2017 Departmental News
Prof. Jorge A. Morales to be Visiting Professor at University of Pernambuco, Brazil
Prof. Jorge A. Morales has received a visiting Professor position at the level of
full Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Federal University of Pernambuco,
Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. This is a six-month position starting on June 1, 2018.
During his stay in Brazil, Prof. Morales will conduct theoretical chemistry research
with several groups in the University of Pernambuco and will teach a graduate course
on theoretical chemistry.
Congratulations to the Fall 2017 Dean's List and President's List Recipients
• Dean's List
• President's List
Brandon Watson places first in the 2017 ACS SWRM Undergraduate poster session
During the 2017 ACS SWRM meeting held here in Lubbock, Texas, undergraduate student
Brandon T. Watson presented his research conducted in Dr. Cozzolino's lab, along 108
other undergraduate students from across the region. His poster was titled the "Design
of Moisture Stable Antimony (III) Compounds for Self-Assembly through Secondary Bonding
Interactions" and was the culmination of a year of research within the Cozzolino group.
His research focused on the synthesis of stable, tripodal antimony (III) and bismuth
(III) thiolates in hopes of being able to further construct self-assembled supramolecular
spherical structures. To read more about the happenings in Dr. Cozzolino's research
group, please click on the following link: Cozzolino Group The Chemistry & Biochemistry Department Research Poster Session
The Chemistry & Biochemistry Department Research Poster Session Event was held on
Aug 25, 2017. Each poster was judged by at least 2 judges. This year three prizes
were given to the best undergraduate posters and three prizes were awarded to the
best graduate posters. This year winners were:
Graduate Students
• 1st Place - Collin Borcik: Insane in the Membrane: The functional interplay between
lipids and a full-length inward-rectifier potassium channel via solid-state NMR
• 1st Place - Babak Tahmouresilerd: Strategies for Supporting Iodine Catalytic Sites
in Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs)
• 3rd Place - Ranjith Nadipalli: HKT1 sodium transporter expression correlates with
salt-tolerance in Arugula ecotypes
Undergraduate Students
• 1st Place - Amanda Miller: Cu(1,7-phenanthroline)(PPH3)2 . PF6: An 'Inhibited' Ligand
Complex
• 2nd Place - Brandon Watson: The Design of Moisture Stable Antimony (III) and Bismuth
(III) Compounds for Self-Assembly through Secondary Bonding Interactions
• 3rd Place - Dustin Kenafake: Metal-Free "Hydrogenation of Ketones and Imines via
'Inverse' Frustrated Lewis Pair Approach".
Prof. Andrew Harned named Associate Editor for Royal Society Open Science
Prof. Andrew Harned has been named an Associate Editor and member of the Chemistry
Editorial Board for Royal Society Open Science (http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org),
a multidisciplinary open access journal, covering 12 subjects across all science,
engineering, and mathematics. The journal aims to publish high quality work, using
objective peer-review without restrictions on scope, length or impact. Although the
Royal Society owns the journal, the chemistry content is published in collaboration
with the Royal Society of Chemistry. Of particular note, Prof. Harned will be the
journal's first Associate Editor of chemistry content to be based in the United States.Prof. Dominick Casadonte Spoke and Demonstrated Chemistry to Students at Double T College on Sep 25-29
Courses taught by Dom Casadonte, professor of chemistry: Why Chemistry Gets a Bad
Rap and Why It Really Shouldn't, The Portrait of the Chemist as a Young Man, Chemistry
Really is Fun and I'll Prove It.
Prof. Yehia Mechref has received an NIH R01 competing renewal award for $1,151,179 (4-years)
According to the ORS records, this award is the first successful NIH R01 competing
renewal that Texas Tech has received since 1996 (no records exist before 1996). The
proposed research will enable the development of tools for the characterization of
protein carbohydrate structures at sensitivity, throughput, and level of detail not
previously possible. The implementation of these tools will enable researchers to
better understand the attributes and biomedical significance of glycans in the development
and progression of a wide array of diseases. Examples of future benefits for public
health include the identification of disease and cancer biomarkers for medical diagnostics
and the monitoring of recombinant protein therapeutics, which will lead to better-targeted
drugs that are more bioactive with fewer side effects.
Dr. Roya Baghi, Graduate from Dr. Hope-Week's group, has gotten a position at Texas Tech University at Waco
Dr. Roya Baghi, a 2017 Ph.D. graduate from Dr. Hope-Week's research group, has received
an appointment with the TTU Waco campus. TTU Waco is co-located within the McClennan
Community College campus in Waco, TX. Dr. Baghi will be teaching organic chemistry
and upper division courses and coordinating labs for TTU Waco.
Prof. Benjamin Wylie received a Maximizing Investigators' Research Award of $1,745,725
Prof. Benjamin Wylie received a Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) (R35)
from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His proposal was entitled "Functional
Interplay of Lipid Membrane Components: Activation, Inhibition, and Raft Formation."
The Wylie lab will receive $1,745,725 over five years.
Prof. Michael Latham has received half of a TTU Presidents' Collaborative Research Initiative Grant of $50,000
Professor Michael Latham received a TTU Presidents' Collaborative Research Initiative
award for a proposal entitled "A Structural Basis for a Form of Mental Retardation."
This is a collaborative grant with Drs. Clint Macdonald and Petar Grozdanov from TTUHSC
(Lubbock, TX). This award provides seed money for experiments to understand how a
single mutation of a protein found in brain cells can cause a severe form of mental
retardation. The total award is $50,000 for one year, while Prof. Latham's share is
$25,000.
Prof. John D'Auria received an NSF Collaborative grant of $800,000
Professor John D'Auria on receiving an NSF Collaborative grant of $800,000 (3 years)
for his proposal entitled "Collaborative Research: A systems approach toward understanding
the diversification of tropane and granatane alkaloid biosynthesis." Dr. D'Auria is
the lead PI on the grant along with Dr. Cornelius Barry from MSU and Dr. Charles Stewart
Jr. from ISU. The total award is $800,000 (3 years) while TTU share is $332,348.Prof. Dimitri Pappas received a CH Foundation's gift of $102,126
Professor Dimitri Pappas received a CH Foundation's gift of $102,126 (1 year) for
his grant award entitled A Microchip Sepsis Detection System for Point of Service
Healthcare.
Dr. Bill Hase is hosting Shreyas Vijay Malpathak, a 2017 S.N. Bose Scholar
For the S.N. Bose Scholars Program (for Indian students) this year, received over
~1500 applications. A joint India-U.S. selection committee evaluated each and every
application and short-listed 60 students. At this level, these students are among
the top 1.5% of the best students across India
2014 TTU Ph.D. graduate Dr. Rui Sun (Hase group) has accepted a faculty position at the University of Hawaii
Rui Sun received his B.S. degree in Chemistry in 2009 from Shandong University in
China. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Texas Tech University in 2014, working
with Dr. William L. Hase on studying gas phase reactions mechanism and solvent effect
in condensed phase reaction with ab initio molecular dynamics simulation. + More
Prof. Bill Poirier receives 3 year grant ($498,009) from NSF
Prof. Lionel "Bill" Poirier has received a grant in the amount of $498,009 from the
National Science Foundation (NSF) for a three year project funded jointly through
CTMC (Chemical Theory, Models, and Computation) and OAC (Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure).
The title of the funded proposal is: "CDS&E: Massively Parallel Quantum Dynamics:
Computing many accurate quantum states for real molecular applications." + More
Prof. David Nes receives R33 grant ($881,354) from NIH for 3 year study
Horn Prof. David Nes has received an R33 grant in the amount of $881,354 from the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a three year study. The title of the funded
proposal is: Discovery of new anti-amoeba therapeutics. The grant is a continuation
award of Prof. Nes' current R21 grant + More
New faculty member, Dr. Kristin Hutchins, joins Department in fall 2017
In fall 2017, Dr. Kristin Hutchins will join the faculty of the Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. She will teach organic chemistry-related
courses and her research projects are in the areas of organic, materials, and supramolecular
chemistry.
Shiyue Zhou awarded 2017 Song Prize for best departmental Ph.D. dissertation
Shiyue Zhou was awarded the 2017 Song Prize for his Ph.D. dissertation entitled: Comprehensive
LC-MS and MS/MS Study of N-Glycans Derived from Biological Samples. His studies were
conducted under the direction of Prof. Yehia Mechref.
New Department Chairman, June 1, 2017
The department's faculty, staff, and students welcome Prof. Yehia Mechref as the new
Chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, as of June 1, 2017, and
sincerely thanks Prof. Hope-Weeks for her outstanding service as past Chair
8 Chem/Biochem majors inducted into Phi Beta Kappa
Eight Chemistry/Biochemistry majors were recently inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the
oldest and, arguably, most prestigious honorary society in the US. The honored graduates
include: Colton R. Davis, Colleen D. Driscoli, Holden R. Fried, Jaime I. Haro-Silerio,
Farah F. Mechref, Alexandria C. Nichols, Erin H. Sims and Simran R. Singh.
Collaboration awarded an EAGER grant by the Engineering Division of the NSF
Professor Michael Findlater of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Professor
Weile Yan of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering have been awarded
an EAGER grant in the amount of $80,000 by the Engineering Division of the NSF. The
development of hydraulic fracturing + More
Biochemistry major, Holden Fried (BS, May '17) received two American Chemical Society awards
Biochemistry and Mathematics (double major), Holden Fried (BS, May '17) received the
2017 Outstanding Graduating Senior Award from the South Plains local section of the
American Chemical Society (ACS) and the 2017 Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry
from the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry. + More
Faculty member, Dr. Michael Findlater, promoted to Associate Professor and tenured
At the February 2017 meeting of the TTU Board of Regents, faculty member, Dr. Michael
Findlater, was granted tenure and promotion (from Assistant Professor to Associate
Professor). While tenure is immediate, promotion takes effect on September 1st, 2017.
Dr. Gamez is recognized as a 2017 Emerging Investigator
According to the recent Focus Section editorial in the Journal of the American Society
for Mass Spectrometry: "...contributing authors...were recommended as individuals
who show exceptional promise for doing creative research by a group of prominent mass
spectrometrists... Although each of these authors has established his/her independent + More
Anu Saini awarded Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
Departmental graduate student, Anu Saini, was recently awarded (spring '17) a Doctoral
Dissertation Fellowship by the TTU Graduate School. This funding will be used to fully
support Anu's stipend for the next academic school year as she completes her experimental
+ More
Prof. Yehia Mechref featured in a "Communicators in a Cart!" video interview
From KTTZ-TV: "Welcome back to Communicators in a Cart! This week Chris Cook grabs
coffee with Dr. Yehia Mechref, Professor and Director of Texas Tech University's Center for Biotechnology & Genomics." Over the short ride and cup of coffee, academic
and research activities are discussed.
PhD Candidate, M. Mustafa Cetin, to begin new work with 2016 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
On March 4th, 2017, PhD candidate and Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry graduate
student, M. Mustafa Cetin visited Northwestern University in Evanston, IL and he presented
an overview of his research activities (with the Mayer group and collaborators) here
at TTU. Mustafa has since accepted an offer for a postdoctoral research associate
position, + More
Prospective Graduate Student Visitation Weekend, March 3-4, 2017
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry hosted a student visitation weekend for
qualifying graduate applicants. The focus of the event was to provide information
about Texas Tech University, the department, and Lubbock. The weekend-event featured
tours, meals, and many opportunities to speak with current graduate students and faculty. Please
contact Donna Smith (donna.smith@ttu.edu) for more information.
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
-
Address
1204 Boston Avenue, Lubbock, TX 79409-1061 -
Phone
806.742.3067