Olivia DrakeApril 3, 20151min
Christina Othon and Erika Taylor, along with physics graduate student Nimesh Shukla, Lee Chen ’15, Inha Cho ’15 and Erin Cohn ’15, are the co-authors of a paper titled “Sucralose Destabilization of Protein Structure” published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, March 2015. Othon is assistant professor of physics and was PI on the paper. Taylor is assistant professor of chemistry, assistant professor of environmental studies. Sucralose is a commonly employed artificial sweetener that behaves very differently than its natural disaccharide counterpart, sucrose, in terms of its interaction with biomolecules. This research suggests that people may need to think about the impact…

students-760x301-760x301.jpg
Olivia DrakeFebruary 20, 20153min
#THISISWHY About 30 Wesleyan students and faculty gathered for a Wesleyan Women in Science (WesWIS) Tea Reception Feb. 19 at the Wasch Center. Women in Science is a student group composed of undergraduates, post-docs, staff and faculty dedicated to issues affecting women in science. The group is open to all majors and genders. During the gathering, guest speaker Michelle Francl, professor of chemistry on the Clowes Fund for Science and Public Policy at Bryn Mawr College, spoke to the group about physicist and chemist Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Francl handed out copies of her commentary titled…

Olivia DrakeFebruary 17, 20151min
Brian Northrop, assistant professor of chemistry, is the co-author of several new papers including: “Preparation and Analysis of Cyclodextrin-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks: Laboratory Experiments Adaptable for High School through Advanced Undergraduate Students,” published in Journal of Chemical Education 92, pages 368-372, 2015. Samantha Angle, a Middletown High School student working in Northrop’s lab, co-authored the paper. (See cover at left.) "Rational Synthesis of Bis(hexyloxy)-Tetra(hydroxy)-Triphenylenes and their Derivatives," published in RSC Advances 4, pages 38,281-392 in 2014; "Vibrational Properties of Boroxine Anhydride and Boronate Ester Materials: Model Systems for the Diagnostic Characterization of Covalent Organic Frameworks,” published in Chemistry of Materials 26, pages 3,781-95 in 2014; And “Allyl-Functionalized Dioxynaphthalene[38]Crown-10 Macrocycles: Synthesis, Self-Assembly,…

Olivia DrakeFebruary 16, 20151min
Stewart Novick, chair and professor of chemistry, is the co-author of several papers published in 2014. They include: "The microwave spectra and structure of the argon-cyclopentanone and neon-cyclopentanone van der Waals complexes," published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A 118, pages 856-861; "The shape of trifluoromethoxybenzene," published in the Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy 297, pages 32-34; "Fluorination effects on the shapes of complexes of water with ethers: a rotational study of trifluoroanisole-water," published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry, A 118, pages 1,047-51; "Measurement of the J = 1 - 0 pure rotational transition in excited vibrational states of…

Olivia DrakeFebruary 16, 20152min
Michael Frisch, research professor of in chemistry, is the co-author of many articles published in 2014. They include: “Analytical harmonic vibrational frequencies for the green fluorescent protein computed with ONIOM: Chromophore mode character and its response to environment," published in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 10, pages 751-766; “Quantum calculations in solution for large to very large molecules: A new linear scaling QM/continuum approach," published in the Journal of Physical Chemical Letters, 5, pages 953-958; “Density of states guided Møller-Plesset perturbation theory,” published in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 10, pages 1,910-14; “Practical auxiliary basis implementation…

S00039861.gif
Olivia DrakeJanuary 20, 20152min
Erika Taylor, assistant professor of chemistry, assistant professor of environmental studies, is the author of a paper "Exploring Allosteric Activation of LigAB from Sphingobium sp. strain SYK-6 through Kinetics, Mutagenesis and Computational Studies," published in Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Vol, 567, pages 35-45, February 2015. Co-authors include graduate students Kevin Barry and Joy Cote; Erin Cohn '15, Abraham Ngu '13 and former graduate student Jason Gerbino. Development of renewable alternatives for petroleum derived fuels and chemicals is of increasing importance because of limits on the amount of fossil fuels that are available on the planet. In an effort to improve the utilization of…

stu_russell_20142-1016161233-760x317.jpg
Olivia DrakeDecember 1, 20144min
#THISISWHY In this Q&A meet Colin Russell from the Class of 2015. Q: Colin, what are you majoring in? What have been your most instrumental courses so far? A: I am majoring in neuroscience and behavior while also on the pre-medical path. Two of the most instrumental courses in my journey through Wes have been Organic Chemistry and the Organic Chemistry Lab that is paired with the lecture course. The reputation of Organic Chemistry was extremely intimidating prior to taking the course, and I was nervous that I would not like this subject that is the basis for so much of the…

gsac-75-760x506.jpg
Olivia DrakeNovember 3, 20142min
On Nov. 3, Brian Northrop, assistant professor of chemistry, spoke to students at the Green Street Arts Center about polymers. As part of the hands-on workshop, Northrop taught the participants how to make their own silicone polymer putty with glue, water, Borax and food coloring. Similar putty was accidentally invented during World War II when an American scientist working for General Electric in New Haven, Conn. was trying to create synthetic rubber using silicone oil and boric acid. The result produced a "solid-liquid" goo that had a high melting temperature, could bounce when dropped, and stretch. The product is most commonly known as Silly Putty, a trademark…

chemsociety2-760x542.jpg
Olivia DrakeAugust 21, 20142min
Two graduate students and two faculty attended the 248th national meeting of the American Chemical Society Aug. 10-14 in San Francisco, Calif. Chemistry graduate students Duminda Ranasinghe delivered a poster presentation on her research titled "Efficient extrapolation to the (T)/CBS limit" and an oral presentation on "Density functional for core-valence correlation energy." Chemistry graduate student Kyle Throssell presented two poster presentations on "Potential curves of selected radical thiol double additions to alkynes" and "Assessing weak interactions in small dimer systems with PM7." The students were accompanied by George Petersson, the Fisk Professor of Natural Science, professor of chemistry; and Michael…

tsui-640x426.jpg
Gerpha Gerlin '16May 22, 20144min
This summer, Elaine Tsui ’15 will work on her undergraduate research in the Chemistry Department as an American Chemical Society Fellow. Tsui, who is double majoring in English and chemistry, received the fellowship from the Society's Connecticut Valley Section. Funding opportunities are available for those with interests in physics, biology, materials science, engineering and medicine. As a fellow, Tsui will conduct self-directed research under the supervision of Albert J. Fry, the E.B. Nye Professor of Chemistry. In 2013, Tsui worked with Fry as a Hughes Fellow and studied “Andodic Oxidation of 1,1-Diphenylacetone in Various Alcohols." She will continue this research for 10 weeks…