Department of Chemistry 2022: The Year in Review

Editor's Notes

Greetings Chemistry!

The Fall 2022 semester has come to end and now it is time to reflect on our year in the department and beyond. This past year brought many pre-pandemic events and practices back in-person. It was great seeing familiar and new faces on campus. You could feel the kinetic energy thriving from the Chemistry Building and Whitmore Lab once again.

Our students, faculty, staff, and alumni have had a busy year and it is difficult to sum everything up in one go. That is why we have put together some of our most memorable highlights from 2022. This edition of the newsletter includes Research in 2022, Faculty News, Student Stories, Staff News, Alumni Highlights, and more.

If you wish to have a story shared in a future newsletter, please contact me at chemcommunications@psu.edu.

Kathryn Harlow, Communications Coordinator

A Message From The Department Head

Dear Chemistry Colleagues and Alumni,

We find ourselves at the end of another year, one that was filled with changes and challenges. The department saw transitions from online to in-person activities, including teaching in-person and the removal of mask mandates. I remember this happening because I was teaching my graduate-level class in Spring of 2022 and we no longer had to wear masks. We got a new President in May, Neeli Bendapudi, and saw budget restrictions and hiring freezes. Despite these freezes, we were granted permission to carry out two (in-person) faculty searches, which are underway and will continue in January, and to hire new staff.

The department had many exciting events, as documented by this lovely Year in Review newsletter from Kathryn. I’m filled with gratitude to our students, staff, and faculty for all that you’ve done in this challenging time. We welcomed nearly 70 new students into the graduate program with a large contingent of international students. Our students have accomplished so much. Kathryn reprises stories on Mica Pitcher and bio-based materials, on students recruiting at diversity-focused conferences ABRCMS, and on a workshop on stereotype-threats headed by Margaret Gerthoffer. We also had an in-person and very successful Career and Network Recruitment Fair. Kathryn also shares stories about some of our undergraduates including Matt Herne, the Nittany Chemical Society Outstanding recognition, travel of the NCS to the ACS meeting in San Diego, and our 2022 summer Benkovic Scholars made possible by the generous support of Steve and Pat Benkovic.

We welcomed numerous new staff into the department including Tony Edmondson (Research Staff Assistant), Rob Gavlock (Facilities Coordinator), Claire Harlow (Department Head Assistant), Kathryn Harlow (Communications Coordinator), Jessie Marlow (Business Manager), Taylor McCracken (Graduate Program Assistant), and Christina Stover (Undergraduate Program Assistant). We are now fully staffed and I’m grateful to Sarah Lonsinger for overseeing the massive transition. Really, this is incredible when you think about it. It has literally changed my life and made me able to do my job as Department Head and faculty member much more efficiently. In addition, we saw well-deserved promotions of Rachel Weaver to Undergraduate Program Coordinator and Candace Burns to Undergraduate Lab Faculty Staff Assistant.

We also welcomed four new tenure-track faculty members in Julie Fenton, Danielle Hickey, Jim Hodges, and Elvira Sayfutyarova and three new instructional faculty in Jason Cross, Katheryn Penrod, and Joshua Robinson. I enjoyed working with them and the three faculty from 2021 (Jonathon Kuo, Stewart Mallory, and Lukas Muechler) in our new Launch committees. We also celebrated Mark Maroncelli’s retirement after 35 years of outstanding service to the department and university, and wish him the very best. We look forward to seeing Mark around for years to come. We also celebrated Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor of Joey Cotruvo, Gerald Knizia, and Lauren Zarzar, and Promotion to Full Professor of Amie Boal, Ed O’Brien, and Ramesh Giri. Our faculty won many awards in 2022 including the Abeles and Jencks Award to Marty Bollinger, the Distinguished Faculty Mentoring and Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award to Lauren Zarzar, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award to Denise Okafor, the 2022 AVS Medard W. Welch Award and 2022 Faculty Scholar Medal to Susan Sinnott, the International Society for Biological Inorganic Chemistry (SBIC) Early Career Award to Amie Boal, the ASBMB Merck and Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Awards and the Hans Neurath Award from the Protein Society to Squire Booker, the 2022 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience to Dave Allara, the 2022 Distinguished Service Award to John Asbury, an NSF Career award to Christian Pester, the Priestley Teaching Prize to Joe Houck, AAAS Fellow to Scott Showalter, PRF grants to Jonathon Kuo and Eric Nacsa, and NIH MIRA awards to Ruobo Zhou and Mark Hedglin. Finally, Marty Bollinger was named Marker Professor of Natural Products Chemistry, Christine Keating was named Shapiro Professor of Chemistry, Mauricio Terrones was honored as Evan Pugh Professor of Penn State, and Manuel Llinás was named Distinguished Professor.

We recognize and appreciate the thousands of alumni who read our newsletter. Indeed, Kathryn featured stories throughout the year including the research of Hayley Knox, Hanna H. Gray Fellow in Alain Bonny, and the ACS Nobel Laureate Award to Rachelle Copeland and her advisors Carsten Krebs and Marty Bollinger. Kathryn also features alumni interviews with Justin Schmidt, Laurie Mottram, Zach Waszczak, Wei Wang, Mike DeGrazia, Colleen Kelley, Eric Schwarz, and Jieru Zhu.

Ours is a great department. I say this not only on the basis of the achievements of our students, staff and faculty, but also based on the collegial spirit of the department and the sense of belonging I feel and hope that you feel too. All of us are part of making this happen and each of us play key roles. Indeed, we enjoyed more social events throughout the year in outdoor picnics, coffee hours, trivia nights, gatherings downtown, faculty receptions, and many other things.

2022 was a busy year for me personally. I had cabin fever after years of being trapped by COVID and traveled extensively for work (Germany, Quebec, Colorado twice, Chicago thrice, Cleveland) and pleasure (Hawaii, Florida, North Carolina, Finger Lakes). Research continues to go well and we welcomed new members into the Bevilacqua lab while saying goodbye to several others. It was a challenging year for our family but our daughter and my parents are all well now. I’m grateful for your wishes, thoughts, and prayers. Right now I feel a little like Forrest Gump after he stops running across America and says “I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll go home now.” Be well this winter break. Enjoy your home, your family, your peace and quiet. Don’t take these things for granted. Send me a note to say hello or to share a photo. Wishing you a peaceful winter break and a Happy New Year.

Best Wishes,

Phil Bevilacqua