For those of us on campus, it’s always a bit of an adjustment when 30,000+ Illinois students return from summer break. Noyes has been, well… noisier than usual due to the increased activity, and our staff have done more than their fair share of providing directions to our newest Illini.
As our students begin to acclimate to campus life, I invite you to take a moment and catch up on our news from the ‘quieter’ summer days.
SUMMER ACTIVITIES
While many of our undergraduates may have gotten a summer break, most of our faculty, staff, and graduate students—and certainly some undergrads, too—have been busy here on campus.
In June, the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) held their 11th annual Bonding with Chemistry Day Camp. Over 90 girls participated in this year’s event, learning topics from crystallization to special effects chemistry. The day camps are a mutually beneficial experience: the campers receive a fun introduction to chemistry (for free!), and the graduate students running the camp gain valuable program management, teaching, and mentorship experience.
August was a busy month. We wrapped up another summer of undergraduate research, culminating in a poster session at the Illini Union. Some undergraduates participate in research year-round, but for others, summer is a better option. These students are involved via formal programs – like the Snyder Scholars – or receive individually named research scholarships. In most cases, these opportunities are made possible by the generosity of you, our alumni and friends.
Later in August, we hosted 60 new graduate students for two weeks of orientation events and activities, and held an alumni and friends reception in conjunction with the ACS meeting in Boston. If you missed us in Boston, I hope to see you at the spring reception in Orlando on Sunday evening!
Last but not least, we’ve also been in the process of a major remodeling project here at Noyes. While the improvements in undergraduate labs and air handling are much-needed, we are definitely looking forward to the dust settling, and getting back to normal soon.
AWARDS AND HONORS
As I mentioned, many of us don’t get the luxury of a summer break, and I’m proud to say that our faculty, staff, and students’ hard work is being recognized as much as ever.
Douglas A. Mitchell was one of eleven faculty members honored with the Provost's Campus Distinguished Promotion Award for 2018. Jeff Moore was part of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR)’s Scientific and Operational Leadership team, which received the Secretary of Energy’s Achievement Award from the Department of Energy. Our recently promoted colleague Joaquín Rodríguez-López was also deeply involved with the center. Jonathan Sweedler, James R. Eiszner Family Endowed Chair in Chemistry, was awarded the Torben Bergman Medal in Lund, Sweden, for his research in analytical chemistry and neuroscience. And M. Christina White won the prestigious 2018 Mitsui Chemicals Catalysis Science Award.
Brand-new alumnus Will Bassett (PhD, ‘18, Dlott), who is currently a postdoc in the Dlott lab, received the 2018 Gordon Research Conference J. C. Jamieson Award, given for outstanding achievement in the field of high pressure research.
Two of our undergraduate students did well in the University of Illinois Research Park 2018 Intern Awards, with Tonisha Thacker, a communications/marketing intern for AARP, winning the "Most Advanced Marketing-Business Development" award, and Perry Lim, a research intern at Serionix, recognized as a finalist for "Best Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Startup" award.
Several of our faculty and students also received 2018 School of Chemical Sciences (SCS) Teaching Excellence Awards. Faculty recipients were José Andino Martinez and Steven Zimmerman, and student recipients were Lucas Akin, Ryan Ash, Sarah Bonson, Yiming Wang, and Thao Xiong.
Congratulations to all!
Be sure to visit our website for the latest awards and other news. And, if you have any news to share, please let us know here so that we can help spread the word.
FACULTY AND STAFF UPDATES
I am pleased to share that Dr. Liviu Mirica will join our faculty in January of 2019 as part of the university’s distinguished faculty hiring program. Trained at top chemistry departments at Caltech, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, Mirica comes to Illinois after a ten-year career at Washington University in St. Louis, where he established a vibrant and successful research program. Mirica is a leader at the intersection of inorganic, organic, and biological chemistry, and we look forward to having him as part of our team.
Dr. Qing Cao (PhD, '09, Rogers) is our newest affiliate faculty member. He also came to Illinois as part of the distinguished faculty hiring program, and will be working in materials science and engineering with affiliations in chemistry, electrical and computer engineering, and the Materials Research Lab.
Finally, as you may recall from our June update, Dr. Lloyd Munjanja joined our staff in May as assistant director of graduate diversity and program climate, and has been busy meeting with our students, faculty, and staff ever since. In a special edition of our Getting to Know series, Dr. Munjanja discusses the challenges and opportunities of his new role.
GIVING BACK
One project I’m very excited about is the Chemistry Discovery Fund, created to provide support for innovative faculty projects, and made possible by a generous gift from alumni Ving Lee (PhD, ’75, Rinehart) and May Lee (PhD, ’76, Rinehart). The first round of funding supports research by Martin Burke, Prashant Jain, and Doug Mitchell, and I look forward to another round of applications in the spring.
FALL ACTIVITIES ON CAMPUS
This October 15-16, the Beckman Institute will recognize former chemistry department head and founding Beckman director Ted Brown for his many contributions to the university, via a symposium on energy and the environment.
Other fall events include Homecoming (Oct 7-13) and the UI Foundation’s 83rd Annual Meeting (Sept 20-22). While the department has no formal alumni programming during these events, please let us know if you’ll be on campus. We’d love to arrange for you to meet with some students or faculty, give you a lab tour, or simply catch up.
On that note, I want to share that one of our priorities this year is finding more meaningful and effective ways to connect you—our alumni and friends—with our students and faculty, and vice versa. If you have suggestions or requests, I’d love to hear them. Until next time.
Cheers,
Martin
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