David G. Alberg, 1993-, Professor. B.A., Carleton College; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley.
It’s been a good year. I taught Organic Chemistry I in both the Fall and Winter Terms. Of course, I love teaching both courses in the organic sequence, and when I first began teaching I particularly liked the second semester course because the chemistry and reaction mechanisms are more interesting – all of that intriguing carbonyl chemistry! However, I have come to find the first term course to be the more satisfying one to teach. It is in the first term where you get to introduce students to organic chemistry for the first time, and it is particularly gratifying when you see the subject starting to “click” for a student. I can still remember that same feeling when I took the course almost 30 years ago. Okay, not all students are as thrilled about organic chemistry as I am (any P-chemists out there?), but enough are to make it more than worthwhile! This was also my year to teach Chemical and Biosynthesis, which I get to teach every other year. I love teaching this course, too, although it was a little stressful this year (self-induced). Over the seven years of teaching this course I have built up a large number of overhead transparencies, which I make extensive use of in the classroom. My embarrassment in using an overhead projector in class has been growing slowly (I’m not sure current students know what an overhead is when they come into my class!), and finally reached the point where I decided to convert everything over to PowerPoint. Of course, I always put off doing the conversion until just before each class period, always scrambling to get to class on time. I’m looking forward to next time I teach the course when all of that busy work will pay off.
As I mentioned in last year’s report, after too long of a delay I had finally submitted a manuscript describing our work on several inhibitors of the parasite enzyme, trypanothione reductase (TR). I’m happy to report that the manuscript was accepted and has been published in the Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry. The manuscript represents the work of 10 Carleton students over about a 10-year period. While I still have a few TR-related projects I’d like to finish up, my current research efforts are focused on my collaboration with Gretchen Hofmeister – developing new projects involving organocatalysis. Last summer, Sean Roberts (’12) returned for a second summer in our lab and was joined by Milan Cvitkovic (’13) and Alex Lai (’13). This summer Milan and Alex have returned and are joined by Anna Brezny (’13) and Reid Whittaker (’14). This past January, Gretchen and I (with significant contributions from Matt Whited and Steve Drew) also submitted an NSF-MRI proposal to fund the purchase of a new NMR spectrometer for the department. Our old reliable Varian 400 MHz instrument is still chugging along, but it is no longer supported by Varian (now Agilent) so parts are no longer being made. We should hear from NSF soon about the outcome of our proposal. Cross your fingers for us!
One of the more interesting activities I was asked to do this year was to serve as an external reviewer for the Molecular Biology and Biochemistry program at the University of Northern British Columbia. I had not heard of this university when they contacted me, but I didn’t feel so bad about that when I discovered it is quite small (about 4000 students) and quite new, having been founded in the mid 1990s. I’d never been to British Columbia, not to mention northern British Columbia, so that was a lot of fun.
On the home front, Gretchen and I got used to having just one kid at home, with our son, Sam, away for his first year at Pomona College. Sam loves Pomona. We couldn’t talk him in to even considering Carleton, but given that his interests are in the sciences that’s probably a very good thing. He’ll be taking organic chemistry next fall – importantly, not with either Gretchen or me! Our daughter, Ellie, enjoyed her first year at Northfield High School, and I think she really enjoyed being an only child at home, for a change. Ellie’s interests are in the fine arts, and she will be attending a 3-week summer art camp in the Adirondacks in July. This will be her second year at this camp and she is can hardly wait to go back. It seems we have all been fortunate to be doing things we like to do, so it has been a very good year.
Michael Burand, 2007-2012, Visiting Assistant Professor. B.S., University of Minnesota, Duluth; M.S., Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
This marks the year my visiting position comes to an end. I have had a truly incredible experience at Carleton; it has been a pleasure to work with such outstanding students and to have so much support and encouragement from my colleagues over the past five years.
In addition to teaching (or co-teaching) some of the courses I have taught in the past, this year I also taught the “problem-solving” version of CHEM 123: Principles of Chemistry. This was something new for me; I really enjoyed the opportunity to teach a familiar course with a new twist. The students did very well, and many of them reported that the extra problem-solving sessions were an immense help. I am glad to see this course will continue to be offered periodically by the Chemistry Department.
In other news, I am happy to report that my wife, Claire, has successfully completed her M.A. in French from Middlebury College. She lived in France for the entire academic year, and although it was challenging to live apart (I was able to keep most of the houseplants alive!), I was fortunate to be able to visit her during the Carleton breaks. We are looking forward to her return to the U.S. this summer. She hopes to stay active in French through teaching.
In the fall I will be starting a new position at Oregon State University. I will be working in the Linus Pauling Science Center, where my main job will be to standardize and develop the laboratory activities for the OSU general chemistry program. I am excited about the position and am looking forward to having the freedom to implement some of the concepts I have become familiar with in the laboratories at Carleton, such as academic-civic engagement. Claire and I are looking forward to the move to Oregon, but we will definitely miss our Carleton friends.
Charles H. Carlin, 1966-2004; Charles “Jim” and Marjorie Kade Professor of the Sciences, Emeritus, 2004-. B.A., Carthage College; Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University.
I spent the past year in customary visits and activities with children and grandchildren and frequent and perhaps productive visits to the Neurology Department at Mayo. Extensive, exasperating, and often painful tests seem to indicate an autoimmune condition abbreviated CIDP – nicely condensing 22 syllables – the D representing “demyelinating.” Nerves are being exposed and subsequently slowly becoming non-conductive starting in my legs. This year will begin with an attempt to reverse or at least interfere with the progress of this condition with large, frequent doses of immunoglobulin. This may prove beneficial but is unlikely to leave me cavorting like a spring chicken given even Panglossian results. We’ll see.
Marion E. Cass, 1987-, Charles “Jim” and Marjorie Kade Professor of the Sciences. B.S., Fort Lewis College; Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder.
During the 2011-2012 academic year, I taught two of the three terms at Carleton. During the summer and then the Fall Term, I lived and worked in Lyme, New Hampshire, where Steve and I are (slowly) building an energy-efficient building.
In the Winter Term at Carleton, I taught Concepts of Chemistry, a chemistry course for non-science majors, and I taught Quantum Spectroscopy with Will and Dani with a large class of 37 majors. This winter, I co-supervised a great comps group with my new colleague Matt Whited. We worked with seven super Carleton seniors; Ryan Cammorata, Katie Deeg, Peter Dunn, Jon Raberg, Sean Roberts, Karen Robinson, and Erika Warrick. Our group studied the published work of Professor Paul Chirik (Princeton University) on the mechanistic examination of N2 activation by group IV (Titanium, Zirconium, and Hafnium) catalysts. Our topic of study was fantastic, the group was great, and Professor Chirik was an inspiring scientist. It was a great experience!
In the Spring Term I team-taught two advanced laboratory courses; Spectroscopic Identification of Molecules with Deborah Gross and Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory with Matt Whited. As I do in most Spring Terms, I taught glassblowing to senior chemistry majors. This spring I also completed a manuscript that brings to closure my study of the twist mechanisms that can racemize chiral tris-chelate molecules. The manuscript “A Computational Study on Ligand Imposed Preferences for the Bailar vs Rây-Dutt Twists in GaL3 Complexes” has been submitted for review.
On a personal note, it has been a busy year. Steve and I worked assiduously on our project in New Hampshire. We installed most of our windows, finished the final roof deck in Vermont slate, and sheathed most of the building in white cedar from a local mill. We closed up our worksite the second week of November and traveled to the Southwestern United States to travel and backpack with our dog, Ada. In between November 16 and Christmas, we hiked in Buffalo, Wyoming, the Escalante Canyon of Utah, the Superstition Mountains and the Kofa Wilderness of Arizona, and in the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico. Winter chased us. We hiked in snow and/or rain in every location only to return to Northfield and a year of almost no snow. We were particularly taken by the beauty and solitude of the Gila Wilderness.
Joseph W. Chihade, 2003-, Associate Professor. B.A., Oberlin College; M.A., Ph.D., Columbia University.
This year was quite the juggling act for me, as new research projects and science- and campus-wide work joined the regular teaching and research balls that I keep in the air. The year started out with a month-long sprint to pull together the college’s proposal to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s science education program. Since 1988, when the institute began awarding grants to undergraduate colleges, HHMI has been an important source of support for science teaching and research at Carleton. I have been the HHMI program director since taking over from Trish Ferrett in 2010. Many meetings during the 2010-11 academic year helped shape the proposal we submitted at the beginning of October. We got word at the end of May that the college will receive $1 million in HHMI funds that will support everything from curricular development to student research to coordinating teaching opportunities for Carleton students. More balls to keep in the air, but exciting and important ones.
September also brought the first of two scientific meetings I attended this year. The International Symposium on Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases was held at the Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah. This meeting is always a fun one for me, since it is a chance to see many old friends and to get to find out what is new and exciting in my sub-field. Being in the beautiful Wasatch Mountains was nice too. The second scientific meeting was also in a lovely location. In April, Katie France, ’12, and Erik Olson, ’12, accompanied me to the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology meeting in San Diego. Katie and Erik presented a poster, and I gave a talk on the work we have been doing (along with Koua Her, ’13) to understand the biochemical basis of pathogenic mutations in the human mitochondrial alanyl-tRNA synthetase and its RNA substrate. Jenn Borchart, ’13, and Brady Still, ’13, are continuing to work on the same problem this summer. Jenn is trying to understand how the mutations affect the enzyme’s error-correction activity, while Brady is exploring different mutations effect on RNA secondary and tertiary structure.
After not teaching in the fall, I taught Organic Chemistry II this winter and Biological Chemistry in the spring. In the Biological lab course we continued to work with cystathionine-beta-lyase. This year we rearranged things a bit so that the students designed and characterized their own mutations in the protein, rather than following up on previous students’ ideas. This made things a bit more rushed, but also a bit more satisfying. Along with Dani Kohen, I also advised a group of comps students studying the work of Antoine Van Oijen from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The group learned a lot about how the details of DNA polymerase action can be elucidated by observing one molecule at a time and how frequently married people disagree.
This year’s big family vacation was to Colorado in December. We took Amtrak from Iowa to Glenwood Springs, a trip I highly recommend. The daytime trip through the Rockies is just beautiful and traveling by train is a treat. While we missed out on “Champagne Powder” at Steamboat Springs, we had a nice time skiing and will certainly try again another year.
William C. Child, Jr., 1956-1990; Emeritus Professor, 1990-. B.A., Oberlin College; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin.
A highlight of this year was a ten day stay in New York City in April-May. Nancy and I, joined by my sister and a friend, saw the four operas of the Wagner ring cycle at the Metropolitan Opera House. On the days between operas we attended other concerts, as well as the famous art museums in the city. The emphasis on music continued on the performance side as well, with my continued participation in two orchestras and a woodwind quintet. In a difficult decision, I decided to end my twenty year career in the St. Paul Civic Symphony with the May concert, primarily because of a decreasing tolerance for all the evening travel to and from rehearsals. The sadness over this conclusion was mitigated somewhat by a rewarding experience in a chamber music workshop in St. Louis in early June.
Steven M. Drew, 1991-, Professor. B.A., St. John’s University; Ph.D., University of Colorado.
It was another good year in the Chemistry Department at Carleton. I taught a variety of courses, found some time to work in the research lab, and worked with high school students in the Carleton Summer Science Institute. I continue to enjoy working with students especially when it comes to introducing them to quantitative applications of chemical instrumentation and the challenges of research.
Looking back, I taught quite a range of courses this year. I taught CHEM 123 in the fall, two instrumentation laboratory courses in the winter, and CHEM 230 lab in the spring. The two instrumentation laboratory courses I taught in the winter were CHEM 338, “Introduction to Computers and Electronics in Chemical Instrumentation,” and CHEM 339, “Survey of Instrumentation for Chemical Analysis.” CHEM 338 continues to focus on LabVIEW, serial data communication, basic analog electronics, operational amplifiers, analog to digital conversion, and transducers. CHEM 339 was a new course this year. This laboratory course focuses on developing a more sophisticated understanding of chemical instrumentation and obtaining additional hands-on experience. Students did some background study of various types of instrumentation before completing four assigned experiments that used the GC-MS, the HPLC with fluorescence detection, the atomic absorption spectrometer, and the anodic stripping voltammetry apparatus. Based on their experiences the students then researched and designed an instrumental measurement project of their own to complete the course. Overall, it was a very enjoyable course to teach, and I look forward to teaching it again during the coming academic year.
Teaching in the Carleton Summer Science Institute (CSSI) was another new experience for me. This is a three-week academic program that brings talented rising high school juniors and seniors to Carleton to take short courses and work on an extended research project. I offered a short course and research experiences in the area of materials chemistry. Three of my Carleton colleagues each offered experiences in neurobiology, animal behavior, and geoscience to the students as well. I was very pleased by the effort, ability, and attitude of the twelve students I worked closely with on various materials chemistry research projects. Students worked on research projects that ranged from quantum dot synthesis and characterization to solar hydrogen production at metal oxide photoelectrodes to photovoltaic device construction based on dye sensitized titanium dioxide nanoparticles. I’m looking forward to participating in the program again this summer as a teacher and co-director.
I also got some research done this past year with the help of Ryan Cammarota (’12) and Peter Dunn (’12). They did a great job working out some syntheses for a couple platinum containing materials that we are interested in studying as possible benzene sensors. Ryan and Peter worked out syntheses of cis-dibutylisocyanidedicyanoplatinum(II) and cis-dipropylisocyanidedicyanoplatinum(II) in addition to helping me teach in the CSSI program. This summer we plan to scale up their syntheses so we can make enough material to perform benzene exposures and attempt to obtain single crystals suitable for X-ray crystallography. Hopefully, this work will serve as a basis for a new set of research proposals in the near future.
Other professional activities this year included reviewing a faculty member for promotion at another institution and reviewing an NSF proposal. I also served on a committee associated with the Carleton Equity and Diversity Initiative.
Tricia A. Ferrett, 1990-, Professor. B.A., Grinnell College; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley.
This year was largely a sabbatical year for me. Fall Term, I taught the Chemical Kinetics Lab (Chem 301) with Will and Michael. What a joyful team of instructors we were. As usual, student teams blossomed and did work surpassing my and their expectations. This continues to be among my “top three favorite” courses to teach.
I did a winter-spring comps group with seven seniors: Chelsa Modlin, James Morrissey, Puja Patel, Alison Smyth, Alfred Yeung, and Diane Walters. We studied the work of Prof. Cathy Murphy (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), whose group focuses on the synthesis and stunning chemical modification of size-controlled gold nanorods. The most exciting part was the way in which the nanorods are being used for biological imaging and other applications that include killing cancer cells. Our conversations with Cathy in April were rich, fluid, and fun. We even got a “rainbow” of nanorods from Cathy’s group in tiny little vials.
In the department, I continued as fellowship advisor and assessment coordinator. Fall Term, I helped a growing number of students apply for external fellowships and scholarships. Our department is putting renewed energy into this process (with the help of Liz Ciner) so that our majors win as many awards as they are due! Our majors got a number of successful awards, including four to current and graduated chemistry majors for National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships.
Though I was mostly on leave this year, I did help the college get its 7th HHMI proposal submitted. We received the award in the spring, giving us four more years of big and flexible funding for the sciences and math. Thanks especially to Joe Chihade for steering a year-long process to conceive the many projects and write a stellar proposal. As I fade away from this kind of work, I am thrilled to watch my able and inspirational colleagues carry on.
My scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) work was anchored by regular monthly meetings with the Humanity Center’s faculty seminar on “Dimensions of Mind.” Six faculty met to learn more deeply about consciousness, mindfulness, neuroscience, and more. I am grateful to Roger Jackson (Religion, seminar chair), Kristin Bloomer (Religion), Tun Myint (Political Science and ENTS), Lauren Feiler (Economics), and Ken Abrahms (Psychology) for their collegial intellect, patience, and ability to listen and talk deeply about ideas and our work. This was truly one of the best experiences I have had at Carleton with faculty peers. My current project tied to the seminar involves writing a paper for publication that attempts to set a new research agenda in the SoTL community that takes seriously that human learning is a complex process.
I am in the final stages of publication for my edited book “Connected Science: Strategies for Integrative Learning in College” with Indiana University Press. The entire manuscript is in, and the Press is moving ahead with details. We expect 1-2 editing rounds ahead, along with decisions about the book cover. I am very much hoping for a publication date in late 2012 or early 2013.
I am, as always, spending lots of good time parenting and hanging out with Adam and Alex, now 9 and 10! This summer we will spend a week at a beach house in Michigan with friend Joanne, visit my family in Kansas City, wilderness kayak and camp with friend Sandra in the Apostle islands, and canoe near Itasca with Alex and other families. I continue to run (more), do yoga (less), garden, make jewelry, read, and…knit. The knitting is new – inspired by Alex’s desire to “make lots of money selling things.” Stay tuned for our billionaire status.
James E. Finholt, 1960-2001; William H. Laird Professor of Chemistry and the Liberal Arts, Emeritus, 2001-. B.A., St. Olaf College; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley.
On the whole, there has not been much change in my life. Care giving is gradually taking an increasing amount of time. I did get involved with a little chemistry this year. The Minnesota Section of the American Chemical Society sponsors a series of “Science in the Library” sessions in which kids can get involved with a number of science projects during a Saturday afternoon. I helped with a couple of these sessions. I participated in two intergenerational Road Scholar weeks with my two grandsons. One was in Arizona studying the Grand Canyon and the other was at St. Simon’s Island in Georgia focusing on marine life. Both programs were well done, and my grandsons and I really enjoyed them. The Road Scholar program offers over 150 different intergenerational programs.
The tulip yield this year was about 50%, but all of the daffodils planted last fall bloomed magnificently. I wish there were daffodil varieties with colors other than yellow and white. The moles and creeping Charlie continue to enjoy their unconditional conquest of my north lawn.
It is a treat to hear from former students. My email address is jfinholt@charter.net. Please send a message when you have a minute or two.
Deborah S. Gross, 1998-, Associate Professor and Chair. B.A., Haverford College; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley.
This year has been full of teaching adventures, research productivity, and planning for next year.
As usual, it has been a busy year. In the fall and the spring, I taught Equilibrium and Analysis, with Steve Drew teaching all three of the Spring Term labs. In the winter, I taught a new class called “Climate Science” for ENTS, which was a terrific learning experience for me and for the students in the class. In the spring, I also co-taught Spectroscopic Characterization of Chemical Compounds with Marion Cass, which was not only fun but helped me pursue my goal of giving our students more, and more varied, experience with mass spectrometry before they graduate. In addition to all of this, I have continued to run the College’s FOCUS program and work on a variety of projects related to making the sciences and math fields better for students traditionally underrepresented in these fields. I continue to find this work extremely rewarding.
The Climate Science class was a really interesting adventure. There was a nice mix of students from all different class years, with many ENTS majors, quite a few chemistry majors, and many who are not yet settled. We spent the bulk of the term working to understand the physical science basis behind global warming and the scientific methods used by climate scientists today. This means running a climate model, and I was pleased to get to work with my students to use EdGCM, an education global circulation model available from NASA. It was exciting to be able to not only ask “what if?” questions about the impacts of various emissions scenarios but to be able to answer them, too! Equilibrium and Analysis is continually fun to teach – especially as it provides a nice opportunity to interact with many first-year students. I was amazed this spring at the incredible energy level that the students had during this 1a class. They asked more questions than many of my previous offerings of this class, combined.
On the research front, last summer I worked with Alison Smyth (’12) and Michael McClellan (’13). Alison was working on more detailed analysis of the data we acquired in the summer of 2010 in Milwaukee. Her efforts contributed to a presentation I gave at the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) in October, to a poster she presented at the ACS meeting in March, and to a paper which has recently been accepted for publication with co-authors Jamie Schauer (UW-Madison) and Ben de Foy (St. Louis University). She is leaving campus with another manuscript nearly complete. Michael worked on a project that spun out of a class project he did in Environmental Analysis in the spring of 2011, investigating the potential of cyclodextrin-based air fresheners (such as Febreze) to encapsulate pollutants and deliver them, as aerosols, into the respiratory system. There’s more work to be done, so it’s great that he will return this summer to continue this effort. Michael will be joined by Erin McDuffie (’13) this summer, who will be working on a combination of ambient measurements in Northfield and an instrument development project.
My plans for the summer include handing off department chair duties to Gretchen Hofmeister and finalizing what I will do next year while on sabbatical. So far, I know that I will spend approximately five weeks in October and November at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, where I will spend time in the lab of Professor Xin Yang while also teaching a graduate short-course on “Aerosol Science and Technology.” I have never been to China, and I am super-excited for this adventure. The rest of the year is a bit less focused, but will definitely include travel to Europe, writing, and working with new mass spectrometers that the department will be getting. What could be more fun than that!?
Gretchen E. Hofmeister, 2002-, Associate Professor. B.A., Carleton College; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley.
The courses that I taught this past year were Organic Chemistry I in the fall and Organic II in the spring. I had a leave for the Winter Term, during which I wrote and submitted two grant proposals – one in collaboration with Dave Alberg, Steve Drew, and Matt Whited to the NSF for a new NMR instrument and one to the ACS-PRF concerning a new project in organocatalysis, which involves collaboration with Dave Alberg, Dani Kohen, and Keith Kuwata from Macalester College. It was great to have a term during the school year to focus on research. In the fall, Dave Alberg and I developed a new experiment, which incorporates a research-like experience and enantioselective catalysis into the Organic Chemistry I laboratory. We are now planning modifications for the “beta” version that we will implement this coming year.
In research, Dave and I continue our collaboration in organocatalysis, which involves using small chiral organic molecules as catalysts for stereoselective organic transformations. The larger motivation for our work is to develop methods to convert inexpensive, readily available, and, ideally, biorenewable chemical feedstocks into useful building blocks for chemical synthesis. Sean Roberts (’12), Milan Cvitkovic (’13), and Alex Lai (’13) worked last summer and academic year on our citric acid asymmetric desymmetrization (ASD) project. Alex is continuing this summer to wrap up work on this project and Anna Brezny (’13) and Reid Whitaker (’14) are joining her on a new project in mechanistic organocatalysis. This involves synthesizing stable transition state analogues (TSAs) of the ASD reaction and using NMR spectroscopy to measure TSA-catalyst interactions. Milan also returned this summer as a joint student with Dani Kohen, and he is working on computational models of our ASD reactions. In late July, I will present a poster of our citric acid ASD results at the Gordon Research Conference in Green Chemistry in Tuscany, Italy.
I finished up work on the 2012 ACS Organic Exam Committee last summer, which was a great opportunity to meet faculty from different types of institutions and learn their perspectives on various aspects of the organic chemistry curriculum. On July 1, 2012 I started my term as chair of the department – I am sure that I will find it challenging, and I hope that I will improve my interpersonal and management skills during my tenure. Time will tell!
Our children continue to thrive – this past year Sam completed his first year of college and Ellie completed her first year of high school. We have enjoyed having Sam home again this summer, especially because it will probably be his last extended time at home. I will start taking Ellie out driving soon, so she can practice shifting in our old manual-transmission Volvo. We have gone out sailing a few times, and we have been enjoying Twins games all season long. Altogether, it’s been a satisfying year in Northfield!
William E. Hollingsworth, 1986-, Professor. B.S., B.A., University of Texas, Austin; M.S., Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley.
I enjoyed a return to teaching Chem 301 (Chemical Kinetics Lab) in the fall after an absence of several years. Working with Michael and Trish was a lot of fun, and the students were very enthusiastic and dedicated and did very well on their independent work. In the winter, I taught Quantum Chemistry and also ran the spectroscopy lab with the help of Marion and Dani. The year finished with Chem 128 (Principles of Environmental Chemistry) in the spring. Other activities and duties involved serving as comps coordinator. I also advised Marina Yang on her comps paper exploring the manifestations of quantum tunneling in chemical reactions. It was a very enjoyable experience, and it is fair to say that we both learned a tremendous amount. Activities at the college level included being on the Campus Design Committee, reading writing portfolios for the first time, and serving on the German and Russian Department Review Committee.
Due to a fortuitous mix of happenstance and planning, I was able to use the summer for projects of my own supporting several ongoing teaching and research projects. Of course, research equipment is always in need of attention and possible repair. One curriculum project I’m actively working on is to use LabVIEW to interface the monochromator to a computer used intensively in advanced lab. It has been good but humbling to take on a project which requires me to learn LabVIEW well enough to do something more than just look encouragingly over my research students’ shoulders. But it is surprising how intricate and precise it is to find the exact protocol needed to run the device remotely. Recent LabVIEW projects from Nolly Gibbs and Diane Walters have really helped move this process along. It is not finished yet, but the progress is good.
Another new curriculum project I am just beginning to work on intensely is to develop a new course for ENTS for next winter. I am creating a course I am calling ‘Modeling Environmental Systems,’ and it is a course that should bring together a lot of ideas I have been thinking about. There are, however, few course models to draw from, and so I will need to spend some real time on it to bring together the many far-flung ideas.
Julie Karg, 1988-, Chemistry Technician. B.S., Mankato State University.
This past year, I continued to co-manage the chemistry stockroom – preparing laboratory experiments, supervising student workers, and providing assistance to laboratory and research classrooms. I worked with professors to develop and prepare new laboratory exercises for their courses and modify previously performed experiments, as well as providing additional assistance to new and visiting professors. I improved guidelines and signage designed to assist professors, lab assistants, and students and generated improvements that allowed the lab floor to run more smoothly and efficiently. In addition, I served as a member of the department’s newly formed safety committee, meeting with the campus’ new manager of environmental health and safety compliance.
Daniela Kohen, 2002-, Associate Professor. B.A., Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Ph.D., University of Notre Dame.
Teaching this year was incredibly satisfying. I taught Chemical Thermodynamics (Chem 343) in the fall, Quantum Spectroscopy Lab (Chem 302) in the winter, and Computational Chemistry (Chem 348-9) in the spring. A very p-chem heavy teaching load! Which was the recipe for a fantastic year because we have a junior class full of p-chem lovers. What a privilege it was to share subjects that I love so deeply with such a group of enthusiastic and talented students. On top of that, I co-directed comps with Joe Chihade. The group studied the work of Antoine van Oijen, who by doing beautiful single molecule experiments tries to elucidate the mechanism of DNA replication and other crucial biochemical reactions. I supported the group by providing p-chem expertise but mostly I just had a blast learning from everyone.
My research group continues to make progress. We use atomistic simulations to understand and characterize at the molecular level how small gas molecules interact with pure CO2 in the pores of zeolites (molecular sieves), and how this interaction changes in the presence of other gases present in the atmosphere. The goal of these studies is to provide a basic understanding of the processes that underlie the use of molecular sieves as filters to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. This past year my group presented our work at several meetings, including the ACS National Meeting and the CPC-6 (6th Characterization of Porous Materials workshop). I was also fortunate to be granted a Petroleum Research Fund grant to support this work.
This summer Jie Lin (’14) and Annette Martin (’14) are continuing to model the effect of cations on the behavior of CO2 within zeolites. In addition to my “traditional” research (that I described above) this year, I am venturing into the world of quantum chemistry: Milan Cvitkovic (’13) is using computational methods to understand the mechanism of the reactions that Gretchen and Dave’s group are investigating. Quite a new world for me! So far summer research has been really fun and productive, and I would not be surprised if it continues to be so (although given how research is, I would not be surprised either if we reach one of those not so productive impasses. Let’s just hope that we can continue to have fun if this happens.).
This year was a special year. Every year since 2001, in partnership with the national Posse Foundation, Carleton identifies public high school students from Chicago who have extraordinary academic and leadership potential but might have been overlooked in the traditional admission process, and places them in supportive “posses.” I have the privilege and responsibility of being the mentor for the Posse cohort that started in the fall and will graduate in 2015. The demands that this brings me are a bit different than what I am used to, but so are the rewards. I am able to truly support a group of 11 very talented young people in their journey through college.
In any case, another good year has gone by. I am definitely looking forward to another one like it at Carleton.
Brian T. Mars, 1983-, Laboratory Manager. B.A., California State University, Chico; M.Th., Andersonville Theological Seminary.
I had a routine year on the lab floor. I kept very busy with the numerous lab sections offered.
Jerry R. Mohrig, 1967-2003; Herman and Gertrude Mosier Stark Professor of the Natural Sciences, Emeritus, 2003-. B.S., University of Michigan; Ph.D., University of Colorado.
This year we published the last major experimental paper which will come out of our Carleton research. In it we showed that the anti stereochemistry characteristic of base-catalyzed elimination reactions does not depend upon a concerted reaction mechanism. So the attractive arrow-pushing picture used in organic chemistry textbooks to account for the anti stereospecificity of E2 reactions is suspect. It’s nice to know the textbooks can be wrong now and again. The article appeared in the Journal of Organic Chemistry with 14 co-authors, Carleton alums who did research in my lab while they were undergraduates. In June I also presented a poster at the 34th Reaction Mechanisms Conference on the unifying role that negative hyperconjugation can play in 1,2-elimination and proton-transfer reactions. To round out the story, I’ve been invited to submit a review on our stereochemical studies to Accounts of Chemical Research.
Last summer at the University of Minnesota we hosted our fifth workshop on teaching the organic chemistry lab using a guided-inquiry pedagogical approach. During the past few years guided-inquiry or discovery lab teaching has been used successfully in many American colleges and universities. I’m pleased that Gretchen Hofmeister and David Alberg have agreed to become coauthors for the 4th edition of Techniques in Organic Chemistry, which will be published late in 2013.
Life in Northfield continues to be good. Last September Adrienne and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with a trip to one of our favorite places, the high desert country of Sedona, Arizona. I also traveled twice to south Texas where Sara, Sean, and my two grandchildren live. This winter was so mild we stayed close to home. The spring flowers were spectacular. As naturalist Chet Raymo has written, they provided the “unsubdued elations when the forest blooms.” For the third time, I had fun teaching the History and Chemistry of Chocolate in the Cannon Valley Elder Collegium, and I’m also currently a member of the Collegium Board of Directors. After four years as President of the Village on the Cannon Homeowners Association, I have stepped down and written a short article on the history of how we surmounted the foreclosure of 2008. As a member of 1st UCC in Northfield, I have been active on the Church Council and the Search Committee for our Associate Minister; the UCC Mens Group has continued to provide a stimulating outlet for thoughtful discussions and friendship.
Richard W. Ramette, 1954-1990; Laurence M. Gould Professor of the Natural Sciences, Emeritus, 1990-. B.A., Wesleyan University; Ph.D., University of Minnesota.
Into second and last two-year term as President of the Computer Club of Green Valley. Still volunteering as fitness room monitor. In March Senior Games took medals in swimming, biking, walking, triathlete, and shuffleboard. Eyes fading. Often speculate on how I could have been a more effective chemistry teacher. Recommended books: Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, and The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity, by Bruce Hood. Loving my iPad – recommended app: Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? Often, it seems I’m not.
Matthew T. Whited, 2010-; Assistant Professor. B.A., Davidson College; Ph.D., California Institute of Technology.
Wow, what a year! I’m excited to have my first opportunity to introduce myself to the extended Carleton community, as I have just finished my first actual year here after postponing for a year to finish some postdoctoral projects (including a bit of teaching at USC) and allow my wife, Charlotte, to finish her PhD.
I taught three courses (with two labs) this past year, all new, so every term was an adventure and each brought its own surprises. In the fall, I taught Organometallic Chemistry as a new upper-level course that focused on mechanisms and applications of metals in practical organic synthesis as well as energy science and extensively utilized the primary literature. In winter and spring, I tried my hand at Chem 123: Principles of Chemistry and Chem 351: Inorganic Chemistry, both staples of the program here. All three classes were fantastic. One particular highlight was getting the chance to integrate some new synthetic techniques and target molecules into the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory (Chem 352), and I will be traveling up to St. Paul with three students this summer to collect single-crystal X-ray data on one of the new molecules for publication later this summer. Gretchen Hofmeister and I are also planning to combine our collective work on one of the inorganic lab experiments for publication in J. Chem. Educ. in the next year or so.
It was also great to co-lead a comps group with Marion Cass, where we studied the work of Paul Chirik (Princeton) with seven phenomenal seniors: Ryan Cammarota, Katie Deeg, Peter Dunn, Jon Raberg, Sean Roberts, Karen Robinson, and Erika Warrick. Paul did a great job with the students and was, of course, very impressed by the depth of their understanding of his work, and his visit was certainly a highlight of the year for me. I was so inspired by my time co-leading the group with Marion that I will be taking on a group of my own next year as we study the work of Bob Grubbs (Caltech); we are especially excited that Bob (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2005) will be visiting Carleton at the end of April to interact with the students and give a departmental seminar.
On the research front, things have begun quickly. My laboratory is interested in applying organometallic complexes to problems of energy and organic synthesis. I arrived in Northfield in June of last year and was able to start at Carleton and begin setting up my lab with support from the Dean’s Office and external grant money from RCSA. Having taken care of all of the ordering and some basic setup, I began working in lab over winter break with Christian Padilla (’13) and Joe Boerma (’13), and we made some good progress toward identifying promising routes for one of my projects that looks at the preparation and reactivity of late transition metal species with multiple bonds to nitrogen (imides and nitrides). Christian and Joe continued to work with me in an independent study in the spring along with Dan DeRosha (’13) and Alex Kosanovich (’14), and all four of them will be working this summer in the lab on my two funded research projects. I have been invited to contribute a review on C–H functionalization for the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry, which I will be completing early this summer before going to Newport, RI, for a Gordon Conference on Organometallic Chemistry and Chapel Hill, NC, for an NSF-sponsored conference on strategies for teaching inorganic catalysis. All in all, it promises to be a busy yet fun summer! I gave an invited talk at Macalester last fall and hope to have the opportunity to travel to discuss our research more over the next year or two.
Finally, on the home front it has been a busy year as well. Charlotte and I moved into our new house in Northfield in June. At the end of the summer (one week before classes started!), our household grew by one when we welcomed our first child, James (8 lbs, 5 oz). We have loved Carleton and Northfield so far and are really grateful to the department and college for all their support during a crazy year! Now we’re looking forward to having things settle down a bit, but I doubt that’s likely to happen anytime soon.
Wendy J. Zimmerman, 1970-, Administrative Assistant.
Another tenure-track hire kept me very busy during Fall Term and the start of Winter Term. As in the past, I’m the editor of this report and “The Weekly Beaker,” the department’s weekly newsletter, and I manage the department’s web site.
Back to Annual Report for 2011-2012