Year: 2021

The 2021 Chemistry Research Symposium, highlighted research performed at Clemson by our students and at other institutions by our honored guests. All of these students have worked very hard to highlight the variety and importance of research being done in chemistry. As Dr. Pennington mentioned, science isn’t hard work for the curious, but it does provide education and training for a wide variety of careers and vocations, and chemistry, as the central science, provides a jumping-off point to a world full of opportunities. Celebrating their curiosity and success, this year’s winners for best posters presented at the 5th Annual Chemistry Symposium are:

First Place – Graduate Poster: Paola Benavides
Heteroleptic coordination-driven self-assembly of planar tricomponent supramolecular coordination complexes
Paola A. Benavides, Mónica A. Gordillo, Ashok Yadav, Sourav Saha

Second Place – Graduate Poster: Tatiana E.M. Wrege
Optical studies of hybrid silver/silver sulfide nanoparticles
Tatiana E.M. Wrege and George Chumanov

Third Place – Graduate Poster: Supun Mohottalalage
Effects of Solvent Polarity on Segmental Dynamics in Slightly Sulfonated Polystyrene Ionomers: Quasi Elastic Neutron Scattering Study
Supun S. Mohottalalage, Sidath Wijesinghe, Manjula Senanayake, Chathurika Kosgallana, Naresh Osti and Dvora Perahia

First Place – Undergraduate Poster : Inara Devji
Cloning of Candidate Stress Response Genes from Paspalum vaginatum
Inara Devji, Charles Henry, Joshua Stapleton, Sarah Powers, Dr. Zhigang Li, Hong Luo

Congratulations to Hui Xu, graduate student with Professor Casabianca for receiving this year’s Outstanding Graduate in Discovery Award!

Hui Xu joined the lab in December 2016 after receiving her B.S. from Shandong University in China. Hui has been using solution-state NMR to study the interaction between small molecules and nanoparticles. You can read more about her contributions in her Google Scholar profile.

This is a well-deserved achievement in a highly competitive field of nominees throughout all departments in our college! We would also like to congratulate your advisor, Dr. Casabianca. The award consists of a certificate and a monetary prize of $1,000, and will be presented at the SCIENCE Honors and Awards ceremony that will be held on Friday, April 9.

Again, congratulations and we are looking forward to learn more about your exciting research!

The department of Chemistry announces that our Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Sites Program has been extended for another 3 years.

This project will allows supporting 10 participants per year, who will form small teams and will be mentored by a cluster of faculty members with complementary expertise. Participants in our program will select a project (under the broad area of Materials with Targeted Functions, form small teams and be mentored by a cluster of faculty members with complementary expertise. The research projects include the synthesis and characterization of new materials (both organic and inorganic), development of methods to unveil chemical interactions of nanoparticles, preparation of deep euctectic solvents, as well as application of new routes to enhance energy harvesting.

Learn more and apply at https://chemistry.sites.clemson.edu/garcia/REU.html 

Congratulations to Jeff Anker  for receiving funding for a Phase I NIH STTR proposal with SpineFrontier, Inc., “X-ray Visualized Interbody Spacer Indicating Biomechanical Load (X-VISIBL) Fusion Device” . Clemson gets $127,271 /1 yr going to John DesJardins (MPI) and him (co-I), and total grant with SpineFrontier is $252,127. Importantly this makes them eligible to apply for a Phase II proposal ($1.7 M /2 yr), and helps in developing a commercial product. The goal of the grant is R&D on an intervertebral spacer to detect spine fusion using standard X-ray imaging. It based on an issued patent that CURF licensed my startup company Aravis Biotech and SpineFrontier sublicensed the spine aspects of the patent from Aravis.

Please join us in congratulating alumnus (B.S. Chemistry/math minor, ’68) and long-time friend and supporter of our Department and the University, Dr. Kenneth B. Wagener, Butler Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, University of Florida for receiving the ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry!

Ken and his brothers, Earl (Founder of Tetramer Technologies) and Ben, created the Hattie B. Wagener Award in honor of their mother, Boonie, a long-time secretary in Electrical Engineering at Clemson. The annual award honors the top administrative staff member in the College of Science. Congratulations, Ken, and thank you for all your support of our department, college and university!

More info on the awards can be found at https://cen.acs.org/people/awards/ACS-2021-national-award-winners/98/i31

The Department of Chemistry would like to announce the recipients of the 2021 Spring Mandel Fellowship, an award made possible by a gift established in honor of Dr. Frederick Mandel.

The recipients are:

Apeksha Rajamanthrilage is a PhD candidate in Prof. Jeffrey N Anker’s group. Her graduate research has been focused on developing X-ray interrogated biomechanical and biochemical sensors for monitoring fracture healing and implant associated infection. She developed a liquid-level gauge with hydromechanical amplification to monitor minute changes in orthopedic plate bending in fracture healing and is working on developing a pH sensor to image implant associated infections via X-ray Excited Luminescence Chemical Imaging (XELCI). Moreover, she is working on developing a lateral flow assay to detect other analytes of interest at the fracture site with XELCI. Before enrolling in Chemistry graduate program at Clemson University, she received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

Ebube Oyeka obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Nigeria and Master of Science degrees from University of Nigeria and Tohoku University, Japan. In University of Nigeria, Ebube worked on the synthesis of metal complexes for biological applications, and in Tohoku University, he worked on the design of ternary inorganic oxides such as La-doped SrTiO₃ from bimetallic complexes. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Chemistry in Professor Tran’s group and his research is focused on the design and characterization of new materials exhibiting topological magnetic spin textures with potential applications in spintronics technology.

Tatiana Estrada-Mendoza (Dr. Chumanov’s group). Originally from Ecuador, Tatiana came to Clemson via Louisiana where at McNeese State University she earned her bachelor’s and master’s in chemical and environmental sciences. Her research has varied from natural products to nanoscience. Currently, she is investigating novel synthetic methods for semiconducting nanoparticles. Another highlight of her time at Clemson has been teaching undergraduate labs, mentoring undergraduate researchers and conducting outreach.

Join me in congratulating the awardees, who 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.

Congratulations to our graduate student, Andrew Peloquin (co-advised between Dr. Pennington and Dr. McMillen), for winning one of four Veteran Alliance Fellowship Awards granted by Clemson University this year (there are 146 graduate student veterans enrolled at Clemson)!

Andrew is a second-year graduate student (M.S. from University of Florida) and already has six publications at Clemson (four as first author)! This is certainly well-deserved recognition for his outstanding academic progress. Well done, Andrew!

You can read more about his publications in Google Scholar and the official announcement about the program