It’s been a busy fall here in Urbana, and we’re just getting our first hints of winter. Our new students are beginning to acclimate, and I recently received word that everyone in our incoming graduate class has officially found a lab “home.” As all our students continue to settle in, we look forward to watching their progress and successes unfold over the coming years.
In the meantime, I invite you to catch up on our recent activities.
GRADUATE CLIMATE AND DIVERSITY
Speaking of our students, you will recall that Dr. Lloyd Munjanja recently came on board as assistant director of graduate climate and diversity. He has been working tirelessly to get to know our students and faculty, assess current needs and opportunities, and develop and guide solutions to ensure a healthy and diverse research environment. A collaborative task force comprised of Dr. Munjanja, myself, and various campus units has been conducting an in-depth analysis of information generated from a recent climate survey, in order to offer strategic recommendations to address climate and diversity issues in the department. We will be sharing information about this project in a dedicated area on our website, which I look forward to highlighting in February.
On October 11, we were delighted to invest Professor Chad Rienstra as the John Witt Professor of Chemistry. Rienstra, who joined the Illinois faculty in 2002, was honored for his dedication to research, teaching, and service. The Witt Professorship is the department’s newest named professorship and was established by John (PhD, ’61) and Margaret Witt, whose longstanding support of Illinois was recognized by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences the very next day. (Read more in the award section, below.)
Just a few days later, on October 15 and 16, the Beckman Institute hosted a symposium in honor of the 90th birthday of founding director, Theodore “Ted” Brown, whose long and successful career at Illinois began in the Department of Chemistry in 1956.
Each of these events showcased the remarkable impact of faculty, staff, students, and alumni coming together to support one another’s efforts and celebrate each other’s achievements.
AWARDS AND HONORS
The talent and work of our faculty and alumni continue to be regularly recognized, both on campus and within the scientific community at large.
Jeff Chan received the NSF Career Award. Prashant Jain was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. John Katzenellenbogen was inducted into the ACS Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame. Zan Luthey-Schulten was named a Fellow of the Biophysical Society, their highest accolade for a member, for her work on modeling whole cells, among other achievements. Additionally, she is one of this years' 29 NSF "Understand the Rules of Life" award winners. Joaquín Rodríguez-López was named one of ten “Scientists to Watch” by Science News. Wilfred van der Donk was renewed as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, which will continue to give him creative independence for years to come. Renske van der Veen was the recipient of a Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering for 2018; she also received an NSF Award for her project, “MRI: Acquisition of an Electron Energy-Loss Spectrometer for In Situ Time-Resolved Chemical Mapping of Nanomaterials.” Finally, M. Christina White received the 2019 ACS National Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. White is the third recipient from Illinois (joining Prof. Nelson Leonard and Prof. Scott Denmark), and the first woman to become a recipient since the award’s founding in 1957.
As mentioned above, longtime friends of the department John (PhD, ’61) and Margaret Witt received the 2018 LAS Dean’s Quadrangle Award for their outstanding service and support of the college. Much of this support actually benefits our department directly, and we are grateful for their continued generosity to our faculty and students.
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.
ANNUAL REPORT
I am delighted to share our very first annual report, which captures some highlights from 2017-18. I think you’ll agree it was a successful year for us. I hope you enjoy the update, and, as always, any feedback you have is certainly welcome.
LOOKING AHEAD
Coming up in December is our annual Holiday “Magic” Show. This popular event allows our students and teaching faculty to introduce chemistry to the local community in a fun and exciting way.
Looking beyond the holidays, the School of Chemical Sciences will host an event on February 5, 2019, to celebrate the designation of an ACS National Historic Chemical Landmark for St. Elmo Brady, the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States.
If you’re in the area during either of these times, I strongly encourage you to consider attending these events. In the meantime, I wish you a joyful holiday season, until our next e-news in February.
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