As part of its goal of outreach to the local community and promoting STEM — and chemistry in particular — to young people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, the MTU student chapter of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) recently organized an outreach event for the high school chemistry class of Baraga Area Schools.
A hands-on explorative activity on paper chromatography was the focus of the outreach event, introducing students to the wide array of applications of chromatography as a separation technique. After introducing students to the concept of chromatography, students were able to see it come alive by separating various colored inks into their constituents. After this introductory activity, students used their chromatography skills to do some forensic analysis on an ink sample and pens from various “suspects” to see who was responsible for defacing a very expensive book from the school library. Finally, the volunteers engaged the students in a discussion to synthesize their observations and draw out the big scientific ideas.
The students were very focused, interactive, and excited about the activities. Some of them, when asked to comment on the activity, noted that it was engaging and insightful. One even said, “This is so cool and fun.”
NOBCChE hopes to continue to get out in the local schools and open up the wide world of chemistry to area students. See photos from the outreach event.
Michigan Tech graduate students in chemistry and chemical engineering — Sodiq Waheed, Kobina Ofori, Parya Siacheshm, and Monica Nyansa — organized this outreach event with NOBCCHE advisor Jeremy Brown (Chem). The event was funded by the NOBCChE K-12 Initiative.
This post was originally published in the Michigan Tech Chemical Engineering News blog on May 26, 2022.
Congratulations to Chemistry’s Dr. Xiaochu Ding on being one of the recipients of the Portage Health Foundation Research Excellence Fund Awards. Dr. Ding was a recipient of the PHF-REF Research Seed Grant.
Two members of Dr. Kathryn Perrine’s research group, Mikhail Trought, and Chathura de Alwis, presented at the spring Materials Research Society (MRS) meeting April 17th-23rd.
Trought presented on redox chemistry of iron oxide single-crystal surfaces using ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (AP-XPS). de Alwis presented on probing the initial stages of iron surface corrosion using AP-XPS. Dr. Perrine presented on measuring the effects of ions on iron surface oxidation at the air/liquid/solid interface using polarization modulation infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS) and surface analysis, the research group’s current focus.
This work is supported by the NASA award number NNX15AJ20H, a Michigan Space Grant Consortium faculty seed grant, NSF MRI CHE 1725818, and the Michigan Tech 2019 Research Excellence Fund.
Dr. Sarah Green was quoted in the article “The U.S. is no longer a rogue climate nation,” in Mashable. The article, by Mark Kaufman, was published in January of 2021.
The Chemistry Department is looking for a Research and Communications Facilitator. This position is outward-facing, representing, and promoting the department to external constituencies. The person will act as a department liaison in supporting the Chair with other units on campus (e.g. Research Development, Federal Relations & Corporate Research, Sponsored Programs, Alumni Relations, and University Marketing and Communication Services).
Dr. Sarah Green was quoted in the article “The climate hasn’t hit a ‘point of no return,'” in Mashable. The article, by Mark Kaufman, was published on November 19th, 2020.
The Chemistry Department will be hosting a Virtual Poster Session on Friday, October 23rd, from 3:00-5:00 PM via Zoom. Passcode: 587532 if needed. To smoothly move from one break room to the other, all participants are asked to use Zoom version 5.3.1 or newer.
The goal of the event is to provide undergraduate and graduate students in Chemistry with an opportunity to share their research experiences not only with the Chemistry Department but also with the wider Michigan Tech community and, possibly, with members of the external audience too. You can find the public Canvas course that is hosting this event here: https://mtu.instructure.com/courses/1336145.
Kathryn Perrine (Chem) presented an invited talk on electrochemical surface corrosion, “Surface Chemistry and Catalysis at Complex Interfaces using PM-IRRAS,” at the #ChemistsLive, an American Chemical Society Cross-Division Virtual Live event Friday (Sept. 25) in the Ambient Pressure Spectroscopy in Complex Chemical Environments session (Catalysis Division).
This event followed the ACS Fall 2020 virtual National Meeting where graduate students of the Perrine group, Mikhail Trought and Chathura de Alwis, also presented their research on surface oxidation.
Christina J. Welch, Priyanka D. Kadav, Jared L. Edwards, Jessica Krycia, Melanie L. Talaga, Purnima Bandyopadhyay, and Tarun K. Dam were published on September 3rd, 2020. Their paper, “A Rapid and Facile Purification Method for Glycan‐Binding Proteins and Glycoproteins” was funded by the National Science Foundation. Grant Number: 1608537. It was published on the cover of the September issue of Current Protocols in Protein Science.
Professor Rudy Luck has been selected as a 2020 VIPEr (Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource) Fellow.
The VIPEr Fellows are made up of 20 inorganic chemistry faculty from across the United States. This project is part of a 5-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program. Its purpose is to develop, test, and refine a flexible, foundation-level inorganic chemistry course.
Visit https://www.ionicviper.org/ to learn more.
Congratulations Dr. Luck!