment in Education. ****Ad-hoc temporary lecturers.*starting August 2010. **non-appropriated money. ***80% appointment in Chem/Biochem, 20% appointment in Education. ****Ad-hoc temporary lecturers.*starting August 2010. **non-appropriated money. ***80% appointment in Chem/Biochem, 20% appointment in Education. ****Ad-hoc temporary lecturers.

Staff

Staff Title

Ann HusebyWendy LeachLinda StoetzerRose Nichols*David TackeDaniel WannerJeff SchollDr. Jodie Haring*Dr. John BaguDr Angel UgrinovDr. Berch Henry*Dr. Thomas Wahl*

Administrative SecretaryAdministrative SecretaryOffice Manager/Account TechnicianAdministrative Assistant, Center for Protease ResearchStockroom Manager/StorekeeperSpectroscopy Laboratory Manager/Research SpecialistIT CoordinatorResearch Assistant Professor and Manager of the Core Biology FacilityNMR Staff ScientistMaterials Characterization Staff ScientistDNA Forensics Laboratory DirectorSenior Forensic DNA Analyst

*supported on non-appropriated money.*supported on non-appropriated money.

Postdoctoral Associates and Students

Type Chemistry Biochemistry

Postdoctoral AssociatesGraduate StudentsUndergraduate Students

123262

11327


Goals and Accomplishments

A. Instruction and Student Success

Introduction

More than 80% of the student credit hours in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is for non-major service lecture courses and laboratories. In the last 10 years, the demand for general service level chemistry and biochemistry has increased tremendously. Comparing enrollments from 1999-2000 to 2009-2010 academic years, enrollment in lecture courses has increased by 91% and the number of laboratory sections offered has increased by 66% (see enrollment data in section F). This demand is challenging as there has been no increase in faculty numbers or TA salary support. The department has hired temporary instructors to help in teaching service level courses including CHEM 121, 122, and 260.

Undergraduate Chemistry and Biochemistry Majors

The number of chemistry majors has remained fairly constant for the past 10 years. A B.S. degree in biochemistry and molecular biology has been offered starting in 2002. The number of biochemistry majors grew to a high of 46 in 2007 and has declined slightly in the last two years. Overall enrollments have been at their highest levels in recent history during the last three years. Graduate rates appear to be lower than they were about 10 years ago and this is a problem that needs to be addressed. Enrollments in our majors courses has been relatively constant over the years.

Graduate Chemistry and Biochemistry Majors

The number of M.S. and Ph.D. students in the department has increased in the last few years. This fall the department will admit a record number of new graduate students (19 new students).


Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryUndergraduate Students

Year Chem Biochem Total Enrolled

Biochem Degrees Chem Degrees Total Degrees

1999-2000 74 74 15 152000-2001 72 72 8 82001-2002 81 81 10 102002-2003 64 8 72 17 172003-2004 59 5 64 9 92004-2005 53 10 63 13 132005-2006 48 20 68 3 32006-2007 58 58 8 82007-2008 62 46 108 6 6 122008-2009 56 36 92 6 6 122009-2010 62 27 89 4 5 9

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Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryGraduate Students

Year Total Enrolled First Year MS Degrees PhD Degrees Total Degrees

1999-2000 41 11 4 3 72000-2001 34 6 6 3 92001-2002 38 13 5 1 62002-2003 40 11 0 7 72003-2004 37 9 1 2 32004-2005 39 14 5 1 62005-2006 39 10 2 4 62006-2007 40 7 1 0 12007-2008 41 6 4 6 102008-2009 45 15 3 6 92009-2010 47 13 3 3 62010-2011 51 19 0

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Undergraduate Teaching Initiatives, Curriculum Development and Distance Education

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry currently offers six different B.S. degree option:

1) B.S. in Chemistry (ACS Certified) 2) BS in Chemistry with biochemistry option (ACS Certified) 3) B.S. in Chemistry with pre-professional option 4) B.S. in Chemistry with coatings and polymeric materials option (ACS Certified) 5) B.S. in Chemistry with chemical education option 6) B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

The department has invested a great deal of time and effort over the last few years to reorganize and streamline the biochemistry and molecular biology B.S. degree. This has been greatly successful and has simplified and made our biochemistry degree offering more flexible.

This past year, BIOC 460, which consisted of both a lecture and a lab component, was split into two separate courses. This change was made to better accommodate the increasing demand of students who needed the lecture for their degree program but did not necessarily need the lab. Separating these courses allows for greater flexibility for students in scheduling and enrollment in the lecture is no longer limited by the space available in the laboratory sections.

In order to better accommodate increasing demand for our non-majors general chemistry courses, the department will offer an on-line version of CHEM 121 this fall. Greg Oswald has spearheaded the effort to introduce this DCE course and has experimented quite successfully with various on-line technologies in summer courses this year.

Dr. Uwe Burghaus has developed an online version of CHEM 472/672: Surface Chemistry, Nanoscience and Materials. This course, offered every other year, was taught for the first time as a DCE class in Spring 2010. Approximately 20 students from NDSU and abroad (international) took part in the class. Student ratings of the course were very high.


Graduate Teaching Initiatives and Curriculum Development

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry and biochemistry. Eighteen of the nineteen full time faculty in the department are research active and are training graduate students. Dr. Glenn Dorsam has developed a course on Scientific Integrity. This course fills an important need for the department in light of the increasing requirement of funding agencies that such training be provided to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. This course will be required for all of our graduate students.

Dr. Sivaguru Jayaraman is currently developing a new special topics course that will be team-taught by faculty at three universities.

Advising Initiatives

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry generally distributes advising assignments across the faculty. These assignments are made to best match the students’ interests with the specific subdiscipline of the advisor. In Fall 2009, Dr. John Hershberger was appointed as the department’s new Director of Undergraduate Studies. This has helped in better managing the department’s advising duties.

Accreditation and Program Review

While there is no official accrediting agency for chemistry degrees, the American Chemical Society (ACS) has laid out criteria for courses, number of credits and topics. They offer approval of B.S. chemistry degrees. Three of the departments B.S. chemistry degree options are ACS certified.

The department has not had a formal external program review for a very long time. This is a valuable, but time consuming exercise and is a goal for the department to have a complete review sometime in next five years.

Student Recruitment, Retention and Activities

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has active undergraduate and graduate student recruiting efforts. For undergraduate recruiting the Chair


sends out periodic letters to high school teachers and prospective students. In addition, the Chemistry and Biochemistry Club visits local schools and other public venues to share the excitement of science with prospective students. Additionally the department makes every effort to be visible to the public and prospective students. Some of the specific recruiting activities are:

1) Participation in Science Fair and Science Olympiad 2) Providing tours of the department 3) Governor’s School Mentoring 4) Sending departmental newsletter to high schools 5) Providing summer research opportunities for high school students (PICNICS and NATURE) 6) Undergraduate Research Mentorship Program

The PICNICS program was initiated by Dr. Sivaguru Jayarman as part of his NSF CAREER award. This program connects students from local high schools and brings highly talented students into research labs during the summer. Since its inception the program has grown and demand is very high.

The department has offered an Undergraduate Mentorship Program (URM) for incoming freshman majors for a number of years. This is a competitive program that selects from the brightest students that have been accepted to NDSU. Students are notified of the program before they arrive in the fall and are invited to apply. They receive training through a seminar program in their first semester on many aspects of scientific research and are then placed in a faculty research lab in the Spring semester. This program has been successful in enticing prospective students to attend NDSU. Students receive a fellowship of $1200 for their participation in the program.

A B.S. degree in chemistry or biochemistry is one of the most challenging and demanding on campus. Thus it increases the challenge of retaining students in the program. One difficulty that is commonly encountered is inadequate mathematics preparation (calculus). Consequently, many students struggle early in the program. This is a problem that is difficult to address. One of the key aspects of increasing student retention is to get them involved in the department community early. The URM program accomplishes this for some of the students. The department encourages others to actively seek research opportunities as it is clear that early research experiences helps to


retain students in science. The American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) affiliated student group, the Chemistry and Biochemistry club, is an important avenue for involving undergraduates in the department. The ACS affiliate continues to receive chapter awards from the national office on an annual basis for their outreach and educational activities.

The department invests heavily in graduate student recruitment activities. These activities include the following:

1) Visits by faculty to four year colleges in the region (ND, MN, WI, SD, MT, IA) 2) Prospective Student Graduate Visitation Day in October 3) Summer Research Programs for Undergraduates (COBRE, NSF) 4) International Outreach 5) Hosting prospective student visits

Each year the department sends faculty to undergraduate institutions in a six-state region to present a seminar and visit with prospective students. These recruiting efforts are critical to establishing pipelines into our graduate program. In addition, as faculty travel abroad, they are also actively recruiting high quality international students. For the past two years the department has hosted a graduate visitation day in October for prospective students. The department pays for student travel and lodging. Activities throughout the day include discussions of how to make decisions on graduate schools, tours of labs and visits with individual faculty and a departmental research poster session in the afternoon.

The department hosts a number of undergraduate researchers from other institutions during the summer for summer research experiences. The summer REU program offered by COBRE brings students into the labs and this has been a very good recruiting tool. The department held a NSF REU site in the past and a proposal is being prepared to reinitiate the NSF funded program.

The department will have a new initiative in graduate student recruiting this year. Recognizing that it is the faculty at the four year institutions that recommend where students should apply to graduate school it is important to establish relationships with those faculty. This fall the department will invite several research active faculty from undergraduate institutions to visit NDSU


and participate in a PUI Research Symposium. By bringing those faculty to campus they will have the opportunity to witness first hand the capabilities and resources in our graduate program. Furthermore, inviting them to speak at this symposium reiterates to them that the department values their contributions to science. It is anticipated that establishing these relationships will lead to an increase in recommendations to students for our graduate program. Graduate recruiting was very successful in 2009-2010 and has resulted in an incoming class of record numbers (19 new students).

Last year the graduate students, with the encouragement of the department, organized a formal student organization. The student association ran a brown bag seminar program over the summer where students from the department were allowed to present their research. It was a great success. The graduate student association seeks to improve the social aspects of the graduate community in the department and to provide support for students as they maneuver through their years in the graduate program.

Assessment

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has striven to refine and improve its assessment activities over the years. Currently we assess student learning and retention by having the senior students take a series of short examinations in the areas of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology. These exams have been refined to not be burdensome on the students but allow us to gauge their understanding of standard undergraduate curriculum.


B. Research and Creative Activities

Introduction

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has eighteen research active faculty and two Ph.D. level staff scientists that are research active. Research activities of the department continue to set new records. The department has key focus strengths in biomedical research, materials research, and synthesis. Many of the faculty research interests are interdisciplinary resulting in a breadth of opportunities for graduate students to pursue.

NDSU ChemBio Faculty ResearchNDSU ChemBio Faculty Research

Uwe Burghaus Surface Chemistry (NSF-CAREER, NSF-EPSCoR, ACS, DOE)

Chris Colbert Biochemistry/Protein Structure (Startup)

Greg Cook Synthetic Organic and Medicinal Chemistry (NSF, NIH)

Glenn Dorsam Epigenetic Regulation (NIH)

Stuart Haring DNA Metabolism and Cell Cycle Regulation (Startup, DOJ)

John Hershberger Kinetics and Dynamics of Combustion Chemistry (DOE, ND EPSCoR)

Sivaguru Jayaraman Photochemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry (NSF-CAREER, ND EPSCoR)

Svetlana Kilina Computational Chemistry/Energy Materials (Startup)

M. Erkan Kose Photovoltaic Materials Chemistry (Startup, DOE-CNSE)

Guodong Liu Nanotechnology and Biological Sensing (Startup, DOD, PNNL)

Erika Offerdahl Biochemistry Education (Startup, NSF)

Seth Rasmussen Organic/Inorganic Materials Chemistry (NSF, ND EPSCoR)

Kent Rodgers Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry (AHA, NIH)

Mukund Sibi Synthetic Organic and Natural Products Chemistry (NIH, NSF, DOE, Industry)

Sangita Sinha Biochemistry/Protein Structure (Startup, NIH)

DK Srivastava Mechanistic Enzymology (NIH, NSF)

Wenfang Sun Organic/Metal-Organic Materials Chemistry (NSF-CAREER, NSF, NIRT, ARL, USDA)

Pinjing Zhao Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry (Startup)


All eighteen research active faculty in the department have extramural grants or startup funding to support their research activities. One of the best measures of research activities is annual research expenditures. The 2009-2010 fiscal year set a new record for research expenditures.

Grants and Contracts

During the 2009-2010 fiscal year the Department of Chemistry administered 32 grants from NSF, NIH, DOD, DOE, ND-EPSCoR and Lynntech. Fifteen of theses grants were newly awarded projects starting in the last fiscal year totaling $990,847 in new dollars. This includes a $300,000 grant from NSF for new X-Ray equipment (PI - Sivaguru Jayaraman).

A table detailing the last 17 years of research expenditures in the department is shown on the following page. A significant increase in expenditures from individual PI grants and EPSCOR awarded dollars was observed in the last fiscal year. This totals about $2.6M, up from about $1.9M the year prior. Including the NIH COBRE center spending in the department total research expenditures approached $3.8M dollars. This is lower than the prior year due to the completion of funding from the Department of Justice grant. Expenditures from local funds and income of the DNA facility are not reported.

Publications, Presentations, Seminars and Technology Transfer

In the last year a significant increase in peer-reviewed publications by the faculty was observed (79 vs 67 the year before). Eleven book chapters and review articles were published, one patent application was filed, 61 presentations were made at national and international conferences and 39 invited seminars were delivered.

Type 2009-2010 Total

Peer-Reviewed PapersBooksBook Chapters and ReviewsPatent ApplicationsConference Proceedings/PresentationsInvited Seminars

790

111

6139


Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Annual Research Expenditures

July 1 - June 30

(Millions of Dollars)

Year

Federal,

Foundation,

and Industrial

Grants and

Contracts

NSF EPSCoR,

DOE EPSCoR,

CMGC, ND

EPSCoR

Startup Grants

NIH COBREDNA Forensic

Lab (DOJ)Total

1993-1994 $1.05 $0.40 $1.45

1994-1995 $0.80 $0.53 $1.33

1995-1996 $0.90 $0.42 $1.32

1996-1997 $1.42 $0.63 $2.05

1997-1998 $1.41 $0.68 $2.09

1998-1999 $1.40 $0.51 $1.91

1999-2000 $1.15 $0.12 $1.27

2000-2001 $1.53 $0.11 $1.64

2001-2002 $1.12 $0.22 $1.32 $2.66

2002-2003 $1.36 $0.27 $1.22 $2.85

2003-2004 $1.29 $0.33 $1.88 $3.50

2004-2005 $1.04 $0.03 $1.55 $2.62

2005-2006 $1.59 $0.10 $1.02 $2.71

2006-2007 $1.58 $0.21 $0.14 $1.20 $3.13

2007-2008 $1.66 $0.18 $1.77 $0.79 $4.40

2008-2009 $1.73 $0.28 $1.77 $0.90 $4.68

2009-2010 $2.16 $0.51 $1.09 $0.03 $3.79

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C. Outreach

Introduction

Outreach activities are critically important to the success of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The faculty, students and staff of the department are actively engaged in the local, national and international community.

Professional Service and Community Outreach

The table on the following page highlights some (but certainly not all) of the professional service and outreach activities of the faculty. The faculty in the department are recognized around the world for their expertise and are called upon heavily for evaluating proposals, reviewing manuscripts, leading international conferences and speaking on their work. In the community, faculty are involved in various ways including recruiting visits, serving as judges for Science Fair and Science Olympiad, Science Café and other community educational activities. The Chemistry and Biochemistry Club routinely visits schools and shopping malls to share their love of science with youngsters. The department has hosted conferences, poster sessions and visiting faculty and students. Several specific activities are particularly noteworthy.

1) PICNICS (Parents Involvement in Children Nurturing Intellectual Curiosity In Science) is a growing program with outreach to local high school students initiated by Prof. Sivaguru Jayaraman.

2) COINS (Career Opportunities in Natural Science) is an outreach program developed by Prof. Pinjing Zhao to empower graduate students for their future careers.

3) NATURE (Nurturing American Tribal Undergraduate Research and Education) is a program to bring Native American students onto campus in the summer for science learning experiences. Dr. Uwe Burghaus has been involved as a member of this effort since the beginning.


NDSU ChemBio Faculty Professional Service and OutreachNDSU ChemBio Faculty Professional Service and Outreach

Uwe Burghaus NSF Review Panel; Journal reviewer; NATURE program; Governor’s School mentor

Greg Cook Department Chair; NSF Review Panel; NIH Study Section; Journal reviewer; Proposal reviewer for ACS-PRF, NSF, NIH; PICNICS student mentor; REU student mentor; international seminars; Session chair for various conferences; External thesis examiner

Glenn Dorsam Chair Co-Op Sponsorship Committee; Co-organizer for ASBMB conference

Stuart Haring Athletics Committee; Governor’s School mentor; McNair Scholar mentor

John Hershberger Glassblowing short course instructor, University Program Review Committee, Dean Evaluation Committee, Proposal reviewer, Journal reviewer

Sivaguru Jayaraman PICNICS program director; Science Fair; Governor’s School Mentor, PICNICS student mentor; Co-organizer for international conferences; Journal reviewer, Proposal reviewer

M. Erkan Kose Faculty search committee

Guodong Liu Governor’s school mentor, Journal reviewer

Erika Offerdahl Service and Outreach Committee; Academic Progress Committee; Presenter on educational topics; STEM Ph.D. STeering Committee; Journal reviewer

Seth Rasmussen National Officer and Divisional Program Chair for ACS-HIST division; Director of URM program; Proposal reviewer; Journal reviewer; NDSU FORWARD Ally; Graduate council; Science Café speaker

Kent Rodgers NIH Study Section member; Proposal reviewer; Journal reviewer; Safety committee; External thesis examiner; Journal editorial advisory board member;

Mukund Sibi Proposal reviewer; Journal reviewer; NIH Study Section; COBRE director; JSPS Fellow; Conference Chair for National Organic Symposium; International seminars; External thesis examiner; Graduate Recruiting Committee chair

Sangita Sinha Proposal reviewer; Journal reviewer; Faculty search committee

DK Srivastava Proposal reviewer; Journal reviewer; NIH Study Section

Wenfang Sun Proposal reviewer; Journal reviewer; Session chair for international conference in Japan; International seminars; College PT&E committee

Pinjing Zhao COINS coordinator; Journal reviewer; PFLAGS speaker; FIRE mentor

Alumni Outreach and Fundraising

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry publishes a newsletter three times a year and this newsletter is sent to all alumni. Traditionally this newsletter was titled “ChemNews”, however, with the merger of the departments


of Chemistry and Biochemistry a few years ago this title will be changed to reflect the new department.

Last year the department, with help from the college and the Development Foundation hosted a reception at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society in honor of Dr. Mukund Sibi’s Cope Scholar Award. This event was one of the first events specifically targeted toward alumni. The department plans to have similar receptions for alumni as funds permit in the future.

The department has endowments that support upward of 18 scholarships for students at all levels. These endowments have remained stable for a number of years. Alumni donations for the last fiscal year dropped by about 42%, most likely due to the poor economy across the country. Typically donations into our general department funds has been constant at about $6000 per year. The department relies on our scholarship endowments and our general fund for recruiting, retention and alumni outreach activities. A goal for next year is to improve alumni relations and develop a more focussed alumni outreach program.

Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryDonations to the department General Fund

Year Chemistry Biochemistry2005-2006 $6,215 $6602006-2007 $6,374 $2002007-2008 $6,160 $02008-2009 $6,915 $1,0002009-2010 $4,620 $0 !"#

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D. Special Initiatives

Cooperative Programming and Interinstitutional Activities

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry faculty are actively engaged in professional service activities that span the globe. They are ready participants in collaborative programs for student training, research and other activities. Some examples of these activities are; hosting Governor’s school students, hosting Science Bound students, hosting NATURE students, hosting PICNICS students, hosting visiting research faculty, co-organizing conferences and meetings at NDSU and at other institutions, collaborating on major research grants (e.g. COBRE, NIRT, SUNRISE, CNSE programs).

International Activities

Several faculty members frequently give seminars and presentations at international universities and conferences. Listed below are some of the international visits by faculty from the past year.

NDSU ChemBio Faculty International ActivitiesNDSU ChemBio Faculty International Activities

Greg Cook Visited 5 universities across India and presented at an international conference in Kolkata, India.

Sivaguru Jayaraman Visited several universities in India

Seth Rasmussen Presented work at a conference in Australia

Mukund Sibi JSPS fellow in Japan; visited several universities in Japan and presented at the Kyoto Conference; Plenary speaker in Denmark; Speaker at international conference in China.

Wenfang Sun Visited several universities in China; Presented at international conference in Japan; Presented at international conference in France

International outreach from the department has resulted in a diverse multicultural graduate student and postdoctoral research population. Visits to universities and conferences abroad exposes NDSU and our faculty to the international community making NDSU an attractive place to do science.


Interdisciplinary Activities

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is actively engaged many aspects of the University. Through the COBRE Center for Protease Research, active collaborations between faculty in the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Veterinary and Microbiology and Biology are ongoing. With the strength in materials science, faculty are involved in the interdisciplinary Materials Science Ph.D. program and the department hosts students in this program.

Economic Development Activities

A number of patents for technologies are held by faculty members in the department. Some of these patents have been licensed by companies and are being actively utilized. The department encourages IP disclosure and supports the economic development activities of the faculty.

On-Line Courses

Dr. Uwe Burghaus has developed an online version of CHEM 472/672: Surface Chemistry, Nanoscience and Materials. This course, offered every other year, was taught for the first time as a DCE class in Spring 2010. Approximately 20 students from NDSU and abroad (international) took part in the class. Student ratings of the course were very high.

In order to better accommodate increasing demand for our non-majors general chemistry courses, the department will offer an on-line version of CHEM 121 this fall. Greg Oswald has spearheaded the effort to introduce this DCE course and has experimented quite successfully with various on-line technologies in summer courses this year. This coming fall the course will be offered on a large scale.


E. Planning

Program Strengths

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has been a leader on campus for decades. The department continues to grow its research enterprise and strives to offer the best education for students at all levels. Research drives science and the research activities of the department are integrated with the educational mission at the undergraduate and graduate level. Over the last decade the department has made strategic faculty hires to build core research strengths in Materials Science, Biomedical Science and Synthesis. Last year we concluded a successful faculty search to bring our total faculty complement to nineteen. For the first time in several years the department will not undertake a faculty search in the coming year.

Challenges

The most pressing challenge for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is research space. The department is currently maxed out without adequate space for faculty starting this Fall. New hire Dr. Chris Colbert will come without a research lab in August. This is most critical for space in IACC for biochemistry. Additionally, as research programs grow, Dunbar Hall has become inadequate for chemistry research. The building suffers from major HVAC problems, poorly working fume hoods and failing plumbing. The department lacks adequate wet chemistry laboratory space for research and in some labs students are crowed and the labs cluttered with equipment. Chemical and flammable solvent storage has surpassed needs are critical as current levels needed for modern chemistry have surpassed safe levels for the building. The department is trying to do 21st century research in buildings designed over 50 years ago. An NIH proposal to fund a new research annex to Dunbar Hall barely missed the funding cutoff. The department continues to seek ways to secure funding for a new building and/or renovations.

Another challenge facing the department is the burgeoning demand for service courses. Over the past decade the department has tried to offer as many sections of labs and courses as possible without increases in funding for TA positions or ad hoc instructors and instead relying on one-time supplemental


funding on a year by year basis. This does not allow for adequate planning for the future.

The operating budget for the department has essentially remained static for the last 15 years at least. With the current financial crisis and 10% cut to the operating budget, the department is no longer able to offer some services to the students (e.g. providing scantron sheets, printing syllabi, etc). Costs for printing, facilities management and computer resources has skyrocketed but budgets have not increased. The department has had to resort to turning off telephones in order to try to balance the budget.

Plans for 2010-2011

Despite the economic and space challenges facing the department, plans for the future continue to be implemented with an eye toward growth. The department has several initiatives in place for research, education and alumni outreach that will be implemented in the coming year.

The departmental web page is dated and in need of updating. A newly designed and streamlined web page is a goal for this year.

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry continues to integrate its graduate programs. Over the last few years graduate requirements have been revised to bring the chemistry and biochemistry sides into synergy. This ongoing effort will be important for our students this year as they embark on new testing and evaluation procedures for their graduate program.

Now that the department has a full complement of biochemistry and molecular biology faculty, the graduate curriculum will be evaluated and revised. A goal is to offer courses based on the strengths of the faculty and more attuned to the requirements of modern biochemistry and molecular biology disciplines.

The department thrives on its active research programs and multi-investigator grants are key to supporting departmental activities. The NIH funded COBRE center funding expires in two years and the department is actively planning for other center-like activities to replace it. Proposal strategy meetings were held last Spring and will continue to be developed over the coming


year. The goal is to submit several proposals in our core research strength areas to NSF, NIH and other funding sources for research center activities.

A major goal for the coming year is to improve alumni relations with more outreach activities. One way in which alumni outreach will be accomplished is through a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Ladd Hall. Two events are being planned. The first, scheduled for May 2011, will be dedicated to the history of Edwin Ladd and his impact on NDSU and North Dakota. We will hold an open house of Ladd Hall and sponsor a History of Ladd symposium. This public event will be targeted to our alumni in particular but also to the greater community. A second event that will be held in Fall 2011 will be a two day science symposium with alumni and former faculty invited to speak. This symposium will also be dedicated to our year long celebration of 100 years of Ladd hall. Through these two events the department will promote itself to the community and to the alumni.


F. Enrollment and FTE

More than 80% of the student credit hours in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is for non-major service lecture courses and laboratories. In the last 10 years, the demand for general service level chemistry and biochemistry has increased tremendously. Comparing enrollments from 1999-2000 to 2009-2010 academic years, enrollment in lecture courses has increased by 91% and the number of laboratory sections offered has increased by 66%.

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Service Course Enrollment*

Year

CHEM

117/121/122

(gen chem)

CHEM

117L/121L/122L

(gen chem labs)

CHEM

240/341/342

(organic

chemistry)

CHEM

341L/342L

(organic chem

labs)

BIOC

260/460/461

(biochemistry)

# Lab

Sections

1997-1998 1,878 1,131 534 234 741998-1999 1,904 1,219 474 224 771999-2000 1,946 1,240 436 186 772000-2001 1,947 1,075 442 225 742001-20022002-2003 2,055 1,345 513 240 812003-2004 2,231 1,597 592 309 607 912004-2005 2,259 1,761 682 312 600 1052005-2006 2,480 1,746 514 338 651 1102006-2007 2,698 1,770 822 393 640 1152007-2008 2,920 1,879 732 467 616 1162008-2009 3,373 2,022 707 330 682 1262009-2010 3,296 2,069 772 387 743 128

*Academic year only. Does not include summer sessions.

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BIOC 260/460/461

(biochemistry)

CHEM 341L/342L (organic

chem labs)

CHEM 240/341/342 (organic

chemistry)

CHEM 117L/121L/122L (gen

chem labs)

CHEM 117/121/122 (gen

chem)


G. Other Data

H. Diversity

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has made great strides in diversity of its faculty and students. The department has established a great multicultural atmosphere with representation from more than eight different countries.

Equitable gender representation has been a goal of the department for some time and great strides have been made. The department hired it’s fourth female faculty member last year bringing the department’s percentage of female faculty to 22%. This is higher than the national average among chemistry departments according to the most recent report from Chemical and Engineering News (national average 17%).

The nationalities of the nineteen faculty in the department are; 9 from America, 4 from India, 3 from China, 1 from Germany, 1 from Turkey and 1 from Belarus.


department of chemistry and biochemistry

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