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Follow
the various links below for some of the archived news highlights
about our department. Much more news about our departmental faculty,
staff, students, and alumni can be found in the back issues of
the Goessmann Gazette.
2008 news
Graduate Students Gomez and Guce win Isenberg Awards
Chemistry graduate students Andrea Gomez and Abigail Guce were each recently honored with an Isenberg Award. This Award, which is sponsored by School of Management alumnus Eugene M. Isenberg, supports students who demonstrate more ...
In Memoriam-Marvin D. Rausch
Professor Emeritus Marvin Rausch, 77, passed away on Friday, May 2 at Hospice of the
Fisher Home in Amherst. more ...
Hardy receives $825k grant to study proteins that cause cell death
Jeanne Hardy has received a five-year, $825,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to unlock the secrets of a group of proteins called the executioner caspases, which control cell death and play a role in cancer, strokes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. more ...
Peptides provide fatal blow for cancer cells
Vincent Rotello, chemistry, discusses promising new findings showing that peptide nanostructures can punch holes in cancer cells. more ...
Maroney Featured in "Distillations" Podcast
Chemistry professor Michael Maroney discusses the biological benefits of trace elements in a Jan. 11 segment on "Distillations,” a new weekly podcast on the past, present and future of chemistry. The podcast series is produced by the Chemical Heritage Foundation.
Click here to download the podcast
Nanopores that can Recognize and Separate Proteins and Small Molecules Developed by Professor Thayumanavan
Nanopores, holes less than one-thousand the width of a human hair, are capable of isolating a single strand of DNA or molecules of a therapeutic drug from a solution, based mostly on the size of the pores. Now, a chemist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has created nanopores that can recognize and interact with more ...
Professor Lahti Publishes in the Journal of the ACS Detailed Studies of a Pure Organic Radical Showing Magnetic Ordering
In a full article in Journal of the American Chemical Society, the
Lahti group reported detailed studies of a pure organic radical that
shows magnetic ordering. Although magnetic properties are commonly
considered to occur only in metals and alloys, the report highlights more ...
Chemistry Alum, David Mazzo (PhD '84), to give a talk at the Graduate School Centennial on April 9
The centennial of the Graduate School will be marked April 9 with a series of colloquia led by 10 eminent alumni. The celebration of “A Century of Scholarship” will be capped with a dinner where alumnus and Nobel laureate Russell Hulse will give the keynote address and receive an award. Honoree and Chemistry alum David Mazzo will give a talk from 1:30-3:00 pm.
2007 news
-
Chemistry to Host National Fuel Cell Research Center, Launched with New NSF Grant The University of Massachusetts Amherst will create a new research center focused on the cutting edge of hydrogen fuel cell science, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced, awarding a three-year, $1.5 million grant to the Fueling the Future Chemical Bonding Center. The center is one of only three in the nation funded through the NSF’s chemistry program that focuses on renewable energy more ...
- Prof. Gierasch Nominated for an Alumnae Trustee Seat at Mount Holyoke College
- Prof. Kaltashov and Group Designs a Bio-Trap The emergence of nanomedicine and molecular therapeutics in recent years has resulted in a surge of interest in designing macromolecules with precisely controlled properties. Although the majority of work in this field is now focused on nanocarriers as drug delivery vehicles, significant efforts are also invested toward ... Read More
- Chemistry Welcomes 2007 Class of REU Students on Collaborative Research in Renewable Energy The Department of Chemistry and MassCREST has received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation Chemistry Division to run a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program under the direction of Prof. S Thayumanavan ... Read More
- Prof. Rotello has been awarded one of the first Center of Excellence in Apoptosis Research pilot grants Two teams of campus scientists, which include Prof. Rotello, have been awarded the first Center of Excellence in Apoptosis Research pilot grants. The program provides up to ... Read More
- Prof. Lahti has been awarded one of this year's (two) NSM Outstanding Faculty Awards for Research This award is recognition of Prof. Lahti's widely regarded research
program in molecular magnetism and conjugated polymers.
- Prof. Tyson Named Discovery Corps Senior Fellow by NSF Prof. Tyson has been awarded a $200,000 fellowship in recognition of his work on ... Read More
- Chemistry's own, Prof. George Richason, recently led the undergraduate procession at McGuirk Alumni Stadium. He has held the honor of mace bearer for over 33 years. Commencement was attended by about 20,000 people.
- Prof. Martin Sheds New Light on RNA Synthesis Process In an article published in the prestigious journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," Prof. Craig Martin and graduate student Yi Zhou present experiments supporting ... Read More
- Alumni Reunion 2007 We enjoyed a lively Chemistry Alumni Reunion this past Saturday, June 9, 2007!
With strong student, faculty and alumni attendance, and also with two exciting lectures (and spirited discussion) about Energy by DV and Thai, it was a great success.
- Patent Issued to Prof. Vachet and Dr. Wilson for High Throughput Analysis of Proteins Using Mass Spectometry Prof. Richard Vachet and his former graduate student Dr. Jonathan Wilson were recently issued a patent on their invention ... Read More
- Thayumanavan Receives $1.57 Million DARPA Grant Prof. Thayumanavan has been awarded a $1.57 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the design of a drug delivery system ... Read More
- Brian Jordan Received IBM Fellowship Chemistry graduate student Brian Jordan has been awarded an IBM Ph.D. Fellowship by IBM Corporation. The award provides a $17,500 stipend ... Read More
- Margaret Snape-Kolodzinski Received 2007 Chancellor's Citation Award Margaret Snape-Kolodzinski, laboratory technician, received a Chancellor's Citation Award ... Read More
- Rotello Creates Nano Nose With Aim
of Sniffing Out Diseased Cells Prof. Vincent Rotello has created a kind of molecular nose that uses nanoparticle-based sensors to sniff out and identify proteins ... Read More
- On March 4 John A. Chandler, professor emeritus of Chemistry, Passes We learned of the passing of our colleague and friend, Prof. John A. Chandler. Professor Chandler came to UMass in 1958 from the University of Illinois where he received his Ph.D. working with Russell Drago in inorganic chemistry. During Prof. Chandler's time in the Chemistry Department here at UMass Amherst, he taught general and inorganic chemistry, managed the general chemistry program, organized and managed undergraduate awards and research grants, won the University Distinguished Teaching Award in 1986, and acted as mentor and advisor to most of his younger colleagues. His smiling face, positive attitude, and unique contributions to the Chemistry Department will be sorely missed. We will publish a more suitable and lengthy remembrance in the next issue of the Gazette 2008. Read More
2006 news
- Vincent Rotello was elected to the Editiorial Board of Journal of Materials Chemistry.
- A recent paper on ‘Simultaneous and Reversible Functionalization of Copolymers for
Biological Applications’ from Thayumanavan’s Group in the journal, ‘Macromolecules’
was one of the most accessed papers in 2006.
- A paper on ‘Scission of Diblock Copolymers into Their Constituent Blocks’ from the
Thayumanavan group in the journal, ‘Macromolecules’ was one of the most accessed
papers in 2006. Read More
- Louis Carpino was given a ‘Lifetime Award’, ‘Landmark Award’ and ‘Milestone Award’
by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research for receiving more than 20 patents for his
work on protecting groups for peptide synthesis.
- Richard Vachet received a patent for his ‘Parallel Tandem Mass Spectrometry’
technology.
- Dhandapani Venkataraman received a patent for his synthetic methods for “Formation
of Aryl-Sulfur Bonds and Aryl-Selenium Compounds Using Copper(I) Catalysts.”
- Patricia Bianconi received a patent for her work on “Methods of Preparing Polysilynes.”
- With great sadness we note that Professor
Emeritus Al Wynne passed away on Friday afternoon, June 16th, due to cancer. (click
here to read obituary
in paper).
Al was
a “Maniac” (i.e., a son of the state of Maine)
born in Bangor in 1930. He received degrees in Chemical
Engineering (B.S. 1952) and Physical Chemistry (M.S., 1955)
at University of Maine Orono. He took
a research chemist position at Eastman Kodak thereafter until
1957, then changed his career course and moved south to UMass-Amherst
to take a position as an instructor. Al was an Instructor
here during 1957-1971, and then decided to put his working
knowledge to further use, receiving his Ph.D. here in 1970
as an analytical chemist (minor in Mathematics!) working
with Prof. John Roberts. He
was promoted to assistant professor in 1971, and continued
at UMass-Amherst from that time on. He was also a Robert
A. Welch Research Fellow at University of Houston during
1974-75. He was further promoted
to associate professor in 1977, and continued as an important
member of the Analytical Division in our department through
his retirement in 1995.
Al was a faculty member much appreciated
by students, because he cared greatly about them as people. Most
alumni of the age group that came to our recent Reunion speak not
only of Profs. Uden, Siggia, and (Ramon) Barnes, but also of Al
Wynne, and how he was a constant source of encouragement and support. Al
always had a cheery and upbeat view of work and life, which brightened
the days when people of my age would grumble about things going
too slowly or not as well as we would like. We knew that
Al would be the one with a smile and a small joke to lighten things
up, however onerous the task. He put quite a bit of effort
into things that many on our campus nowadays work quite hard at
doing, with regard to “outreach” – talking
to students, working on newsletters, “keeping it
real”,
so to speak. Al did not consider this work. Al
considered this fun. Lucky us, that he was here so
long doing this, while he was educating people for nearly
40 years at UMass Amherst. (Prof. Paul Lahti)
- Tom Whelan was a finalist for the prestigious Distinguished Teaching Award.
- Graduate student Dan Montville (Voigtman group) was a finalist for the prestigious
Distinguished Teaching Award.
- Scott Auerbach received the College of NSM Outstanding Teaching Award.
- Vincent Rotello received the College of NSM Outstanding Research Award.
- A paper on ‘Coverage-Mediated Suppression of Blinking in Solid State Quantum Dot
Conjugated Organic Composite Nanostructures’ from Barnes’ group was featured on
the cover of the Journal of Physical Chemistry B of the American Chemical Society.
- A paper from Venkataraman's group will
be featured on the cover of Chemical Communications in Feb 07.
Segregated assemblies in bridged electron-rich and electron-poor
-conjugated moieties
Travis L. Benanti, Pranorm Saejueng and D. Venkataraman, Chem.
Commun., 2007 Read More
- Professors Barnes and Venkataraman's research on
chirality appear in Science Chemists document chirality of single molecules
in Science Express. “Probing the Chiroptical Response of a Single Molecule” is
also scheduled to appear in the December 1, 2006 issue of Science. Read More
- Rotello to discuss nanoparticles in biology in Distinguished
Faculty Lecture Vincent M. Rotello, the Charles A. Goessmann Professor
of Chemistry, will give a Distinguished Faculty Lecture on Wednesday,
Dec. 6 at 4 p.m. in the Massachusetts Room of the Mullins Center. Read More
- Prof.
Bianconi receives $25,000 Mass Tech Transfer
grant for a diamond fabrication study
- NSF
funds Scott Auerbach’s research on biofuels The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded
a $276,000 grant to Chemistry professor Scott Auerbach to study how
nanotechnology can be used to produce renewable biofuels. Read More
- UMass Amherst Chemistry Ranked
15th in Nation in R&D Expenditures in Chemistry The chemistry research enterprise at UMass
Amherst has reached powerhouse stature, according to a recent
NSF study that tracks research expenditures in chemistry across
the nation. According to the NSF study,
the total research expenditures in chemistry at UMass Amherst rank
15th in the nation. This reflects the outstanding quality of
faculty and students in the chemical science and engineering departments
at UMass Amherst. For example, in the Chemistry Department,
the path-breaking research by Prof. Vincent Rotello and co-workers
on using magnetic nanoparticles for cancer treatments shows how fresh,
new ideas can have profound societal impacts. In addition,
the remarkable research accomplishments of Prof. "DV" Venkataraman
and co-workers in the area of solar energy collection will make this
form of renewable energy more accessible to homes throughout the
world. Significant contributors to the chemistry research enterprise
at UMass Amherst can be found in the departments of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology, Chemical Engineering, and Polymer Science
and Engineering. These departments engage in multi-disciplinary
research collaborations with Chemistry Department faculty. Such
collaborations include biomolecular structure determination by chemist
Jeanne Hardy and biochemists Scott Garman and Karsten Theis. They
also include biofuel catalyst design by chemist Scott Auerbach
and chemical engineers Curt Conner and George Huber. Professors
Rotello, Barnes, Thayumanavan, Venkataraman and Lahti enjoy extensive
collaborations with several faculty members in the Polymer Science
and Engineering Department on projects involving nanotechnology,
renewable energy, and bio-materials.
Overall, chemistry research at UMass Amherst
is a thriving and growing enterprise, as evidenced by this NSF
study. For more details
on the chemistry research being carried out at UMass Amherst, please
see our faculty websites. Click
here to to view a PDF of the table listing R&D
expenditures for the top 100 institutions,
and for more details on the NSF study, please follow this "link" to
the NSF website: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf06323/tables.htm#rd7
- Lila
Gierasch received a 2006 NIH Director's
Pioneer Award for $2.5 million for her research on how proteins
fold and misfold. Read More
- Lila
Gierasch named a Distinguished Professor Read More
- William Mahoney (BS '55) receives
Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award Read More
- Jocelyn Scheintaub (BS '06) named Fulbright
Scholar for 2006-2007 from the Department of State Read More
- With a pledge of $25,000 over five years, Dr.
Paul Terry (PhD
'63 with Prof. Carpino) has established the "Dr. Paul Hatheway
Terry Endowment" for Student Scholarships in the Chemistry Department
at UMass Amherst. Alumni Scholarships such as these help us to attract
excellent students to our graduate program and support them. We sincerely
thank Dr. Terry for this generous gift.
- Jeanne
Hardy has
received one of the 2006 Beckman Young Investigator Awards,
for her proposal "Development
of an
Allosteric Trigger in Caspase-7". This prestigious award from
the Arnold
and Mabel Beckman Foundation will be for three years. Read More
2005 news
- Vincent Rotello was
named to the Charles A. Goessmann Chair in Chemistry more
...
- Jeanne Hardy received
one of the seven 2005 Smith Family New Investigator Awards. According
to the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation this award recognizes
and supports 'promising researchers early in their career as they
work to find breakthroughs in AIDS/HIV, cancer, heart disease, diabetes
or neuroscience.' Awardees are provided annual $200,000 two-year
grants.
- American Chemical Society leader is Mahoney
Seminar speaker more
...
- Chemistry lab to be named for George Richason
- Lila Gierasch chosen
for American Chemical Society prize more
...
- Sankaran Thayumanavan has been awarded tenure in the Department of Chemistry
- Dhandapani Venkataraman Awarded Technology Development
Grant more
...
- Vincent Rotello Co-investigaor for the $3.1
Million Grant for New Ph.D. Training in Nanotechnology more
...
- Vincent Rotello Studies the Potential of Biologically
Controlled Nanoparticles more
...
- Mike Maroney Wins UMass Amherst Samuel Conti
Research Fellowship more
...
- Don Taylor Wins Chancellor's Citation Award more
...
- Michael
Barnes "Nantenna" Work Gains National Tech Press
at APS Meeting more
...
- Bret Jackson win NSM Outstanding Researcher
Award more
...
- Chemistry Department
Wins Numerous Recognitions at NSM Awards Night 2005 more
...
- Dhandapani
Venkataraman awarded tenure more ...
- Diverse Team of UMass Amherst Chemists Wins
$1.3M Grant to Detect Cancer and Bio-Warfare Agents (In
the Loop, UMass
Amherst News)
- UMass Amherst Chemistry professors Richard
Vachet, Vincent Rotello, and Sankaran “Thai” Thayumanavan have
recently received a $1.3 million research grant from the Office of
Naval Research to develop more effective methods for measuring bio-warfare
agents and related compounds collectively known as endocrine disrupting
chemicals (EDCs). Exposure to these bio-warfare agents is, as yet,
a rare occurrence, but developing the ability to detect these agents
is critically important for protecting against the threat of biological
weapons. Moreover, EDCs are increasingly found in environmental waters
because wastewater treatments cannot completely remove these compounds.
Effective detection of EDCs is important because exposure to these
compounds is implicated in breast cancer, weakened immune systems,
thyroid dysfunction, and reproductive problems in young adults.
To develop effective measurement approaches,
the research team will combine UMass Amherst Chemistry strengths
in nanotechnology and mass spectrometry. Nanoparticles designed with
specific chemical groups will be synthesized to selectively concentrate
the compounds of interest. These nanoparticles will then be controllably
assembled into larger super-structures for analysis by mass spectrometry.
New approaches to mass spectrometry based on laser irradiation will
be developed to measure the bio-warfare agents and EDCs with unprecedented
sensitivity.
Much of the grant will be used to support research
assistantships for undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral
fellows. The grant will also fund new equipment needed for detection
technology, and also specialized chemicals used to make nanoparticles.
This award further establishes UMass Amherst Chemistry as a rich
source of interdisciplinary research in mass spectrometry and nanotechnology.
(01/05)
2004 news
- Undergraduate chemistry
majors [Stephanie Murphy
(BMB '06), Shannon Reilly (Chem/BMB '05), Leanna Toy (Chem '05),
Tom Vargo (Chem '06)] receive newly-inaugurated undergraduate
awards sponsored by Ariad Pharmaceuticals (12/04)
- The Power of Learning Lights
up UMass Amherst:
On October 29, UMass Amherst switches on The Power of Learning (10/04)
- Mike Maroney receives
$899,000 NIH
grant for work on metalloproteins (8/04)
- Paul Lahti receives
traveling fellowship from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
(8/04)
- Marv Ellin Wins Chancellor's Citation Award more
...
- Peter Khalifah joins the Department The Department welcomes Peter Khalifah to campus,
who began work as a crystallographer and
a Lecturer in September, 2004. He arrives at UMass from Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, where he specialized in the electronic and magnetic
characterization of extended solids as part of the Correlated Electronic
Materials group under the tutelage of Dr. David Mandrus. While at
ORNL, he was actively involved in neutron and x-ray and scattering
experiments at their High Flux Isotope Reactor and High Temperature
Materials Laboratory. Prior to that, he was the first Ph.D. student
of Dr. Robert Cava at Princeton University, learning solid state
synthesis techniques from the researcher who holds patents on two
of the most important superconductors, YBCO and BSCCO. His work there
was done concurrently in the Department of Chemistry and the Princeton
Materials Institute, and should mesh well with UMass Chemistry's strong
materials focus. Peter's current research interests include orbitally
ordered solids, metal-metal bonding within solid state materials,
superconductors, next generation dielectric materials, magnetic influences
on the Hall effect, chemically informative band structure calculations,
and interfacing a diverse range of electronically active crystalline
materials with polymeric and/or nanoscale partners. Although he is
proud of his recent Science and Nature publications,
his greatest accomplishment since moving to Amherst is solving a
two-body problem with his wife, Surita (12/04)
- Michael Barnes joins our department,
bringing a strong background in molecular spectroscopy of single
molecules and polymers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
See the UMass magazine article, "The
Future of Small" (8/04)
- Emeritus Professors
Stein, Richason honored by department and alumni at 2004 Reunion
-- major gift founds Richason Laboratory Fund; Chancellor John
Lombardi, State Senator Stanley Rosenberg, Congressman John Olver
among attendees. See articles from the UMass-Amherst news
office, and The
Loop (6/2004)
- David Adams receives
highest UMass teaching honor, Distinguished Teaching
Award (5/04)
2003 news
- Chemistry Department historical items from early
1900's Goessmann era regained. See both HTML and PDF format
articles (1/03)
- Chemistry Department cited in NSF study as a
top 25 department in number of Ph.D. degrees granted. See articles
from the UMass-Amherst news
office, a citation at the campus' Industrial
Liaison and Economic Development site, and the Campus
Chronicle (3/03)
- Chemistry faculty educational geneologies researched
by David Adams and undergraduate
coworkers. If you are an alum, check out your academic family tree!
(3/03)
- Vincent Rotello joins NIH
Medicinal Chemistry panel
- Michael Knapp joins
our department from UCSD, bringing combined biological and
inorganic chemistry background with strong interests in mechanistic
biochemistry and biocatalysis
- Sankaran Thayumanavan joins
our department from Tulane University with an established program
in organic dendrimer synthesis and bio-organic chemistry, including
an NSF CAREER award (7/03)
2002 news
- This year's William Mahoney Lecture in Chemistry
by Bassam Shakashira garners local press, delights standing room
only crowd in Peters Auditorium. See articles from the UMass-Amherst new
office and the Campus
Chronicle (10/02)
- Dhandapani Venkataraman gets NSF
Career award for research in electroactive molecules and materials
for futuristic illuminated displays (1/02)
- Dhandapani Venkatarman teams
with Cornell scientists to study multidimensional organic metals,
crystal design and superconductivity, supported by $750K NSF Collaborative
Research in Chemistry grant (6/02)
- Scott Auerbach group
and collaborators show
how microwave use might save energy by targeted heating in
mixtures (4/02)
- Chem major Allison Rafuse recognized for
NSF-REU stint in Puerto Rico (4/02)
- Julian Tyson part
of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Institute
team landing
a $1.38M grant to help graduate students bring chemistry and
environmental research into Springfield middle school classrooms
(4/02)
2001 news
- Bret Jackson receives
special creativity renewal of NSF funding for his work on molecule-surface
interaction, a crucial area governing the behavior of heterogenous
catalysts. See the Goessmann
Gazette for more details (9/01)
- Harvard Nobel-prize speaker this year's William
Mahoney Seminar in Chemistry lecturer, with the wide ranging talk "Imaginary
Gardens with Real Toads" (11/01)
- Kathy Tobiassen Wins
Chancellor's Citation Award more
...
- William Vining part
of campus
team giving middle school teachers research training experience
(7/01)
- Chemistry faculty investigators are part of interdepartmental
teams landing
two Nanoscience Integrate Research Team NSF grants totalling
more than $2.25M (10/01)
- Vincent Rotello group
works toward developing "molecular
nose" sensors (12/01)
2000 news
UMass Chemistry featured as a major catalyst
for progress and change on campus in UMass Mag feature story "The
Progress of a Phoenix" (9/00)
Forensic sleuth Dr. Henry Lee gives inaugural
William Mahoney Lecture in Chemistry (10/00)
Web-based molecular display expertise helps out website for
PBS show "The Diamond Deception" (11/00)
Nature article features Vincent
Rotello group
work to "round up" particles for nanoscale self-assembly (4/00)
William Vining receives
highest UMass teaching honor, Distinguished Teaching Award.
(5/00)
1999 news
Scott Auerbach receives
prestigious Sloan
Fellowship, NSF
CAREER awards (2/99)
UMass undergrads receive Pfizer
Research & Education Program and Recruiting Enterprise (PREPARE)
summer research grants (5/99)
Ricardo Metz receives NSF
CAREER award for work to convert natural gas to safer energy sources.
(3/99)
Ricardo Metz group
part of team investigating
Hale-Bopp comet for clues about early solar system chemistry
(10/99)
Virtual chemistry labs featured in
campus undergraduate teaching (9/99)
William Vining multimedia
chemistry course being
used around the country (2/99)
Dhandapani Venkatarman brings organic,
inorganic, and materials chemistry experience to department as new
faculty hire (5/99)
1998 news
Vincent Rotello wins Sloan
Fellowship (6/98)
Lila Gierasch named to
NSF advisory Committee (12/98)
U.S. secretary of health and human services announces
Lila Gierasch named to
National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council (3/98)
1997 news
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