Annual Report For 2004-2005 Academic Year

INTRODUCTION

STUDENT HONORS AND AWARDS

OFF-CAMPUS STUDENT RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS

ENROLLMENTS

FACULTY AND STAFF ACTIVITIES

FACULTY BIBLIOGRAPHY

GIFTS AND GRANTS

SEMINARS

---

INTRODUCTION

This marks my last introduction of a Chemistry Department Annual Report as Chair. It has been an interesting and sometimes busy three years, but I hope I leave the Chemistry Department in as good of shape as I received it from Marion. The big news in the department this year was the granting of tenure to Deborah Gross. We are all looking forward to continuing to benefit from her good advice, rye sense of humor, and pursuit of excellence in research and teaching for many years to come. Chuck returned to help us in a teaching pinch this past year, so we’ve enjoyed one final year of “Chuckisms” in the department. This summer Chuck will begin retirement by getting in some much needed fishing and golfing. We also had the pleasure of having Angie Dickens (’97) back in the department this year to teach Chemistry 123 Winter Term. Angie was between defending her Ph.D. thesis and starting her postdoctoral appointment, so we really lucked out when we discovered she could come back to Carleton and help us with some teaching. The extended Carleton family continues to grow. Dani Kohen and Joe Chihade welcomed Sofia to their family last year which increases the total number of junior chemists in the department to 11, ranging from Lilly Drew and Anthony Hollingsworth at age 15 to Sofia at age one.

I would like to conclude my introductory remarks by sharing a poem I read at the chemistry picnic this spring. I’m not a very talented poet, but I wanted to end my Chairmanship on a fun note. Here it goes…..

This summer my tenure as Chair will cease,
I can’t wait for my paperwork to decrease.

I love being a chemist at this college of Carleton,
But being Chair wasn’t always fun.

The details and minutia are numerous,
Sign this, sign that, and don’t make a fuss.

Schedule meetings, make agendas and curricular plans,
Review faculty, staff, and the cleanliness of the cans.

Draft faculty for meetings, find students to work,
Make sure that you’re not being too much of a jerk.

Plan the picnic, improve the displays, deal with Biology,
Whose teaching comps, whose getting distinction, ITS disabled the HPLC!

I also won’t miss dealing with 100 emails a day,
The number from Trish I might just have to weigh.

Running department meetings is a challenge for sure,
I wish the students could be there to endure.

I know students think class is sometimes boring,
But come to our department meeting and you’ll really start snoring.

Keeping on task at our meeting is difficult for some,
Ten people simultaneously talking, the number listening: none.

Having two married couples in the department is quite the thing,
It’s worth it just for the entertainment factor it brings.

First there’s the couple of Gretchen and Dave,
Who wears the pants in the family? I guess I won’t say.

Joe and Dani are new parents, this is a fact that is true,
Their main conversation is about vomit and poo-poo.

Well that’s the end of my chemistry Chair poem,
I wanted to keep it short and not too much of a tome.

I can’t wait to spend more time doing what I like most,
Like doing research, teaching class, and being a student host.

With less paperwork to handle, and more time on file,
I hope to make more platinum double salts using isonitriles.

Back to Top of Page

---

GIFTS AND GRANTS

Steven Drew’s research is supported by an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Type B grant, awarded in the summer of 2004. The grant, “The Synthesis and Characterization of Chiral Platinum(II) Extended Linear Chain Materials and Their Potential Application as Gas Sensing Transducers,” is for $50,000 over three years.

Gretchen Hofmeister’s research continues to be supported by an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Type B grant ($50,000) for her project, “Titanium and Aluminum Complexes of Chiral and Achiral Trisphenol as Selective Lewis Acid Catalysts.”

Deborah Gross received an Associated Colleges of the Midwest Faculty Career Enhancement Grant, “Adding The ATOFMS To AEROWOOD: An Opportunity To Enhance Our Understanding Of Atmospheric Aerosol Particle Chemical Signatures,” through the Enhancing Scholarly Agendas initiative. The $3,000 grant is for 2005-2006 sabbatical logistical support.

Deborah Gross received a Bush Fellowship Faculty Development Grant from Carleton College. This grant will fund the third term of her 2005-2006 sabbatical.

Trish Ferrett received a 2005 Carnegie Scholars Award, from the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL), which is part of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The award includes $3,000 each from Carnegie and Carleton College to support Trish’s classroom research project on integrative learning. Carnegie also covers local expenses for three in-residence periods (totaling to three weeks) with the 2005 cohort of Carnegie Scholars at the Carnegie Foundation in Palo Alto, CA.

The Dow Chemical Foundation continues to support chemistry at Carleton through its Chemistry Undergraduate Scholarship Program. This past year they provided funding for two student scholarships at $4,000 each.

Deborah Gross received a European Science Foundation (ESF) Interdisciplinary Tropospheric Research (INTROP) from the Laboratory to Global Change Exchange Visit Grant of €5300 to support travel and living expenses during her 2005-2006 sabbatical.

Carleton College received a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) for $800,000. Trish Ferrett is administering this grant and Carleton’s Interdisciplinary Science and Math Initiative (CISMI) through the summer of 2008.

Funds were received from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to support the summer 2005 research of four chemistry students.

A few years ago the estate of James D. Morrison gave $10,000 to support the annual Dr. James D. (’30) and Julia P. Morrison Lectureship. The lectureship was held this year by Professor Laurie Butler of the University of Chicago.

David Alberg’s research is supported by a National Institutes of Health AREA grant ($132,117), awarded in the spring of 2003, for his project, “Inhibitors of Trypanothione Reductase.”

This was the last year of Jerry Mohrig’s National Science Foundation-RUI research grant of $161,353 for his project, “Stereochemical Determinants in Elimination and Proton Transfer Reactions.”

Funds raised by Carleton College to match the National Science Foundation 1992 Young Investigator Award (NYI) to Trish Ferrett is still supporting her pedagogical research and curricular development for her new scholarship of teaching and learning project. Combined NSF and Carleton-raised funds total to about $458,000 since 1992.

Jerry Mohrig continues to receive support from a $24,000 Research Site for Educators in Chemistry grant at the Chemistry Department of the University of Minnesota to support his collaboration with Professor Donald Truhlar on theoretical aspects of the research.

Back to Top of Page

---

SEMINARS

Franz M. Geiger, Northwestern University: Tracking Environmentally Important Processes at Surfaces: From Geochemistry to Atmospheric Chemistry

Carleton Chemistry Faculty: Careers Discussion

David Alberg, Carleton College: Synthesis and Evaluation of Trypanothione Reductase Inhibitors

Carleton Science Majors: Annual All-Science Poster Session

Mary Shepard Gin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Molecular Channels and Gates

Sigma Xi Panel – Joe Chihade (Chemistry), Nelson Christensen (Physics & Astronomy), Deanna Haunsperger (Mathematics & CS), Mark McKone (Biology), Mija Van Der Wege (Psychology): How We Got Where We Are: Carleton Science Faculty Discuss Their Careers

Jeff Schwinefus, St. Olaf College: Thermal Stability of the DNA Helix in Cosolvent Solutions: The Roles of Hydration and Cosolvent Binding

Jim Maher, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine: Transcription Factor Inhibition by RNA Decoys

Molly McGuire (’96), Bucknell University: Environmentally Relevant Redox Reactions at Iron-Bearing Mineral Surfaces

Angela Dickens (’97), Carleton College: Sources, Cycling and Preservation of Black Carbon in Marine Sediments from the Washington Margin

David C. Muddiman, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine: Clinical Proteomics: Making an Impact Through the Chemistry Porthole and Building Diverse Research Teams

Carleton Chemistry Faculty: Summer Research Recruiting

Bruce Ault, University of Cincinnati: Matrix Isolation Spectroscopic Studies of Reaction Intermediates: Reactions of High-Valent Transition Metal Oxo Compounds

Kevin Range, University of Minnesota: You Cannot Win, You Cannot Break Even, and You Cannot Leave the Game: An Introduction to the Laws of Thermodynamics

John Tully, Yale University: Chemical Dynamics at Surfaces

Jane Owens, Wabash College: Light and Matter – Wave/Particle Duality

Sylvia Ceyer, MIT: New Surface Reaction Mechanisms: Role of Bulk H in Catalytic Hydrogenation and F Atom Abstraction by Si

François Morel, Princeton University: Trace Metals and Ocean Productivity

Gregory Verdine, Harvard University: Enzymatic Recognition and Removal of Damaged Bases in DNA

John Battiste (’90), 3M Pharmaceuticals: Optimization of the Sensitivity of 2D NMR Experiments for Structure Elucidation of Impurities/Degradants in Pharmaceuticals

Laurie J. Butler, University of Chicago: Probing Radical Intermediates of Bimolecular Reactions; The 2005 James D. Morrison Lecture

Marc Snapper, Boston College: Cyclobutadiene as a Reagent: Using Molecular Strain to Access Complexity; The 2005 Lecture on Organic Synthesis, Sponsored by Organic Synthesis, Inc.

Senior Comps Talks:

Charlie Weiss: The Nonlinear Effect in Asymmetric Catalysis: Asymmetric Amplification and Mechanistic Probe

Andy Ault and Janel Uejio: Bulk Hydrogen: It’s Not Just a Wal-Mart Special

Meredith Cable, Eric Hamp, David Jackson, Micah Johnson, Adam Sunderland: Our Underwater Allies: How Ocean Phytoplankton Regulate Global Climate

Dave Farina, Margie Mattmann, Greg Poduska, Andy Ryan, Aistis Tumas: hOgg1: DNA’s Knight in Shining Armor

Kate Sammons: Pharmacognosy and the Effect of Developmental Stage on the Chemical Composition of Saussurea laniceps and medusa

Vickie Gunderson: Searching for the Ideal Molecular Wire: An Investigation of Electron Transfer Processes in Photoinduced and Self-Assemblied Monolayer Research

Katie Freeman: Hey Kids, Don’t Do Drugs: A Study of Methylphenidate As A Potential Therapeutic Agent for Cocaine Abuse

Back to the top of the page