Spring 2012 Eyring Lectures

Kendall N. Houk, Saul Winstein Chair of Organic Chemistry at UCLA, to deliver January Eyring Lectures

Kendall Houk has devoted his career to solving problems in organic and bioorganic chemistry using theoretical and computational methods. As a corollary to his work in theory, he is involved in experimental research to test theoretical predictions and to develop new reactions, reagents, and catalysts, pericyclic reaction mechanisms, gating in proteins and synthetic hosts, the origins of biological catalysis, reactive intermediates in biology and the atmosphere, and molecular devices and structures and properties of organic materials.

Houk studied at Harvard, receiving his Ph.D. with R. B. Woodward as a graduate student working on experimental tests of orbital symmetry selection rules. He taught at Louisiana State University and the University of Pittsburgh before moving to UCLA in 1986. From 1988-1990, he was Director of the Chemistry Division of the National Science Foundation. He was Chair of the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry from 1991-1994, and became the Saul Winstein Chair in Organic Chemistry in 2009.

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William Petuskey, graduate Josemar Castillo, and advisor Mark Hayes

Department Celebrates the Holidays and Fall 2011 Graduation

Faculty, staff, and students celebrated at the annual Chemistry and Biochemistry Holiday Party and Fall 2011 Graduation Reception on Thursday, December 15. The festivities were moved indoors to the Old Main Carson Ballroom after last year’s slightly drizzly affair. Professor Petra Fromme’s Christmas Quintet provided lovely holiday music, and Tina Esquerra graciously served as master of ceremonies. ASU Catering provided a delicious spread of holiday treats, including their famous apple cider.

Chemistry is a competitive field, and it showed. Purchasing and Receiving took first place in the centerpiece contest, and Professor William Petuskey’s group narrowly beat out the rest of the competition for second place. The allure of a Starbuck’s gift basket, the prize for the Most Festive Attire contest, drew out nearly a dozen contenders. As determined by a round of applause, TA Dayna Peterson’s holiday socks left Accountant Laura Gibble and infant Wren in the dust.

We celebrated many graduations this fall, including Su Zhang, Ph.D.; Jeanette Nangreave, Ph.D.; Josemar Castillo, Ph.D.; Paul Oran, Ph.D.; and James Baraniak, B.S.. Department Chair William Petuskey congratulated each of the graduates and presented them with a T-shirt and laptop bag. Each of the student’s advisors shared their achievements and wished them well. In total the department graduated 51 students with either a B.S. or B.A. in chemistry and biochemistry as well as two masters and 13 doctoral students. (Full list)

Thanks to everyone who helped make this event a success. The faculty and staff of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department wish you and yours a joyful holiday season and a happy New Year!

Congratulations to our 2011 Graduates!

MS and PhD Programs:

• Daniel Barr (Dr. Arjan van der Vaart), Chemistry PhD, "Rationalization of Protein Conformational Dynamics by Molecular Simulation: Studies of the ERK2 Kinase and the LAC Repressor - O1 Operator Complex".
• Shreya Bhattacharyya (Dr.Stuart Lindsay),Chemistry PhD, "Measurement of Molecular Conductance".
• Xiaoqing Cai (Dr. Sidney Hecht), Chemistry PhD, "Synthesis of Redox-Cycling Therapeutic Agents".
• Josemar Castillo (Dr. Mark Hayes), Chemistry PhD, "Exploiting Bioparticles: From New Properties of Liposomes to Novel Applications of Bioaerosol Analysis".
• Mark Hunter (Dr.Petra Fromme), Chemistry PhD, "Femtosecond X-ray Crystallography of Membrane Proteins".
• Jeanette Nangreave (Dr. Hao Yan), Chemistry PhD, "Thermodynamics and Kinetics of DNA Nanostructure Assembly".
• Paul Oran (Dr. Randall Nelson) , Biochemistry PhD, "Targeted Proteomics Studies: Design, Development and Translation of Mass Spectrometric Immunoassays for Diabetes and Kidney Disease".
• Dustin Patterson (Dr. Ana Moore), Chemistry MS, " Modeling the Tyrz-His 190 Pair of Photosystem II for the Study of Proton Coupled Electron Transfer".
• Smitha Pillai (Dr.Ana Moore), Chemistry PhD, "Design and Synthesis of Artificial Photosynthetic Molecules to Mimic Aspects of Natural Photosynthetic Mechanisms"
• Zachary Segerman (Dr. Sidney Hecht), , Biochemistry PhD, "Study of Site Specific Cleavage of Strongly Bound Hairpin DNAs by Bleomycin".
• Justin Spiriti (Dr.Arjan van der Vaart), Chemistry PhD, "Applications of Adaptive Umbrella Sampling in Biomolecular Simulation"
• Brindi Trickey-Platt (Dr. Robert Pettit), Chemistry MS, " Combretastatin A-2 Synthetic Modifications".
• Noah Weiss (Dr. Mark Hayes), Chemistry PhD, " New Developments in Isoelectric Focusing and Dielectrophoresis for Bioanalysis"
• Zimming Yang (Dr. Everett Shock), Chemistry MS, "MIP Research Portfolio Pathways and Mechanisms for Hydrothermal Reactions of Ketones".
• Su Zhang (Dr. John Chaput),Chemistry PhD, "Developing Alternative Genetic System for Structural DNA nanotechnology and Darwinian Evolution".

BS and BA Programs