We recently wrapped up another season of faculty and graduate recruiting, as well as the first week back to classes after spring break. It’s hard to believe—before you know it, we’ll be saying goodbye and best wishes to another graduating class of students at convocation in May.
For now, I invite you to catch up on the latest department happenings.
ILLINI SUCCESS
The Illini Success initiative, which collects post-graduation data on undergraduate degree recipients, shows that our alumni are doing well, with 90% landing a first destination, and the average salary increasing by 12% since last year’s results. Of course, we’ve always known our alumni are some of the best, but it’s nice to have data to prove it! Read more here.
DIVERSITY AND CLIMATE
We continue our efforts to foster an inclusive, diverse community for our students, faculty, and staff. One initiative is leading to a collection of diversity and climate resources onto our website for greater transparency and ease of access. The pages are a work-in-progress, but if you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. Other projects include the establishment of standing diversity and climate committees, ongoing refinement of our recruitment strategy, and development of relevant workshops and training opportunities.
A recent story by one of our graduate students, Marina Philip, summarizes related issues and highlights student-led initiatives being taken to address them.
STOESSER LECTURE
Since 2000, the Sylvia M. Stoesser Lecture in Chemistry has been an important resource for the department. Highlighting one of the early pioneers for women in chemistry, Sylvia M. Stoesser, it features an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the chemical community and who provides new perspectives in the chemical field outside academia.
This year’s speaker was Dr. Esther Tristani, senior scientist at Burt’s Bees. Dr. Tristani spoke about her current role in skincare product development and about the experiences and choices that led to that career. The event was well-attended, with Dr. Tristani providing not only a unique industry perspective and career advice for our students, but also a generous supply of Burt’s Bees samples—all of which were greatly appreciated.
AWARDS AND HONORS
As you can see by the long list that follows, our faculty, students, alumni, and staff have all been quite busy. Among their many awards:
Scott Denmark received the Journal of Organic Chemistry (JOC)’s Outstanding Publication of the Year Award for 2019. Prashant Jain was selected to join the 2020-2021 class of the Defense Science Study Group, a program that invites outstanding science and engineering professors to address security challenges faced by the United States. Nancy Makri received the Greek Chemical Society (AGC)’s International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Award. Cathy Murphy received the 2019 Remsen Award, presented by the American Chemical Society Maryland Section. Mei Shen received the Excellence in Guiding Undergraduate Research Award, given by the Provost for positive impact on student scholarship and intellectual development, and innovative approaches to guiding undergraduate research.
Arun Maji, a postdoctoral researcher in the Burke group, was named the Beckman-Brown Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellow for 2019.
Alumnus William Nebergall (MS, '39) was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his development of stannous fluoride toothpaste.
Finally, staff member Jenny Cox, assistant director of finance and administration, received the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) Academic Professional Award.
Congratulations to all those recognized for their outstanding service and talent. Check out past department awards and honors here.
LOOKING AHEAD
May will be a busy month for us. We look forward to welcoming several alumni back to campus on Thursday, May 9 for a career panel on entrepreneurship, followed closely by Convocation on Sunday, May 12, featuring guest speakers May Lee (PhD, '76, Rinehart) and Ving Lee (PhD, '75, Rinehart).
Just a couple weeks later, we invite Chicagoland alumni to join us for a reception hosted in conjunction with Nalco Water in Naperville. If you happen to be in the area, please feel free to join.
Martin Gruebele
Head, Department of Chemistry
James R. Eiszner Chair in Chemistry
Professor in the Center for Advanced Study
Professor of Physics
Professor of Biophysics and Quantitative Biology