Chemistry Newsletter 2015

Mount Holyoke College
Department of Chemistry
Chemistry
faculty
members
received
awards for
excellence in
teaching and
research
Issue 3|Spring 2015
Contents
Page 2 2014-2015 Lucy Pickett
lecture
Page 3 Professor Browne to
retire in 2015
In recognition of
Professor Mary
Campbell
Page 4
–
Welcome to MHC, Dr.
Katie Berry
Chemistry Faculty
members received
awards and funding
+
Professor Polly
Arnold of the
University of
Edinburg visits
Mount Holyoke
College as 20142015 Lucy Pickett
lecturer
Page 5 Recent publications and
presentations
New courses
Page 6
Activities abound
Page 7 2014-15 Awards
Luncheon
Page 8
Congratulations to class
of 2015!
Stay in touch with
Chemistry Department
Fusce mollis
tempus felis.
Annual Chemistry
Department Luncheon
Award Ceremony in
recognition of students’
academic rigor and
excellence
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Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry
Issue 3|Spring 2015
Dr. Arnold as 2014-2015 Lucy Pickett Lecturer
The MHC Chemistry
Department was honored to
present Professor Polly Arnold
– Crum Brown Chair of
Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry
at the University of Edinburg as
the 2014-2015 Lucy Pickett
lecturer. Her talk titled “Some
chemistry with U: In search of
interesting reactions at the
bottom of the table” took place
on March 26, 2015. Professor
Arnold received her
undergraduate degree from
University of Oxford in 1994
and doctoral degree from
Sussex in 1997. In 1997 she
received Fulbright Scholarship
for postdoctoral research at
MIT.
The Arnold Group studies dand f-block organometallic
chemistry and small molecule
activation chemistry. Dr. Arnold
is the recipient of various
awards, including the Bessel
Prize from the Alexander von
Humboldt Foundation, the
Chancellor’s Prize of the
University of Edinburg and the
Sir Edward Frankland Prize
Lectureship from the UK Royal
Society of Chemistry.
Dr. Arnold describes herself on
her twitter profile as “putting
the F in chemistry; making fblock molecules; shouting about
feminism; swearing too much.
Proud maker of A Chemical
Imbalance”. 'A Chemical
Imbalance' is a film and book
by Dr. Arnold that celebrates
women in science, and
explores the issues that
contribute to their continuing
under-representation. The
website
http://www.chemicalimbalance.co.uk
contains the film and the book, and a
call to action to make the simple
changes to our workplaces that will
enable the best and most diverse
population to produce the best
science.
The History of the Lucy Pickett Lecture
The Lucy Pickett lectureship was
established in honor of
distinguished Mount Holyoke
College Chemistry professor Lucy
Pickett in1968 after her retirement.
Lucy Pickett was a Massachusetts
native and a 1925 graduate of
Mount Holyoke College. She
earned a Doctorate from the
University of Illinois and taught
there and then at Goucher College
before returning to Mount Holyoke
as a faculty member in 1930. Her
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research in X-ray crystallography
and ultraviolet absorption
spectroscopy of organic
molecules received numerous
honors including American
Chemical Society’s Francis P.
Garvan-John M. Olin Medal.
The Lucy Pickett lectureship now
acknowledges outstanding women
scientists and brings distinguished
speakers to the college to inspire
young women in chemistry.
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Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry
Issue 3|Spring 2015
Professor Sheila E. Browne to retire in 2015
June 30, 2015 marks the
retirement of Professor Sheila
Ewing Browne as Bertha
Phillips Rodger Professor of
Chemistry. In her 39 years at
MHC, Prof. Brown has been a
phenomenal mentor, who has
advised more than 80
students during their
independent research
projects. Professor Browne
received the Presidential
Award for Excellence in
Science, Mathematics and
Engineering Mentoring in
1998 and the Compact for
Faculty Diversity’s Faculty
Mentor of the Year Award in
2001. In 2005, she received
the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
(AAAS) Award for Lifetime
Achievement – an honor to
her significant mentoring of
students from
underrepresented groups and
leadership in promoting
doctoral careers for
underrepresented groups,
primarily women, in
chemistry. With recognition of
her substantial contribution to
Mount Holyoke College in
particular and in mentoring
women in science in general,
the college expresses
profound gratitude and
wishes Professor Browne a
happy and fulfilling
retirement.
In recognition of Professor Mary K. Campbell
It is with deep regrets
that we learned of the
passing of Professor Mary
K. Campbell. Professor
Campbell passed away
on May 21, 2014. For 36
years, she taught courses
in almost all the subfields
of Chemistry at Mount
Holyoke College, where
she held the title of
Virginia Apgar Class of
1929 Professor of
Chemistry. She is the coauthor, with Shawn O.
Farrell from Colorado
State University of a text
book, “Biochemistry”,
now in its eighth edition.
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The textbook, which has
become a standard in
the field, has been
translated into a number
of languages. Professor
Campbell was also part
of the writing team that
periodically updated
General, Organic and
Biochemistry – the
textbook launched by
Fred Bettelheim and
widely used by students.
Professor Campbell
retired from Mount
Holyoke College in
2004.
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Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry
Welcome to
Mount Holyoke
College
Dr. Katie
Berry
Dr. Berry will be joining the
Chemistry Department in Fall
2016. Dr. Berry received her
undergraduate degree from
Swarthmore College and her
doctorate from University of
California, Berkeley. Dr. Berry is
an NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow
Issue 3|Spring 2015
at Harvard Medical School
in the lab of Dr. Ann
Hochschild in the
department of
Microbiology and
Immunobiology. Her
research focuses on the
mechanism of
transcription regulation,
RNA folding and noncoding RNA function in
E.coli. Dr. Berry will be
teaching BIOCHEM-311 in
the Fall 2016 and
BIOCHEM-314 in the
Spring 2017.
CHEMISTRY FACULTY MEMBERS RECOGNIZED FOR
THEIR TEACHING AND RESEARCH
Professor Maria Gomez (fourth from left - top photo)
was honored with the 2015 Meribeth E. Cameron
Faculty Award for Scholarship in recognition of her
contributions to research at Mount Holyoke
College. Her lab focuses on reducing petroleum
dependency by improving conduction and
maximizing efficiency of fuel cells. The ceremony
took place on March 3, 2015 at Willits-Hallowell
Conference Center. (Link to full article:
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/media/faculty-recognizedresearch-teaching)
Professor Kyle Broaders (lower photo) received the
first ever Fund the Future Research Endowment,
which provides $150,000 to pre-tenured MHC
faculty over the course of 3 years to fund his
research. Professor Broaders’ lab uses chemical
tools in order to prepare precisely controlled
substrates for living cells.
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Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry
Issue 3|Spring 2015
Recent publications, presentations
Schramma, K.R., Bushin, L.B., & Seyedsayamdost, M.R. 2015. Structure
and biosynthesis of a macrocyclic peptide containing an unprecedented
lysine-to-tryptophan crosslink. Nature chemistry, 7, 431-437.
Macdonald, B., McCarley, S., Noeen, S., & van Giessen, A. E. 2015.
Protein- Protein interactions affect alpha helix stability in crowded
environments. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 119(7), 2956-2967.
Shamsuddin, R., Doktorova, M., Jaswal, S., Lee-St John, A., &
McMenimen, K. 2014. Computational prediction of hinge axes in
proteins. BMC Bioinformatics, 15.
Bhanushee and Akchheta presenting at
ACS Undergraduate research
conference
Rachel A Krueger, Frederick G Haibach, Dana L Fry, and Maria A
Gomez. 2015. Centrality measures highlight proton traps and access
points to proton highways in kinetic Monte Carlo Trajectories. J. Chem.
A.E. Cerchiari, J.C. Garbe, N.Y. Jee, M.E. Todhunter, K.E. Broaders, D.M. Peehl, T.A. Desai, M.A. LaBarge, M.
Thomson, Z.J. Gartner. 2015. A strategy for tissue self-organization that is robust to cellular heterogeneity and
plasticity.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (112)2287-2292.
Nguyen, L.; Hang, M.; Wang, W.; Tian, Y.; Wang, L.; McCarthy, T. J.; Chen, W. 2014. Simple and improved
approaches to long-lasting, hydrophilic silicones derived from commercially available precursors. ACS Appl. Mater.
Interfaces. 6:22876−22883.
Kuboki, T.; Chen, W.; Kidoaki, S.2014. "Time-dependent migratory behaviors in the long-term studies of fibroblast
durotaxis on a hydrogel substrate fabricated with a soft band" Langmuir. 30, 6187.
Zhang, L.; Nguyen, Y.; Chen, W.2014. 'Coffee Ring' Formation Dynamics on Molecularly Smooth Substrates with
Varying Receding Contact Angles. Colloid Surface A. 449C, 42.
New Chemistry courses
CHEM 212 Chemistry of Biomolecules by Kathryn McMenimen
Chem 212 offers non-Biochemistry majors an introduction to
biochemical molecules, concepts, and systems. Students study
proteins, nucleic acids, and their structure, as well as metabolic
pathways. In the laboratory, students express and purify a molecular
chaperone protein and analyze its function.
CHEM 224: Art Analysis Lab by Himali Jayathilake
This half-semester course introduces concepts of analytical chemistry
under the theme of "Chemistry in Art". Experimental techniques -such as gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, X-ray fluorescence,
UV visible spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and scanning
electron microscopy -- are incorporated for the analysis of paintings
and art objects.
CHEM 226 Poisons: Death by Chemistry by Alan Van Giessen
This course discusses the classification of poisons; the physiologic
effect of toxins on different systems of the body; dosage effects and
pharmacokinetics; antidotes mechanisms and analytical techniques
used in toxicology.
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Dr. Himali Jayathilake (left) is removing a
microsample from a painting for Scanning
Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis. MHC
Art Museum curator Wendy Watson (right) is
making suggestions on sampling locations.
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Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry
2014 Mole Day
celebration
Collaboration between the
Chem/Biochem Club and the
Biology Club
Issue 3|Spring 2015
The Chemistry and Biochemistry Club encourages
students to nurture and share their appreciation of
these subjects through casual presentations and
group discussions. Additionally, the club organizes
events featuring fun activities with educational value
to generate interest in these fields within the general
student population. With support and guidance from
the chemistry department, they hope to promote
cooperative learning outside the classroom.
Mole Day Celebration 2014 marked the collaboration between the Chem/Biochem Club and the
MHC Biology Club. Various activities including pipetting competition, Who is the Molelionnaire and
cupcake decoration received the excitement from a body of not only science students but also those
from other disciplines of social sciences and humanities. The event took place at Kendade Atrium on
Thursday, October 23 with this year’s Mole Day theme “Mole-O’Ween”.
Chem/Biochem Social
The Chemistry Department presented a new activity for students this Spring:
The Chem/Biochem Social - where majors and prospective majors meet and have
discussions on various topics related to Chem/Biochem including courses, internships
and on-campus activities with our faculty and staff.
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Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry
2014-2015
Awards
RACHEL BROWN AWARD
(for a Senior)
LOUISA STONE STEVENSON
PRIZES (for Juniors)
Awarded annually to the outstanding
chemistry or biochemistry major.
Awarded annually to students in
their Junior year for excellence in
chemistry, as determined by
Grade Point Average and/or class
rank.
Ye Tian
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
AWARD—CONNECTICUT VALLEY
SECTION
Two awards, annually, one each to
an outstanding chemistry major and
biochemistry major.
Bryanne MacDonald
Cindy Yao
EDNA H. GRAHAM PRIZE
Awarded at the department’s
discretion, to a chemistry major and
a biochemistry major who give
promise of continued professional
activity in their discipline.
Feng V., Bui P., Capi A.,
Crocker S., Dang H., Long J.,
Norris K., O’Leary E., Park E.,
Shi X., Xu S.
CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT
TEACHING ASSISTANT AWARD
Bryanne MacDonald
Shuying Linda Xu
For Sophomores
Ana Capi
ACS UNDERGRADUATE AWARD IN
ANALYTICAL & INORGANIC
CHEMISTRY
Awarded annually to an
outstanding scholar in organic
chemistry.
Awarded annually for demonstrated
aptitude in analytical and inorganic
chemistry.
Jie Venky Feng – Analytical
Gillian Kwan - Inorganic
For someone dear to our hearts:
CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT BOOK
AWARD
Awarded at the Department’s
discretion in recognition of
outstanding contributions to the life
and work of the department.
Hannah Arbach
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Brown E., Dietrich E., Eshun A.,
ALBERT WALTER AWARD FOR
EXCELLENCE IN ORGANIC
CHEMISTRY
Elizabeth Laudadio
C.
Issue 3|Spring 2015
Jie Venky Feng
For First-year students
ALBERT WALTER AWARD FOR
EXCELLENCE IN GENERAL
CHEMISTRY
Awarded annually to an
outstanding scholar in first year
chemistry.
Kathleen Smith
Muhammadaha Areeb
Shaukat Kichi
TAYLOR FRANCIS CRC AWARD:
Caley Butler
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Mount Holyoke College Department of Chemistry
Issue 3| Spring 2015
Class of 2015 Graduates
Congratulations to Chemistry graduates and those who will
continue their academic career in graduate school.
Akchheta Karki – University
of California, Santa Barbara
Arda Kotikian – Harvard
University
Elizabeth Laudadio –
University of WisconsinMadison
Gladys Saruchera –
Continuing with chemical
engineering degree at
University of Massachusetts
Bhanushee Sharma –
Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute
Barsha Shrestha –
Tarnuma Tabassum –
University of California, Santa
Barbara
Ye Tian – Pennsylvania State
College of Medicine
Cindy Yao – University of
Michigan
Stay in touch with the Chemistry Department
Chemistry department
website puts on a new
appearance
Check out the new features on the
new department website here
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/chemistry/
MHC Chemistry
Alumnae is now on
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/MountHolyoke-College-Chemistry-Alumnae4998186
Send your news or stories to Himali Jayathilake
(hjayathi@mtholyoke.edu)
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