2001-2002 Faculty And Staff Activities
David G. Alberg, 1993-, Associate Professor. B.A., Carleton College; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley.
Dave enjoyed a Fall Term free of teaching responsibilities thanks to a departmental "targeted opportunity" course release, which allowed him to concentrate on his research. The Alberg research group continues to pursue its work on the design, synthesis, and evaluation of inhibitors of trypanothione reductase, an enzyme unique to the metabolism of trypanosomes and related parasites, many of which are responsible for numerous diseases, including African sleeping sickness. Dave used his time Fall Term to carry out synthetic chemistry in the lab and also to write a NIH AREA grant proposal to support his research. He is still eagerly waiting to hear the outcome of that proposal.
Last summer, Salwa Salah ('02) and Chris Clark ('02) returned for their second summer of research with Dave and they were joined by Jimmy Blair ('02). All three students worked on the synthesis of potential trypanothione reductase inhibitors. Salwa's research was supported by a Pfizer Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, and this spring Dave and Salwa attended an undergraduate research symposium at Pfizer Central Research in Groton, CT, where Salwa presented a poster on her research. Jimmy Blair and Chris Clark also had opportunities to present posters on their research this spring when they attended the 223rd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Orlando, Florida. Dave, too, enjoyed a chance to talk about the group's research, when he was invited to speak at the 34th Great Lakes Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Chemical Biology Symposium: Structure, Function & Engineering of Proteins and Nucleic Acids. Dave is looking forward to another productive summer of research this year. Chris Clark will return for a third summer of research before he heads off to graduate school, and he will be joined by Maroya Spalding ('03) and JoAnn Czechowicz ('04).
After his Fall Term away from the classroom, Dave taught Organic Chemistry II in the winter, and Biological Chemistry and Advanced Laboratory III in the spring. Biological Chemistry had an enrollment of 31 students, the largest seen for this course. The large enrollment reflects the growing interest in the Biochemistry Concentration (for which Biological Chemistry is a required course). Indeed, this year biochemistry became the largest concentration on campus. Dave continues to serve as the Biochemistry Concentration coordinator, as he has since its inception two years ago.
In addition to his regular courses, Dave also supervised a large comps group this year. Dave and an outstanding group of nine seniors (Shawn Balcome, Jimmy Blair, Hans Carlson, Angie Fleischhacker, Joel Guenther, Mia Lowden, Michelle Rasmussen, Salwa Salah, and Emily Skowronek) studied the work of Professor Judith Klinman, from the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. The group focussed on Professor Klinman's work on the catalytic mechanism of copper amine oxidase, an enzyme that activates molecular oxygen. The group gave an excellent public seminar on what they learned over some 13 weeks of study, and the fun culminated in an exciting day of conversation and dining with Professor Klinman when she visited campus in early May.
By far the biggest news in both Dave's personal and professional life this year was the hiring of Gretchen Hofmeister, Dave's wife and class of '85 alumnae, to a tenure-track position in the department, starting this coming fall! Gretchen has been teaching at Gustavus Adolphus College for the past six years, and was just awarded tenure there two months before accepting the position at Carleton. Not only is Dave excited to be working with Gretchen (she is also an organic chemist), but also he and their children, Sam and Ellie, are looking forward to seeing more of her at home, as her daily commuting time drops from a current two hours to about two minutes.
Charles H. Carlin, 1966-, Charles "Jim" and Marjorie Kade Professor of the Chemical Sciences. B.A., Carthage College; Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University.
Chuck taught two large Organic I classes in the Fall and Winter Terms and was generously granted his last sabbatical during the spring. He also taught brief sessions on consumer and environmental chemistry to the high school teachers in the institute led by Jim Finholt during the summer of 2001.
He served his third and final year as chair of the Fellowships Committee (Rhodes, Marshall, and Fulbright awards) helping outstanding seniors through the rigorous application process. This year Carleton students were awarded six Fulbright Fellowships.
Chuck was also selected as one of only two Carleton faculty to seize the opportunity to participate in the Senior Faculty Development Program for the second time at the urging of Dean McKinsey. (He was one of the pioneers in this program, being drafted to be one of the four initial participants back in 1991.) He decided to offer up a test case for comparison to those undergoing tenure review. This involved a full student review (random sampling of present and former students) as well as student and faculty observers in his classes who reported to the dean. The results were favorable.
He supervised three senior comprehensive long papers, participated in the very successful hiring process that culminated in Gretchen Hofmeister's arrival next fall, used what time he had left of his sabbatical to read extensively in food chemistry, and finished the year serving as toastmaster for the Beth Festival retirement celebration for Dean McKinsey (as he had previously for Dean Peter Stanley in 1989).
Next year Chuck will begin his phased retirement, teaching one-half time (353, Organic III, and 234, Organic II) for two years prior to his graceful segue into teaching adults consumer chemistry after June 12, 2004.
Marion E. Cass, 1987-, Professor and Chair. B.S., Fort Lewis College; Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder.
Marion Cass served her fourth and final year as chair of the Chemistry Department. She recently passed on the chairpersonship to Steve Drew.
Last fall, Marion taught our newly restructured course, Introduction to Chemistry, as well as team teaching Advanced Lab I (spectroscopy laboratory) to junior chemistry majors with Trish Ferrett. In the Winter Term, Marion worked with Rob Rossi in our chemical kinetics laboratory course as well as taught her non-science majors course, Concepts of Chemistry. In the spring Marion taught Inorganic Chemistry, Laboratory in Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, and she supervised ten senior chemistry majors on independent studies in scientific glassblowing. During the winter and spring, Marion and Will Hollingsworth worked with four bright and enthusiastic senior chemistry majors (Carolyn Ocampo, Nick Olson, Chris Clark, and Chris Rupp) studying both the computational and theoretical aspects of molecular orbital theory. This comps group stemmed from Marion and Will's interest in using molecular orbital theory to teach chemistry at both the introductory and upper-division levels. Marion and Will are working on a project to enhance student intuition in molecular orbital theory.
Last summer and throughout the Fall and Winter Terms, Marion served as one of four elected faculty members on the Presidential Search Committee to search for a new president of Carleton. She reports that it was an enlightening and fascinating experience. "If you want to learn a great deal about an institution (and a great deal about people), serve on a search committee for the president or CEO. Wow!"
Four out of the next six terms (Fall Term of 2002 and the full 2003-04 academic year), Marion will be on research leave. Currently she is planning what she will be doing during those four terms and hasn't divulged the details (i.e., isn't 100% certain at this point).
William C. Child, Jr., 1956-1990; Emeritus Professor, 1990-. B.A., Oberlin College; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin.
While taking a year off from the instructor's role, Bill was a student in two Elder Collegium courses, both involving topics in American history. He and Nancy continued active attendance at concerts at the local colleges, Orchestra Hall, the Ordway, and Symphony Hall in Chicago. They also heard some great soloists and ensembles involving double reed instruments at an international conference at the University of West Virginia last summer. Bill is a compulsive student of the bassoon and takes lessons part of the year, despite no evidence that they do any good. He continues participation in a woodwind quintet, the Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra, and the St. Paul Civic Symphony. Serving as personnel manager for the latter is proving to be a considerable challenge. Sometimes accompanied by one of his sons, he visits the north shore of Lake Superior and hikes various sections of the Superior Hiking Trail. Thus far he has completed about one-half of the 220 mile trail.
Steven M. Drew, 1991-, Associate Professor and Associate Chair. B.A., St. John's University; Ph.D., University of Colorado.
Last year Steve returned to (almost) full-time teaching at venerable Carleton. After a year of sabbatical, Steve was itching to get back into the classroom and maneuver the rigors of working with Carleton students. In the fall Steve taught "Equilibrium and Analysis" followed by "Principles of Chemistry" in Winter Term 2002. In Chem 230 Steve experimented with smaller group sizes for the role-playing laboratory and topped off the term with a two-week student-choice group project. In the winter Steve also experimented with different labs in Chem 123. Steve started the laboratory portion of the course with a version of the "who else has my white powder" lab using melting point, GC retention time, and carbonyl IR stretch frequencies to match up partners. The students, once grouped with the other students who had the same white powder, worked as a group to use mass spectrometry to complete the final identification of their unknown. Steve also continued to use a five-week project in Chem 123 examining the chemistry of metal-acetylacetonate compounds. This project also culminates in a two-week student-choice experiment.
Steve continues to study the reaction of nitric oxide with iron porphyrins immobilized on carbon electrode surfaces. This summer there will be three students in Steve's lab working on various aspects of this project. During Steve's sabbatical he initiated a collaboration with Prof. Kent Mann at the University of Minnesota studying the analytical application of platinum double salt materials for gas sensing. Steve had a great time working with Prof. Mann and his students at the University. Steve also interacted with several Carleton alums who are graduate students at the University of Minnesota: Carrie Buss ('94), Jessica Allen ('98), and Victor Sussman ('01). Carrie was a member of Prof. Mann's research group and completed her Ph.D. this fall. She now works with Seagate in the Twin Cities. Steve was able to put together enough positive results during his sabbatical to write a couple papers on this work with Prof. Mann. This summer there will be a Carleton student working with Steve to continue the collaboration. In addition, Steve and Prof. Mann received a grant from the Research Site for Educators in Chemistry fund administered by the University of Minnesota and the National Science Foundation to support the continuation of their collaborative research project.
Other professional activities have kept Steve busy the past year. Steve traveled to the Fall ACS Meeting in Chicago last year and presented a poster in the Analytical Division on his sabbatical research entitled "Potential Gas Sensing Applications of Vapochromic Materials Comprised of Square Planar Platinum Complexes." Steve met up with Brad Pindzola ('97) and enjoyed hearing about Brad's research. Finally, Steve also reviewed a colleague for tenure at Lake Forest College and reviewed a proposal for the National Science Foundation.
Tricia A. Ferrett, 1990-, Associate Professor. B.A., Grinnell College; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley.
Fall Term, Trish had fun with Slinky Dog and the new chemistry majors in Quantum Chemistry. Trish co-taught the same group with Marion Cass in Advanced Lab I. Winter Term, Trish had fun talking (and relearning) thermodynamics with Dani Kohen as Dani taught Chem 343! On the scholarship front, Trish got a non-teaching research term in winter (see below) and a spring course release for being Science Division Facilitator. She worked on tying her C4F8 fragmentation mechanism results into the existing literature and will finish this manuscript in summer 2002. Trish also chose a new direction in scholarship that fits with her growing passion for education, learning, interdisciplinary studies, and real-world issues. She plans to work with ChemConnections on continued chemistry curriculum and faculty development. This group plans to develop new interdisciplinary curricular materials that incorporate what they have learned from teaching modules (learning in context, connecting to other disciplines, active/collaborative pedagogy, working with real data, guided-discovery and inquiry approaches) with an explicit critical perspective that looks at where scientific knowledge comes from and how it is used. Trish is now working with others (including Joanne Stewart, Chemistry Dept., Hope College) on proposals to fund this major project. She is also editing a new ChemConnections module titled "How can we reduce air pollution from automobiles?" For extra fun, in summers 2001 and 2002 Trish did activities on global warming and acid rain in the Hughes program for high school teachers and students. In July 2002 she'll be working with them and Mary Savina (geology) on a comparative ecosystem study in wetlands near Northfield and Long Lake, MN.
Trish attended several professional meetings this year. Last fall she joined other ChemConnections leaders in Boulder to talk about disseminating the results of their seven-year curricular reform project. She attended the Fall Midwest Environmental Chemistry Meeting and the Minnesota ACS Spring Meeting. Trish recently joined other Carleton faculty at a Wellesley College Mellon workshop, where many faculty talked about moving their scholarly work in interdisciplinary and applied directions.
In the department and college, Trish helped out on the budget and the Ring. She also finished negotiations with Dean McKinsey and President Lewis on a department program to reward chemistry faculty for research teaching in the summer and academic year. This unique pilot program provides earned non-teaching terms to help sustain post-tenure faculty scholarship tied to undergraduate research. Trish finished her third and last year as Science Division Facilitator. She organized several divisional discussions and spent extensive time working with the Science Ad Hoc Library group, Gould Library staff, the Library Master Planning Steering Committee, and architects in Fall Term to reconfigure and improve the science collection in Gould. Trish also served on the "Dean Seekers" Committee.
Trish and Tom hiked last summer in the Canadian Rockies. Trish also enjoyed cross-country ski trips to Maplelag (MN) and Devil's Thumb Ranch (CO) and a spring trip to France with her mother. Trish continues to run, do yoga, and lift weights. She did the Carleton triathlon as a relay this spring with Marion Cass and Rob Rossi; they placed first among faculty/staff teams. On the baby front, Trish and Tom will soon adopt an infant boy from Korea! Trish will be on childrearing leave Winter and Spring Terms of 2003. Trish and Tom just bought a house in Northfield, and they'll move back there this summer to prepare for the life-long adventure of parenting.
James E. Finholt, 1960-2001; Emeritus Professor, 2001-. B.A., St. Olaf College; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley.
The future is not easy to predict. Shortly after my retirement from Carleton last June I was asked to chair the St. Olaf Chemistry Department for a year on a part-time basis. I agreed to do this and found it to be a very interesting assignment. We developed a new management scheme involving a three-person leadership team. It worked very well. As a parting gift, I was presented with a blue T-shirt with maize lettering. The top line read "Carleton College," the next line read "The St. Olaf of the East." I haven't worn it on the East Side of the Cannon.
I hesitate to predict what next year will bring. I know it will begin with another move to a new location in Mudd, and this will entail filling a few more waste barrels. I hope to spend some time in outreach activities with elementary and secondary school students. I still read a few manuscripts for the Journal of Chemical Education. Who knows, I may finally elevate my ability to operate our NMR above the level of a rank beginner.
I continue to work with Bob Reitz and Hartley Clark on a commission to revise the Northfield City Charter. This task seems to have taken on a life of its own with no end in sight. I chaired the Trustee Committee of the Northfield United Methodist Church.
Leisure activities still include reading, tennis, games, biking, walking, and very little sailing (sob). Travel activity was highlighted by three weeks of hiking in New Zealand in February. We have plans for future trips to Norway and Costa Rica. I am beginning a campaign to rid my lawn of creeping charlie. I suspect this may be a long-term operation.
Keep those e-mails coming, and be sure to track me down if you come to Northfield.
Deborah S. Gross, 1998-, Assistant Professor. B.A., Haverford College; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley.
This year has been light for Deborah in terms of teaching, with a term off granted by the department in the fall, and a course-release granted by the Dean's Office in the winter. Don't fret that maybe there was too much time and not enough to do! In fact, it was a tremendously busy year. It has been great fun to welcome Dani Kohen into the department, it has been interesting to engage in department-wide discussions of curriculum, specifically what we teach in introductory chemistry, and it was, as always, enlightening to go through the faculty search process in the fall.
Last summer, Amy Silverberg and Bill Galush (both'02) worked in Deborah's lab, continuing the analysis of the particulate matter data acquired in 2000 in the Caldecott Tunnel, in Berkeley. During the summer and the 2001-02 year, Bill and Amy made tremendous progress towards understanding what the data set really has in it, and in correcting some biases within the data, so that it can be compared to other measurements. Specific emphasis was given to identification of soot particles within the data set, which is harder than it sounds. Posters about their research were presented at the Midwest Workshop for Environmental Chemistry (Bill as presenter), the Asilomar Conference on Mass Spectrometry (Deborah as presenter), and the Great Lakes Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (Amy and Bill as presenters). Deborah was invited to speak at the Great Lakes Meeting on a related topic.
In the fall, Deborah ordered an Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (ATOFMS) from TSI, Inc. in Shoreview, MN. This instrument was funded by the National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation Fund, through a grant to Deborah and a collaborator at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (Professor Jamie Schauer). Carleton College wholly owns the instrument. Upon its arrival on campus in December, the instrument was named "Gromit," after the dog in the "Wallace and Gromit" cartoons. In the first research journey since Gromit arrived at Carleton, Deborah took the instrument to Madison in March, and began a series of measurements with Prof. Schauer and collaborators, to characterize the emissions from a research diesel engine, where conditions can be controlled carefully. It will be interesting to compare these results to those that Amy and Bill have been looking at. Deborah is also a collaborator on a project with members of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Minnesota that included the acquisition of a second ATOFMS instrument, residing at the U of M. That instrument is named "Wallace." This summer, Amy will work in Deborah's lab again, and will be joined by Lexie Schmitt ('04). The group will begin work in Northfield and will spend ~6 weeks in Atlanta, with both Wallace and Gromit, and collaborators from the University of Minnesota, making measurements. It should be an exciting set of experiments!
In the winter, Deborah co-led (with Rob Rossi) a comps group which studied the chemistry of the hydroxyl radical in the troposphere. The group consisted of Matt Bush ('03), Bill Galush ('02), Laura Hmelo ('02), Ben Markovitz ('02), Amy Silverberg ('02), and Josh Vang ('02). The group's experience culminated with a visit from Dr. Jack Calvert, an expert in the field, who recently retired from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. It was a very interesting topic, a terrific visit with Dr. Calvert, and a great group to work with. The group's consensus was that whenever possible, fieldwork in chemistry should be done at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and the group is ready to volunteer to help! Additionally, Deborah worked on development of experiments with the department's new LC/MS instrument, in time granted by the Dean's Office. This work is still in progress, and includes the development of a collaboration with Professor Matt Simcik at the University of Minnesota (School of Public Health). The goal is to develop intro and analytical lab experiments in which students will analyze fish collected from the Great Lakes for perfluoronated organic compounds, which were primarily emitted into the environment through the manufacture and use of Scotch Guard. Professor Simcik is an expert on these measurements, and it is hoped that a really interesting, timely, and novel laboratory experiment will be the outcome of this collaboration.
In the spring, Deborah taught a super-sized class of Chem 230, which was fun but kept her incredibly busy. There were a lot of students to talk to, pretty much all the time. Coupled with the end of work by the comps group, planning for this summer's research, and advising two independent studies in which students were developing techniques with various instrumentation in the department (one with the LC/MS and another with the Capillary GC/ECD), there wasn't much time for anything else.
Professionally, Deborah had the opportunity to travel quite a bit this year. She attended two conferences in the fall, the American Association for Aerosol Research National Meeting in Portland, OR, and the Asilomar Conference on Mass Spectrometry, in Monterey, CA. In November, she and Brian Mars went to a training course for the LC/MS instrument in Riviera Beach, Florida. In March, Deborah had the opportunity to serve on a review panel at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., which was both interesting and informative. Deborah is looking forward to continuing to work on a large EPA-funded project which she is co-PI, with a number of researchers in Madison, to study Mercury cycling in the atmosphere. Carleton's contribution will be toward describing the aerosol population in sites where speciated mercury concentrations are determined in real time. The hope is that there will be some interesting correlations!
Personally, Deborah and Markus are finding it interesting to add customer/vendor to their list of interactions, since Markus works for TSI, Inc., and works in the development of the ATOFMS instruments, which Deborah recently purchased. There's always some little detail about the workings of the instrument to worry about, so dinner-table conversations are sometimes a bit technical. Winter break, 2001, was spent in California, visiting Deborah's family, skiing in the mountains, and recovering from eye-surgery (Deborah). It was a nice break. A trip to Switzerland is already being planned for next winter!
William E. Hollingsworth, 1986-, Professor. B.S., B.A., University of Texas, Austin; M.S., Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley.
Will was fortunate to receive a much-needed sabbatical break for much of this year, using that time to consolidate some past work, launch a few new projects, and - most importantly - take some time to think without the normal teaching and committee pressures.
The only teaching term he had was in the winter in which he taught Chem 365 (Global Biogeochemistry) to a mix of chemists and geologists. He also ran a comps group the same term with Marion Cass in which they and a group of four students worked on ways to understand and eventually teach molecular orbitals more effectively within the confines of the undergraduate curriculum. He and Marion have an ongoing project to explore these ideas with plans to present these results in the near future when it makes enough sense to do so.
It is a curse as well as a blessing to have an in-residence sabbatical. It gives you the right to say no to most things, but it is also hard to keep from doing all the tempting things there are to do. It was refreshing to be able to sample more of what Carleton has to offer. Will continued to participate in a few of only the most important activities within the Chemistry Department and ENTS (Environmental and Technology Studies) and he also taught again in the Summer Teachers' Institute. In addition, he was involved in some other activities like evaluating writing portfolios, discussing quantitative literacy, mid-career issues, and writing essays about teaching at Carleton. In June, he moderated a general physical chemistry section at the Great Lakes meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Julie Karg, 1988-, Chemistry Technician. B.S., Mankato State University.
Julie worked with professors to develop and prepare new laboratory exercises this past year. She also made major and minor exercise upgrades to previously performed experiments. She attended several computer software workshops offered at the college, and she learned how to operate the department's new capillary gas chromatographs. Over winter break, Julie and Professor Rob Rossi reduced the inventory in one of the department's storerooms by over 50% in order to make room for a new research space for Professor Deborah Gross.
Daniela Kohen, 2002-, Assistant Professor. B.A., Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Ph.D., University of Notre Dame.
These past six months have been a very exciting time for Dani. In January she became a member of Carleton's Chemistry Department!
Dani started off with teaching Chemical Thermodynamics (Chem 343) to a quiet and awesome group. It was such a pleasure for her to teach material that she loves and to see, every once in a while, her students loving it too! In the Spring Term she taught Principles of Chemistry (Chem 123) and had much fun sharing with her students the basic foundations of chemistry. She is looking forward to many terms teaching these and other core curriculum courses, as well as developing a new upper-level class that will focus on simulations in chemistry and biology.
Dani is a theoretical and computational physical chemist. Her general area of interest is dynamics in the condensed phase (how atoms and molecules move and interact when they're alone). At Smith College (where she spent the last two and half years) she started a research program in collaboration with David Sholl at Carnegie Mellon University that focuses on the behavior of zeolites (molecular sieves). At Carleton, Dani continues to use atomistic simulations to understand and characterize at the molecular level how small gas molecules interact with pure CO2 in the pores of molecular sieves, and how this interaction changes in the presence of other gases present in the atmosphere. The goal of these studies is to provide a basic understanding of the processes that underlie the use of molecular sieves as filters to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. During Winter Term Dani wrote her first paper appearing as the principal investigator (the person in charge of the research). This paper describes work done in collaboration with Anne Goj, a Smith student, and is entitled "Atomistic Simulations of CO2 and N2 Adsorption in Silica Zeolites." It has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B and will appear in December of this year. Dani is planning to present this work in July at the 2002 American Conference in Theoretical Chemistry in Seven Springs Mountain Resort, PA.
On a personal note, Dani and husband, Joe, are thrilled to be expecting their first child! If everything goes well, by the end of August a baby girl will become a wonderful addition to their family. Dani is looking forward to a very different Fall Term, no teaching or doing research, but nevertheless with plenty of learning. She will be learning how to be a mom!
Brian T. Mars, 1983-, Laboratory Manager. B.A., California State University, Chico.
This year Brian finished downsizing the chemical inventory. There were bottles of chemicals dating back to the 1940s among the three loads of hazardous waste that were hauled away. This project was long overdue and was necessitated by the loss of storage space that is being turned into a research lab.
Jerry R. Mohrig, 1967-, Herman & Gertrude Mosier Stark Professor in the Natural Sciences. B.S., University of Michigan; Ph.D., University of Colorado.
A little over two years after Jean died, Jerry married Adrienne Slocum last September. They had known one another for a number of years, and after Jean's death Adrie was among the friends to whom Jerry reached out. As time went on, friendship turned into romance. It has been a very good year.
Jerry continued his half time teaching this year under Carleton's phased retirement program. In the spring he taught second-semester Organic Chemistry and continued his teaching of the three-week influenza module on carbohydrates and glycoproteins. Winter Term he had a good time teaching Organic and Biosynthesis, but for the last time, as he will be retiring after the 2002-2003 academic year. You can read elsewhere in this report about the preliminary plans for Jerry's retirement party next April.
Summer research in the Mohrig lab continues this year with six Carleton student colleagues working on a variety of projects with financial support from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society. The research aims at rounding out our understanding of the electronic factors which influence the stereochemistry of base-catalyzed 1,2-elimination and enolate protonation reactions, before Jerry ends his research program next year. The effects of pKa and leaving group are again a high priority in the elimination studies. Angela Fleischhacker ('02) and Laura Phillips ('03) are studying the stereochemistry and kinetics of the elimination reaction of a stereospecifically-deuterated *-phenoxythioester, necessary to compare the thioester to a ketone substrate in the same solvent mixture. Heidi Spoelhof ('03) is carrying out a series of controls to insure that there is no alkene isomerization or H/D exchange in these elimination reactions.
Lea McMartin ('04) is synthesizing deuterated -trimethylacetoxyesters and thioesters for use in studying the stereochemistry of their 1,2-elimination reactions. In an attempt to discover if there is a unifying theme in enolate protonation and E1cB-like elimination reactions, Jane Coughlin ('03) and Min Chong ('04) are comparing the stereochemistry of H/D exchange of -phenoxybutyrate esters, thioesters, and ketones to the stereochemistry of the 1,2-elimination reactions on analogous substrates. In addition to maintaining an active research program, Jerry served as coordinator of the Chemistry Department undergraduate research program.
A large portion of Jerry's free time this year was spent working on the new edition of his organic chemistry laboratory texts, which are scheduled for publication by W.H. Freeman later this summer and in the fall. The work is divided into a techniques book, featuring an emphasis on modern spectroscopy, and a lab manual, featuring inquiry-based projects and experiments.
Jerry continued as a consultant to the Committee on Professional Training (CPT) of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and attended its meetings in Chicago, Sedona, AZ, and Orlando, FL. At the Orlando National ACS Meeting he spoke at two symposia on different aspects of the inquiry-based organic laboratory projects that have been developed at Carleton. He also attended the poster session where three of his undergraduate research colleagues presented their work. Last August, Jerry was in Snowmass, CO, for a meeting of the Bio2010 Committee of the National Research Council, where he presented an overview of his organic chemistry module, "Why We Get the Flu Every Year." This March he traveled to Springfield, MO, where he served as a consultant to the Chemistry Department of Drury College. Jerry continued to serve on the advisory committee for the Research Site for Educators in Chemistry at the University of Minnesota and the Visiting Committee for the Chemistry Department of MIT.
This fall, on leave from his teaching, Jerry, Adrie, and two close friends will spend three weeks traveling in Sicily.
Richard W. Ramette, 1954-1990; Emeritus Professor, 1990-. B.A., Wesleyan University; Ph.D., University of Minnesota.
A long-scheduled cruise from Montreal, through the St. Lawrence Seaway, and down the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts, was less enjoyable than expected because it was not long after the horrors of 9/11. However, in April Dick and Lee found the Lake Country of Italy much more to their liking, with a University of Minnesota alumni tour based in Baveno.
Dick completed his term as president of the Unitarian Congregation, and continued as fitness instructor for Green Valley Rec. His interest in computers remains strong, and now is complemented by digital photography. He starts each day with the NYTimes crossword puzzle, relying less and less on "Googling."
With summers in Minnesota and the rest of the year in Arizona, retirement life is good.
Robert C. Rossi, 2001-, Visiting Assistant Professor. B.S., University of Wisconsin, Madison; Ph.D., California Institute of Technology.
Not one to make empty threats, Rob did indeed return to Carleton this year! Pushing hard to complete his doctoral work at the California Institute of Technology, he submitted his thesis in April of 2001 and joined his girlfriend, Alex, in South America for a rough-and-ready trip with some friends through Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. He returned to Pasadena for the summer to defend his thesis, build a vacuum deposition system, play the evil scientist in an independent movie, and say good-bye to friends and colleagues. Somehow he and his now nineteen-year-old car limped back over the Rockies to his past and future home here in Minnesota. It was time to begin a new phase of life.
Rob sank his teeth back into teaching immediately, starting with Chem 123 in the fall. The Winter Term provided an opportunity to try many new things, including team teaching the kinetics advanced lab with Marion, covering Deborah's six students on comps, and teaching a new course, Chem 370 / ENTS 369, "Solar Energy Conversion and Solid State Devices." In the spring Rob returned to Chem 123, which is clearly his favorite course even though he also describes it as "a heckuvalot of work."
In the "contributions to global warming" department, Rob had the pleasure of giving a presentation on his graduate work and on energy policy more generally at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, managed to push his "big" research publication through the gears at the Journal of Physical Chemistry, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that his Ph.D. thesis was the most often accessed of those made available in electronic format through the new Caltech Electronic Thesis Database system.
Rob is spending the summer recuperating from a heady first year and making plans for the future. One's first year of teaching is always a challenge, and the long hours ended up separating Rob from many of the other facets of life. With Alex in Atlanta, the clutch in Rob's '82 Audi finally giving out, and no time to visit family and friends, Rob was considering a new career as a blues or country music lyricist. But now things are looking up. Alex has relocated to Northfield, a nifty new hybrid car is on the way, and Rob hopes to visit long-lost friends this summer and reconnect. Rob's already looking forward to teaching in the fall, if not the painful process of deciding what he really wants to do when he grows up. He seems to be leaning towards never growing up.
Wendy J. Zimmerman, 1970-, Administrative Assistant.
With the help of her student office assistant, Lindsey Kneuven ('03), Wendy tries to keep things running smoothly in the department. She continues to be editor of the Annual Report.
T. M. Pappenfus, J. D. Raff, E. J. Hukkanen, J. R. Burney, J. Casado, S. M. Drew, L. L. Miller, K. R. Mann, "Dinitro and Quinodimethane Derivatives of Terthiophene That Can Be Both Oxidized and Reduced. Crystal Structures, Spectra and a Method for Analyzing Quinoid Contributions to Structure" accepted for publication in the Journal of Organic Chemistry.
S. M. Drew, D. E. Janzen, K. R. Mann, "Characterization of a Cross-Reactive Electronic Nose with Vapoluminescent Array Elements" Analytical Chemistry, 2002, 74, 2547-2555.
J. W. Grate, L. K. Moore, D. E. Janzen, D. J. Veltkamp, S. Kaganove, S. M. Drew, K. R. Mann, "Step-like Response Behavior of a New Vapochromic Platinum Complex Observed with Simultaneous Acoustic Wave Sensor and Optical Reflectance Measurements" Chemistry of Materials, 2002, 14, 1058-1066.
S. M. Drew, D. E. Janzen, C. E. Buss, D. I. MacEwan, K. M. Dublin, K. R. Mann, "An Electronic Nose Transducer Array of Vapoluminescent Platinum (II) Double Salts" Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2001, 123, 8414-8415.
A. Goj, D. S. Sholl, E. D. Akten, D. Kohen, "Atomistic Simulations of CO2 and N2 Adsorption in Silica Zeolites" accepted for publication in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B.
R. C. Rossi and N. S. Lewis, "Investigation of the Size-Scaling Behavior of Spatially Nonuniform Barrier Height Contacts to Semiconductor Surfaces Using Ordered Nanometer-Scale Nickel Arrays on Silicon Electrodes" Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2001, 105, 12303-12318.
R. Rossi, "Cleaning AFM Tips with Hydrofluoric Acid and Safety Comments on Working with HF" Microscopy Today, 2001, 32-33.