11/10/2004

• Katarzyna (Kasia) Sawicka (ECM B.S. degree, May 2004, and currently in our BS/MS program) was invited to attend the National Inventors Hall of Fame Collegiate Inventors Competition on October 2 in Akron, Ohio, where she was one of five undergraduate finalists nationwide. Kasia received a prize for being selected among the five finalists in the undergraduate category.

  Kasia worked with Pelagia-Irene Gouma (Mechanical Engineering) and Sanford Simon (Biochemistry and Pathology) where she created a urea biosensing material.

11/06/2004

• The Seminar and Colloquium area of the Departmental Web Site has been updated to include both current and historical information.

10/28/2004

• The following students have just been named semi-finalists in the 2004-05 Siemens Westinghouse Science competition:

Aisha Akhtar, Ward Melville High School, Advisor: Ben Chu
Mary Ellen Corr, Kings Park High School, Advisor: Iwao Ojima
Tina Ho, Smithtown High School, Advisor: Iwao Ojima
David Rosenman, Half Hollow Hills High School West, Advisor: Carlos Simmerling

Aisha is Mohammad Akhtar's daughter!

10/22/04

• Posted a page showing career opportunities for chemistry students containing information provided by the Career Office

10/01/2004

• Clare Grey's development of a novel, NMR-based technique for probing acid sites in zeolite catalysts is highlighted in a Science & Technology Concentrate in this week's issue of Chemistry and Engineering News (p. 22). The efforts of two graduate students, Luming Peng and Peter Chupas (Ph.D. , 2003) , are also acknowledged.

09/21/2004

• Paul Lauterbur, Nobel Laureate (Medicine or Physiology, 2003), visited Stony Brook on September 21. Prof. Lauterbur's research leading to the discovery of magnetic resonance imaging was conducted in Stony Brook's Chemistry Department in the 1970's. He presented a talk at a rededication ceremony of the A-60 magnetic resonance spectrometer on which the work was originally performed, and presented a President's Lecture to the campus community. Some pictures of his visit are posted.

09/03/2004

• Benjamin Chu has been awarded an Honorary Professorship from Wuhan University. The University has a student enrollment of 50,000 and "is a key university directly under the administration of the Education Ministry of the People's Republic of China". Ben has also been asked to serve as a member of the Board of Trustees for St. Norbert College - his alma mater.

09/01/2004

• Paul Lauterbur, 2003 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and former faculty member in Stony Brook's Chemistry Department will be visiting the campus and presenting a President's Lecture on Tuesday, September 21 at 4:00 PM in the Wang Center Theatre. The lecture is entitled "To There and Back Again: Adventures from Molecules to Man and Back".
• Carlos Simmerling will be one of the speakers at the School of Medicine's Alumni Reunion Weekend on September 11. His talk is on "Turning Genomes into Medicine: Using Computer Animation to Study the Behavior of Biological Molecules"
  

08/31/2004

• The joint research project of Patricia Wright, of Stony Brook's Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments and Iwao Ojima is featured in a National Geographic News article. The research is conducted in Madagascar. The article, "Drug-Discovery Plan to Tap, and Help, Africa Forests" is in the August 26, 2004 issue of the magazine and can be found at the following link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/08/0826_040826_rainforest_drug.html#main

08/19/2004

• On Tuesday, August 24 at the ACS meeting in Philadelphia, our own Nancy Goroff and Andi Abedini will participate in the Presidential Event "Responses to Changing Needs in Doctoral Education." The symposium will start at 8:30 am in the Marriott Liberty C room with an introduction by George Walker on the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate. Professor Goroff will be part of a panel that convenes at 10:40 on "Experiments in departmental and institutional climate" and Andi will be part of a panel that convenes at 11:20 on "Project and program assessment."
  

08/13/04

• It is with great sadness that that the department notes the passing away of our colleague, Rudolf Schlott, Head of the University Glass Shop. Rudy came to Stony Brook in January, 1965 to build up the Chemistry Department's glass shop. He succeeded in creating one of the nation's finest university glass shops. Rudy was the University's first staff member to receive the Chancellor's Award for Professional Excellence in 1979. He was instrumental in the success of numerous research programs at Stony Brook
  

08/11/04

• Professor Nicole Sampson has been awarded the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry by the Biological Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. This award is given to researchers who "have accomplished outstanding work in enzyme chemistry where the presence of enzyme action is unequivocally demonstrated". Prof. Sampson will be honored at an award symposium being held at the ACS National Meeting in Washington D.C., (Aug 31-Sept 1, 2005).
  

07/27/04

• The department notes with sadness, the passing of one of its graduate students, Yi Sun (Stan Wong, advisor). Yi was struggling with a serious and debilitating disease for several months. This past May, he returned to the People's Republic of China for a family visit as well as for health reasons. Last Friday, while still in China, Yi passed away.
  

07/13/04

• Posted pictures of the 2004 Summer REU students.

05/21/04

• The Department held its Graduation Convocation. The convocation address was delivered by Dr. Kenneth Aron, Vice President for Research and Development at Abaxis Inc. Dr. Aron is a Stony Brook alumnus (Ph.D., 1979, Philip Johnson). Some pictures of the ceremony are posted.

05/17/04

• The following are recipients of Sigma Xi Awards. Sigma Xi is an international research society whose programs and activities promote the health of the scientific enterprise and honor scientific achievement.
  • Excellence in Research

Wonsuk Chang (Kathy Parker)
Xuming Chen (Ben Hsiao/Ben Chu)
Jia-Cherng Horng (Daniel Raleigh)

Zihao Hua (Iwao Ojima)
Yeon-Hee Lim (Kathy Parker)
Jin Chen (Iwao Ojima)
Walter Moss (undergraduate with Nancy Goroff)

Pravin Nair (Peter Tonge)
Eli Ron (Francis Johnson)
Sylvia Tracz (Dan Raleigh)

• Travel Awards

  Jin Chen (Iwao Ojima)
  Zihao Hua (Iwao Ojima)
  

05/11/04

• Raphaël Geney (Ojima / Simmerling group) was announced as a winner of the ACS Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award at the 2004 Spring ACS meeting in Philadelphia for his recent work. Only 10 are presented at each national ACS meeting, and this is the fifth award in our department.

04/26/2003

• George Stell's retirement was honored by a symposium, Statistical Mechanics, Pure and Applied , which was held on April 24-25. The symposium featured research presentations by many of George's distinguished colleagues and collaborators. Here is the symposium program.

04/22/2004

• On Monday, April 18, Greta Varchi (visiting postdoc in the Ojima group) finished in 14th place among the women and 173rd over all in the Boston Marathon. Her time (despite near record heat) was a blazing 2 hours 54 minutes! This performance placed Greta on a par with some of the leading professional women's marathon runners in the world! (see also the item on 3/29/2004)
• Namjun Kim (Clare Grey group) is a recipient of a Graduate Council Commendation to Distinguished Doctoral Students:
  

04/20/2004

• Diane Godden is the recipient of the Excellence in Service Award which is given for outstanding service to Graduate Education at Stony Brook by a graduate program coordinator. Criteria for selection include provision of timely and excellent advice to graduate students and generosity of time in working with graduate students.

04/10/04

• Walter Moss, a senior undergraduate student working in the Goroff lab, gave a talk on Sunday, March 28, in the Computers in Chemistry Division of ACS. The title was: "Analysis of the chemical shift changes in the C-13 NMR of iodoalkynes due to complexation with Lewis bases." Walter originally submitted an abstract to present a poster, but instead was asked to give a talk. This is a wonderful achievement as the other presenters in his session were graduate students, postdocs, or faculty.
  

03/31/04

• Christina Arisio, a Chemistry major finishing her junior year, has received the 2003-2004 Anne Sayre Award, sponsored by the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program. Christina received her award at a dinner and awards ceremony held on March 22 in the University Club. The speaker at the awards ceremony was Joanna Fowler.
  

03/29/04

• Post-doc Greta Varchi of the Ojima group ran in, and WON the Selden half-marathon. In addition to the honor of winning, she is now qualified to run in the Athens marathon next November and has won a round trip and lodging to that event. Here is a picture of Greta at the end of the race. Here is another, and another
  

03/15/04

• Andrew Grabovich, an undergraduate Chemistry/Biochemistry major, has been selected as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Summer Scholar for Summer 2004. Andrew will be working in Nicole Sampson's group this summer.
• Eric Rus is the recipient of the 2003 Sujishi Prize
  

03/06/2004

• The Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery (ICB&DD) has launched its Web Page, and a link has been added to the Chemistry Department home page.

02/12/2004

This year's Service Awards ceremony honored the following faculty and staff of the Chemistry Department

• 40 years
  • John Alexander
• 35 years
  • Ben Chu
  • Frank (Bill) Fowler
  • Phil Johnson
• 25 years
  • Stephen Koch
• 20 years
  • Joan Conforte
  • Iwao Ojima

01/16/2003

Intel Seminfinalists:

• Kevin Wang, a Ward Melville high school student working in the Simmerling lab. The title of his project is "A Novel Simulation Method for Protein Structure Prediction."
• Sarah Fink, from Commack High School, worked in the Ojima lab on "The Design and Synthesis of Novel Taxoid-Fatty Acid Conjugates as Tumor Specific Anticancer Agents." Antonella Pepe is her mentor
• Kristen Lurie, from Oceanside High School, worked on a joint research project in the Tonge and Ojima labs on "The Inhibition of Cell Division Protein FtsZ: A Novel Target for Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Discover" (she is mentored by Pravin Nair).
• Sharon Chou, from Great Neck South High School, worked with Professor Ben Chu on "Design of Drug Release Profile Using Polyelectrolyte Complexes"

More information on all Long Island semi-finalists in the Intel competition who worked with USB faculty can be found at:
http://www.sunysb.edu/simons/intel.htm

01/07/2004

• The department of chemistry is the recipient of a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Special Grant in the Chemical Sciences . This grant supports special professional development activities for graduate students and postdoctoral associates. Kathlyn Parker is the Principal Investigator for the award
  

This page maintained by Bob Schneider rschneider at notes.cc.sunysb.edu
Last Update 2005-04-09