National Meetings
Beloit College 25th Annual Student Symposium, April 12, 2001
The Beloit Biologist, Volume 20, 2001
This past year both George and Brock were on sabbatical. (You can read more about what they did in the Faculty Update section below.) We were fortunate to have Elisabetta Fasella join us for the year to teach a variety of courses.
As part of the Keck funded Molecular Visualization Laboratory, we have added to our molecular modeling and visualization software, particularly for the high-end G4 workstations, and begun to do developmental work with additional animation and presentation software (Dreamweaver, Macromedia Director) as well as with wireless communications capabilities (Apple Airport and Farralon wireless cards). We have also used Keck funds to install two servers to provide ready storage and access to working files for students in both laboratories, as well as a portable LCD computer projector for classroom use.
In the area of molecular spectroscopy, we have acquired twelve Ocean Optics diode array "spectrophotometers on a chip" for use in our General Chemistry (117) and Chemical Equilibrium (220) courses. The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation has awarded funds for 12 lap-top computers and interfaced sets of Vernier "probes" for measuring variables such as mass, temperature, pressure, and conductivity. The proposal was for these stations to be connected in a wireless network so that class data could be displayed and analyzed in real time in order to enhance student experience with our discovery-based experiments.
The College and the Chemistry Department lost a great supporter and friend with the death of Paul L. Kohnstamm on Jan. 10, 2001, at age 78. As a member of Beloit's Board of Trustees since 1988 and a life trustee since 1994, Paul established an endowed equipment fund for the Department that has proved crucial as we have continued to develop our instrument base for research and teaching. In 1993 he funded the Kohnstamm Chair in Chemistry, which Brock Spencer continues to hold. Last February, Brock represented the College at Paul's memorial service, held at the Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City, for which he had served as president and chair of the Board of Trustees. His other major philanthropic involvement included work over many years with the Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged, Williams College, Tufts School of Nutrition, the Horace Mann School, and the Nature Conservancy. Starting in 1957, Paul was the fourth generation chairman and president of H. Kohnstamm & Company, one of the nation's longest continuously operating chemical companies. His father, Lothair, was a founding member of the Chemist Club in New York City, where Paul served as president in the late 1980s and hosted a Beloit College alumni meeting. Paul initially became involved in Beloit through his son, Daniel Kohnstamm, who graduated in 1974.
What a time! 2000-2001 is the year of the new millennium, the release of the human genome sequence, the new "descended from a great biochemistry professor" President of Beloit College, publication of a study of Beloit as providing the best undergraduate education in the United States, a host of outstanding new biochemistry students, and my success in returning to teaching at Beloit. It was a very good year.
You have no doubt read of the publication of the human genome and Beloit's role as described in the Beloit Magazine. So on to another exciting development, President Burris. Those of you who have had biochemistry with me have heard me speak of the world's expert on nitrogenase, Professor Burris, who I knew while I was in graduate school at UW-Madison. He was at the inauguration of his son, who is now President of Beloit College. I think of John as a colleague, rather than President, and have been delighted to find him very helpful to the many biochemistry students who go to him for advice.
We are number one! The Pew Charitable Trusts sponsored at $3.3 million National Survey of Student Engagement to determine where students get the best undergraduate education. Instead of stuff like endowment and reputation, they identified five criteria for actual education, and Beloit ranked at the highest level in all five! As an indication of the impact of the report in The Chronicle of Higher Education, a prospective student just interviewed with me last month. She had been accepted at Carleton, Grinnell, and Northwestern. "But my first choice by far is Beloit!" she reported to me.
Outstanding new students, there's a subject many of you already know about. Thanks again for sending these great kids. Among the freshmen a year ago, Carrie Clothier '97 sent us Clarissa Schumacher, '03, who won the top freshman prize last year. Last week, the Dean of Rush Medical College and the Director of Minority Affairs at Rush Medical College asked if they could visit Beloit and meet with our pre-medical students! Can you imagine our students are being courted by medical schools now?! Small wonder, when students like Tanya Danner '97 are their top medical students. Thanks to all of you, my job has become easy. I just let my students sit together and inspire each other, while I sit back and applaud for them.
I think the team spirit of biochemistry here can make us all proud. When Muyiwa Awoniyi '03 gave his poster at the AAAS convention in San Francisco, he was hosted by Kay Dennis '94, who was working at Genentech (with Linda Zuckerman '90). And Bryna Dunaway '03 was at Johns Hopkins last summer in Public Health interning with alum Amy Knowlton'86. Bashar Qumseya '01, from Bethlehem, is getting advice about medical school from Yoon Kim '91, who is out in California now making medicine into an intelligent profession. And I could go on and on. Thanks to your help with each other, I get to hear happy endings nearly daily, like the nice note from our Proteomics alum Brian Davis '81, "Hey, those stock options are finally worth something!"
Congratulations to you all. If you have a student you want
to come to Beloit, let me know. It's getting really hard to get
admitted here - the freshman class used to never fill, now it
was overflowing in May. I will be glad to try to help kids you
recommend!
Charles Abrams
Assistant Professor
A.B. Washington University
A.M., M.Phil., Columbia University
At Beloit since January 1998
https://www.beloit.edu/chemistry/Abrams/
Charlie took over full responsibility for Organic Chemistry
with Laura in Scotland for the fall, teaching both sections of
Chemistry 230 in the fall and Chemistry 235 in the spring. He
also handled senior seminar in the fall and our sophomore seminar,
Professional Tools for Chemistry (280) in the spring. Building
on his on-going interests in the development of computer-based
educational materials, Charlie offered an Interdisciplinary Studies
course on Interactive Design in the spring. He also devoted considerable
effort to the Keck Spectroscopy and Molecular Visualization project
for the department.
Bill Brown, who retired in Aug 1999 with Professor Emeritus
status, still teaches Advanced Organic Chemistry. He has recently
published two books: General Organic and Biochemistry 6e,
Saunders College Publishing, 2001, coauthored with Fred Bettelheim
and Organic Chemistry 3e, Saunders College Publishing,
2001, coauthored with Christopher Foote.
As a sabbatical replacement, Elisabetta filled in admirably
for George and Brock, teaching two sections of Chem 117, Chemical
Equilibrium (220), and an Advanced Topics course on Bioorganic
Chemistry. She is moving on to a faculty position in chemistry
at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire where, she says, "Beloit
visitors are welcome!"
George taught Inorganic Chemistry and General Chemistry in the fall. He and his family spent the spring semester in Lund, Sweden, where George worked with Ebbe Nordlander (Beloit '86) to synthesize new ligands for preparation of trigonal copper(II) model complexes for bioinorganic systems. He found the most useful description of Beloit to be "the place where Anne Whalen Ryter (Beloit '88) was from" since she had previously done post-doctoral research in that group. George gave a number of presentations and workshops in Scandinavia about the ChemLinks project, solid-state chemistry, and computer multimedia. Both Rachel and Diana attended city schools. George's biggest challenge was singing in the Lund Cathedral choir, which sings (and rehearses) in Swedish.
During the past year Chia Goh (Beloit '01) and George worked on a research project studying magnetically-driven self-assembly equilibria of triangular, centimeter-sized, polydimethylsiloxane elastomer tiles whose edges were impregnated with strontium ferrite powder. The question of interest was whether a small number of oppositely-magnetized tiles at an aqueous salt solution-air interface in a round vessel moved by an orbital shaker would interact as expected from equilibrium predictions. For a given swirl rate, variations in the relative numbers of oppositely-magnetized tiles was used to investigate the validity of an equilibrium constant for such systems. Only when the total number of tiles was kept constant by the addition of nonmagnetic tiles was an equilibrium constant maintained, presumably reflecting activity effects due to the highly concentrated nature of the system. A modification of the van't Hoff equation based on the kinetic energy provided to the system permitted estimation of the pseudo-enthalpy and pseudo-entropy changes associated with the self-assembling process. As expected, use of weaker magnetic tiles yielded similar entropy changes within experimental error but proportionally weaker enthalpy changes. Chia wrote his senior thesis based on this work and a research paper has been submitted for publication.
George continues to be involved in developing ways to use new materials technologies to teach chemistry through an association with the NSF-funded Nanostructured Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (http://mrsec.wisc.edu/nano). See especially the movies in the cineplex!
•Putting Solids in the Foundation, Swedish Chemical
Society Berzelius Days, Stockholm University, Sweden, February
2, 2001
•Promoting Active Learning Using Real-World Contexts in
Introductory Chemistry, Kemicentrum Pedagogiska Seminarier,
Lund University, Sweden, March 19, 2001
•Lighting Up your Chemistry Class, as part of a symposium
entitled New Lamps for Old: Opportunities for Chemists in Lighting
and Display Technologies, American Chemical Society National
Meeting, San Diego, CA, April 1, 2001
•Building Solid State Models, Workshop for Inorganic
Chemistry 2, Lund University, Sweden, May 10, 2001
•Solids in Chemistry, Gymnasium chemistry class, Katedralskolan,
Lund, Sweden, May 30, 2001
•Promoting Active Learning Using Real-World Contexts in
Introductory Chemistry, Uppsala University, Sweden, June 6,
2001
•Solids in the Foundation, day long workshop as part
of Kemifortbilding i Halmstad, Halmstad University, Sweden, June
13, 2001
•Can Computer Technology Involve Active Learning?
Helsinki University, Finland, June 18, 2001
• S. M. Condren, G. C. Lisensky, A. B. Ellis, K. J. Nordell,
T. F. Kuech, and S. A. Stockman, "LEDs: New Lamps for Old
and a Paradigm for Ongoing Curriculum Modernization", J.
Chem. Ed., 78, 1033 (2001).
•C. Goh, G. C. Lisensky, K. J. Nordell, C. Bui, C. R. Landis,
A. B. Ellis, "Magnetic Self-Assembly Equilibria at a Macroscopic
Scale," in preparation.
I just returned from the Diet and Optimum Health conference at the Linus Pauling Institute in Oregon, held in honor of the 100th anniversary of Pauling's birth. There one of the invited speakers, MD/PhD, told me I may be mentally alive thanks to my vitamin C habits. The speaker's expertise was short term memory, which was what I lost during my accident, but is miraculously returning. I learned that before hibernating, animals make vast quantities of vitamin C and store it in their brain cells to protect the brain from the hypoxia/reaeration during hibernation.
I began teaching biochemistry and Chem 117 in the fall of 2000, even though doctors say my brain will continue healing through December, 2001. My students this year have been champions, helping me cope with many missing pieces and abilities. I think of myself as a neurochemical experiment, observing the progress I make. One Chem 117 problem is "How does the emission wavelength of an LED change when placed in liquid nitrogen?" In November, 2000, I could explain the logic, but not assemble the pieces to get the answer. In April, 2001, I could!
A poster on the CHANGE program, a cooperative program between Rush Medical College and Beloit, was coauthored by Dr. Klaus Kuettner, Chair of Biochemistry at Rush, Muyiwa Awoniyi '03, and me to be presented at the AAAS meeting in San Francisco in February, 2001. My doctors had not approved me for travel, but thanks to support from our new President, Dean Burrows, and Chemistry, Muyiwa went, gave the poster, and got to attend the Celera session announcing the human genome!
This summer I am hitting the road again, having just been to Portland, with two conferences ahead, including "How do we teach biochemistry in the 21st century?" where all of us biochemistry professors in our conference are going to try to figure how we cope with proteomics, the human genome, and the exponential pace of biochemistry these days.
I teach an FYI this fall titled "The Biochemistry of Youthful Exuberance," which is my new research interest. We have nearly solved the mysteries of aging, even though Matt Watson '00 (working in the lab for the woman who helped discover telomerase at Texas A&M) keeps me updated that telomeres are probably not the answer. But how is it that some of us have such a zest for life, while others lose it along the way? Science published a paper last year reviewing the last century of memory research, showing that "emotionally strong experiences are well-remembered". I use this for recruiting now, thanking Jeff Cleaveland '83, for the quote on my recruiting material,
So thanks to all of you (especially the many who helped me
with research) for keeping the passion in my life. I hope it's
still in yours.
In the fall, I served as the resident director of the Beloit seminar at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Seventeen Beloit students participated in the seminar, and each enrolled in four courses. Everyone took Scottish Studies (history, literature, archaeology) and Science and the Environment in Scotland, both of which included many field trips throughout the country, and then chose two additional courses from the University listings. In addition to leading our program and co-teaching the Science and Environment course, I also taught in the third year organic/medicinal chemistry program at the University. I thoroughly enjoyed being a student of Scottish Studies myself, and benefited tremendously from the experience of teaching and from the interaction with students and staff at the University of Glasgow. My children had very positive experiences in school in Glasgow, we all enjoyed camping and hiking throughout Scotland, and we look forward to returning.
In the spring, Roc, Elisabetta, and I each taught a section of Chem 117, and I also coordinated our Senior Seminar. We had a diverse group of seniors this year, and talks were lively. We also tried to combine good science with good food, so the seminar hosted culinary experiments with fondue, guacamole, sushi, and other tempting things.
I continue to be involved in the Women & Science Curriculum
Reform Institute sponsored by the UW System in Oshkosh, WI. This
year, I am working with Professors Kathy Greene (Education) and
Catherine Orr (Women's Studies) to design a faculty and student
seminar, anchored by a trans-disciplinary analysis of a complex
global issue (like global warming) in which participants might
simultaneously learn science, "do" science, analyze
and critique science. I also had the good fortune of being able
to work with Professor Jennifer Lewis again (formerly of Beloit
College, then UW Milwaukee, now University of South Florida) this
summer. We presented two workshops together at the CRI, and we
have made plans to present another workshop this fall at the Women's
Studies Consortium of the UW System meeting in Waukesha, WI.
With a sabbatical leave this past year, Brock divided his time
between the NSF ChemLinks project that he directs and gaining
experience with the College's Development Office in preparation
for the planned renovation of Chamberlin Hall. With much of the
initial ChemLinks module development completed, his attention
has focused on dissemination efforts, including being a co-principal
investigator on a Multi-Initiative Dissemination Project grant
from the National Science Foundation to provide workshops for
all five of the NSF-funded chemistry projects for three years.
This work has included presentations at the Gordon Research Conference
on Innovations in College Chemistry Teaching and the Central/Great
Lakes Joint Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society,
as well as conducting workshops at Florida Atlantic University,
the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth, the University of
Wisconsin - Madison, and Rensselear Polytechnic Institute. He
was an invited participant in the Knight Roundtable on "Who
Owns Teaching?" held at Princeton University. At this year's
Project Kaleidoscope Summer Institute at Snowbird, UT, Brock and
Rama Viswanathan presented Beloit's development over the past
decade as a model for "institutional effectiveness"
in undergraduate science education reform, and Brock participated
in a chemistry reform dissemination series as well. His involvement
with the Development Office included work with grants from the
W. M. Keck Foundation and Matilda Wilson Fund, and assisting development
officers in their successful efforts to obtain funding to support
"smart" classrooms for the College. He was the author
of the successful grant for the Chemistry Department from the
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation described elsewhere. This
fall, Brock is pleased to be returning to full-time teaching following
his sabbatical leave.
Apart from physical chemistry (Quantum and Thermo/Kinetics), I also taught the new "Connecting Instruments to Computers" (a.k.a. "Computer Interfacing") course as a permanent offering. I was able to demonstrate my concept of a RAN (no, that's not a Rama Area Network, it's the term that I have coined for a short-range Room Area Network) using off-the-shelf IEEE 802.11 Ethernet wireless card-equipped laptops to acquire data in a mobile fashion and display the results in real time on an Excel spreadsheet using a LCD projector screen connected to yet another computer. We have received a grant from the Dreyfus Foundation to acquire 12 laptops to demonstrate the use of such a RAN in the general chemistry laboratory this Fall, and I am very excited about trying out some real experiments and having students acquire and share data in real time--a truly collaborative laboratory and class-room environment!
We are currently in the second summer of our National Science Foundation Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement grant to implement pulsed laser and pump-probe experiments into the undergraduate physical chemistry curriculum. Once again, I am fortunate to have Chris Morton '03 working with me on the project. Chris has made substantial progress on the pump-probe experiment and we hope to have it completed soon. Meanwhile, check out the paper that Roland Saito '02 presented at the ACS National Meeting in San Diego in April at https://www.beloit.edu/chemistry/nsf_laserlab/
On the personal front, the highlight of this past year was a trip to India in December, 2000, where we (spouse Kanchana, son Rajeev and I) toured North India. Many of the places we visited had historic monuments built during the period of the Mughal Empire (approx. 1526 -- 1856 AD). We went to Ahmedabad, Jaipur, New Delhi, and Agra and got to see the Taj Mahal -- it is as beautiful and breathtaking as ever.
Crystallographic Insights into Coagulation by Steven Everse, Beloit graduate and Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. Stephen is working in the area of structural biology, doing crystallography, and is part of a group that includes an NMRist and a computational biologist.
Dr. Gene Zeltmann (Beloit chemistry '62) met with science
majors to discuss career alternatives for those interested in
combiningscience with business and/or public policy. After graduating
from Beloit, Dr. Zeltmann received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry
from Johns HopkinsUniversity, then worked for General Electric
for 27 years. He also served as a public service commissioner.
After retirement from GE, he became CEO of the New York Power
Authority, one of the state's largest electric companies, at the
request of Governor Pataki.
FALL
| 117 | General Chemistry |
55 |
| 230 | Organic Chemistry I |
41 |
| 245 | Quantum Chemistry |
4 |
| 250 | Inorganic Chemistry |
6 |
| 300 | Biochemistry |
15 |
| 370 | Advanced Topics |
7 |
| 380 | Senior Seminar |
7 |
| 385 | Senior Thesis |
1 |
| 390 | Special Projects |
4 |
| 395 | Teaching Assistant |
1 |
| Total |
141 |
| 117 | General Chemistry |
48 |
| 220 | Chemical Equilibrium |
24 |
| 235 | Organic Chemistry II |
21 |
| 240 | Thermodynamics and Kinetics |
8 |
| 275 | Molecular Biology and Biotechnology |
17 |
| 280 | Professional Tools for Chemists |
14 |
| 360 | Instrumental Methods of Analysis |
* |
| 375 | Advanced Topics |
3 |
| 380 | Senior Seminar |
8 |
| 385 | Senior Thesis |
7 |
| 390 | Special Projects |
2 |
| 395 | Teaching Assistant |
0 |
| Total |
152 |
JOHN H. NAIR AWARD
honors an alumnus (Class of 1915) and provides membership in the
American Chemical Society for one or more seniors who plan careers
in chemistry.
Leah Bandstra '01
Chia Goh '01
Jonathan Scheerer '01
WILLIAM J. TRAUTMAN AWARD in PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY
(Professor at Beloit 1921-1947) given to a student doing outstanding
work in physical chemistry.
Nicole Burton '01
Leonard Tinker '02
EDWARD C. FULLER AWARD in CHEMICAL EDUCATION
was established by the majors of the Class of 1982 in honor of
Professor Fuller and is given to a junior or senior who has done
outstanding work as a teaching assistant.
Tori Ziemann '01
MERCK INDEX AWARD
is given to an outstanding senior and consists of a copy of the
Merck Index from the publisher.
Virginia Evans '01
CRC PRESS FRESHMAN CHEMISTRY AWARD
recognizes outstanding work by a first-year student and consists
of a copy of the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics .
Nana Fenny '04
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY JUNIOR ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY AWARD
recognizes a junior by providing a year's membership in the ACS
Division of Analytical Chemistry and a subscription to the journal
Analytical Chemistry.
Daisuke Roland Saito '02
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN ORGANIC
CHEMISTRY sponsored by the Division of Polymer Chemistry recognizes
outstanding work in the introductory organic chemistry course
by providing a subscription to Organic Chemistry and a
video tape about polymers.
Kari Roettger '03
DAVID A. NORRIS '92 STUDENT RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP
was established by David's friends and family in his memory and
provides endowed support for chemistry-related undergraduate research.
Muyiwa Awoniyi '02
Chia Goh '01
Daisuke Roland Saito '02
| CUM LAUDE | Antoire Christie Angela Hahn Seth Levine Rebecca Mallinson Jackie Montgomery Stephanie Williams Tori Ziemann |
| MAGNA CUM LAUDE | Nicole Burton Virgina Evans |
| SUMMA CUM LAUDE | Leah Bandstra Chia Goh Jonathan Scheerer |
| DEPARTMENTAL HONORS | Leah Bandstra Nicole Burton Antoire Christie Virgina Evans Chia Goh Angela Hahn Rebecca Mallinson Jackie Montgomery Jonathan Scheerer |
| Phi Beta Kappa | Leah Bandstra Nicole Burton Virgina Evans Chia Goh Bashar Qumseya Jonathan Scheerer |
| Mortar Board | Leah Bandstra Angela Hahn Stephanie Williams |
Chia Goh ('01)
"Platinum(II) cyclometalated complexes with fluorinated ligands
as potential blue phosphorescent emitters," based on work
Chia did the prior summer at the University of Southern California
supported by the National Science Foundation's summer research
program for undergraduates in solid state chemistry.
Roland Daisuke Saito ('02)
"Implementation of pulsed laser-based nanosecond luminescence
and pump-probe experiments in the physical chemistry laboratory,"
based on work that Roland did here the prior summer with Rama
Viswanathan on Rama's National Science Foundation grant for Course,
Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement.
Both Chia and Roland also presented their work in November at the Pew Midstates Science and Mathematics Consortium's Student Research Symposium at Washington University in St. Louis.
Muyiwa Awoniyi ('03)
"The Rush Medical College and Beloit College cooperative
program in biochemistry, 'CHANGE' - from high school to M.D./Ph.D."
As part of a AAAS session on innovative educational programs,
Muyiwa reported on the joint Rush/Beloit program to promote advanced
study in science for disadvantaged inner city students in Chicago,
a program that he joined as a junior in high school.
Partial travel support for all three of these students to present their work at a national scientific society meeting was provided by the David A. Norris Student Research Fellowship Fund, established by family and friends in memory of chemistry alumnus David Norris '92.
Leah Bandstra ('01)
"Phosphorous Scavenging in Coastal Salt Ponds,"
based on work at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole,
Massachusetts.
Nicole Burton ('01)
"The Ribosomal RNA Sarcin/Ricin Domain: The Mechanism
of Elongation Factor Binding in Translation," based on her
research carried out at the University of Chicago.
Chia Goh ('01)
"Search for a Very Thin, Flexible Monitor," based
on work that Chia did at the University of Southern California
supported by the National Science Foundation's summer research
program for undergraduates in solid state chemistry.
Angela Hahn ('01)
"Human Stem Cell Potential: Ethical and Scientific Considerations"
Seth Levine ('01)
"Nickel and Platinum cis-Hyponitrite Complexes,"
based on his summer work at the University of Wyoming.
Tori Ziemann ('01)
"The Impacts of Global Warming on Nutrient Cycling in
the Arctic Tundra," based on her summer work at the Toolik
Lake Long Term Ecosystem Center on the North Slope in Alaska.
Rebecca Mallinson ('01), "L-Tyrosine as a Treatment for Narcolepsy."
Jacqueline Montgomery ('01), "The Effects of Several Immunosuppressive Regimens on the Risk of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer in Transplant Recipients."
Nicole Burton ('01), "The rRna Sarcin/Ricin Domain: Structural and Biochemical Studies on the Dynamics of Elongation Factor Binding in Translation."
Angela Hahn ('01), "Human Stem Cell Potential: Ethical and Scientific Implications of the Use of Embryonic and Adult Stem Cells."
Tamara Lowe ('01), "A Comparative Review on the Effects of Ephedrine for Weight Loass and Asthma Relief."
Antoire Christie ('01), "Inhibition of NF-kB: Target
for Treating Cancer and Enhancing Cancer Therapies."
Muyiwa Awoniyi ('03) did a biomedical research internship at Johns Hopkins University for the summer.
Jon Demick ('02) was doing research at Rush University in Chicago for the summer.
Bryna Dunaway ('03) spent the summer as an intern at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health with Beloit biochemistry alumna Amy Knowlton '86 working on public health policy relating to IV drug use and AIDS.
Ezra Eibergen ('03) spent the summer in Beloit at Kerry Ingredients as a lab intern before traveling to Morocco on the Beloit exchange program for the fall.
Camille Fox ('02) did an internship in the Biochemistry Department at Rush Medical College in Chicago for the summer. She worked with Doctor Susan Chubinskaya on an aspect of osteoarthritis. She was funded by the Schweppe foundation.
Johnny Franco ('02) worked on gene regulation with Dr. Mark Soloski at Johns Hopkins University for the summer.
Emily Good ('03) spent the summer as an intern in the pathology department of a hospital near her home in St. Albans, Vermont.
Matthew Heming ('02) spent the summer with Dr. Gabriella Cs-Szabo in the Departments of Biochemistry and Orthopedic Surgery at Rush University in Chicago working on the possible involvement of proteoglycans in the repair process after cartilage damage.
Chris Morton ('04) spent the summer on 4th floor Chamberlin Hall developing pulsed-laser experiments for courses under Rama Viswanathan's NSF-CCLI grant.
Leta Moser ('03) spent the summer in Washington DC working with the Center for Science in the Public Interest on a project to require calorie-content labeling on fast-food restaurant menus.
Nikki Peters ('03) was a Schweppe Scholar working with Northwestern University's Prof. Francis Szele on a project integrating developmental neurobiology and mechanisms of plasticity in the adult nervous system, in particular the sub-ventricular zone. This research was done at the Children's Memorial Institute for Education and Research in Lincoln Park, Illinois.
Kari Roettger ('03) worked on coronaviruses with Dr. Susan Baker in the Microbiology Department at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Haywood, IL for the summer.
Jen Rumppe ('03) did research in organometallic chemistry under the direction of Dr. William Henry at Mississippi State University for the summer.
Roland Saito ('02) was doing synthetic organic chemistry research at Columbia University for the summer.
Clarissa Schumacher ('03) worked in the World Trade Center (New York) for Kemper Corporation as a marketing assistant.
Justin Severson ('03) had a summer internship with Pierce Biotech Company in Rockford, IL.
Kathryn Stettler ('02) spent a second summer working with Dr. Adnan Elfarra in the Department of Comparative Biosciences, part of the Developmental and Molecular Toxicology Department, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ahead in grad school.
Albert Taylor ('02) did a research internship with BMRB, a protein database project, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Ru Yi Teow ('03) was a Schweppe Scholar doing medical research in Chicago for the summer with Dr Paul Loach at Northwestern University working on bioenergetics and membrane biochemistry.
Avery Walker ('02) worked as an autopsy technician at the Los Angeles County Coroners Office, the largest morgue in the country.
| Muyiwa Awoniyi Jonathan Demick Bryna Dunaway Ezra Eiberger Amy Eiler Nana Fenny Johnny Franco Emily Good Matthew Heming Lauren Matzuka Vu Nguyen Bashar Qumseya Kari Roettger Jennifer Rumppe Roland Saito Clarissa Schumacher Heather Seabury Justin Severson Kathryn Stettler Albert Taylor Ru Yi Teow Leonard Tinker Catherine Truong |
2003 2003 2003 2003 2002 2004 2002 2003 2002 2003 2003 2002 2003 2003 2002 2003 2002 2004 2002 2002 2003 2002 2002 |
Biochemistry Biochemistry Biochemistry Chemistry Chemistry Biochemistry Biochemistry Biochemistry Chemistry Biochemistry Biochemistry Biochemistry Biochemistry Chemistry Chemistry Biochemistry Biochemistry Chemistry Chemistry Biochemistry Biochemistry Chemistry Chemistry |
Chicago, IL Beloit, WI Toledo, OR South Beloit, IL Overland Park, KS Accra, Ghana Las Cruces, NM St. Albans, VT Houston, TX Kailua, HI Ontario, CA Bethlehem, Palestine Winnebago, IL Clinton, WI Honolulu, HI Belvidere, IL N. Weymouth, MA Poplar Grove, IL Edgerton, WI Portage, WI Penang, Malaysia St. Louis, MO Chicago, IL |
Leah Bandstra - Kalamazoo, MI. Chemistry. Leah did synthetic research at SUNY-Stony Brook following her sophomore year, research in the University of Rhode Island's Department of Oceanography following her junior year, and then participated in the Environmental Semester at Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory in the fall of her senior year. In her spare time, she also directed Beloit's Girls and Women in Science program, played bass in the Beloit-Janesville Symphony Orchestra, and had an exhibit of her weavings in the Beloit College Library. Two days after graduation she was off on a research sampling cruise off the coast of Oregon, followed by one off Nantucket Island, and another back in Oregon before starting graduate study in oceanography at Oregon State University in the fall.
Richard H. Bowker - Alma, Michigan. Chemistry. Rick will be working at Import & Vintage Repair as a car mechanic, in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. during the summer. He will be moving out to Montana in the fall to substitute teach and ski. While at Beloit he enjoyed being a boat captain on St. Mary's lake in Glacier Park, an auto mechanic, Sanger Scholarship research program at Beloit College, and working with Charlie Abrams.
Nicole Burton - Colorado Springs, CO. Biochemistry. Nicole did summer research on the structure of small RNAs at the University of Chicago and on enzyme catalysis at Baylor University. She is now working at Immunex, a medium size pharmaceuticals company in Seattle, in the product recovery division where she is purifying various proteins and antibodies for research and early clinical trials.
Jennifer Callen - Maplewood, MN. Chemistry. Jen spent a summer at DiaSorin, a company dealing with immunodiagnostic technology.
Antoire M. Christie - Nassau, Bahamas. Biochemistry. While at Beloit, Antoire was a research assistant in cell biology at Bowling Green State University and did research in the inflammatory diseases department at Dupont Pharmaceuticals. She is now employed in biotech research at the Institute for Human Gene Therapy and will later enroll in a Molecular Biology graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania.
Virginia Evans - Madison, Wisconsin. Biochemistry. Virginia did an internship at UW Medical School cloning the GLA 7 gene. She went overseas on the Australian History and Environment the summer of 1999, and spent the fall of '99 at Lancaster University in England. During her senior year she completed a Nursing Assistant course at Blackhawk Tech on top of completing her major and serving as a Teaching Assistant in Molecular Biology. Next year she will be working as a nursing assistant at Meriter Hospital in Madison to complete her patient interaction service required to enter Physician's Assistant School.
Chiatzun Goh - Penang, Malaysia. Chemistry. Coming to Beloit with a very strong interest in chemistry, I declared my major in chemistry during my first year. Knowing exactly what I wanted to do gave me a good head start and eventually enabled me to finish my degree in three years. In the summer of 2000, I did organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) research with Prof. Mark Thompson at the University of Southern California. I presented the results from the research at UC - San Diego, Washington University in St. Louis, the ACS National meeting at San Diego, and during Beloit's student symposium day. During my last year, I did self-assembly research with Prof. George Lisensky at Beloit College. The results from our project are currently being written up for publication. This summer, I will be in Malaysia most of the time except two weeks in June during which I will be travelling in Australia. I will probably find myself an industrial training opportunity at Agilent Technologies in Penang. Next fall, I will be a graduate student at Stanford University in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. I will be working in McGehee's group in conjugated polymer research. I thank the Chemistry Department for your dedication to teaching, and a special thanks to Prof. George Lisensky for introducing me to the exciting field of materials science.
Angela Hahn - Newton, WI. Biochemistry. Born and raised on a dairy farm just outside of Sheboygan Wisconsin. I did nothing minor including the three summer internships at: Beloit College in the Howard Hughes Young Scholars Program; The Medical College of Wisconsin; and New York University School of Medicine. This summer I plan on making a little money outside of the laboratory and relaxing before I start in the Ph.D. program in the Stanford Molecular and Cellular Physiology Department. I would like to thank all of my professors, in all departments, for taking the time to allow me to play and learn and for all of their encouragement and enthusiasm. And if anyone gets out to the Bay area, look me up.
Seth Levine - Mt. Vernon, OH. Chemistry. During my freshman year at Beloit College, I narrowed my choice of majors to either Chemistry or Political Science. Professor Bill Brown's Organic I and Advanced Organic classes helped me to understand how interesting Chemistry is, and how beautiful and ingenious synthetic approaches can be. While an undergraduate at Beloit, I spent two summers doing academic research. One was spent working for Dr. Rosemary Marusak at Kenyon College, where I worked on organic syntheses of starting materials for anticancer drugs. For the second, I was accepted into a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) Program at the University of Wyoming. I worked with Dr. D. Scott Bohle on inorganic synthesis of nickel cis-hyponitrite complexes. I presented this work at an undergraduate research symposium at the Washington University in the fall of 2000 and at symposium day here at Beloit College. I am currently planning on attending graduate school in chemistry. I feel the chemistry faculty at Beloit have an excellent job in providing me with the tools to succeed in my future goals.
Tamara Lowe - Freeport, Bahamas. Biochemistry. Tamara spent a summer doing research in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Northwestern University on a project funded by the Schweppe Foundation. She completed another internship the previous summer at Rush University in biochemistry.
Rebecca Mallinson - Cedar Crest, NM (by way of Dallas, TX). Biochemistry and Music. The summer after my Freshman year at Beloit, I was lucky enough to enjoy an internship with Dr. David Hoffman at the Retina Foundation of the Southwest in Dallas, TX. I was involved with their studies on the eye disease, Retinitis pigmentosa. I learned cell culture techniques and instigated two research projects concerning the effect of DHEA fatty acid on retinal tissue growth. I spent the following summer on the Beloit campus taking part in the Intensive Language Program for Portuguese. This allowed me to study abroad in Brasil the following semester. I learned there that studying science in a foreign language is quite a daunting task. The summer following my Junior year found me in Portland, OR, where I interned with a small industrial research firm, Triple Point Biologics. I was involved in their purification process for Matrix Metallo-Proteins 1-13, which we sold to other researchers. I will spend this summer in Rimini, Italy in a opera program, where I will learn Italian and sing in weekly recitals. Next year, I plan to be living in Portland, OR working as a research assistant in a lab at Oregon Health Sciences University ... even though I haven't actually secured a position yet. I will also be joining the Portland Opera Chorus.
Jacqueline Montgomery - Beloit, WI. Biochemistry. Jackie completed an internship/medical school preparation program through the MMEP (Minority Medical Education Program) at Yale (as have Johnny Franco '02 and Avery Walker '02). Her assistance and advice to the Health Professions Advisory Committee and to other students helped strengthen the pre-medical program at Beloit. Her senior year, she visited and was offered full scholarships to several medical schools and the winner is Cornell University.
Jonathan Scheerer - Leawood, KS. Chemistry. I came to Beloit College with a general interest in science and art, and a dislike of high-school chemistry. My first semester I enrolled in two subjects that I knew little about: introductory geology and organic chemistry. Under the instruction of Professor Bill Brown, I fell in love with the latter. I enjoyed classes and, during my sophomore year, took chemistry to the next level and began research with Professor Charles Abrams. I learned a tremendous amount that year (in chemistry and without) and took my skills to Columbia University in New York for a summer research program. It was a successful summer in all regards. I had a great experience in the laboratories of Professor Gilbert Stork working on a synthesis of morphine. New York City, I realized, was the best thing I had ever seen. I returned to Beloit for a good junior year. The next summer, I sought mountains and more research. I continued my synthetic organic research at Colorado State University with Professor Al Meyers. This sealed my fate - I was going to go to graduate school, but only after I took a semester off to travel Europe and Turkey. Next fall I will attend Harvard University for graduate studies in chemistry. My broad training in science, art, and literature I think will help me as a scientist. Knowledge in one discipline drives creation in the others. I am indebted to the chemistry department for fueling my passions.
Stephanie Williams - Cottage Grove, WI. Chemistry and Religious Studies. This summer, I will be living in Washington D.C. with the family of a good friend of mine and doing volunteer health education and programming with the Red Cross. My summer goal is to gain experience working with the Red Cross that will help me in the Peace Corps. I'll also take on another job once I reach D.C., but am not sure what that will be yet. After the summer, I am planning to move home for the fall and substitute teach in the Madison or Beloit school system to get some experience in education and teaching, and to spend more time with my family. Then anytime from January to early spring, I'll be entering the Peace Corps for service somewhere in Africa. I won't find out until about two months before I leave where I'll be placed and what exactly I'll be doing, but it will involve either teaching science in a school or doing health-related education, which I'm very excited about! During the summer between my junior and senior year, I served as the study coordinator of a summer research project with a doctor at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, which was a wonderful experience. I'm grateful to the chemistry faculty for their years of patience in answering my questions and encouraging me in whatever strange direction I wanted to take chemistry in:)
Tori Ziemann - Western, NE. Chemistry, minor in Environmental Studies. When I came to Beloit, I was interested in chemistry but wasn't sure where I wanted to go. Brock Spencer encouraged me to consider a chemistry major and to incorporate my interests in environmental studies with my degree. The summer of my sophomore year, I worked in Milwaukee at the Water Institute doing geochemistry with Dr. Tim Grundel. Then in the fall, I spent a semester at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, where I was the first Beloit student to meet our new president, when he was director of MBL. The following summer I studied nutrient soil cycles in Alaska at the Toolik Lake Long Term Ecological Research Center. Now that I have graduated, I will work this summer at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Washington D.C., on stable nitrogen isotope studies of the anthropogenic sources of nitrogen in a local estuary. I plan to take a year off working as a teaching assistant back at Woods Hole before going to graduate school in Environmental Chemistry or biogeochemistry.
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Kenneth S. Kemmerer (1930) died January 7, 2001, at the age of 93. He was a chemistry instructor at Beloit for two years following his graduation, then went on to receive his doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Illinois in 1935. He spent his professional career as a research chemist, senior research chemist, senior research fellow, and then associate director of food product development at Mead Johnson and Company in Evansville, Indiana, (now Mead Johnson Nutritionals of Bristol-Myer Squibb) from 1935 until he retired in 1970. His research led to the development of Metrical, Enfamil, Nutrament, Lofenalac, and Amigen. His family has endowed the Kenneth S. Kemmerer Research Fund to support student research in chemistry at Beloit College.
Dr. Gerald L. Geison, (1965) died June 27, 2001, in his home in Princeton, N.J. He succumbed to complications of diabetes. After graduating from Beloit with majors in chemistry and philosophy, he completed his Ph.D. at Yale University and spent his entire career as a professor of the history of science and medicine at Princeton University. His most recent book was "The Private Science of Louis Pasteur" (1995). Among his survivors is his brother, Roger Geison, Beloit chemistry '67.
Jim Moulton (1973) is now the editor for the newly founded "Academic Press Series on DECISION AND RISK" and continues as a Professor in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.
Brad Vale (1974) Ph.D. and D.V.M, is now involved in venture investments in the San Francisco Bay area.
Blair Ferguson (1977) Ph.D., J.D. continues to be employed at DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company in Wilmington, DE, where he is Vice President & Chief Intellectual Property Counsel.
Suki Smaglik (1982) is teaching chemistry and geology at Central Wyoming College in Riverton. She and her husband, Warren Ulmer, are also managing the College's 130 acre field station near Lander, Wyoming.
Deming "Eddie" Tang (1984) has decided to leave BOC and pursue an opportunity at Intel Corporation where he will work in the area of Deep UV Photolithography at Chandler, Arizona (Greater Phoenix area). However, he will be spending most of my first year and portion of his second year at Portland, Oregon on an assignment. Deming's second son, Sean Weiyuan Tang, was born on February 17 of this year. To make things more dramatic, he was born on the doorstep of the hospital emergency room (outside). He is now doing very well. Lastly, Deming and his wife are now American citizens.
Laura Wright (1985) is still in higher-ed policy analysis. She has a position at the University of Maryland-College Park as a research analyst. Husband Harry is a patent examiner at the Patent and Trademark Office and he's pursuing his law degree. Son Quincy is now in Kindergarten, and he was joined on August 1st by Laura's second child, another son, Fletcher Dean Guttman.
Gerard Hoehn (1986) is Research Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University Oncology Center in Baltimore.
Steven Everse (1988) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. Stephen is working in the area of structural biology, doing crystallography.
Bill Hipple (1989) has been working with answerthink as a consulting manager in the e-commerce workflow group. He is leading a partnership with a corporate portal company, Plumtree Software. He has moved to Oakville, Ontario where he was married Oct. 7, 2000.
Dean Aguiar (1990) "I have arrived in Chesterfield, MO and I started my new job in Genomics, Arthritis and Inflammation at Pharmacia/Searle. My project involves the development of in vitro models of OA for target identification and validation. Since my arrival I have become the cartilage/chondrocyte expert. I am on the ground floor of a growing group which is an excellent and challenging experience."
Anna Applebaum Sigworth (1993) defended her thesis in May at Bowling Green State University and has accepted a post-doc at the University of Houston.
Tim Korter (1995) has finished him Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh and has a post doctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Standards for Technology.
Ann Miller (1995) received a masters degree in chemistry from Texas A&M University and has started working as a forensic chemist for the U.S. Customs Service in Chicago.
Kim White (1996) is starting in a Ph.D. program in nutrition and exercise physiology this fall at Purdue University.
Carrie Clothier (1997) is at Pierce Biotech Company in Rockford. "I actually have now moved out of the lab and have been promoted to Project Manager. So, now instead of contributing to just the R&D portion of a project, I am tracking the entire project: R&D, QC, Mktg, Sales, Production Planning, Mfg - everything. It's great being involved with all of the new technologies and seeing them emerge as a product."
David Gordon (1997) entered the Masters of Forensic Science program at the University of New Haven and will be attending the Sacramento, CA campus in September of 2001.
Amy O'Neill Grant (1997) has finished her third semester at Towson University in pursuit of a Special Education Teaching Certificate, and she has secured a teaching position at a local elementary school in a self contained special education classroom. She reports her summer at the Goldie Floberg Center changed her view on the age old question "what I want to do with my life," and she has finally found my true passion.
Kelly Knudson (1997) was awarded a travel grant by the American Chemical Society's Women Chemists Committee to present her research at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archaeology in New Orleans last April. She and Nora Reber (1995) are presenting papers in the same symposium there. Kelly is a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and was in Peru, Chile, and Bolivia again this past summer for her research - including being near the epicenter of the major earthquake there, which fortunately did not affect their team. Nora is just finishing her thesis in anthropology at Harvard, analyzing food remnants on pottery from an excavation near St. Louis. Both are using analytical chemistry techniques to answer archaeological questions.
Laura Tarwater (1998) is a technical writer and web producer at a wireless software company in San Jose, California. "I still pay a ludicrous amount of rent, and the recent industry downturn has kept us all on our toes. But my work is a lot of fun, and I haven't missed the Wisconsin winters a bit."
Kevin Braun (1999) finished his classes and cumes in chemistry this semester at the University of Arizona. He writes that Rama was indeed correct that learning kinetics would come in handy when taking cumes. Two of the six cumes he passed were on kinetics. His next big hurdle will be my oral examination which he hopes to take in the early fall. Later this summer, he will be getting his first joint paper out for my work with the microfabrication project. He is also working on a paper that he hopes to send to Science or Nature later this summer. In research, he has currently switched his attention from studying radical two-photon excited initiators to cationic initiators. The class of molecules he is working with are photoacid generators, which as the name suggest, generate a photon upon excitation. The one drawback to the project is that everything has to be done in the dark which makes for interested lab conditions.
Maya Das (1999) has completed 2 years at UW-Mad med school and has taken a leave of absence to pursue a JD degree at UW Law School. She plans to return to medical school when she has completed her law degree.
Angela Moten Russell (1999) has completed her MS in Population Health from UW-Madison and is employed at the UW School of Medicine.
Steven J. Schmoldt (1999) was admitted to the Marquette School of Dentistry in the class of 2004.
Scott Barry (2000) is enjoying Northwestern University and says that he passed his quantum entrance exam and scored well enough to pass out of the graduate level class.
Carlo Giacomo (2001) is a graduate student in chemistry at the University of Illinois-Urbana. He passed both his organic and physical chemistry registration exams. He is taking physical organic chemistry and spectroscopy/structure, with biochemistry as an elective. For his TA assigments, he grades for one class and has two lab sections for another, both are organic.
Taherreh Jalali (2001) is in Bombay, India after a wonderful study abroad program in Australia. Taherreh now has a job in the department of medical oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital for cancer research and treatment. "I am conducting clinical research for a drug called Irnocam which has been approved by the US FDA and the IDA (India), being tested now for colon and rectal cancers with metastasis. I love and enjoy the job and it keeps me very, very busy. I am also writing a guidelines manual for resident students for the department of medical oncology and, therefore, am getting around to most parts of the hospital and learning a lot about everything going on. One of the doctors wants me to help him publish a paper on a new anticancer drug called Vinorelbine, I don't know how far I will get but I am eager to work with him."
Our alumni email network is growing steadily. It has been tremendously helpful to our present students for finding mentors, summer research positions, and post-graduate opportunities. Beloit College Alumni office now maintains an email directory that can be accessed at https://www.beloit.edu/alumni/emaildir/. Please send updates and corrections to that list.
Chemistry faculty
abrams@beloit.edu
brownwh@beloit.edu
greene@beloit.edu
lisensky@beloit.edu
ordman@beloit.edu
parmentr@beloit.edu
spencer@beloit.edu
ramav@beloit.edu
Departmental web pages
https://www.beloit.edu/chemistry
https://www.beloit.edu/biochemistry
https://www.beloit.edu/biology
http://chemlinks.beloit.edu/
http://chemistry.beloit.edu/
Please send news to any chemistry faculty- this is what keeps the newsletter going!