Chemformation
The Weekly Newsletter of the MIT Chemistry Department
Volume 12, Number 13
Friday, March 29, 1996
Next Issue: Friday, April 5, 1996. Chemformation is published by the Office of the Department Chairman. The deadline for the next issue is Tuesday, April 3. Please convey items of interest (or mailing list changes) to Linda Earle, Room 18-393, Department of Chemistry, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, 617/253-4080; 617/258-7500 (fax) or e-mail to lkn@mit.edu. Back issues of Chemformation can be accessed via the Chemistry Department Website.
Visit the Chemistry Department Website at http://web.mit.edu/chemistry/www/
SEMINAR CALENDAR
- Professor Eugenio Coronado
- Universidad de Valencia
- "Polyoxometalates: From Magnetic Clusters to Molecular Materials"
- Monday, April 1, 1996
- 4:00 in Room 6-120
- Special Inorganic Seminar
- Refreshments @ 3:30 in 6-321
- Ed Rebar
- Pabo Laboratory
- "Zinc Finger-DNA Recognition: Selection and Design of Proteins with New Specifications"
- Monday, April 1, 1996
- 12:00 in 68-181
- Macromolecular Structure/Function Lecture Series
- Professor Wataru Ando
- University of Tsukuba
- "Strained Unsaturated Cyclocarbosilanes"
- Monday, April 1, 1996
- 4:00 in Room 4-163
- Special Organometallic Seminar
- Dr. Árpád Furka
- Advanced ChemTech Inc.
- "Combinatorial Chemistry by Portioning and Mixing"
- Tuesday, April 2, 1996
- 9:30-11:00 in Room 6-120
- Chemistry in Industry (5.561)
- Professor Glenn L. Millhauser
- University of California, Santa Cruz
- "3(10) - Helix, Alpha-Helix, and Beyond"
- Tuesday, April 2, 1996
- 4:00 in Room 2-105
- Physical Chemistry Seminar
- Refreshments @ 3:30 in 6-321
- Professor Richard D. Adams
- University of Southern Carolina
- "The Activation and Catalytic Transformations of Thietanes by Metal Cluster Complexes"
- Wednesday, April 3, 1996
- 5:00 in Room 6-120
- Harvard/MIT Inorganic Series
- Refreshments @ 4:30 in 6-321
- Captain Gerald R. Gendon and Richard L. Lamontagne
- "Acquisition Pollution Prevention in the United States Air Force Weapons System"
- Friday, April 5, 1996
- 1:00-3:00 in Room 10-280
- Seminar in Environmental Chemistry
Chemistry in Industry (5.561)
The first lecture in course 5.561 (Chemistry in Industry) will be held on Tuesday, April 2, 1996 from 9:30-11:00 a.m. in 6-120. Dr. Árpád Furka of Advanced ChemTech, Inc., Louisville, Kentucky, will speak on "Combinatorial Chemistry by Portioning and Mixing". These lectures are open to the entire MIT community. There is a sign-up sheet outside Room 18-290 for those interested in joining the speaker for an informal lunch at 11:30. Future lectures in this course include: April 16th, Dr. Arthur Kluge - Cubist Pharmaceuticals, "Rational Drug Discovery, Not Design"; Thursday, April 18th, Dr. Howard Turner, Exxon Chemicals, Baytown,; Thursday, April 25th, Dr. Ann Savoca, Air Products, Inc., "Functionalized Organonitrogen Compounds: Catalysts for the Production of Polyurethanes"; Thursday, May 7, Dr. Mohamed Aslam, Hoeschst-Celanese, Corpus Christi, "Highlights of the Product Development Activities at Hoechst Celanese".
Report on the Forum on the Graduate Program in Chemistry
More than 25 chemistry graduate students attended the Forum on Tuesday to provide Professors Lippard and Danheiser with student input on possible changes in the chemistry graduate program. Also in attendance was Melinda Cerny (Coordinator of Chemistry Education) and several faculty members. Points raised by students included the following:
- Courses: a greater number of advanced-level courses might be offered. "Short courses", or short lecture series on special topics might be valuable. Tutorial style courses such as 5.47 and 5.52 provide particularly effective learning experiences.
- The cumulative exam system should be retained, but could be improved with regard to the content of the exams.
- Students could benefit from more exposure to industrial chemistry. The industrial internship program (which begins this summer) may be an excellent vehicle for this purpose.
- The thesis committee system deserves examination and possible modification. Some students favor having more frequent formal meetings with their thesis committee throughout their graduate career.
- A "five-year limit" on the Ph.D. program might be desirable, but may not be appropriate in some research areas.
- Attending scientific conferences can be very rewarding for graduate students and should be encouraged and perhaps facilitated.
- Both students and faculty might benefit from some kind of formal training in "management skills".
Comments on the above and other related issues are welcome, and should be sent to Rick Danheiser (danheisr@mit.edu). Professors Lippard and Danheiser will report to the chemistry faculty on the forum at the next departmental faculty meeting. Watch Chemformation for further developments!
Dow Chemical Q&A Session on Friday, March 29
Dr. Jim O'Brien, Group Leader, Materials R&D Lab, Central Research Labs, will be in the Department of Chemistry to meet with faculty and graduate students. The Question & Answer Session will be in the Norris Room (18-490) on Friday, March 29 from 4 to 5 PM. Dr. O'Brien will discuss Dow's R&D strategies in the 90Us, research at the Central Research Labs, and specific needs of the Materials R&D Lab. He will also address questions such as, expectations when going into industry? What is industry like? and discuss the new Internship Program. This is an open Q&A Session. Refreshments will be served.
Dreyfus Foundation Faculty Start-Up Grants Available
The Faculty Start-Up Grants for Undergraduate Institutions Program may be of interest to those postdocs who are due to begin a full-time tenure track appointment at undergraduate institutions. A key feature of the award is an unrestricted grant of $12,500 that is awarded in September of the year the new faculty member formally begins the first-year appointment. Nomination forms are available from the Dreyfus Foundation office, instructions on the form must be followed exactly, and questions may be directed to the Foundation office. Nominations close May 15th. Direct your questions to The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc. 555 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10022-3301 or call (212) 753-1760.
Congratulations to Junko Tamiya, Pfizer Undergraduate Summer Fellow Recipient!
Congratulations to Junko Tamiya who was selected as a 1996 Pfizer Undergraduate Summer Fellowship recipient. The award permits Junko to devote full-time effort to her research project for an eight to ten week period this summer. In the fall, Junko and Professor Scott Virgil, her advisor, will be invited to visit Pfizer's Central Research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut where she will present her work.
Faculty Positions
- Brooklyn College/CUNY, New York: Assistant Professor of Chemistry in Analytical, Inorganic or Organic to begin in fall of 96, or spring of '97. Ph.D. required, postdoctoral or industrial experience desirable. Send to Prof. David E. Goldberg, Chair, Dept. of Chemistry, Brooklyn College of CUNY, Brooklin, NY 11210 by April 26.
Positions
- Resource Technology Associates in Des Plaines, Illinois: Has a client, a major electronics organization near Chicago looking for a chemist, scientist to perform individual and collaborative research within the Research Laboratory, possible projects include chemical sensors using optical or acoustic transductors. New technical innovations are expected to result from the incumbent's individual contributions.
- Rohm and Haas Research Laboratory: Spring Hill, PA : Invites applications for a NMR Spectroscopist in their analytical research department, versatile, but with considerable expertise in multidimensional NMR and inverse detection techniques. The chemist can also be a consultant on reaction mechanisms, synthetic pathways, and analysis of product mixtures. For that reason, the chemist should possess the excellent written and oral communicating skills and interactive abilities necessary for effective consulting. Rohm and Haas has Bruker: 500 MHz, 400 MHz, 300 MHz and 200 MHz. There is also a 400 MHz Varian system available. They have a full array of multidimensional, multinuclear and inverse detection capabilities.
Postdoctoral Positions
- Sloan Kittering Institute, New York: has two postdoctoral positions available for August of this year. The three project areas are 1. elucidating the mechanistic details of enediyne formation; 2. focus glycosyltransferase mechanism and the development of methodology for solid phase glycosyltransferase catalyzed oligosaccharaide polymerization. The third area of research focuses upon C-glycoside biosynthesis, activation and incorporation into various antibiotics with the goal of biosynthetically engineering variation into these highly reactive and medically essential molecules. Professor Jon S. Thorson at the Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics Program, Department for Biosynthetic Chemistry, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, New York 10021 or (E-mail: jon@silibone.cchem.berkely.edu)
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