CH 582, Chemistry and Materials of Batteries and Super Capacitors. Students will learn about the current as well as developing technologies in this exciting field.
CH 584, Instruments and Online Interactions in the Sciences. This class is offered jointly with the College of Education and is intended for those planning to be teachers.
Both are 3 credit classes and are offered Fall term; contact kim.thackray@oregonstate.edu for more information or check out the Fall Schedule.
Be prepared to work with search committees on the 2014-15 Provost’s Initiative searches–or any other searches—by completing this workshop covering strategies to enhance validity, fairness, and diversity in the search process. Instead of requiring the typical two-workshop series (totaling 10 hours), this summer we are streamlining the workshop to a single day ( 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., breakfast and lunch included). Register at the OSU Professional Development website http://oregonstate.edu/training/index.php for either July 30 or Aug. 6. September sessions are also available before classes begin, either Sept. 22 or Sept. 25. Questions? Contact Anne Gillies anne.gillies@oregonstate.edu <mailto:anne.gillies@oregonstate.edu> or 541-737-0865.
Instructors Paula Weiss and Margie Haak will give a seminar titled, “Design and Implementation of General Chemistry Support Course” at the 2014 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, August 3-7, 2014 at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.
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We will discuss the design and implementation of a full-year support course to increase student success in General Chemistry. The course provides support for developing problem-solving skills, effective study skills for chemistry courses, math review, and additional exposure to the chemistry concepts covered in General Chemistry. In the classroom students are engaged in problem-solving with other students, with guidance from general chemistry faculty and graduate teaching assistants. This presentation will focus on lessons learned in our first year of offering the course and plans for future implementations.
OSU Venture Development Fund Deadline: 5PM, July 28, 2014
Funding: Two paths: (1) Commercialization Projects up to $150k
(2) Innovation Development Projects up to $25k
OSU Venture Development funding is a competitive process open to OSU faculty eligible for principal investigator (PI) status to facilitate development and commercialization of intellectual property (IP) created by OSU faculty and students. Students who wish to apply for a grant must identify an OSU faculty member who will serve as the PI for the student proposal.
Applications through non-OSU faculty or students who have been accepted into the OSU Venture Accelerator will also be accepted. Release of funding to non-OSU faculty or students will be conditional upon approval from the VPR and an agreement providing appropriate future company remuneration.
Complete Request for Proposals is attached. Program details: http://oregonstate.edu/research/occd/osuventurefund
If you have any questions, please contact Jianbo Hu at jianbo.Hu@oregonstate.edu.
With summer in full swing, just a friendly reminder about appropriate attire in a laboratory setting.
Departmental Policy on Laboratory Attire and PPE
All those working in Dept. of Chemistry laboratories, including undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral associates, instructors, and PI’s, are required to wear clothing covering them from shoulders to ankles. Footwear must be closed at the toe and heel. Short- sleeved shirts & blouses are acceptable, but not shoulder-less garments (e.g., tank tops). Long pants made of a substantial material are recommended and short trousers or short skirts are not permitted. PPE as posted must also be worn; for most labs within the department this includes safety glasses/goggles (goggles only in teaching labs), gloves, and lab coats. Graduate student TA’s working in teaching laboratories are asked to be particularly mindful of this policy and to follow it themselves and to apply it consistently to undergraduate students in their assigned sections.
We are writing to let you know about an exciting grant opportunity — the Marion Milligan Mason Award for Women in the Chemical Sciences.
The objective of the Mason Award is to kick-start the research career of promising future senior investigators in the chemical sciences. The Marion Milligan Mason Fund will provide three grants of $50,000 every other year to women researchers engaged in basic research in the chemical sciences. Awards are for women who are starting their academic research careers. In addition to research funding, the program will provide leadership development and mentoring opportunities.
Applicants must have a “full-time” career-track appointment. More than one applicant from the same institution can apply for this award, provided that each application is scientifically distinct.
For more information about the request for proposals for the Marion Milligan Mason Award for Women in the Chemical Sciences, please click here to view the PDF.
This award is funded by a bequest from the Marion Milligan Mason Fund.
As a chemist and AAAS member since 1965, the late Marion Tuttle Milligan Mason wanted to support the advancement of women in the chemical sciences. Dr. Milligan also wanted to honor her family’s commitment to higher education for women, as demonstrated by her parents and grandfather, who encouraged and sent several daughters to college.
***Proposals are due Monday, September 15, 2014, midnight Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
***Awards will be announced on or before May 1, 2015.
Proposals should be submitted via the online application system athttps://masonaward.aaas.org
Please circulate this email to your colleagues.
If you have questions, please e-mail masonaward@aaas.org
Physical Chemist, Glenn Evans began his career at OSU in 1977. Hair was big, bell bottoms were wide and the Bucky Ball hadn’t been discovered yet. He started out teaching a variety of freshman level and graduate courses, taking up Physical Chemistry courses in the late 90’s. Around 2000, he started to cover more and more of the sequence and by 2005 was teaching all three terms. Hard and fast statistics don’t exist on just how many students Glenn has taught in his 37 years at the front of the classroom, but it’s estimated to be somewhere between five and ten thousand.
When asked what Dr. Evans loved most about teaching, he replied, “the “aha” moment when a student sees something and tells me “that wasn’t so hard” almost in a defiant way; private counselling of students (talking them through their anxieties); office hours during which students interact with each other as well as me; in lectures when I say things provocatively to elicit a response and their laughter; exposing the lessons of life embedded in science; among many others. Perhaps the most interesting and most privileged part of lecture is looking out over a sea of faces (with their varying degrees of enthusiasm) and seeing the future and the person I once was.”
Glenn retired in 2010. Four years later, a student decided that he needed to be recognized. During the 2014 Commencement Luncheon, Biochemistry and Biophysics student Omar Rachdi took the platform and read the following speech.
“Two back surgeries, two flights of stairs slipped down in one fell swoop to reveal degenerative disc diseases and scoliosis, two lives lost that cripple me from within because of the differences between the Moroccan culture and the American culture, and only two years have passed. My undergraduate years have been very full of hard and life-changing experiences. However, I would not be where I am today without the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Glenn Evans.
After my second back surgery, I felt demoralized. I did not have the capacity to believe in myself or my abilities until the end of my fall term Physical Chemistry course junior year. Dr. Glenn Evans knew of my physical difficulties and sat me down after the final exam took place. I will always remember him telling me, “You got talent kid. Real talent. You sure you haven’t thought about doing this as a profession?” Regardless of the score I received on that exam, having a person of Dr. Evans stature tell me something like that made a large impact. That moment is the time when I can say that my “spark” turned on inside of me, and for this past year, all that I have tried to do is pass that spark onto others. Whether it be through being a teaching assistant for Biochemistry or Physical Chemistry, the mentoring programs that I have built within the College of Science, or just in everyday conversation, I will always carry with me the kind acts that Dr. Evans has done for me and try to pass them on to others.
Dr. Evans has had a large impact on not just myself, but several other students. If there was a way to incorporate the impact he has had in his career on the lives of his students, his “H-index” would be that of Linus Pauling, and other great scientists that have graced our earth.”
The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation announces the August 11th deadline for applications to the:
Postdoctoral Program in Environmental Chemistry – The Foundation seeks to further the development of scientific leadership in the field of environmental chemistry with a postdoctoral fellowship program. The Postdoctoral Program in Environmental Chemistry proviudes a principal investigator with an award of $120,000 over two years to appoint a Postdoctoral Fellow. Applications most likely to be of interest should describe innovative fundamental research in the chemical sciences or engineering related to the environment.
Additional details are given at the Foundation Web site: www.dreyfus.org
By: David Stauth, OSU News and Research Communications
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers today announced the creation of an imaging technology more powerful than anything that has existed before, and is fast enough to observe life processes as they actually happen at the molecular level.
Chemical and biological actions can now be measured as they are occurring or, in old-fashioned movie parlance, one frame at a time. This will allow creation of improved biosensors to study everything from nerve impulses to cancer metastasis as it occurs.
The measurements, created by the use of short pulse lasers and bioluminescent proteins, are made in femtoseconds, which is one-millionth of one-billionth of a second. A femtosecond, compared to one second, is about the same as one second compared to 32 million years.
That’s a pretty fast shutter speed, and it should change the way biological research and physical chemistry are being done, scientists say.
Findings on the new technology were published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by researchers from Oregon State University and the University of Alberta.
“With this technology we’re going to be able to slow down the observation of living processes and understand the exact sequences of biochemical reactions,” said Chong Fang, an assistant professor of chemistry in the OSU College of Science, and lead author on the research.
“We believe this is the first time ever that you can really see chemistry in action inside a biosensor,” he said. “This is a much more powerful tool to study, understand and tune biological processes.”
The system uses advanced pulse laser technology that is fairly new and builds upon the use of “green fluorescent proteins” that are popular in bioimaging and biomedicine. These remarkable proteins glow when light is shined upon them. Their discovery in 1962, and the applications that followed, were the basis for a Nobel Prize in 2008.
Existing biosensor systems, however, are created largely by random chance or trial and error. By comparison, the speed of the new approach will allow scientists to “see” what is happening at the molecular level and create whatever kind of sensor they want by rational design. This will improve the study of everything from cell metabolism to nerve impulses, how a flu virus infects a person, or how a malignant tumor spreads.
“For decades, to create the sensors we have now, people have been largely shooting in the dark,” Fang said. “This is a fundamental breakthrough in how to create biosensors for medical research from the bottom up. It’s like daylight has finally come.”
The technology, for instance, can follow the proton transfer associated with the movement of calcium ions – one of the most basic aspects of almost all living systems, and also one of the fastest. This movement of protons is integral to everything from respiration to cell metabolism and even plant photosynthesis. Scientists will now be able to identify what is going on, one step at a time, and then use that knowledge to create customized biosensors for improved imaging of life processes.
“If you think of this in photographic terms,” Fang said, “we now have a camera fast enough to capture the molecular dance of life. We’re making molecular movies. And with this, we’re going to be able to create sensors that answer some important, new questions in biophysics, biochemistry, materials science and biomedical problems.”
The research was supported by OSU, the University of Alberta, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Who is your PI? – Sandra Loesgen
How did you learn about the position? – I emailed everyone I could, basically. I emailed Dr. Christopher Beaudry for a position at first, then he referred me to Dr. Sandra Loesgen & I emailed her as soon as I could & began setting up appointments. Once I learned what her research was about, I decided I wanted in immediately.
Why did you get into Undergraduate Research? – I got into UG research for a few reasons; one of them was that I want to gain experience now & have some understanding of what a potential future career may be like for me in the field of Chemistry. Another was so I could go to Grad School; research is mandatory in that regard, so I decided to get into it now. The last is that I want to surround myself with like-minded people & to me, a great way to do that is by research.
What advice might you have for other Undergraduate students thinking of pursuing research or just getting started? – Students getting into research should expect to be smothered with knowledge that they aren’t familiar with. Already being in Dr. Loesgen’s research team, there is plenty that I’ve encountered that I’m not familiar with & that I need to do some reading up on. You’ll have to do some reporting also, but that’s a 6-week sort of thing so it’s not that big of a deal. On top of that, you will be around equipment that you may or may not have used before, so it is a great idea to become acquainted with as much as you can with regards to lab equipment & lab safety.