April 2012
Prof. John Hubbard was awarded the university's Distinguished Service Award. Over his 35 years at Marshall, John has served the university in a variety of capacities including two terms on the Faculty Senate as well as terms on the Faculty Personnel, Research and Physical Facilities & Planning Committees. Notably, he served as chair of each of those committees. He has made a major contribution to the well being of the Chemistry Department by serving as its first and current associate chair and managing two of its major internal committees simultaneously. Beyond the university, John has also been either local Councilor or Alternate Councilor to the national American Chemical Society for 25 years.
Prof. Michael Norton presented an invited talk at FNANO 2012 (9th Annual Conference Foundations of Nanoscience), held in the Cliff Lodge of Snowbird Resort outside of Salt Lake City. The title of the presentation was "Origami Meets Graphene: Prospects and Perils." Dr. Norton's co-authors were Masudur Rahman and David Neff. Barriers to the integration of DNA Origami constructs with single layer graphene technology were discussed, along with possible suggested methods for addressing these problems. Dr. Masudur Rahman, a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Norton's group presented a poster titled "Enhancing Origami Binding to Graphene via π-π Interactions" at the same conference.
Profs. Bin Wang, Michael Norton, Michael Castellani, Dr. Masudur Rahman, and graduate student Irfan Khan attended the joint West Virginia Science, Technology, and Research (STaR) Symposium and the West Virginia Academy of Science annual meeting in Institute, WV on April 20 and 21. Irfan received second place in the graduate oral presentation competition for his talk entitled "Microfluidic Endothelial Cell Culture System for Monitoring Environmental Toxins" based on his work with Profs. Wang and Norton.
Dr. Masudur Rahman, a post-doctoral fellow in Prof. Michael Norton's group presented a talk titled "Using DNA Origami to Organize Bio-Materials" at the West Virginia Science, Technology, and Research (STaR) Symposium 2012 joint meeting between the West Virginia Academy of Science and the West Virginia Science, Technology, and Research Saturday April 21, 2012 Institute, WV. Anshuman Mangalum another post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Norton's group was a co-author on the presentation.
On Tuesday, April 24, Prof. Michael Castellani attended the Council on Undergraduate Research's Posters on the Hill in Washington, D.C. He co-chairs the selection committee.
On Friday, April 27 Marshall University held its 22nd Annual Sigma Xi Research Day. Presenters from the Department of Chemistry included undergraduates Aaron Bailey, Allison Combs, Nathaniel Crow, Emma Gardner, Courtney Hatten, Kristen Keown, Philip Kirk, Colton Koontz, Michael Tanner, Benjamin Woodworth, and graduate student Irfan Khan. Michael, Benjamin, Nathaniel, and Irfan were the winners of the best poster awards, working with Profs. Day, Kolling, Norton, and Wang, respectively. Other students were mentored by Profs. Day, Frost, Kolling, McCunn, Norton, and Wang.
On Friday, April 27 the Department held its fifth annual outreach event to local industry. In it chemistry majors and graduate students presented the results of their research to scientists from Alcon, Bayer Materials, the Chemical Alliance Zone, Flint Group Pigments, ICL-IP American, Marathon Petroleum, MATRIC, and Radon Medical Imaging. We also had a luncheon where faculty, students, and company representatives could chat with each other less formally. Presenters included undergraduates Caleb Calvary, Allison Combs, Emma Gardner, Courtney Hatten, Kristen Keown, Philip Kirk, Colton Koontz, Michael Tanner, Benjamin Woodworth, and graduate students James Board and Irfan Khan.
In an interview for inclusion in the Neuron, Prof. Michael Norton discusses the joys of research that can be experienced by scientists of any age, and the pipeline, from summer science research opportunities for undergraduate students to real job creation.
March 2012
Prof. Bin Wang presented a paper entitled, "Development of RNA nanostructures for drug delivery," co-authored by Michael Thompson and Kevin Adkins, in the Division of Analytical Chemistry at the 243rd ACS National Meeting in San Diego on March 27.
Prof. Bin Wang presented a poster entitled, "Age- and sex-associated changes in mRNA expression of Alzheimer's disease-related molecules in the hippocampus of rat brains," co-authored by Tyler Dickson and Srinivasarao Thulluri, in the Division of Biological Chemistry at the 243rd ACS National Meeting in San Diego on March 27.
Prof. William Price presented a poster entitled, "DFT comparison of the fragmentation pathways of first generation protonated nitrile and amine terminated PPI dendrimers," co-authored by Josh Hendrix, Jacob Kilgore, and Kristin Gemayel, in the Division of Computers in Chemistry at the 243rd ACS National Meeting in San Diego on March 27.
January 2012
Prof. Michael Norton gave a short invited presentation on Entrepreneurship to attendees at the WV Bioscience Summit, as part of a panel discussion titled: Research at Universities in West Virginia. The conference was held on January 25, 2012 at the Charleston Marriott Hotel in Charleston, WV.
Students Allison Combs and Sara Lilly presented a poster, "Exploring the Molecular Structure of Methyl Pyruvate" and students Courtney Hatten and Kristen Keown presented a poster, "Exploring the Structure of 2-Chloroallyl Alcohol" at Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol on January 26, 2012. These students conduct their research in the laboratory of Prof. Laura McCunn. Sara discussed her project in a YouTube video recorded by Marshall.
Marathon Petroleum Corporation has donated a bomb calorimeter to the department. The donation will give more students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in calorimetry in our physical chemistry courses.
Alcon Labs has donated a Mitutoyo PJ300 Profile Projector to the department. Its magnification and large viewing screen will allow us to rapidly and collaboratively view millimeter to micron scale features in transparent fluidics devices and lithographically patterned surfaces. Using the transmitted light path, we will be able to compare features in our masks and design drawings with those on our finished surfaces/devices. These uses will benefit several of the department's research projects.
