Graduate student Ni Fan is a Spring 2016 recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award as announced by the Graduate School.
Fan’s advisor is Tarun Dam.
Fan also received the Second Place Award for an Oral Presentation at the 2016 Graduate Research Colloquium.
Graduate student Sarah E. Hopson is a Fall 2015 recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award as announced by the Graduate School.
Hopson’s advisor is Marty Thompson.
Graduate student Melanie Talaga is a Spring 2016 recipient of the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship, as announced by the Graduate School.
Talaga’s advisor is Tarun Dam.
Talaga also received the Third Place Award for an Oral Presentation at the 2016 Graduate Research Colloquium. Hers was the Highest Attended Presentation.
Graduate students displaying research at Michigan Tech
“We use really big words and we’re use to using those words because we deal with it everyday,” said Melanie Talaga, MTU doctorate student. “Other general communities do not understand those words so we need to learn how to practice and break it down to everyone’s level. So then we can communicate our science and get people interested in our science.”
Read more at Upper Michigan’s Source, by Aleah Hordges.
The William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning seeks input for its annual Distinguished Teaching Awards, which recognize outstanding contribution to the instructional mission of the University.
Based on more than 50,000 student rating of instruction responses, 11 finalists have been identified for the 2016 awards. The selection committee is soliciting comments from students, staff, faculty and alumni to aid in its deliberation process.
Among the finalists in the Assistant Professor / Lecturer / Professor of Practice Category is Lecturer Andrew Galerneau.
Comments on the nominees are due by Friday, March 18, 2016, and can be completed online.
From Tech Today, by by Jackson Center For Teaching and Learning.
Kathryn Perrine joins the Department of Chemistry as an assistant professor. Before joining Michigan Tech, Perrine was at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis at the California Institute of Technology. Perrine earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Delaware and her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina.
She belongs to the American Vacuum Society and the American Chemical Society. Her research interests include reactions on metal and functionalized surfaces to control the growth of molecular architectures; growth, properties and reactions on heterogeneous structures for energy analysis; and liquid/solid and gas/solid interfacial chemistry using surface analysis.
Graduate students Jingtuo Zhang, Mu Yang, Wafa Mazi, Mingxi Fang, Fei Xie, Postdoctoral Associate Kapil Adhikari, Assistant Professor Loredana Valenzano, Associate Professor Ashutosh Tiwari and full Professor Haiying Liu (all from the chemistry department) published a paper entitled, “Unusual Fluorescent Responses of Morpholine-Functionalized Fluorescent Probes to pH via Manipulation of BODIPY’s HOMO and LUMO Energy Orbitals for Intracellular pH Detection,” in ACS Sensors. This project is funded by NIH.
DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.5b00065
Lynn Mazzoleni (Chem), was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award to study one of Europe’s pollution hot spots. Currently on sabbatical in Bologna, Italy, Mazzoleni is collaborating with researchers in the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate at the Italian National Research Council. Their study focuses on the chemistry of atmospheric nitrogen species to improve the understanding of aqueous phase chemistry that contributes to the high concentrations of aerosol pollution.
Dr. Donald Bergstrom
Professor Emeritus
Department of Medical Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology,
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
Date: October 16, 2015
Place: Chem-Sci Room 101
Time: 3:00 pm
Abstract
For more than a half century I have designed and created new molecules. My research has been shaped within the contexts of culture, time, and place, at times responding to the work of others, but always attempting to ride the wave front of science. “At the End of Chemistry” follows the trajectory of my research from rocket design in the 1950’s to nanomaterials in the 21st century. It is both report and inquiry about the nature of research.
Biography
Don Bergstrom has held faculty positions at Purdue University (1989-2011), the University of North Dakota, and the University of California, Davis. He holds degrees in chemistry from the University of Washington (BS, 1965) and the University of California, Berkeley (PhD, 1970). From the early 1970s the work in his laboratory focused on nucleic acid chemistry, particularly the synthetic chemistry and applications of nucleosides. In the 21st century his efforts expanded into areas of nanotechnology and new approaches to drug design based on concepts of molecular self-assembly. He is currently a 2nd year graduate student in the MFA program in Applied Craft + Design at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.
LSTI 1st Annual Research Forum a Success
The First Annual Research Forum sponsored by the Life Science and Technology Institute was held Sept. 24 and 25. Twenty-seven graduate and undergraduate students conducting research in life science, biotechnology, human health and related areas presented posters.
Among the Graduate Merit Award winners was:
Ni Fan (Chem)—”Glycan-Dependent Mutual and Reversible Sequestration,” Advisor: Dam
Read more at Tech Today. View the photo gallery “Life Sciences at Michigan Tech.”
More participants from the Department of Chemistry:
Dr. Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy, Professor
Biophysics and Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan
Date: September 25, 2015
Place: Chem-Sci Room 101
Time: 3:00 pm
Abstract
Membrane proteins are an exciting class of biomacromolecules and play important roles in a variety of biological processes that are directly linked to major diseases including cancer, aging-related diseases, and infectious diseases. A complete understanding of their function can only be accomplished using high-resolution structures and dynamics. In spite of recent developments in structural biology, membrane proteins continue to pose tremendous challenges to most biophysical techniques. A major area of research in my group is focused on the development of NMR techniques to study the dynamic structures of membrane bound proteins such as cytochrome b5, cytochrome P450 and cytochrome P450-reductase. In my talk, I will present strategies to study the structure and dynamics of these challenging systems and also on the electron transfer mechanism that enables the enzymatic function of P450. Atomic-level resolution NMR structures of amyloidogenic proteins revealing the misfolding pathway and early intermediates that play key roles in amyloid toxicity will also be presented.
References:
J. Biol. Chem. (2015) 290:12705-18; 290: 4843-55; 288:22080-95.
Chem. Soc. Rev. (2014) 43:6692-6700; J. Phys. Chem. Lett. (2014) 5:1864.
Biography
Dr. Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy is Professor of Biophysics and Chemistry at University of Michigan, where he has been since 1996. He has applied NMR spectroscopy and other biophysical techniques to investigate high-resolution structure, dynamics, and functional properties of membrane proteins, amyloid proteins/peptides, and antimicrobial peptides. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers in leading high impact journals like Science, PNAS, JACS, J. Biol. Chem., and Angew. Chem. Eng. Intl., written several review articles, edited 2 books on NMR spectroscopy, brought out several special issues as a guest editor, and organized several conferences related to NMR spectroscopy. He is a member of editorial boards of J. Biol. Chem., Plos One, Scientific Reports, Peer J, Biochimica Biophysica Acta, Journal of Magnetic Resonance, Chemistry and Physics of Lipids, Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, and Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry. He has been a PI or co-PI on several NIH (and other) sponsored projects.
For more information visit http://rams.biop.lsa.umich.edu/