Chemistry Newsletter - 04/20/1998

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Department of Chemistry Newsletter

CONGRATULATIONS!!

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We are proud to announce that Dr. Gery Essenmacher will be awarded the L & S award for Academic Staff, Academic Advising Award. He will be presented with this award on April 27th, 1998 by Dean Certain. He will also be presented with a check. The award is for exemplary practices in advising students, sustained contributions to advising, developing the potential of students, contributing beyond the call of duty, working across school and college lines to serve the needs of students, contributing to the improvement of advising services for students. Great job Gery we are very proud of you!!!!

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Electronics Shop Memo

The Electronics Shop would like to have ANYONE that has borrowed and is using any test equipment from the shop to contact one of the technicians about the equipment. There are power supplies and signal generators not accounted for. May 1^st, 1998 the Electronics shop will conduct a survey of all the groups to try and locate the missing test equipment. Vince Fitzgerald - Electronics Shop Supervisor.

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ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - CUMULATIVE EXAMINATION SCHEDULE

Room 1361, Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.

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INORGANIC CUMULATIVE EXAMINATION SCHEDULE

Exams are held on Saturdays beginning at 9:00 a.m., in Room 2373.

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ATTENTION GRADUATE STUDENTS

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IMPORTANT DATES:

MINOR AGREEMENT FORMS: The Graduate School requires that the minor program be outlined in an agreement which is approved by the Department no later than halfway through completion of the sequence minor courses. The minor requirement must be completed by the end of the third year of graduate school. Minor agreement forms are available in Room 1315.

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University of Wisconsin-Madison Chemistry Department Departmental Colloquia

1997-1998

First Fridays of the Month

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SEMINARS

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Wednesday, April 22^nd, 1998 - Genetics Colloquium, 3:30 p.m., Auditorium Genetics/Biotech Building. Trudy MacKay, Department of Genetics, North Carolina State University. "The Nature of Quantitative Genetics Variation: Lessons from Drosophila"

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****PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE**** Wednesday, April 22^nd, 1998 - "McElvain Seminar Speaker" - Organic Chemistry Seminar, 3:30 p.m., Room 1361 Chemistry Building. Professor Barry Trost, Stanford University. "On the Invention of New Reactions for Synthetic Efficiency"

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Thursday, April 23^rd, 1998 - Analytical Sciences Seminar, 12:05 p.m., Room B371 Chemistry Building. Thomas Beebe, University of Utah.

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Thursday, April 23^rd, 1998 - Materials Science Seminar, 4:00 p.m., Room 3345 Engineering Hall. Dr. Alan Edelstein, Naval Research Lab. "Interfacial Reactions in SiC/Ni; Ferromagnetic Interlayer Coupling in Ferromagnetic/Antiferromagnetic Structures"

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****JUST ADDED THIS WEEK**** Thursday, April 23^rd, 1998 - Rennebohm Lecture, 3:30 p.m., 2101 Chamberlin Hall. Professor Barry Trost, Stanford University. "On Artificial Enzymes: Crafting Chiral Space for Molecular Recognition in a Catalytic Synthetic Reaction"

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Friday, April 24^th, 1998 - "The James F. Crow Lectures Seminar", 3:30 p.m., 125 Biochemistry, Reception following the lecture in the atrium of the Genetic/Biotechnology Center Building. Dr. Oliver Smithies, Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "From Starch Gels to Gene Targeting as the Crow Flies"

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Friday, April 24th, 1998 - Chemistry Department TOWN MEETING, 4:00 p.m., Room 1361 Chemistry Building. Fleming Crim, "How to Get a Job Like Mine". Matt Sanders., "So...What is the Stipend for the Fall??". Cookies at 3:45 p.m.

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Monday, April 27^th, 1998 - Inorganic Chemistry Seminar, 2:25 p.m., Room B371 Chemistry Building. Heather Carr, Graduate Student.

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Tuesday, April 28^th, 1998 - Physical Chemistry Seminar, 11:00 a.m., Room B371 Chemistry Building. Nancy Levinger, Colorado State University. "Solvation Dynamics in Restricted Environments - or - How Solvent Molecules Move, or Don't, in Reverse Micelles"

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Wednesday, April 29^th, 1998 - Genetics Colloquium, 3:30 p.m., Auditorium Genetics/Biotech Building. John Doebley, Department of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota. "The Evolution of Plant Form: Examples From Maize"

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Thursday, April 30^th, 1998 - Analytical Sciences Seminar, 12:05 p.m., Room B371 Chemistry Building. Dr. Paul Weiss, Penn State.

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Thursday, April 30^th, 1998 - Materials Science Seminar, 4:00 p.m., Room 3345 Engineering Hall. Dr. Paul Weiss, Penn State.

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Thursday, April 30^th, 1998 - Chemical Engineering Seminar, 3:55 p.m., Room 1227 Engineering Hall. Ms. Susan Jill Peter, Rice University. "In Situ Polymerizable Biodegradable Scaffolds for Bone Regeneration"

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Thursday, April 30^th, 1998 - Organic Chemistry Seminar, 11:00 a.m., Room 1361 Chemistry Building. Professor Hazel Holden, UW-Madison Enzyme Institute.

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Tuesday, May 5^th, 1998 - "AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY" - Physical Chemistry Seminar, 11:00 a.m., Room B371 Chemistry Building. Professor Frank S. Bates, University of Minnesota. "Self-Assembly of Block Copolymers as Macromolecular Surfactants"

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Group Leaders Wanted

for

Fun with Chemistry Camps!

The Institute for Chemical Education (ICE) will again be offering the Fun with Chemistry Camps (Chem Camps) this summer. The camps provide fun and exciting chemistry laboratory experience for middle school students. There are two identical sessions of the camp, each of which runs for five weekday afternoons. The dates for this year's camps are June 22-26 and July 6-10.

We need group leaders (graduate students, senior undergraduates) to provide support to 4 - 6 students in the laboratory. We typically need between 10 and 12 group leaders for each session. The time commitment is approximately 12:45-4:30 PM each day, and the pay is $250 per weekly session. If you are interested in working any or all of the sessions, please stop by room 1321 and tell Amy Huseth or Kathleen Shanks that you would like to sign up as a group leader for Chem Camp.

The positions usually fill up fast, so hurry if you're interested! May 1 is the last day to sign up and be guaranteed consideration for a position. Group Leaders are selected on a combination first-come-first-served/interview basis. Group Leaders will be informed if they have been selected by May 11. If you would like to have more information or if you have any questions, please call Amy or Kathleen at 2-2940.

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Wisconsin Union Mini-Courses

The Wisconsin Union Mini-Courses is looking for teachers for Summer 1998 courses. Courses include one called "Chemistry and Chemical Attraction". Candidates with teaching assistant/lecturing experience are preferred, but all candidates with superior knowledge in their field will be considered. Pay is $15-$20/hour for 22.5 hours per class. Contact Dave Black at ACA, c/o Mini Courses, 509 Memorial Union, for more information.

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Undergraduate Summer Research Opportunity

The Center for Materials Research (CMR) at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia announces its summer 1998 research opportunities for undergraduate students. This ten-week program (June 1 - August 4, 1998) is open to six (6) or more undergraduate students majoring in chemistry, physics, materials sciences, engineering, electrical engineering, or related fields. It is open to rising sophomores, juniors and seniors. The program provides a stipend of $3000. Free on-campus meals and housing are available. A variety of research projects are available involving faculty advisors in Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, and related fields. These projects generally involve the growth and properties of surfaces, bulk dielectric crystals, and thin film interfaces. The Norfolk State University campus is located in downtown Norfolk just 10 miles from the Virginia Beach oceanfront. The summer research program also includes tours of major national laboratories in the metropolitan area, including NASA Langley and Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (formerly CEBAF). An application consisting of a statement of interest, two letters of recommendation, and a current unofficial transcript, should be postmarked no later than May 9, 1998 for full consideration. First awards will be made by May 15, 1998. Please email or postal mail a statement of interest as soon as possible to the following address: CMR-SRP, c/o: Dr. Carl E. Bonner, Center for Materials Research, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA 23504, Phone: 757-683-2381, Fax: 757-683-9054, email: cbonner@vger.nsu.edu.

FACULTY POSITIONS/TEMPORARY FACULTY/ACADEMIC POSITIONS

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None Available for This Newsletter!

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POSTDOCTORAL POSITION AND/OR JOBS

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Jon S. Thorson, Ph.D., Assistant Member and Head, of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, is seeking to identify highly talented postdoctoral candidates for a postdoctoral position open in the fall/winter 1998 in his lab at the Sloan-Kettering Institute. Currently, there are two main projects in his lab (part of the Molecular Pharmacology & Therapeutics Program). The first is an effort to elucidate the mechanistic details of enediyne biosynthesis/resistance and exploit these unprecedented biosynthetic pathways to engineer new, and highly effective, antitumor/antibacterial agents. Toward this goal we have successfully cloned most (if not all) of the biosynthetic cluster encoding the enzymes involved in constructing calicheamicin and are using the calicheamicin sequence information we've obtained to fish out the dynemicin cluster from a Streptomyces genomic library. In addition, we have localized two distinct genes which confer calicheamicin resistance upon both E. coli and S. lividans. With these unprecedented pathways in hand, we hope to soon initiate a combinatorial biosynthesis program. Clearly this project is at the stage of exponential growth and should provide an excellent opportunity for motivated postdocs to make their mark. His second focus is upon understanding and exploiting how glycosyltransferase protein scaffolds define glycosyltransfer and the use of gene-shuffling/screening methods to engineer substrate specificity in natural glycosyltransferases. Toward this goal we have cloned, overexpressed and purified a variety of bacterial glycosyltransferases and have examined substrate specificity with various synthetic substrates. In addition, our gene shuffling efforts have provided a randomized mannosyltransferase library which, upon screening, revealed various mutants able to cleave simple activated sugars (clearly the first step in coercing these mutants to accept less expensive replacements for nucleotide sugars). With these critical models in hand, we are now considering their use in displaying "useful" carbohydrate antigens on bacterial surfaces to be used as live vaccines against tumor or viral targets. Because of the multi-disciplinary nature of the work, individuals from a broad range of backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Candidates with training in carbohydrate and/or natural product isolation or synthesis, protein biochemistry, mechanistic enzymology, molecular biology and/or Streptomyces genetics are particularly appropriate. Interested candidates should send a CV and the names of three references to: Jon S. Thorson, Ph.D., Assistant Member and Head, laboratory for Biosynthetic Chemistry, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, New York, 10021.

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Professor Frank J. Feher, of the University of California - Irvine, is seeking talented candidates for a postdoctoral research position in my group beginning late-Spring 1998. The position relates to my program in silsesquioxane chemistry, which has recently taken a strong turn in directions that are ideally suited for individuals with strong backgrounds in organic chemistry (see: Chem Commun, 1998, 399-400; Chem Commun, 1998, 323-324; J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1997, 119, 11323-4). Familiarity with organosilicon chemistry will be useful in this position, but direct experience in organosilicon chemistry is not required. In fact, I would rather hire a person with strong scientific credentials who is interested in interdisciplinary research at the interface between organic, inorganic and materials chemistry. Interested candidates can request reprints, preprints and more information about the position by e-mail or by contacting me at the upcoming ACS meeting in Dallas. (I will be presenting a talk about our latest work on Tuesday, 2 PM, in the "Silicones and Silicone-Modified Materials" symposium organized by the Polymer Division.) To apply, interested candidates should send a resume and arrange to have two letters of recommendation sent to: Frank J. Feher, Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Chemistry, University of California - Irvine, CA 92697-2025. *** PLEASE NOTE - our AREA CODE changes to (949) on 4/18/98 ***, Phone: 714-824-4682, Personal FAX: 714-824-2657, Dept FAX: 714-824-8571, WEB: http://chem.ps.uci.edu/research/faculty/fjfeher.html.

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DETAILS ARE AVAILABLE IN ROOM 1380.

NEXT NEWSLETTER IS ON APRIL 27^th, 1998.