Departmental News: Spring 2008
Summer 2008
Charles Armbruster to be honored at August commencement
- At the August 2, Commencement, the speaker at the College of Arts and Sciences ceremony in the Touhil Performing Arts Center will be Dr. Charles W. Armbruster, the founder of the department, who chaired the department from 1963 - 1975 and taught mostly organic and introductory chemistry, with distinction, until 1998. In addition to being the Commencement Speaker, Charlie will be presented with the Chancellor's Medallion. Commencement is at 2:00 pm will be followed by a reception in the third-floor rotunda of the Millenium Student Center from 3:30 - 7:00 pm. If anyonw wishes to attend either event, please e-mail Dr. Barton at lbarton@umsl.edu
Spring 2008
- Dr Stephen M. Holmes will join the faculty as associate professor in fall 2008. Steve comes from the University of Kentucky where he is assistant professor. He is an inorganic chemist with interests in synthesis, structural, magnetic and spectroscopic characterization of inorganic materials. He received a BS degree from Southwestern Texas State University, a Ph.D degree from the University of Illinois-Urbana and did postdoctoral research at Cornell University.
- Dr. Alicia M. Beatty also joins the faculty as associate professor in fall 2008. Alicia is currently assistant professor of chemistry at Mississippi State University. Her research interests are in supramolecular chemistry, crystal engineering and materials science. She graduated from UM-St. Louis with a BS degree in 1989 and completed a Ph.D degree at Washington University also in St. Louis. She served as the Director of the X-ray Diffraction Facility at Washington U and went on to Kansas State University as a postdoctoral fellow. She spent three years at the University of Notre Dame as research assistant professor prior to joining the faculty at Mississippi State in 2003. Alicia was the winner of the Alan F. Berndt Outstanding Senior Award here in 1989.
- Professor Keith J. Stine is the Chairman of the St. Louis Section of the American Chemical Society for 2008. Keith was Chair-elect in 2007 and had served as Secretary of the Section for the previous five years.
Staff Additions
- Joe Flunker joined the department last fall as Scientific Glass Blower replacing the late Ken Owens. Joe had previosly been at Washingotn University and came with the strong recommendation of Ken Owens.
- Bruce Burkeen joins the staff as Senior Engineering Technician. Bruce is the replacement for Ted Windsor. Bruce has worked at Mallinckrodt Inc. and also at McDonnell-Douglas/Boeing as a tool and die maker, a machinist and in instrumentation construction.
- John Tubbesing joined the staff recently as Senior Electronics Technician, as a replacement for Mark Regina who resigned last fall. John joined us from the SSM System where had been since 1985, originally working at Cardinal Glennan Hospital. He holds an associates degree from the St. Louis Commmunity College in biomedical engineering and a bachelors degree in electronic technology from Washington University College.
Fall 2007
- Professor
Chung Wong has
received the grant "Anti-plague agents targeting YopH
of Yersinia Pestis", from the National institutes
of Health. It covers the period 09/29/2007 - 08/31/2009
for a total cost of $428,375.
- Professor
Janet Braddock-Wilking has received a three-year grant
from the National Science Foundation for $343,000 to study "Novel
Metalloles Containing Heavy Group 14 Elements".
- Gokel
Wins 2007 Midwest Award (taken from Chemistry and Engineering
News, October 8, 2007, Volume 85, Number 41, p. 56) http://pubs.acs.org/isubscribe/journals/
cen/85/i41/html/8541awards5.html
George W. Gokel, Distinguished Professor of Science
and associate director of the Center for Nanoscience at the
University of Missouri, St. Louis, has been awarded the 2007
Midwest Regional Award by the ACS St. Louis Section.
The annual award recognizes outstanding achievements in chemistry in the Midwest region and is given to a scientist who has made meritorious contributions to the advancement of pure or applied chemistry, chemical education, and the profession of chemistry.
Gokel has developed a new family of anion-selective channels that are amphiphilic peptides. The compounds have been demonstrated to mediate chloride transport in vital lung epithelial tissue. The work may lead to an aerosol drug delivery system for cystic fibrosis. Gokel is also studying cation-π interactions involving alkali metal cations. He has designed a receptor system that can be systematically varied structurally, sterically, and electronically to probe these cation-π interactions.
Gokel will receive the Midwest Regional Award and deliver an award lecture during the 42nd Midwest Regional Meeting in Kansas City, Mo., that will be held on Nov. 7-9.
CARB
Announces 2007 Divisional Awards (taken from Chemistry
and Engineering News,June 25, 2007, volume 85, Number 26,
pp 57-58) http://pubs.acs.org/isubscribe/
journals/cen/85/i26/html/8526awards2.html
The New Investigator Award will go to Alexei V. Demchenko, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. The award acknowledges outstanding contributions to research in carbohydrate chemistry by scientists in their first independent faculty position.
Demchenko's research is in the area of synthetic carbohydrate chemistry. He received a Ph.D. in 1993 from the Zelinski Institute of Organic Chemistry, at the Russian Academy of Sciences, in Moscow. Prior to joining the University of Missouri, Demchenko was a research associate at the University of Georgia's Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, where he focused on the synthesis of complex oligosaccharides for immunological studies.