Departmental News Fall 2006

Fall 2006

We are delighted to announce that Professor George W. Gokel joins the department in the fall as Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Associate Director of the Center for Molecular Electronics. Dr. Gokel is also Professor of Biology. He joins us from the Washington University School of Medicine, where he was Director of the Chemical Biology Program in the Department of Molecular Biology & Pharmacology.
Professor Jingyue (Jimmy) Liu, Director of the Center for Molecular Electronics and Professor of Physics and Chemistry also joins us this fall. Professor Liu received his B.Sc. (Hons.) degree from Beijing University of Science and Technology, and his Ph.D. degree from Arizona State University. Prior to joining the University of Missouri-St. Louis in September 2006, he was a Senior Science Fellow and Senior Research Manager at Monsanto Company.
A new organic chemist Dr. Eike B. Baur who received his Ph.D. degree at the University of Erlangen - Nuremberg in Germany with John Gladysz, and did postdoctoral research with Keith Hollis at the University of California-Riverside, joined the department this fall. He was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Faculty members have been very successful recently in seeking and obtaining external research grants. The following listing includes 2006 awards through June 30, 2006.

Jim OBrien (UM-St. Louis) and Leah O'Brien (SIUE) received a grant for $340,000 from the Experimental Physical Chemistry program at the National Science Foundation to study "Spectroscopy of Pd and Pt Catalytic Mimetics,"
Alexei V. Demchenko received a five year CAREER award for $552,000 from the National Science Foundation for his project "Stereocontrolled synthesis of 1,2-cis glycosides" and a two-year grant from the American Heart Association for his project "Synthesis and evaluation of novel lipid-A derivatives" for $143,000.
Alexei V. Demchenko received $226,500 for the study "New methods and strategies for oligosaccharide synthesis" from the National Institutes of Health for two years.
Keith Stine and Alexei V. Demchenko were funded by the NIH for the project "STICS: Surface-Tethered Iterative Carbohydrate Synthesis" at a total cost of $399,772 for two years.
Christopher D. Spilling has received official word that his NIH-NIGMS RO1 grant application "Tetrahydrofurans, Tetrahydropyrans and 2H Furanones" was funded for four year at slightly over $1m total costs to begin in August 1, 2006. Professor Cindy Dupureur is a Co-investigator and Professor Mike Nichols will a key consultant in this work.
Michael R. Nichols just received the news that his 2006 New Investigator Research Grant entitled "Amyloid-Beta Fibrils: A Trigger for the Innate Immune Response" was funded by the National Alzheimer Association. The grant is $100,000 over two years.
Chung Wong, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, received a two-year grant from the National Institutes of Health for "Computer-aided Design of Anti-cancer Drugs targeting Protein Kinases", beginning July 1, 2006.
The 19^th Annual Alumni Lecture was given on Monday May, 1 by Professor Alicia M. Beatty, BS 1989. Alicia, who received her PhD degree at Washington University and had been at Kansas State University and Notre Dame, is in her second year at Mississippi State University in Starkville MS. She spoke on From "Dimethyl Tar" to Clay Mimics: a Sticky Path to Crystal Engineering.
The Alumni Reception held on April 7, was a great success. There were 23 alumni present along with most of the faculty, some spouses and others including Chancellor Thomas F. George and Dr. Barbara Harbach.
James S. Chickos was presented with the 37^th St. Louis Award of the St. Louis Section of the American Chemical Society at the St. Louis Award Banquet to be held at Kemoll's Restaurant on Saturday evening, April 22. Jim was honored in a symposium held in the department of chemistry on Friday April 21.

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Departmental News Fall 2006

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