Year: 2020

Following the announcement from the President Clements, we would like to congratulate the graduate students that have finished their Chemistry degrees this semester:

PhD Graduates:

• Beau Brummel: Guanidinium Sulfation Crystallization: Strategy for Enantiomeric Identification and Diastereomeric Resolution (Advisor: Dr. Whitehead)
• Zhuomin Lu: Preparation and Characterization of a Catalase-Mimic Organoruthenium-Chloride Complex (Advisor: Dr. Tennyson)
• Chandima Narangoda: Electron-Rich Alkynes and Azodicarboxylates Chemistry Towards Vicinal Diamine Motif Containing Small Molecules and N-Heterocycles (Advisor: Dr. Whitehead)
• Manjula Senanayake: Solvent as a Tool to Tune the Association of Structured Ionic Block Co-Polymers: Neutron Scattering and Computational Study (Advisor: Dr. Perahia)
• Megan Sibley: Conformational Studies Pertaining to Richman-Atkins Cyclization of Azamacrocycle Ligands and Developing Routes for Efficient Synthesis of 3:1 Cyclens (Advisor: Dr. Wetzler)
• Ashlyn Smith: High Sulfur-Content Materials from Free Fatty Acids (Advisor: Dr. Tennyson)

MS Graduates

• Geoff Chesser: Substitution of N-Methy Piperazine by Morpholine in Hoechst 33258 Analogs and Biophysical Studies of Rich DNA Binding (Advisor: Dr. Arya)
• Paige Reed: Analytical Applications of Pyrolyzed Cellulose Materials: Protein Adsorption and Electrochemical Detection (Advisor: Dr. Garcia)

We wish them all the best and hope they continue engaged with the Department

The Department of Chemistry would like to announce the recipients of the 2020 Mandel Fellowship, an award made possible by a gift established in honor of Dr. Frederick Mandel: Meenakshi Ranasinghe, Shiyu Zhang, Lucas Ayres, Kaylan Jackson, and Kerrick Rees. These students have achieved an outstanding level of productivity since their arrival to our program. Each of them has earned a fellowship of $4000 that will be added to their stipends. We are thankful for their contribution and we expect that this award contributes to their professional development and success.

Kaylan Jackson earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, NC in 2018. As a third-year graduate student, she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Chemistry, where her current work focuses on the development of analytical tools to isolate and characterize extracellular vesicles of cancer origin based on their biomarker cargos.

Lucas de Brito Ayres earned his bachelor in Pharmacy-Biochemistry from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and has already worked with Drs. Do Lago and Gutz on analytical Instrumentation, specifically by developing chemical instruments based on open-source technologies (e.g. Arduino, 3D printers and Android). He is currently pursuing his PhD in Chemistry and is interested in continuing working with low-cost sensors, instrumentation, and automation.

Meenakshi Ranasinghe earned her bachelor’s in chemistry from University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Chemistry and working on patterning plasmonic nanoparticles using mechanical deformation, synthesizing bright x-ray nanoscintillators for neuron stimulation, studying x-ray stimulated behavior of Caenorhabditis elegans, and Covid-19 detection in saliva. She is interested in working on multidisciplinary research projects. Her graduate advisor is Dr. Jeffrey N. Anker.

Shiyu Zhang earned his bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Nankai University in China. During his undergraduate period, he joined Prof. Xianhe Bu’s group and worked on the design and synthesis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Currently, he is a third-year Chemistry Ph.D. student in Prof. Sourav Saha’s group, focusing on design, construction, and structure-property relationship studies of stimuli-responsive electronic and photonic metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) based on redox- and photoactive ligands.

Kerrick C. Rees obtained his Bachelors and Masters of Science in the field of Chemistry from Colorado State University. During this time, he worked under the supervision of the late professor Robert Williams pursuing the total synthesis of several different classes of indole alkaloid natural products. He has further expanded upon his synthetic organic knowledge while working on a variety of different projects for professor Daniel Whitehead, including the development of small molecule therapeutics for the selective growth inhibition of human gut microbes and the treatment of Toxoplasma gondii infections in immunocompromised individuals.

Congratulations to Dr. Mohamed Attia for winning the 2020 Distinguished Postdoc Award! Mohamed has done a fantastic job working with Dr. Whitehead, having contributed to multiple manuscripts, including a recent cover in Biomaterials Science.

We are proud to announce that Kaylan Kelsey has received a competitive ISEV2020 Young Investigator Award and Scholarship from the ISEV2020 International Organizing Committee.

The ISEV Board developed this opportunity to support young researchers in pursuing their studies in extracellular vesicles through attendance at the ISEV2020 Annual Meeting. As an awardee, she will receive $500 cash in USD and will be honored at the ceremony during the closing session on the morning of Sunday, 24 May 2020.

Please join me welcoming Hannah Rydman to Clemson!

Hannah has recently accepted our offer to become a Lab Specialist in our Department and will help us preparing for the General Chemistry and Organic labs. Hannah graduated from Bob Jones University with a BS in Cell Biology and a Chemistry minor. Since 2016 she was a lab assistant at Bob Jones and has also worked for Cayman Chemical doing organic synthesis.

To limit the spread of the virus in our department and in line with the current recommendation from the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/diy-cloth-face-coverings.html), starting May 6, everyone coming to Hunter Chemistry Lab will be required to wear a face mask and exercise strict social distancing measures. Everyone is also strongly encouraged to follow established prevention measures (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html). People working in other buildings (BRC, AMRL, etc) should contact the corresponding building managers.

We understand the hassle of having to make your own masks to work but please keep in mind that these masks need to be frequently washed so it is a lot simpler/safer to do it this way. If you bring a couple of those masks, you may swap them and take them home in a Ziplock bag for washing. If you need help, the following link contains instructions on how to make face masks either with or without sawing (https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-make-a-cloth-face-mask/). Many other tutorials are available. To help with this issue, the department has already purchased a small batch of masks from Fisher that can be used as last resource. This link that describes HOW to wear/discard face masks. The link also has a number of infographics that can be also used https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks

Additional information, including plans to return to campus, can be found at https://www.clemson.edu/coronavirus/ 

The table includes counts of all research outputs for Clemson University published between 1 December 2018 – 30 November 2019 which are tracked by the Nature Index. Each year, the Nature Index publishes tables based on counts of high-quality research outputs in the previous calendar year. Read more

Users please note:

• The data behind the tables are based on a relatively small proportion of total research papers, they cover the natural sciences only and outputs are non-normalized (that is, they don’t reflect the size of the country or institution, or its overall research output).
• The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. The metrics of Count and Share used to order Nature Index listings are based on an institution’s or country’s publication output in 82 natural-science journals, selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields.
• Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals.
• Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at natureindex.com.
• The Nature Index database undergoes regular updating, corrections, adjustment of institutional hierarchies, and removal of retracted papers and thus the live website can differ from the frozen annual tables.
• *The change in adjusted Share accounts for the small annual variation in the total number of articles in Nature Index journals. Share values have been adjusted to 2019 levels to calculate the percentage change. For more information on the adjustment, please see the Adjusted metric explainer.

Proclamation Suspending Entry of Immigrants Who Present Risk to the U.S. Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the COVID-19 Outbreak

On Wednesday, April 22, President Trump signed a proclamation suspending entry into the United States of certain immigrants who present risk to the U.S. labor market during the economic recovery following the COVID-19 outbreak.  The proclamation is effective at 11:59 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 23 and expires in 60 days, unless continued by the President.

U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and those holding valid immigrant visas on the effective date of the Proclamation, are not subject to the proclamation. The Proclamation is not retroactive. No valid visas will be revoked under this Proclamation. The proclamation provides exceptions to its restrictions for certain categories of immigrants, including: certain healthcare professionals, aliens seeking to enter the United States pursuant to an EB-5 investor visa, spouses and children (categories IR2, CR2, IR3, IH3, IR4, IH4) of U.S. citizens, members of the United States Armed Forces and any spouse and children of a member of the United States Armed Forces, and aliens seeking to enter the United States pursuant to an Afghan and Iraqi Special Immigrant Visa. Please refer to the proclamation for a full list of exceptions. Routine visas services have been suspended at U.S. posts worldwide, but as resources allow, embassies and consulates will continue to provide emergency and mission critical visa services for applicants who are not subject to this presidential proclamation.

The full text of the presidential proclamation is available on the White House website at:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-suspending-entry-immigrants-present-risk-u-s-labor-market-economic-recovery-following-covid-19-outbreak/

Although we are very excited about the upcoming events university, recent developments related to the coronavirus have prompted the decision to cancel the visitation weekend and our research symposium. It is important to mention that Clemson remains free of confirmed cases, but we are very sensitive about potential concerns related to the travel to Clemson and do not want participants to be exposed to any additional risk. We apologize for the cancellation and we hope to be able to organize it at a later time.

Dr. Suzanne Bell to give the keynote Lecture at our Annual Chemistry Research Symposium

Following a tradition started in 2016, The Department of Chemistry is organizing the 5^th Annual Chemistry Department Research Symposium, to be held on Saturday March 14 2020, from 9:00 AM to noon on the Clemson University campus. The purpose of this event is to share the research and accomplishments of the last year with each other and the larger Clemson community that we are a part of. Perspective graduate students are also invited to the event as a means for them to learn about the research in the department and to interact with our graduate students. Alumni, representatives from local industry and students from local public schools are also encouraged to come. Coffee and refreshments will also be served at the event.

This year’s speaker is Dr. Suzanne Bell, a Professor Emeritus at West Virginia University. Dr. Bell retired last year but was the Chair of the Forensic and Investigative Science Department while at WVU.

Dr. Bell obtained a BS (Chemistry and Criminal Justice majors) from Northern Arizona University and an MS in Forensic Science from the University of New Haven. She joined the New Mexico State Police in 1983 and worked as a forensic chemist and crime scene processor. Next she ventured to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1985 as a technical staff member. During this time, she obtained a PhD from New Mexico State University. She made the leap to academia in 1994, first at Eastern Washington University where she taught undergraduate chemistry courses and assisted the university and the Washington State Patrol in developing a forensic chemistry major. In 2003, she joined the Chemistry Department at West Virginia University. Currently she imposes her will on the next generation by mentoring chemistry and forensic chemistry students from the BS to post-doctoral level. Her group is active in many forensic and analytical chemistry research areas. She is a member of the Scientific Working Group for Seized Drug Analysis, a commissioner on the Forensic Education Program Accreditation Commission (FEPAC), and was recently appointed to the new National Commission on Forensic Science. In addition to numerous research articles, she has authored and edited many text and reference books including Forensic Chemistry and the 4th edition of Forensic Science: An Introduction to Scientific and Investigative Techniques. The lecture will take place in the main Auditorium of the Watt Center and we are currently working to finalize the details.

The symposium is open to the general public and will feature posters presented by graduate students from each research group in the department as well as undergraduate students and student from surrounding schools.