Chemformation

The Weekly Newsletter of the MIT Chemistry Department

Volume 14, Number 11

Friday, March 20, 1998

Next issue: Friday, March 27th. Chemformation is published by the Office of the Department Chairman. The deadline for the next issue is Tuesday, March 24th. Please convey items of interest (or mailing list changes) to Linda Earle, Room 18-390, Department of Chemistry, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, 617/253-1803; 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

Wednesday, March 25, 1998 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon Room 6-120 Special Chemistry Department Symposium Novel Approaches to Data Searching Host: Professor Bruce Tidor x3-7258	Andrea Califano IBM Computational Biology "Pattern Analysis in Computational Biology" Mike Pitman IBM Computional Biology "Towards a System for Large Scale Flexible 3D Similarity Searching in Drug Design Pipelines"
Thursday, March 26, 1998 4:00 p.m. in Room 6-120 Seminar in Organic Chemistry	Dr. Jon Rourke University of Warwick, UK "Homo- and Hetero-Bimetallic Liquid Crystals"
Tuesday, March 31, 1998 4:00 p.m. in Room 2-105 Refreshments @ 3:30 p.m. in 6-233 Seminar in Physical Chemistry	Professor Malcolm H. Levitt Arrhenius Laboratory, Stockholm "Using Correlated Nuclear Spin States to Estimate Molecular Geometry: Applications to Peptides, Carbohydrates, Retinals, and the Membrane Protein Rhodopsin"

ACS Dallas Meeting to Honor MIT Chemistry Faculty Winners of ACS Awards

Congratulations to the following five faculty members who have won prestigious ACS awards for 1998. They are Professor Christopher "Kit" Cummins for the American Chemical Society Award in Pure Chemistry, sponsored by Alphi Chi Fraternity; Professor Gregory C. Fu, for the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award; Professor Mario Molina for the ACS Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology, sponsored by Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.; Professor Irwin Oppenheim for the Joel Henry Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical & Experimental Chemistry of Liquids, sponsored by Exxon Research and Engineering Co. and Exxon Chemical Co. and Professor JoAnne Stubbe, the Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic or Bioorganic Chemistry. Four of the awards will be presented at the 215th ACS national meeting in Dallas Texas on March 31, 1998. Professor Fu's Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award will be presented at the 216th meeting next August in Boston.

Professor JoAnne Stubbe To Receive Cotton Medal

Congratulations to Professor JoAnne Stubbe who will be receiving the F.A. Cotton Medal at Texas A&M next week for Excellence in Chemical Research. The award, named after Professor F.A. Cotton, was established in 1994 by the Texas A&M Section of the American Chemical Society and the Chemistry Department of Texas A&M University. First awarded to Professor Frank Albert Cotton on March 31, 1995, the guidelines state that the recipient may be male or female, from any country and branch of chemistry, the only restriction being that the awarding of the medal must recognize accomplishments in research rather than distinction of any other sort, no matter how meritorious. The medal itself is minted in gold and is 22 inches in diameter. The obverse has a relief of F.A. Cotton, gives the name of the winner and the words "Texas A &M ACS Section." The reverse of the medal bears the words "For Excellence in Chemical Research" and a representation of the Re₂C1₈²- ion, the first recognized example of a quadruple bond, and so described by Cotton in 1964. Professor Stubbe will also receive a bronze replica of her medal and a certificate describing the award.

Mark Your Calendars for the Merck/MIT Spring Symposium
Wednesday, April 1, 1998

MIT presentations in Building 68-181: Chair, Dr. Phillip Sharp

7:30 - 8:30: Continental Breakfast

8:30 - 9:00: Sara Dempster (Tidor Group)

Optimization of Electrostatic Affinity in HIV Protease Inhibitor Design

9:00 - 9:30: Cheuk-san (Ed) Wang

Initial Experiments In Direct Method For Protein Crystallography

9:30 - 10:00: Dr. Dan Kleitman

Predicting Intron and Exon Regions in mRNA Sequences

10:00 - 10:30: Break - Coffee

10:30 - 11:00: Dr. Tod Smeal

Analysis of Age Related Changes in Transcriptional Silencing and Its Role in Replicative Senescence

11:00 - 11:30: Dr. David Sabatini

Rapamycin sensitive translational control pathways

11:30 - 12:00: Dr. Peter Sorger

Protecting Our Genetic Dowry

12:00 - 1:30: Lunch

1:30 - 2:00: Joydeep Goswami

Genetic Control of Death in Mammalian Cell Culture

2:00 - 2:30: Chuan He

Synthetic Model Studies of Dinuclear Metallohydrolases in Biology

2:30 - 3:00: Dr. Ilaria Rebay

Ras Signal Transduction: A view from the Yan gene of Drosophila

3:00 - 3:30: Break, Walk to Whitehead Auditorium

Merck presentations at Whitehead: Chair, Dr. Ed Scolnick

3:30 - 5:00: Dr. Nadia Rupniak

Preclinical development of substance P antagonists as novel antidepressants

Dr. Mark Kramer

A New Frontier in Neuroscience: Demonstration that the selective NK-1 antagonist, MK-0869, is an effective and well-tolerated antidepressant

5:00 - 5:30: Reception outside auditorium

5:30 - 7:00: Buffet dinner, Whitehead cafeteria

Glass Blowing Services

Bob DiGiacomo will be coming in on Wednesdays or Thursdays to pick up any glass blowing work that you may have available. Please bring any work to room 6-031 or call Ed Udas or John Annese at 3-4505. Bob will do the work on a first-come, first-served basis.

Help Get Organized!

Call Ed Udas at 253-4505 or stop by room 6-026 if students, faculty, or staff need help in organizing their MIT space.

Visit the new Chemistry Seminar Page!

The following URL will show you a semester's worth of seminars at a glance! Please send any additions, deletions, or changes for seminars to Julie Carlin, by e-mail only, juliec@mit.edu

http://web.mit.edu/chemistry/www/Chemistry_Seminar_Master_C.html

Positions

• (Senior) Research Chemist to work in the polyurethane area. Responsible for the research, development, process development, analysis and synthesis of polymer materials to develop new products and improve existing products and processes. Initial work will be in the area of thermoset elastomers with a special emphasis on polyurethanes. Conduct research on material properties and bonding. Familiarity with and understanding of modern techniques such as spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), thermal mechanical analysis (TMA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). Confer with scientists, engineers and others regarding solutions to materials and chemistry problems. Prepare technical reports for management. Able to work in a team/collegial environment. Interact with vendors, other research and engineering facilities, manufacturing plants and customers. Some travel required. Education. Extensive knowledge of a specialized field involving independent research and creative work. A Bachelors degree with over 2 years work in a graduate school leading to a Doctor‚s degree.Depending on education level, between 3 - 10 years, in chemistry, polymer science or some related area. Preference given to experience in polyurethane elastomers. Reports to the Manager of Research and Development, but is responsible for collective decisions affecting R&D Department. Direct supervision of laboratory technicians and provide technical support to various plant locations. Organizational Specifics. The organization is a division of Fortune 500 Company located in the Mid-Atlantic States. Compensation will be commensurate with job requirements and the candidates experience and credentials. For additional information contact: Jim Bednarski, The Patriot Group, P. O. box 10761 Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17605-0761; Fax: 717-295-5781; Phone 717-295-9515; e-mail: patriot1@ibm.net
• Sr. Applications Scientist--Trace Gas Analysis: This person will be responsible for a state-of-the-art analytical lab for the measurement of ultra-trace impurities in ultrahigh purity gases. This laboratory includes an Atmospheric Pressure Ionization Mass Spectrometer (APIMS) and species-specific analyzers for moisture, oxygen, CO, CO2 and THC detection. Along with a Jr. Scientist, experiments will be designed and conducted to characterize Millipores products for outgassing and impurity removal effectiveness. In addition, studies will be planned and conducted to understand the contamination control problems of the semiconductor industry. Journal papers and Applications Notes will be written and presented at industry conferences. This person will serve as Millipore?s technical expert on ultra-trace gas analysis. This person will initially be located in Bedford, MA but will relocate to Dallas, TX area in September 1998. Job Requirements: Ph.D. in analytical chemistry with 2 years experience or the equivalent. Must have experience with mass spectrometry. Must have the ability to critically analyze data and have good technical problem solving skills. Must be comfortable working in a hands-on lab environment. Demonstrated ability to apply technical fundamentals to real-world situations. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Must be willing to travel approximately 20%. Initial travel may be higher for training. Knowledge or experience in any of the following areas would be a plus: APIMS, semiconductor gases and handling techniques, ppt and ppb-level gas analysis, gas purification, supervisory experience, or a general knowledge of semiconductor processing. Send your resume to Dr. Jim Snow at jim_snow@millipore.com or Millipore Corp., 80 Ashby Road, Bedford, MA 01730.

Postdoctoral Fellowships

• Postdoctoral Research Associate Position, University of Waterloo, Canada.Threshold Photoionization Spectroscopy with Coherent Vacuum Ultraviolet Light and Synchrotron Radiation. A position will be available in the research group of John Hepburn at the University of Waterloo, starting this summer. The research to be carried out is in the new area of Threshold Ion Pair Production Spectroscopy (TIPPS), a new form of threshold ionization spectroscopy developed recently in Hepburn's lab. TIPPS is described in: J.D.D. Martin and J.W. Hepburn, Phys. Rev. Lett. vol. 79, 3154-3157 (1997). We are currently working on characterizing this technique, and have successfully extended its use to other diatomic molecules (HF,HCl). The new postdoctoral fellow will participate in two important developments: 1) extending TIPPS to polyatomic molecules, demonstratingthe ability to measure bond energies to high precision and the ability to measure spectra of polyatomic anions and cations, and 2) getting TIPPS to work at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, using the high resolution Chemical Dynamics undulator beam line. Salary will depend on experience, and full benefits are included. Minimum salary will be $27,000/year, and initial contract will be one year, renewable for a second year. Interested applicants should send a letter of interest outlining relevant experience, a brief cv, and the names of three references to J. Hepburn at the address given below. John Hepburn Department of Chemistry University of Waterloo- Waterloo, Ont., N2L 3G1- Canada- phone: (519) 888-4065- fax: (519) 746-0435.
• IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & MEDICINE, Department of Chemistry- Liquid Crystals Research Group. A two year position is available with Drs RH Templer and JM Seddon to develop the instrumentation for a small angle X-ray beamline for kinetic studies of lyotropic liquid crystals. The post is part of a HEFCE and Unilever funded instrumentation development project. The candidate will oversee the installation and running of the X-ray generator and supervise the design, development, and testing of novel X-ray optics, sample cells and X-ray imager. The candidate should ideally have expertise in both computing and electronics, but will receive training in all other aspects of the project. Salary will be in the RA1A range the range A316,158-A322,785 per annum plus A32,134 per annum London Allowance. Informal enquiries to Dr RH Templer at r.templer@ic.ac.uk, background to the group's work and this project may be found at http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/liquid_crystal/.index.html. A letter of application, full CV and the names and addresses of two referees should be sent to Dr RH Templer, the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College, London SW7 2AY. Closing date for applications is March 27, 1998. Dr A.G.Taylor, lecturer in Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Interdisciplinary Centre for Semiconductor Materials, London SW7 2AY United Kingdom tel ++ (0) 171 594 5826, fax ++ (0)171 594 5801, a.g.taylor@ic.ac.uk
• Nonlinear Spectroscopy of Liquid Surfaces and Interfaces G.L. Richmond, University of Oregon Two postdoctoral research positions involving the study of surfaces and interfaces by nonlinear optical methods are available in Prof. Geri Richmond's laboratory at the University of Oregon in Eugene. The postdoctoral associates will have the opportunity to be participate in a variety of projects which involve the measurement of molecular structure and adsorption dynamics at liquid/liquid, liquid/air and solid/liquid interfaces. The studies center around the use of vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy (VSFS) as a surface specific probe of the interface. Current ongoing projects in this laboratory include studies of water structure and hydrogen bonding at these interfaces, adsorption dynamics of surfactants including phosopholipids and other biomolecules at these interfaces, adsorption of atmospheric molecules at liquid and ice surfaces, polymeric film structure and adsorption dynamics, solvent structure at chemical modified surfaces, and ion transport and chemical reactivity at these interfaces. Several different picosecond and nanosecond laser systems are being used in these studies. Preference will be given to exceptional candidates who have experience in several of the following areas: vibrational spectroscopy, laser instrumentation and optics, biophysics, surface science and surface characterization. For further information on the science currently being conducted in the group consult (http://www.uoregon.edu/~lbiggs/glrnew.htm). Geraldine L. Richmond richmond@oregon.uoregon.edu Professor of Chemistry -Phone:(541)346-4635- University of OregonFax:(541)346-5859 http://www.uoregon.edu/~lbiggs/glrnew.htm
• DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS UNIVERSITY OF BATH Applications are invited for a post-doctoral research assistant funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to work on the project. "Theory of Promotion and Poisoning of Surface Reactions". The post is available for three years, starting 1st April 1998, or as soon as possible after that date. The aim of the project is to investigate the influence of pre-adsorbed species on the dissociative adsorption of molecules on metallic surfaces. First principles calculations, based on density functional theory, will be used to investigate the mechanisms underlying electronic promotion and poisoning effects in surface reactions. A key aim will be to use the results of large-scale calculations to break down the adsorbate-molecule interaction into direct interactions, substrate-mediated effects, electrostatic interactions, etc, and to hence develop semi-quantitative models of the strength and spatial range of promotion and poisoning effects. Applicants should have, or expect soon to obtain, a PhD in Physics or Chemistry, with some experience in computational condensed matter theory. For further details please contact me by e-mail at the address given below. Professor David Bird, Tel: +44 1225 826586, Department of Physics Fax: +44 1225 826110 University of Bath e-mail: d.bird@bath.ac.uk, Bath BA2 7AY United Kingdom
• Postdoctoral Position at Ohio State University: Columbus, Ohio: Research in the area of Microwave Laboratory in the group of Professor Frank C. DeLucia, interested in the development and application of new techniques which make possible the study of molecules and molecular interactions in new physical regimes. Check their website for more information: www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~uwave/front.html and reply to: Professor Frank C. DeLucia, Dept.of Physics, 174 West 18th Avenue, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210.

Faculty Positions

• The University of York, York UK: Applications are invited for a post in Biological Inorganic Chemistry, tenable from 1 September 1998. The appointment may be made at any level from lecturer A to Readership, as appropriate. Applications are welcomed from those with research interests in any aspect of biological inorganic chemistry including metallproteins, biominerals or biomimetic chemistry. Collaborative research with other staff with biochemical interests in the Department or University would be welcomed. Informal inquiries may be made to: Professor Robin Perutz (01904-432549; fax: 01904-432605. email: rnp1@york.ac.uk) General information about the University and the Department is available at http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/chem. Closing date is April 10th.

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