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CHEMISTRY NEWS Winter 2023

INTERIM SCIENCE DEAN

Professor Jean Chmielewski is the interim dean of the College of Science while Purdue begins a national search to replace Patrick Wolfe who was recently named Purdue’s provost. Read more about Dr. Chmielewski’s award-winning career as a scientist and educator, and our department’s strong tradition of faculty members holding high-level leadership positions at the University.

RESEARCH NEWS

From research pioneered by Professor Philip Low, the FDA recently approved a new imaging agent developed by On Target Laboratories. Read more about how Cytalux helps doctors during lung cancer surgery.

Professor R. Graham Cooks and team have discovered a key to early Earth chemistry, which could unlock ways to speed up chemical synthesis for drug discovery. Read more or listen to Dr. Cooks explain how this discovery unravels the chemistry behind the origin of life.

Professor Alex Laskin and team have discovered that a widespread pipe repair technique is sending nanoplastics into the atmosphere. Read more about how he is using analytical chemistry to detect aerosolized microplastics.

AWARD NEWS

A team led by Professor Gaurav Chopra (including Professor R. Graham Cooks) has won the National Institutes of Health NCATS ASPIRE Reduction-to-Practice Challenge grand prize. Read more about the award, the research, and who’s on the team.

Professors Lyudmila Slipchenko and Adam Wasserman have been selected as 2023 University Faculty Scholars by the Office of the Provost. The scholars program recognizes outstanding faculty members who are on an accelerated path for academic distinction and it includes a five-year appointment with an annual $10,000 discretionary allocation to support their research.

Professor Julia Laskin was awarded the Riveros Medal by the Brazilian Society of Mass Spectrometry. In March, Dr. Laskin will be awarded the College of Science Research Award and will present a public lecture highlighting her outstanding work in the development of new instrumentation and mass spectrometry techniques.

Nathan Lin has been selected for the DOE Science Graduate Student Research Program. He is a graduate student in Professor Bart’s lab. Read more about the award and Nathan’s plan to pursue research at Argonne National Lab.

UKRAINIAN SCHOLARS INITIATIVE

Dr. Anna Pavlishchuk, a faculty member at Taras Shevchenko National University, has joined our department as part of Purdue’s Ukrainian Scholars Program. Read more about her journey from Kyiv to West Lafayette.

ALUMNI NEWS

Susan M. Lunte will receive the American Chemical Society Award in Analytical Chemistry this spring. Dr. Lunte is the Ralph N. Adams Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Kansas. She earned a Ph.D. in 1984 working with Emeritus Professor Peter Kissinger. Dr. Lunte received our department's Outstanding Alumni Award in 2011 and is currently a member of our Chemistry Alumni Board.

Phil Cook (B.S. 2000) was featured on a fun and educational episode of the This Is Purdue podcast. He is a chemistry teacher at Culver Academies and his virtual chemistry experiments are very popular on TikTok.

Chelsea Thompson was featured in C&EN article that highlighted her journey from atmospheric chemist to scientific communicator/illustrator. She earned a Ph.D. in 2012 working with Emeritus Professor Paul Shepson.

NEGISHI ARCHIVES

Organic Chemistry faculty members toast the opening of the Negishi Archives after the inaugural Negishi Lecture.

Organic Chemistry recently created and dedicated the Negishi Archives located in the Wetherill Lab Building. The project was led by Professor Jean Chmielewski, and the room contains documents, photos, and artifacts left by Dr. Negishi and donated by his family.

K-12 OUTREACH

Purdue K-12 Outreach recently hosted students and teachers from Danville, Indiana Community High School. Students completed the lab From Microbes to Medicines which was developed and taught by Professor Betsy Parkinson. Following their lab work, Dr. Parkinson gave the group a tour of her Purdue research lab. In addition, Professor Parkinson coordinated the shipment of lab kits to classrooms across the United States. More photos

IN MEMORIAM - GEORGE HONIG

Our colleague and emeritus professor George Honig died at the age of 98 this past fall semester. Read more about his journey to Purdue and the impact he made in our department.