Author: Carlos Garcia

Congratulations to Dr. Katja Hall, who defended her thesis “Optimization of the Liquid Sampling-Atmospheric Pressure Glow Discharge for Varied Spectrochemical Applications”. The work was supervised by Prof. Ken Marcus.

You can read more about her contributions here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=j0dRE-kAAAAJ&hl=en 

Congratulations to Dr. Kerrick Rees, who defended his PhD thesis “PROGRESS TOWARD THE DEVELOPMENT OF INHIBITORY SMALL MOLECULES FOR THE BACTEROIDES AND TOXOPLASMA MICROORGANISMS”. The work was co-directed by Dr. Dan Whitehead and Dr. Kristi Whitehead.

Kerrick is now heading to postdoctoral in the Townsend lab at Vanderbilt University soon….. and will be greatly missed in Hunter!

Congratulations to Dr. Tyler Williams, who recently defended his PhD Thesis “DIVERSE MASS SPECTROMETRIC COUPLINGS AND APPLICATIONS OF THE LIQUID SAMPLING – ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE GLOW DISCHARGE AS A COMBINED ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR IONIZATION SOURCE”. The work was supervised by Prof. Ken Marcus.

Tyler, who has been incredibly productive as a graduate student, will soon join the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, which enhances national security through the military application of nuclear science. He will work in the administration’s enriched uranium modernization group, which focuses on modernizing the nation’s enriched uranium capabilities and infrastructure to support NNSA’s defense, nonproliferation, and naval reactor missions.

Good luck!

In 1993, three students, Tony Rosati (Georgetown University), Gina Pearson (American University) & Anne Holt (Florida State University), all activists within NAGPS, wanted to find a way to physically manifest support and appreciation of the contributions, impact and value of graduate students. Their effort led to a cooperative initiative called National Graduate & Professional Student Appreciation Week. Tony & Anne also realized that bringing in the endorsement of each state’s government (via a Proclamation from the Governor) would assist in building greater media attention to GPSA Week.

Graduate-Professional Student Appreciation Week

Graduate students are behind every successful project and are a critical component of our department. As Dean Lopez said, Clemson would not be the R-1 research university it is without our graduate students and their research. Our highly valued undergraduate education benefits from the interactions with and mentorship of graduate students. You put in a collective 35,000 hours a WEEK as teachers of record, teaching assistants, research assistants and program assistants. Hundreds of undergraduates work on Creative Inquiry teams led by graduate students. Depending on the year, between 20% and 60% of named inventors on Clemson patents are graduate students. Your geographic and cultural diversity makes Clemson a more vibrant community. And you’re a primary reason Clemson has the statewide presence it does: hundreds of Clemson graduate students study primarily at a campus or facility other than the main campus.

Thanks!

Congratulations to Joseph Goodwin, for being selected to participate in the summer course for “Nuclear Nonproliferation, Safeguards, and Security in the 21st Century”

This summer course is designed to give students a sound understanding of the framework created by the international community to address the threats of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. The focus is on the central element of this regime, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its verification mechanism, the IAEA safeguards system. More information about this course is available at https://www.bnl.gov/nnsscourse/.

Joseph is a first-year graduate student working with Dr. Ken Marcus.

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