Faculty Awards 

At the 2004 LSU Faculty Award reception, Linda Allen received the BP Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching while Steve Soper and Andy Maverick both received LSU Distinguished Faculty Awards.

Gudrun Schmidt earned the NSF career award for her research entitled "Bio-Nanocomposites: An Approach Towards Tissue Engineering." National Science Foundation, Division of Materials Research.  Click here  to read an excerpt from the abstract.

LSU Chemistry Department professors, Isiah M. Warner and Julia Chan were among the five of LSU's Highest Academic Achievement professors honored by the Louisiana Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon at the State capitol.  Senator Jay Dardenne of Baton Rouge recognized the professors in the Senate Chamber and Representative Donald Ray Kennard and Representative Sharon Weston-Broome recognized them and presented them with a Commendation in the House chamber. The Commendation reads: "House of Representatives of The Louisiana Legislature, on motion of Representative Donald Ray Kennard, Hereby extends its heartiest congratulations and commendation in recognition of outstanding accomplishments and contributions to Louisiana State University". Along with Louisiana Senators and Representatives, the Commendations were presented by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and LSU President William Jenkins.

Professor Julia Chan, who last year received a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the American Crystallographic Association's Margaret C. Etter Early Career Award, has been named a 2004 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. In addition, it was recently announced that she is the 2004 recipient of the ExxonMobil Solid State Chemistry Faculty Fellowship. The Sloan Fellowship Program is one of the oldest and most esteemed fellowship programs in the country and it was started as a way to encourage "outstanding young scientists and economists" at the early stages of their careers. The ExxonMobil Solid State Chemistry Faculty Fellowship is sponsored by the ExxonMobil Foundation. The award is administered by the Solid State Subdivision of the American Chemical Society Division of Inorganic Chemistry. The fellowship "recognizes young scientists who have made substantial contributions to the discipline of solid-state chemistry and have the potential to emerge as leaders in the field." It will be formally presented to Chan at the August National American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia.

Professor Isiah M. Warner, LSU Boyd Professor and Vice Chancellor for strategic initiatives, grew up in the small segregated community of Bunkie, Louisiana, and was the first in his family to attend college. He joined the LSU faculty in 1992, and served as chair of the Department of Chemistry from 1994-1997. With his help in recruiting and guiding minority students, LSU’s chemistry department has produced more African American doctorates in recent years than any other institution in the U.S. Although internationally known for his research in spectroscopy and chiral molecules, Warner says his first love is working with students. “I can’t seem to get away from the students,” he said. “They make me feel young. I love interacting with students.” Warner sees teaching as a function of research and has effectively combined both aspects. “Research is not separate from teaching,” Warner said. “Granting  agencies have focused so much money and time on research, now it’s time to develop better teaching methods. Because of his combined dedication to teaching, scientific research, and mentoring, Warner was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institution (HHMI) Professor in 2002. This honor, which includes a $1 million grant, was awarded to only 20 professors in the country.

Erwin Poliakoff was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society.  The APS Fellowship Program was created to recognize members who may have made advances in knowledge through original research and publication or made significant and innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology. He was cited "For contribution to our understanding of molecular photoionization, and the development of methods to elucidate correlations between electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom.".

Bin Chen was awarded a Travel Grant for Emerging Faculty by the Board of Regents through its NSF EPSCor program.

Kermit Murray was elected as an associate member of the IUPAC Analytical Chemistry Division (V).   He was also elected to the Board of Directors of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry as the Member-at-Large for Publications.

Paul Russo has been asked to serve on the Program Committee of the Chemical Education Foundation, an industry-sponsored organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that seeks to promote the dissemination of chemical knowledge.

Isiah M. Warner was presented by the University of Washington, College of Arts & Sciences, Distinguished Alumnus Award, May 20, 2004.

Students Awards

The 2004 College of Basic Sciences Scholarship Recipients

The 2004 College of Basic Sciences Scholarship Ceremony was held May 20, 2004.  Dr. Luigi Marzilli, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Kevin Carman, Interim Dean, College of Basic Sciences presented scholarship winners along with Noelle Blackwell of Marathon-Ashland.  Scholarship winners were Andy Wowor, W. W. Tison Memorial Scholarship (pictured with Luigi Marzilli and Kevin Carman); Erin Erickson, Celanese Scholarship (pictured with Luigi Marzilli and Kevin Carman); Rachel Love, Marathon Ashland Scholarship (pictured with Luigi Marzilli, Noelle Blackwell of Marathon-Ashland and Kevin Carman); Kelly Showalter, Marathon Ashland Scholarship (pictured with Luigi Marzilli, Noelle Blackwell of Marathon-Ashland and Kevin Carman); Andrea White, King-Sollberger Scholarship (pictured with Luigi Marzilli and Kevin Carman); and Rebecca Cross, I. H. Gottlieb Scholarship (pictured with Luigi Marzilli and Kevin Carman).

Mary W. Kamande has been selected to receive a 2004 Pfizer Graduate Research Fellowship in Analytical Chemistry in the amount $20,000 plus travel expenses to visit Pfizer in the Summer of 2005.

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Dr. Martin Gouterman from the University of Washington will be presenting a seminar at 3:00 p.m. on July  19th in The Pryor Conference Room [210 Choppin Hall]  and visiting with faculty.  Dr. Gouterman will be giving a talk entitled "Platinum Tetra(pentafluorophenyl)porphyrin (PtP) and Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP)."

Summer Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF) to be held July 29, 2004

Over 100 undergraduate students will present the results of their summer research at the 14th annual Summer Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF), to be held July 29 in the LSU Union's Royal Cotillion Ballroom.

The event, which will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., will showcase the work of college students from across the U.S. who have spent the summer at work in LSU's laboratories. LSU's Chemistry Department will be represented by eight participants in the NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program: Jeremy Gaubert (Nicholls State University), Christopher James (Tuskegee University), Richard Keithly (Virginia Commonwealth University), Ariana Marshall (Southern University), Ryan Murphy (Allegheny College), Justin Poag (Berea College), Irma Tertulien (St. John's University), and Tristan Watkins (Southern University).

Participating research programs include: the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network, three NSF-REU programs (CAMD REU, STEM Environmental REU, Chemistry/Biochemistry/Chemical Engineering REU), as well as participants in other summer programs.

Please drop by the Union on the 29th to see the results of nine weeks of hard work on the part of our undergrads and their faculty and graduate student mentors!

Saundra McGuire received the Outstanding Presentation award at the Seventh Annual Teaching in Higher Education (THE) Conference for her presentation entitled " Emphasizing Two Underutilized Dimensions of Learning: Metacognition and Motivation". This was the second year in a row that Dr. McGuire won the award. In 2003 her presentation on "Get Students to Focus on Learning Instead of Grades: Teach Them HOW to Learn!" was judged the most outstanding presentation. The awards are based on evaluations completed by the conference participants.

Steve Watkins attended the 2004 National Meeting of the National GEM Consortium (Graduate Education for Minorities) as LSU Representative and member of the Board of Directors. Other Tiger chemists present were current graduate student Zakiya Wilson (Stanley), and former graduate students Dr.  Gloria Thomas (Soper; Mississippi State University) and GEM Fellow Dr. Novella Bridges (Stanley; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory). A common theme at the two-day meeting in Las Vegas was Diversity, with memorable talks by, among others, Dr. Calvin Mackie (Tulane), Dr. Willie Pearson (Georgia Tech), and Dr. Rukeyser Thompson (Dow Chemical).

Sean P. McGlynn was a member of the Scientific Committee of the Nineteenth International Course and Conference on the Interfaces among Mathematics, Chemistry and Computer Sciences (MATH/CHEM/COMP 2004) which was held in Dubrovnik, Croatia on June 21-26, 2004.  

Sean McGlynn presented an invited  paper entitled “How Dangerous Is Surfacial Ozone?”, authored by T. Cvitas, L. Klasinc, N. Kezele and S. P. McGlynn, at  MATH/CHEM/COMP 2004 on June 23, 2004 in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

LOUISIANA AWARDED $9M NSF GRANT

“This new NSF EPSCoR grant is further confirmation that Louisiana’s research universities are able to compete on a national scale,” said Commissioner of Higher Education Joseph Savoie. “In particular, the work of Louisiana’s university researchers in micro-nano technologies has produced promising results with potentially valuable applications in a wide range of disciplines, from medicine to manufacturing.”

The initiative builds upon the significant advancements in micro-nano technologies made during previous NSF EPSCoR funding. CBM2 includes  researchers from Louisiana State University and A&M College, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, the J. Bennett Johnston Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD), and Xavier University of Louisiana.

For the complete article, please visit:  http://2theadvocate.com/stories/061204/new_lawin001.shtml

Through splendid efforts by Bob Hammer and George Stanley, and important support by the BOR and LSU faculty and the administration, especially Vice Chancellor Smith and BASC, we are happy to announce that we were just informed by NSF that LSU's 700MHz NMR proposal has been recommended for funding. This is a big leap for LSU and Louisiana.  This is excellent news coming on the heels of the recent EPSCOR center grant headed up by Steve Soper and the NIRT award headed up by Barry Dellinger.

Graca Vicente's grant funded in March 2004: NIH R01 CA098902: "Tumor-targeting with New Boronated Porphyrins". PI: M. G. H. Vicente, co-PI: D. G. Baker.

Kermit Murray has learned that his grant "Infrared MALDI Mass Spectrometry" was funded for $358,500 for three years.  In addition, his project on "Standard Definitions of Terms Related to Mass Spectrometry" was funded ($6000 in travel support) and he is also Task Group Chairman for the project.

Robert Cook has  been informed that he has been recommended for funding by the BOR (approximately $147,000) and is at the moment in final contract negotiations. In addition a grant he wrote and submitted to an open USDA RFP in soil fertility with a colleague up at the University of Massachusetts has been recommended for funding (It placed #2 of 199 submitted proposals, the total value of the award is tentatively $394,000).

K. M. Smith and M. G. H. Vicente. Porphyrins and Related Compounds. In "Houben-Weyl Science of  Synthesis", Weinreb, S. M. (Ed.), Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, 2004, Vol. 17, pg. 1081-1235.

R. Luguya, L. Jaquinod, F. Fronczek, K. M. Smith and M. G. H. Vicente. Synthesis and Reactions of meso-(p-Nitrophenyl)porphyrins. Tetrahedron 2004, 60 (12), 2757-2763.

M. De Napoli, S. Nardis, R. Paolesse, M. G. H. Vicente, R. Lauceri and R. Purrello. Hierarchical Porphyrin Self-Assembly in Aqueous Solution. Journal of American Chemical Society 2004, 126 (19), 5934-5935.

M. G. H. Vicente, V. Gottumukkala, A. Wickramasinghe, M. Anikovsky and M. A. J. Rodgers. Singlet Oxygen Generation and Dark Toxicity of a nido- and a closo-Carboranylporphyrin. Proceedings of SPIE, The International Society for Optical Engineering 2004, 5315, 33-40.

Novella Bridges (LSU 2000, Stanley Group), Darrell Fisher and Anna Gutowska, research scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, recently received the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) 2004 Regional Industrial Innovation Award. The award is given to individuals and teams whose creative innovations have contributed to the commercial success of their company and to the good of society.

The team is being honored for their collaborative work on development of radiolabeled composites, known as RadioGel™, as therapeutic agents for high dose treatment of solid cancers that cannot be removed surgically. RadioGel™ is an injectable solution that holds the therapeutic radioisotope in place at the target site for highly-localized radiation therapy of cancerous tissue with minimal effects on adjacent healthy tissues and normal organs. It has applications for treating cancers of the liver, pancreas, brain, neck and kidneys.

Bridges, Fisher and Gutowska were presented with the award in June at the ACS 59th Northwest/18th Rocky Mountain Regional Industrial Innovation Award Program in Logan, Utah.

Bridges specializes in inorganic chemistry. She earned a bachelor degree in chemistry from Jackson State University in 1994 and a doctorate degree in inorganic chemistry and organometallics from Louisiana State University in 2000.