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Joseph S. Francisco, Ph. D. '83 and William E. Moore, Distinguished Professor at Purdue University, has been selected as the ACS President-Elect for 2009. Francisco will serve as ACS president in 2010 and as a member of the ACS Board of Directors from 2009 to 2011.
This has been surprising, exciting, and electric,” Francisco tells C&EN of his election. Upon hearing the news, he says, his class of 400 students applauded when his “teaching assistants announced the results of the election.” He views the position as a “once in a lifetime opportunity” and is grateful to his many supporters in the chemistry community.
Looking ahead, Francisco sees sustainability of the chemical sciences as his primary focus. Additional goals he has for the society are to “attract a broader pool of students into the chemical sciences to keep the enterprise healthy, work to help members thrive in a global economy, and promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the chemical sciences.
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John Scott Award
Professor Timothy M. Swager, John D. MacArthur Professor and Head of the Department of Chemistry has been selected to receive the 2008 John Scott Award. This award recognises men and women who have contributed in some outstanding way to the “comfort, welfare and happiness” of mankind.The donor, John Scott, was an Edinburgh druggist who set up the fund in the early 1800’s. Among the recipients of this award are Mme. Curie, Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, Edwin Land, Jonas Salk, Irving langmuir, Glenn Seaborg, Frederick G. Banting, Guglielmo Marconi, John Bardeen, and Sir Joseph H. Thomson. Professor Swager was recognized "for his pioneering developments in the design, synthesis and construction of functional assemblies of supramolecular materials that recognize specific molecules. In creating new chemo sensors that are being used for the detection of concealed explosive materials, Professor Swager has greatly benefited mankind."
Professor JoAnne Stubbe received the John Scott Award in 2005. In the past decade several recipients of this prestigious award have been Nobel Prize winners including K. Barry Sharpless in 2001.
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MIT Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and NOBCChE (The National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers) are pleased to announce the establishment of a Technology Education Partnership (TEP). This Partnership will help increase opportunities for minority undergraduate and graduate students in each department as we work collaboratively with the NOBCChE Organization to promote our mutual educational goals.
Shown are L-R: Derry L. Haywood, II; Susan Brighton; Dr. Victor McCrary, President of NOBCChE; Dr. Patrick Gordon, Immediate Past Chairman of the NE NOBCChE Chapter; Dr. Emannuel Dada, President, NY-NJ NOBCChE Chapter.
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Two-Electron Reduction of a Vanadium(V) Nitride by CO to Release Cyanate and Open a Coordination Site
Jared S. Silvia and Christopher C. Cummins* Making and breaking metal-ligand multiple bonds is a field of study that has interested the Cummins group since its inception, specifically with regard to the formation and subsequent transfer of terminal-nitride ligands. We now report on the denitrogenation of a terminal-nitride anion complex of vanadium with CO under ambient conditions. The denitrogenation of Na[NV(N[t-Bu]3,5-Me2C6H3)3] takes place over the course of 24 h with formation of sodium cyanate (NaNCO) and the reduced metal fragment V(N[t-Bu]3,5-Me2C6H3)3. Of particular interest is the observation that the CO present in the reaction mixture shows no affinity for binding to the reduced vanadium center. This type of denitrogenation with formation of an open coordination site provides the possibility for the metal center to engage in further chemistry, an attractive feature for catalytic schemes. This reactivity also highlights the stark differences between vanadium and niobium complexes. The analogous niobium complex Na[NNb(N[t-Bu]3,5-Me2C6H3)3] is formed from the reductive decarbonylation of (OCN)Nb(N[t-Bu]3,5-Me2C6H3)3 with Na/Hg, effectively the reverse of the denitrogenation reaction.
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