Congratulations to Professor Dean Tantillo, who has been awarded the Natural Product Reports Lectureship for 2012! This is a wonderful acknowledgment of Professor Tantillo’s research accomplishments.
Congratulations to Professor Peter Beal and Professor Alan Balch, who were elected as a AAAS Fellows. Prof. Beal was elected for “distinguished contributions to chemical biology through the application of synthetic organic chemistry to the understanding of RNA-protein interactions”. Prof. Balch was elected for “imaginative contributions to synthetic inorganic chemistry, fullerene chemistry, and metalloporphyrin reactivity.” This is a well deserved honor for Profs. Balch and Beal, and their research teams.
A recent article in Chemical & Engineering News Magazine features the UC Davis Department of Chemistry as one of the Top 5 Departments for Female Faculty among big spenders on Chemistry R&D. UC Davis Chemistry ranks on the Top 5 List for both the number of female faculty (with 10 women faculty), and also on the Top 5 List for having the highest percentage of female faculty (with 25% women faculty). Overall, C&E News figures report that women held only 17% of the tenured and tenure-track positions in 2010–11, up from 16% in the previous two years.
Professor Giulia Galli, who in 2011 was named co-chair of the Physics and Chemistry Directorate of the Deep Carbon Observatory (https://dco.gl.ciw.edu/), has been awarded a $1.5 M grant by the Sloan foundation for 2 years. The purpose of the grant is to lead a multidisciplinary team that will carry out experimental and theoretical investigations of thermochemical properties of Carbon bearing systems in the deep Earth mantle. The international team includes scientists from Europe and the US, and in particular Prof. Alexandra Navrotsky at UC Davis, and Prof. Craig Manning at UCLA, co-chair of the PCC.
Giulia has also been awarded an additional $350K to run the PCC directorate out of our Department at UC Davis. This is a terrific honor to our department.
Congratulations to Professor Galli, her research team and the staff that support her programs!
Congratulations to Professor Xi Chen, who has been selected as the 2012 recipient of the Horace S. Isbell Award from the ACS Carbohydrate Division. This award is for the recognition of a younger carbohydrate scientist who has demonstrated excellence in the field and shows promise of continuing to make quality contributions to carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry. In celebration of this award, a symposium will be held at the Spring 2012 ACS meeting in San Diego. The date of the symposium will be March 26, 2012; a celebratory dinner will be held that same evening. If you will be at the Spring ACS please consider attending the symposium and joining in the celebration. Congratulations to Professor Chen, her research team and the staff who support their efforts! Jackie
Henry Wedler, a recent UC Davis chemistry major (class of 2011) and now incoming graduate student in our PhD program, has been featured in several News sources for his research as well as his outreach work organizing two chemistry camps for blind and visually impaired students to show them that chemistry is accessible. Well done! Check out these links to see the stories:
http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201106101630/b
http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/chemistry-by-smell/
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/31/138578929/blind-teens-tap-into-senses-at-chemistry-camp
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/12/3902311/student-has-no-trouble-visualizing.html
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/education/89/8936education.html
Dear Colleagues, It is with great pleasure that I announce that Professor Power has been awarded the ACS Award in Organometallic Chemistry, which is sponsored by the Dow Chemical Company. The Award will be presented at the Spring ACS meeting in San Diego. Congratulations to Phil and his research group on this wonderful and deserved honor! Jackie
Professor Annaliese Franz has been selected to receive the inaugural ACS Award: 2012 WCC Rising Star Award. “This award recognizes ten exceptional women scientists approaching mid-level careers across all sectors [academic, industrial, government and non-profit] who have demonstrated outstanding promise for contributions to their respective field of study.” Congratulations to Professor Franz for this honor and tribute to our department! (Jackie)
Professor Atsumi recently entered into an International Industrial Alliance with Asahi Kasei Corporation, which is the third largest chemical company in Japan. In addition, Professor Atsumi also has two independent grants from the National Science Foundation and two other joint grants from the DOE/ARPA and USDA-NIFA. Congratulations to Professor Atsumi for his recent successes!
With the addition of Professors Kauzalarich and David, Our department is now home to seven ACS Fellows including Professors Alan Balch, Gang-Yu Liu, William Jackson, Claude Meares and Gervay-Hague. The ACS Fellows Program was created by the ACS Board of Directors in December 2008 “to recognize members of ACS for outstanding achievements in and contributions to Science, the Profession, and the Society.” Based on email from Chair Gervay-Hague
