Chemistry Newsletter - 04/26/1999

 

University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Chemsitry Newsletter

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XXXIV No. 17

April 26th, 1999

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Finance Committee and Department Meeting Dates

Spring 1999

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Department Committee - Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. In Room 8335.

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Finance Committee - Tuesday at 1:20 p.m. - In Room 1301.

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Organic Chemistry Cumulative Exam Schedule, 1999.

Thursdays, 7:30 p.m., room B371 Chemistry Building.

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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 of minor courses. The minor requirement is expected to be completed by the end of the third year of graduate school. Minor agreement forms are available in Room 1221.

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General information on the commencement ceremonies (when/where, etc.) may be obtained from Mary Kay in Room 1221 Chemistry.

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Message from Brad Spencer, computer systems manager:

I frequently find items on the printers in the computer room that had apparently been intended to be printed elsewhere. I also frequently find items printed on transparencies that were apparently meant to be printed on paper. This is a waste of resources. I suggest the following:

• If you intend to use any of the printers in the computer room from a PC or Mac please take a moment to familiarize yourself with how to select options (such as paper source) in the print driver you use. Mac For the Tektronix Phaser 360 printer (CHEM_360) the only reliable way I know to print from a Mac is to use the Laserwriter 8 (or later) driver and the TKP360P1.PPD printer descriptor. In the Chooser you should configure the printer, being especially certain that you specify that the optional lower tray is present. (Users who have tried to use the older Phaser 340 driver for this printer have had difficulties when they tried to select paper or transparency). If you don't have options for paper, transparency, manual paper and manual transparency there is something wrong. Please correct whatever is wrong before you print.  PC If printing from a PC the printer is shared as \\CHEMSCAN\CHEM_360 Drivers and other files are available on the Tektronix web site (start at http://www.tek.com/Color_Printers/support/welcome.html and select Software and Drivers.) The printer is a Phaser 360. I believe that Windows 95 users can download the appropriate drivers automatically form CHEMSCAN during setup.
• Develop this habit: LOOK TO SEE which printer is selected when you print anything. It is easy to assume the software is configured to use the default printer for your system, but it is also easy for it to be configured otherwise, or for the default to have been changed by another user. If you are printing to CHEM_360, MAKE SURE YOU SELECT EITHER PAPER OR TRANSPARENCY (as you desire) rather than auto-select.
• If printing from VMS to CHEM_360 you should be able to specify /FORM=PAPER or /FORM=TRANSP for paper or transparencies, respectively. If printing from Unix you can select transparencies by a command like lpr -Pchem_360 /chemhome/tools/upper.ps YOURFILE.PS. Please follow this with lpr -Pchem_360 /chemhome/tools/lower.ps so that the printer is left in the default (paper) state. This second command should not print anything, so no supplies are wasted..
• Remember that Postscript printers print Postscript. They do not print GIF, JPEG, BMP, etc. files. You may print such files from an appropriate application (such as Photoshop). The application converts the graphics data to Postscript. Typically when a JPEG or other graphics file is sent directly to a printer a large number of pages with nothing useful on them is printed.
• You can do two-sided printing on the printer HP4000 in room 9311. This option should appear somewhere in your print dialog if you are using the proper HP 4000 driver. You cannot successfully do two-sided color printing on CHEM_360. The ink used on this printer is wax based, and a second pass through any printer which uses heat in the image generation process will result in melted and smeared ink from the first pass (please trust me on this rather than do your own experiment.)
• If you find that a printer misbehaves even when you do the above please let me know. If the instructions above are unclear or if you see a way they can be improved or augmented please let me know. You might, for example, have experienced a particular problem using some program and now know the solution to the problem.

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SEMINARS

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Tuesday, April 27^th, 1999 - Physical Chemistry Seminar, 11:00 a.m., Room 8335 Chemistry Building. Professor J. Andrew McCammon, UC San Diego. "Dynamics of Molecular Recognition"

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Thursday, April 29^th, 1999 - Analytical Sciences Seminar, 12:05 p.m., Room B371 Chemistry Building. Chris Hunt, Graduate Student. "Understanding the Natural Variation in the Tertiary Structure of Cellulose in Paint Cell Walls"

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Thursday, April 29^th, 1999 - CBI Highlights Seminar, 2:25 p.m., Room B371 Chemistry Building. Professor Arnold E. Ruoho, UW Pharmacology. "The Catalytic Core of Adenylyl Cyclase"

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Thursday, April 29th, 1999 - Organic Chemistry Seminar, 11:00 a.m., Room 1361 Chemistry, Zhi-Qiang Yang, Graduate Student.

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Thursday, April 29^th, 1999 - Chemical Engineering Seminar, 3:55 p.m., Room 1227 Engineering. George Georgiou, University of Texas-Austin. "High Throughput Screening Technologies for the Isolation of Novel Antibodies, Enzymes and Metabolic Pathways"

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Friday, April 30^th, 1999 - Chemistry 104 Special Enrichment Lectures, 11:00 a.m., Room 1351 Chemistry Building. Wisconsin State Representative - (D) - Spencer Black - 77^th Assembly District in the State of Wisconsin. "When Science Meets Politics - How Environmental Policy is Made"

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Monday, May 3^rd, 1999 - Inorganic Division Seminar, 2:30 p.m., Room B371 Chemistry Building. Rudi Pietschnig, Postdoc.

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Tuesday, May 4^th, 1999 - Chemical Engineering Seminar. 3:55 p.m., Room 1800 Engineering. Wolfgang Marquardt, Lehrstuhl Fuer Prozesstechnk, RWTH, Aachen, Germany. "Multiscale Approaches to Process Simulation and Optimization"

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Tuesday, May 4^th, 1999 - Physical Chemistry Seminar. 11:00 a.m., Room 8335 Chemistry Building. Daniel Auerbach, IBM Almaden. "The Interaction of Highly Vibrationally Excited Molecules with Surfaces"

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Wednesday, May 5^th, 1999 - Inorganic Division Seminar, 3:30 p.m., Room B371 Chemistry Building. Catherine J. Murphy, University of South Carolina. "Optical Sensing with Inorganic Molecules and Nanomaterials: From Water to DNA"

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Thursday, May 6^th, 1999 - Organic Chemistry Seminar (McElvain). 11:00 a.m., Room 1361 Chemistry Building. Dr. Mark Gallop.

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Thursday, May 6^th, 1999 - Materials Science in the Chemistry Curriculum. 12 noon. 2373 Chemistry Building. Mary Ann White, Dalhousie University, Canada. "Do Your Students Understand the Chemsitry Behind the Workings of a Photocopier?"

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Thursday, May 6^th, 1999 - Analytical Sciences Seminar, 12:05 p.m., Room B371 Chemistry Building. Jianming Liu - Grad Student.

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Friday, May 7^th, 1999 - PharmSci Lecture. 3:30 p.m., Dr. Pim Stemmer, Maxygen Inc. "DNA Shuffling"

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Thursday, May 13^th, 1999 - Analytical Sciences Seminar, 12:05 p.m., Room B371 Chemistry Building. Lei Yang - Grad Student.

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Thursday, May 13^th, 1999 - Chemical Engineering Seminar. 3:55 p.m., Room 1227 Engineering. Glenn Frederickson, University of California-Santa Barbara. "Recent Advances in the Theory of Reactive Blending"

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Friday, May 14^th, 1999 - PharmSci Lecture. 3:30 p.m., Professor John Frost, MSU. "Engineering Novel Pathways for Production of Fine Chemicals by Bacteria"

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Monday, may 24th,1999 - Time and Place TBA. Professor Garland Marshall, Washington University, St. louis. "Bound Conformations for Ligands for G-Protein Coupled Receptors"

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Recent Publications

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Zhang HZ; Banfield JF

New kinetic model for the nanocrystalline anatase-to-rutile transformation revealing rate dependence on number of particles.

AMERICAN MINERALOGIST 1999, Vol 84, Iss 4, pp 528-535

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Zhu ZD; Bally T; Stracener LL; McMahon RJ

Reversible interconversion between singlet and triplet 2-naphthyl(carbomethoxy)carbene.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 1999, Vol 121, Iss 12, pp 2863-2874.

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Sohn HL; Huddleston RR; Powell DR; West R; Oka K; Xu YH

An electroluminescent polysilole and some dichlorooligosiloles.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 1999, Vol 121, Iss 12, pp 2935-2936.

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Herzog U; West R

Heterosubstituted polysilanes.

MACROMOLECULES 1999, Vol 32, Iss 7, pp 2210-2214.

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Banfield JF; Barker WW; Welch SA; Taunton A

Biological impact on mineral dissolution: Application of the lichen model to understanding mineral weathering in the rhizosphere.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1999, Vol 96, Iss 7, pp 3404-3411.

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Pallitto MM; Ghanta J; Heinzelman P; Kiessling LL; Murphy RM

Recognition sequence design for peptidyl modulators of beta-amyloid aggregation and toxicity.

BIOCHEMISTRY 1999, Vol 38, Iss 12, pp 3570-3578.

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Ivanisevic A; Ellis AB

Photoluminescent properties of cadmium selenide in contact with solutions and films of metalloporphyrins. Evidence for semiconductor-mediated adduct formation of oxygen with metalloporphyrins at room temperature.

JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY B 1999, Vol 103, Iss 11, pp 1914-1919.

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Copyright � 1998 Institute for Scientific Information

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Symposium Series in Developmental and Molecular Toxicology

Horizons in Developmental Toxicology and Developmental Biology June 3 - 5, 1999

Sponsor: EHS Center for Developmental and Molecular Toxicology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin. NIEHS. Conference Schedule, Lecture Times, General Information and Registration Forms are in room 1380 Chemistry.

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Earn money and increase your teaching experience!

Are you interested in being an instructor to 4 middle school students? The Summer Enrichment Program (SEP) is a program for 7th through 9th grade minority students, and provides a hands-on laboratory experience for these students. If you're interested, please contact Tony Jacob as soon as possible at the Chemistry Learning Center, 265-5497 or atjacob@facstaff.wisc.edu , or drop off a note in my mailbox in the Chemistry Department. The salary will be at least $340/week (20 hours/week). Typically, instructors work one or two weeks depending on their schedule and the needs of the program. The tentative schedule is: June 21-25 in the mornings, June 14-18 in the afternoons, and either June 7-11 or June 14-18 in the mornings.

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National Organic Symposium

Just a friendly reminder that the registration and abstract submission deadline for the June 13-17 National Organic Symposium here in Madison is this Saturday, May 1. For information about the conference and on-line registration and poster abstract submission, see the conference web site: http://www.wisc.edu/union/info/conf/orgchem/orgchem.html .

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THE MINORITY & WOMEN DOCTORAL DIRECTORY

If you are interested in being listed in the" minority and women doctoral directory", see the following website: http://www.mwdd.com/ . THE MINORITY & WOMEN DOCTORAL DIRECTORY is sometimes used by universities when recruiting faculty. It is a registry which maintains up-to-date information on employment candidates who have recently received, or are soon to receive, a Doctoral or Master's degree in their respective field from one of approximately two hundred major research universities in the United States. The current edition of the directory lists approximately 4,500 Black, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian American, and women students in nearly 80 fields in the sciences, engineering, the social sciences and the humanities. We maintain essential decision-making criteria and current contact information for each candidate, such as name, address, ethnicity and citizenship, major and areas of specialization, date of completion, dissertation title, and current employment/post-doctoral appointment. The information for the Directory was collected over late spring and summer 1998 to ensure accurate mailing addresses. Only those students from last year's Directory who updated their listing for the new edition are included. We hope you will find this new edition even more useful in realizing an enlarged pool of qualified minority and women candidates for your faculty and/or professional positions.

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For Industrial Positions, see the Chemistry Placement Newsletter at:

http://www.chem.wisc.edu/placement/7news.html

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FACULTY POSITIONS/TEMPORARY FACULTY/ACADEMIC POSITIONS

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Student Services Coordinator. The Plant Pathology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is seeking applicants for the position of Student Services Coordinator. This is a 12-month academic staff appointment. Candidates must have a B.A./B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. degree in the life sciences. The principal duties of this position are to:

• Devise and execute Plant Pathology graduate student recruiting programs.
• Provide a comprehensive range of educational services in one-on-one and organized group settings. including new student orientation, academic and career advising, and oversight of academic progress towards degrees in Plant Pathology and related fields.
• Prepare nominations of Plant Pathology students for awards and fellowships.
• Serve as a member of the Curriculum Committee and Academic Affairs Committee.
• Initiate and maintain contact, information exchange, and coordination of effort with peer campus graduate programs.
• Provide academic advising to undergraduate majors. Administer and teach our undergraduate summer research program in Plant-Microbe Interactions (PMIP).
• Recruit high-quality undergraduate students nationally for fellowships to do research projects with faculty.
• Assist on an ad hoc basis with Plant Pathology Departmental teaching.
• Serve as a general Department resource on matters related to instruction.

Applications should include a letter of interest, resume, and names of three references. Please send all materials and inquiries to: Dr. Ann MacGuidwin, Department of Plant Pathology / University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706-1598, (608) 263-6131 / (608) 263 -2626 (fax). Consideration of applicants will begin on April 27, 1999.

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POSTDOCTORAL POSITION AND/OR JOBS

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Colby College invites applications for a one-year postdoctoral fellowship. Candidates with experience in computational approaches to structural biology, biochemistry, or drug design will be favorably reviewed. The candidate will participate in a research program in guest-host chemistry and computer aided molecular design, with the goal of using molecular orbital calculations, molecular dynamics, and 3D-database searches to predict guest-host association. Experimental determinations will stress titration calorimetry and NMR. This position is one of five fellowships in the Natural Sciences at Colby. The successful candidate will be expected to work with a senior faculty mentor to make contributions to our Biochemistry and Physical Chemistry courses. The department has excellent facilities including six Indigo SGI workstations and two Origin 2000 servers, a 400 MHz NMR, ICP, GC-MS, FTIR, Raman, automated SEM/EDS, and most of the routine instruments needed for an aggressive research program. The fellow will be directly involved in Colby's ongoing program to integrate research and formal teaching to provide a discovery-rich undergraduate science program. Applicants should arrange for a vita, statement of interest, transcripts, and three letters of recommendation to be sent to: Thomas W. Shattuck, Department of Chemistry, Colby College, Waterville, ME 04901. E-mail: twshattu@colby.edu . Applicant screening will begin March 1, 1999 and will continue until the position is filled. For more information about the College and the fellowship, please see our web page at: http://www.colby.edu/chemistry/ .

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Senior Postdoctoral position in NMR / Spectrometer Manager. The Section de Chimie of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, is looking to fill a full-time post-doctoral position (premier assistant). The initial appointment is for one year and is renewable for up to 6 years. The successful candidate will be responsible for the management of a 600 MHz NMR spectrometer (Bruker DRX 600) which is operated by several Swiss universities, but which is also accessible to internal users. A full-time engineer provides excellent support. The successful candidate may elect to work independently or in association with the research groups of Prof. Geoffrey Bodenhausen or Dr Catherine Zwahlen. These groups currently comprise 6 graduate students and 2 post-docs working on NMR techniques, and have access to a DRX 600, two DRX 400, and a DRX 300 spectrometer, all recently upgraded with the latest technology. The latter is equipped for both liquids and solids (triple-resonance MAS). Expertise in either solid-state NMR or high-resolution biomolecular NMR would be welcome. Initial salary ca. US$ 3000 per month. Please send applications with a CV, list of publications and e-mail addresses of two scientists who would be willing to support the application to: Geoffrey Bodenhausen, Section de Chimie, BCH, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, Tel: +41 21 692 3950, e.mail:Geoffrey.Bodenhausen@ico.unil.ch .

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Announcement of Postdoctoral Research Position in the Laboratory of Dr. Chris Pursell at Trinity University. We have an opening in our research laboratory for a postdoctoral research fellow. Funding is available for up to three years. This position is ideal for an individual who is interested in pursuing an academic position at an undergraduate college or university. While this is a full-time research position and does not require a teaching commitment, the fellow may elect to participate in teaching within the chemistry department. The research in our laboratory has been focusing on heterogeneous chemical reactions on ice surfaces and ice-like surfaces. Most recently we have been examining the changes in the chemical reactivity of the ice surface as a function of temperature. Future studies will include studies on ice surfaces, photochemistry of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ice, and surface studies involving other low temperature molecular solids. This position will also allow enough flexibility that the fellow can pursue his/her own research interests. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Chris Pursell at cpursell@trinity.edu or (210)736-7381. Applications (a cover letter, vita, copies of transcripts, and three letters of recommendation) should be sent to: Dr. Chris Pursell, Trinity University, Chemistry Department, 715 Stadium Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78212-7200. Applications will be evaluated as received.

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Albany Medical College. Predoctoral and postdoctoral positions are available July 1^st for the study of behavioral, neurochemical and molecular bases of drug addiction and dependence. These positions are part of a new training program supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Predoctoral fellows will receive broad training in the biomedical sciences as well as specific training in areas related to drug abuse. Both pre- and postdoctoral fellows will be mentored by one or more of fourteen NIH-funded training faculty in fully-equipped state-of-the-art laboratories. Postdoctoral candidates should submit a curriculum vitae and three letters of reference. Predoctoral candidates should request an application to our graduate studies program. Contact: Dr. Stanley D. Glick, Chair, Department of Pharmacology & Neuroscience, Albany Medical College, Mailcode 136, 47 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, New York 12208-3479, FAX: 518-262-5799, e-mail: sglick@ccgateway.amc.edu .

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Assistant Professor Neil Shafer-Ray of The University of Oklahoma is seeking a talented ambitious post doc to run a state-of-the-art molecular scattering apparatus, write scientific publications, and come up with creative ideas for new experiments. He has money for up to three years of postdoctoral support starting immediately. Because our apparatus has been completely tested and assembled, I expect the postdoctoral experience to be highly productive and rewarding. The source of my funds is a NSF CAREER grant to study molecular collisions with an unprecedented degree of accuracy and control. (Our collision energy resolution is in the meV range.) We have plans to study the energy-dependent state-to-state cross sections of a variety of atom-diatom collisions, including H+O₂, O(³P)+D₂, O(¹D)+H₂, and O(¹D)+O₂. We hope that by continuously tuning the collision energy we will reveal a spectra of fascinating phenomena including the appearance of dynamical resonances, the transition of adiabatic to diabetic behavior, and alignment effects that oscillate with energy. If you know of any suitable candidate, I would greatly appreciate it if you could have the person call me: Neil Shafer-Ray, Assistant Professor of Physics, The University of Oklahoma, (405)325-3961 ext. 36126.

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Please submit all newsletter information or address changes to: goldade@chem.wisc.edu or 262-0293. Thank You.

DETAILS ARE AVAILABLE IN ROOM 1380.

NEXT NEWSLETTER IS ON MAY 3^rd, 1999.