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Professor Daniel G. Nocera, The Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

TIME MAGAZINE's 100
Professor Nocera also made Time Magazine's 100. Read more..

Georgily Teverovskiy, a graduate student in the Buchwald Group has been selected for a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. The NDSEG fellowship is extremely competitive and confers high honors upon its recipients. Georgily’s research focuses on elucidation of the mechanism of Pd Catalyzed CN Cross-Coupling in the BrettPhos System.

Graduate student, Darcy Wanger (Bawendi Group) has been selected to receive a Hertz Fellowship funded by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation.This prestigious no-strings attached fellowship allows exceptional applied scientists and engineers the freedom to innovate. Darcy's research interests focus on solar cells and other nanoscale electronics, particularly those that are relevant for sustainable energy. She is working under the guidance of Professor Moungi Bawendi in the Chemistry department using semiconductor nanoparticle quantum dots in photovoltaic and photodetector devices.

Junior, Sid Creutz, has been named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar.The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate. Sid is majoring in chemistry and minoring in materials science. While at MIT he has done research in organic synthesis and physical chemistry in the Movassaghi and Bawendi labs, and will be working in the Cummins lab this summer researching new ligands for catalytic carbon dioxide reduction. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry.

Justin Kim and Dr. James A. Ashenhurst of the Movassaghi group report
(Science 2009, 324, 238-241) a concise enantioselective total synthesis of
(+)-11,11'-dideoxyverticillin A via a strategy inspired by their biosynthetic hypothesis for this alkaloid.

The fungal metabolite (+)-11,11'-dideoxyverticillin A, a cytotoxic alkaloid isolated from a marine Penicillium sp., belongs to a fascinating family of densely functionalized, stereochemically complex, and intricate dimeric epidithiodiketopiperazine natural products. Although dimeric epidithiodiketopiperazines have been known for nearly 4 decades, none had succumbed to total synthesis. Justin Kim and Dr. James A. Ashenhurst of the Movassaghi group report (Science 2009, 324, 238-241) a concise enantioselective total synthesis of (+)-11,11'-dideoxyverticillin A via a strategy inspired by their biosynthetic hypothesis for this alkaloid. Their rapid functionalization of the advanced molecular framework aims to mimic plausible biosynthetic steps and offers an effective strategy for the chemical synthesis of other members of this family of alkaloids.

The 2009 Pauling Medal will be awarded to Professor Stephen J. Lippard, Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry. The Linus Pauling Medal is given annually by the Oregon, Portland and Puget Sound Sections of the American Chemical Society. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to chemistry meriting national and international recognition in the spirit of and in honor of Linus Pauling, a native of the Pacific Northwest.Professor Lippard will join a list of previous eminent recipients that includes Chemistry Department's Professor John S. Waugh who received the award in 1984.

Linus Carl Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon, on February 28, 1901. He graduated from the Oregon Agricultural College in 1922 with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry engineering. Three years later he received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. After a year abroad, Dr. Pauling joined the Caltech faculty and remained there for over three decades. Following stints at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, the University of California, San Diego, and Stanford University, he established the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine at the age of 72.

Linus Pauling was a brilliant chemist and an untiring political activist who received Nobel Prizes for chemistry and peace. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1954 for his chemical research which was centered on the themes of chemical bonding and molecular structure. Published in 1939, his book entitled The Nature of the Chemical Bond remains a landmark study which is still widely read and referenced. Dr. Pauling received the 1962 Nobel Prize for Peace. The award's citation acclaimed him for his work "not only against the testing of nuclear weapons, not only against the spread of these armaments, not only against their very use, but against all warfare as a means of solving international conflicts." Dr. Pauling was the recipient of numerous other awards, including the first Pauling Medal in 1966.

Dr. Elizabeth M. Nolan to join faculty

Elizabeth Nolan's research interests lie at the interface of chemistry and biology with particular emphasis on the roles of metal ions in human physiology and disease. She is initiating an exciting new program at MIT that combines bioinorganic chemistry, in vitro enzymology, and cell biology.

Dr. Nolan, who will be joining the Department on July 1, 2009 is an MIT alumna having carried out her Ph. D. studies in the group of Professor Stephen J.
Lippard.

Dr. Long Cai to join faculty

Long Cai’s research focuses on the system biology and single molecule approach to signal transduction in living cells. He is interested in developing new microscopy techniques to measure dynamics of biochemical reaction in single cells as well as addressing biological questions in signaling and gene expression from simple eukaryotes to multicellular organisms. Long Cai’s group is strategically placed at the interface of physical and biological chemistry.

Dr. Cai carried out his Ph. D. studies in Physical Chemistry under Professor Sunney Xie at Harvard University. He will join the Department on July 1, 2009.

Dr. Christian L. Degen to join faculty

The aim of Christian Degen’s research is the application of magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy at the extreme nanoscale in structural biology and for chemical surface identification. Such a capability will open an entirely new access to structural and chemical investigations of single biological entities, macromolecular assemblies and nanostructured surfaces. Reaching these goals demands the development of novel, high-resolution magnetic sensing tools that are sensitive enough to access the nanometer regime.

Dr. Degen carried out his Ph. D. in Physical Chemistry under Professor Beat H. Meier at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He will join the Department in September 2009.

Bristol-Myers Squibb has selected Professor Mohammad Movassaghi for their 2009 Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grant in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. The award will be over two years and Professor Movassaghi will participate in their annual Research Symposium in 2010.