» January 2007 - June 2007
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June 18, 2007 - Syracuse Center of Excellence Awards Research Grants

Sixteen local university research teams, including Profs. Asefa, Dabrowiak, Borer, Hudson and Luk, have been awarded grants for studies aimed at improving air and water quality. The research projects are part of a Center of Excellence program called Collaborative Activities for Research and Technology Innovation (CARTI). Profs. Asefa and Dabrowiak's research will involve developing a sensor that can rapidly and reliably detect the common pathogens E. coli and salmonella under a variety of environmental conditions. Prof. Borer's two-year project, in collaboration with Prof. Hudson and Dr. Mark McPike, completes a current CARTI project to engineer and test sensors that can detect cryptosporidium and giardia, two pathogenic organisms that are resistant to chlorination. Prof. Luk will be collaborating with the Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering to develop a class of highly porous hydrogel materials that can detect in real time the presence of specific pathogenic bacteria and proteins. » full story

May 11, 2007 - Viswanathan Awarded Doctoral Prize

Subha Viswanathan was awarded a Doctoral Prize for her dissertation "Nitro- and Oxazoline-Derivatized Antennas: Structural and Photophysical Characterization of their Lanthanide Complexes." Congratulations to Subha, who was honored at The Doctoral Dinner, and her advisor Prof. Ana de Bettencourt-Dias. Each year, a faculty committee selects three to four doctoral prize recipients.

May 3, 2007 - Vroman University of Washington Summer Fellow

Suzanne Vroman, a sophomore majoring in biochemistry, will be working with Prof. Michael Katze at the UW Dept. of Microbiology this summer studying engineered forms of the influenza virus that contain one or more genes from the 1918 pandemic strain. The Katze group works with the Centers for Disease Control, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. The collaborators are researching what caused the 1918 strain to be so deadly and how to deal with potential future outbreaks. Suzanne has been working on Streptomyces metallo-proteins in the Doyle group since September 2006.

May 2, 2007 - 2007-08 Remembrance Scholars Announced

We congratulate Meredith Bowen, dual chemistry and magazine journalism major, and Ariba Chowdhury, dual biochemistry and bioengineering major, who are among the 35 undergraduate students named 2007-08 Remembrance Scholars. The award is considered the most prestigious scholarship awarded by the University and is a means of remembrance for the 270 people who were killed in the December 21, 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, of which 35 SU students were aboard. » learn more about the Scholarship

April 5, 2007 - Taylor Receives Goldwater Scholarship

David W. Taylor, Jr. has won a prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for 2007. David is a Junior Biochemistry major in the College of Arts and Sciences. Established by an act of Congress in 1986 to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering, the Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields.

April 4, 2007 - Graduate Awardees

Congratulations to our recent fellowship awardees! • Ata Pinto received an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship for his proposed studies on the biomimetic synthesis of palmerolide A. • Patrick Hakey received a GEM Fellowship. • STEM Fellowships were awarded to Tayo Ikotun, Tanieka Motley, and Sharon Rivera

March 30, 2007 - Development of Nanoparticle Based Sensors

Professors T. Asefa and J. C. Dabrowiak have recently been awarded a CARTI grant from the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (Syracuse CoE). The grant is for the development of nanoparticle based sensors for the rapid detection of waterborne pathogens such as E. coil and salmonella.

March 1, 2007 - Women's Leadership Award Nominee

Congratulations to Prof. Nancy I. Totah who has been nominated for a 2007 Women's Leadership Award. The Women's Leadership Program promotes and recognizes the role that women play as leaders on our campus and in the community. The focus of the program, now in its 15th year, is to explore current women's issues and how women leaders can contribute on a local, national and global level.

February 12, 2007 - Totah to Serve as Member of NIH Study Section

Prof. Nancy I. Totah has been invited to serve as a chartered member of the Synthetic and Biological Chemistry A Study Section, Center for Scientific Review at the National Institutes of Health. Study sections review grant applications submitted to the NIH, make recommendations on the applications to the appropriate NIH national advisory council or board, and survey the status of research in their fields of science.  » read more about Prof. Totah

February 6, 2007 - Asefa Receives CAREER Award

Prof. Tewodros (Teddy) Asefa has been presented the National Science Foundation's Faculty Career Development (CAREER) Award. The award is one of the most prestigious and competitive honors presented to young faculty members. Prof. Asefa's five-year award will fund his research group's effort in the development of novel multifunctional nanomaterials for efficient cooperative catalysis and other applications. The award will also be used in Asefa's integration of research and education at the University, as well as his Outreach Activities in the community. The CAREER program recognizes and supports the early career activities of those teachers and scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the future. CAREER awardees are selected on the basis of creative proposals that effectively integrate research and education within the context of their organization's mission.  » read more about Prof. Asefa

January 12, 2007 - Accessed Article

"Activation of Carboplatin by Carbonate" a paper by Anthony Di Pasqua, Jerry Goodisman, Deborah Kerwood, Bonnie Toms, Ronald Dubowy and James Dabrowiak is the 3rd most accessed article in the ACS journal, Chemical Research in Toxicology in Jan-Mar 2006. Anthony Di Pasqua is a graduate student working in Professor Dabrowiak's research group.  » view top articles

December 8, 2006 - ScienceDirect Top 25 Article

"2-Chloro-5-nitrobenzoato complexes of Eu(III) and Tb(III) - A 1D coordination polymer and enhanced solution luminescence," a paper by Professor Ana de Bettencourt-Dias and Subha Viswanathan, is a ScienceDirect Top 25 Hottest Article for the April to June 2006 time period. The article was published in Inorganic Chemistry Communications in May 2006.  » view Top 25

September 25, 2006 - Top Ten in Dalton Transactions

Professor Ana de Bettencourt-Dias and her group's recently published paper, "Nitro-functionalization and luminescence quantum yield of Eu(III) and Tb(III) benzoic acid complexes," is among the top ten most accessed from Dalton Transactions online for the month of September.  » view Top Ten

September 13, 2006 - Improved Glow For Luminescent Lanthanides

Assistant professor Ana de Bettencourt-Dias and her group's efforts for developing highly luminescent lanthanide complexes that can be processed into thin films for a variety of optoelectronic applications has been featured in Chemical & Engineering News: ACS Meeting News. Prof. de Bettencourt-Dias spoke of her group's efforts during a symposium sponsored by the Division of Inorganic Chemistry (INOR) at the American Chemical Society 232nd National Meeting in San Francisco.  » read C&EN article

August 28, 2006 - Research Grant Highlights

Congratulations to the following professors who have recently received research grants: • John Baldwin, Isomerizations of Isotopically Labeled Hydrocarbons, National Science Foundation • John Chisholm, Rhodium-Catalyzed Addition of Alkynes to Activated Ketones and Aldehydes, ACS Petroleum Research Fund • Ana de Bettencourt-Dias, New Thiophene-Carbazole-based Ligands for Efficient Singlet to Triplet Intersystem Crossing and Triplet to Ln(III) Energy Transfer, National Science Foundation

August 11, 2006 - Syracuse Center of Excellence Awards Research Grants

Congratulations to graduate students Erik Burton and Michelle Ferguson who have been awarded fellowship awards from the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems. The grants, which were also awarded to four other graduate students at university partners of the Syracuse CoE, were awarded for research associated with either air quality or water resource management, supporting innovations for improving environmental quality. The awards are made possible through funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency secured by U.S. Rep. James T. Walsh. Erik's project is entitled "Detection of Airborne Pollutants on Nanostructured Surfaces: Surface Chemistry in Air and Signal Transduction." Michelle's project is "Nucleic Acid Detectors for Environmental Sensing of Toxins and Pathogens."

July 25, 2006 - Top 5 Most Accessed Article

Prof. Zubieta's article entitled "Hydrothermal Synthesis and Structure of a Three-Dimensional Cobalt(II) Triazolate Magnet" was one of the top 5 most accessed in Inorganic Chemistry Communications from January 1, 2006 - March 31, 2006.  » read publication

July 12, 2006 - Astronaut Scholarship

Dual chemistry and Spanish major, Chris Tarolli, SU senior, has been awarded the prestigious Astronaut Scholarship by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. The foundation, which fosters space science education through scholarship awards, is supported by former astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Shuttle programs. While other University students have been selected to win the award, Chris is the first from The College of Arts and Sciences. Currently, Chris works with Prof. David Gilbert of the biochemistry and molecular biology department at SUNY Update Medical University.

May 20, 2006 - Students Become 'CSI' Detectives

Local middle and high school students were given the opportunity to learn several crime solving techniques at CSI: Syracuse, an event at the MOST, executed by the Ruhlandt Group and sponsored by Jr. Café Scientifique. Professor Karin Ruhlandt-Senge and several graduate students set up a "crime scene" and taught participants to dust for fingerprints, isolate DNA, and analyze samples of hair, paper, handwriting and ink to solve the case. » view photos from event

May 3, 2006 - 2006-07 Remembrance Scholars Announced

Our compliments go to senior chemistry major Stephen Miller, who is among 35 undergraduate students awarded a 2006-07 Remembrance Scholarship. The award is considered the most prestigious scholarship awarded by the University and is a means of remembrance for the 270 people who were killed in the December 21, 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, of which 35 SU students were aboard. Stephen does independent research under Prof. Mark Braiman. » learn more about the Remembrance Scholarship

May 16, 2006 - TACNY's 8th Annual Celebration of Technology

Thanks to their outstanding efforts in Sci/Tech Community Outreach, Profs. Ana de Bettencourt-Dias, Scott Samson, Mark Trodden and Paul Verhaeghen, organizing committee of Café Scientifique Syracuse, as well as Gwendolyn Maturo and Prof. Peter Plumley of Jr. Café Scientifique, have been recognized with an award from TACNY (Technology Alliance of Central New York). The awardees were recognized at TACNY's eighth annual Celebration of Technology Awards banquet on May 15. Café Scientifique, which began in England in 1998, is a series of local monthly meetings dedicated to sharing information and dialogue on science topics. They welcome all members of the community, not just those interested in science, and meet each month at Ambrosia in downtown Syracuse during the school year. For more information, visit physics.syr.edu/cafescientifique/.

April 10, 2006 - Pfizer Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Recipient

Under the direction of Prof. Christopher N. Boddy, Laura Furst has been selected as a 2006 Pfizer Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow. The award will permit Laura to devote full-time effort to research for eight to ten weeks this summer. She will also be presenting her research at an informal poster session at Pfizer Global Research & Development, Groton/New London Laboratories this fall.

April 4, 2006 - Gemini Industries Research Grant Awarded

Anthony Di Pasqua, a graduate student working in Prof. Dabrowiak's group, is the recipient of Gemini Industries Research Grant for his research involving platinum anticancer drugs. The prize is awarded annually to a graduate student doing or planning to do research work the following year in some area of precious metals, such as extraction, metallurgy, refining, material science, physical chemistry, etc. The award will be presented in June at the annual International Precious Metals Institute Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

March 28, 2006 - Dabrowiak works to mitigate damage from chemotherapy
	Recent discoveries by James Dabrowiak, Syracuse University professor of chemistry, and his collaborators at SU and at SUNY Upstate Medical University, may revolutionize how cancer is treated with cisplatin and related drugs. Using a highly sensitive form of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), Dabrowiak and his team discovered that platinum drugs react with carbonate present in the blood and cells. The result is the formation of adducts, called carbonato complexes, which may be the main chemical components responsible for cell death.  » read article

March 28, 2006 - Promega Corporation to Create Undergraduate Scholarship Program at SU

Promega Corporation, in collaboration with the group of Professor Robert Doyle, have created the Promega Undergraduate Research Scholarship Program. This program provides funding to an undergraduate to spend the summer conducting research into streptomyces biology. The first Promega Scholar is Mr. Joseph Sirianni, a sophomore at SU.

March 27, 2006 - Crown, Angell, and Wise-Marcus 50-Year Friendship Scholars Announced

Congratulations to Eli Mekhlin, a Senior majoring Chemistry and Russian Language, Literature and Culture, who received a 2006 Crown Scholarship for his project entitled "Alkaline Earth Metal Chemistry: Synthesis and Characterization". » view all recipients

March 6, 2006 - 2006 Graduate Research Grants

Congratulations to the following students who have each been awarded a 2006 Graduate Research Grant for their proposals: Sarah Lynn Bolton, Patrick Carberry, Pawan Kumar Dhondi, Lucas Tucker and Subha Viswanathan.

February 6, 2006 - Study Featured in Chemical & Engineering News

The research interest of Prof. Timothy Korter was featured in the February 6th issue of "Chemical & Engineering News: Science Concentrates." Korter and group members Damian G. Allis and Darya A. Prokhorova used solid-state modeling methods to assign all of the features observed in the THz spectrum (3-120 cm-1) of the β-crystal form of HMX to distinct low-frequency vibrational motions. The modeling study, which may advance THz spectral analysis of pharmaceuticals and other compounds, demonstrates the shortcomings of using isolated-molecule (gas phase) theoretical methods to analyze motions in molecular solids.  » read publication

December 9, 2005 - Annual Holiday Party
		Chemistry department faculty, staff, graduate students, postdocs, and their families celebrated the end of another successful semester at our Annual Holiday Party. The events took place at the Inn Complete Ski Lodge located on South Campus, where everyone enjoyed the great food, fun, games, and conversation.

November 8, 2005 - New Construction, New Web Site
Sketch of new Life Sciences Complex Designed by Ellenzweig Associates Inc., Architects, Cambridge, Massachusetts		In 2006, Syracuse will break ground for construction of the Life Sciences Complex. Set to open in the fall of 2008, the 210,000-square-foot building is the University's largest, most ambitious construction project. It will bring the biology, chemistry, and biochemistry departments under one roof for the first time in the University's history. To provide information on the Life Sciences Complex, The College of Arts and Sciences at SU has launched a new Web site: lifesciences.syr.edu. The site contains information on the facility's innovative design and features, images of plans, information on research that will be conducted there and links to the biology, biochemistry and chemistry departments. Over the course of the construction, the site will post updates on the building's progress.

October 10, 2005 - Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation
Prof. Joseph Chaiken with Rosalyn Queen Alonso, past chair of the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation		Congratulations to Prof. Joseph Chaiken, who received the 2005 Frank Annunzio Award in the field of science/technology by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation. Prof. Chaiken was honored for his development of a noninvasive glucose monitor, which produces results with accuracy and precision comparable to existing fingerstick devices. The award was presented to Chaiken at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 10, 2005. The Christopher Columbus Foundation was established by Congress to "encourage and support research, study and labor designed to produce new discoveries in all fields of endeavor for the benefit of mankind." The Award, named for the late Rep. Frank Annunzio, founder of the Foundation, honors living Americans who are improving the world through ingenuity and innovation.  » read more

August 25, 2005 - Welcome New Faculty

The Department of Chemistry is pleased to welcome two new members to our faculty, Tewodros Asefa and Robert Doyle. Dr. Asefa's primary research activities focus on the design, synthesis, and self-assembly of novel inorganic and organic-inorganic hybrid nanostructured and nanoporous materials and nanobiomaterials. "There is nothing more satisfying than helping society with my knowledge and expertise in nanoscience and nanotechnology, which are at the forefront of science and technology. I see teaching just as I see my hobbies; I enjoy it enormously when an exchange of knowledge occurs between "teachers" and "students". I also like doing research in challenging areas that bring a better way of life to humankind and contribute to science" » read more about Dr. Asefa and his research The research in Dr. Doyle's group focuses on the roles metal ions play in biology, medicine, and materials science. "I study the roles that metal atoms play in a wide variety of chemical compounds and their applications, including enzymes, drugs, and materials. My research thus encompasses a diverse range of scientific areas as well as chemistry, which makes it fascinating to teach and exciting to explore." » read more about Dr. Doyle and his research