Professor Rohit Bhargava's team at the Beckman Institute has developed new techniques that improve the noise associated with nanoscale chemical imaging using atomic force microscopy. The improvements will increase the versatility and precision of the instrument.
Faculty News
Professor David Sarlah and Professor Hee-Sun Han have interdisciplinary projects that have been selected for the Cancer Center at Illinois’ annual seed grant awards.
Professor Wilfred Van der Donk, the Richard E. Heckert Endowed Chair in Chemistry, has been named the winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Pedler Award for the combined application of organic chemistry, molecular biology, and biochemistry to study posttranslationally modified peptides and phosphonate natural products.
Professor Yi Lu, the Jay and Ann Schenck Professor of Chemistry, has won the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Joseph Chatt Award for elucidating design principles of artificial metalloproteins to gain novel and deeper insights into the structure and function of natural systems.
Prashant Jain has been announced as one of 31 finalists for the Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists, which elevate the work and research of early-career scientists in three categories, chemistry, life sciences and physical sciences and engineering.
Professor Catherine J. Murphy becomes the first women to receive the American Chemical Society’s National Award in Inorganic Chemistry.
Professor Wilfred van der Donk has been awarded The Harrison Howe Award for 2020, a prestigious honor that recognizes an outstanding chemist in an acknowledgement of the idea that chemistry and the pursuit of chemical knowledge contribute to the betterment of society.
Capturing the ultrafast dynamics of electrons has been a long-standing dream of scientists. That dream became reality when researchers in the lab of Renske M. van der Veen, professor of chemistry and Materials Research Laboratory scientist, developed an instrument that can directly visualize electron movement.
Professor Lisa Olshansky is one of 15 researchers chosen for the Searle Scholars Program, a national biomedical research grant program primarily focused on the potential of applicants to make innovative and high-impact contributions to research over an extended period of time.
As an alumna and faculty member, Professor Cathy Murphy brings a rare perspective to her new role as head of the Department of Chemistry, and her role also marks a historic moment as the first woman to lead the department in its 152-year history.
A research team, including chemistry's Jonathan Sweedler, has developed a mass spectrometry-based screening technique to rapidly profile certain fatty acids and identified new genetically-engineered mutants of a certain yeast that produce higher levels of those acids as part of an overall goal to convert renewable plant biomass to fuels and chemicals.
Professor Prashant Jain receives special recognition in promotion to full professor and is named to Alumni Scholar position in the Department of Chemistry.
The Sweedler Research Group has developed a new technique to measure the amount and distribution of lipids in rat brain samples. The technique can have potential applications in determining how the lipids change as a result of exposure to drugs of abuse.
When tested in brain cells and in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease, a new compound significantly reduced the number of amyloid plaques in the brain, lessened brain inflammation and diminished other molecular markers of the disease.
Awards Committee in the Department of Chemistry recommends the appointment of Professor Douglas Mitchell, who is doing world-class work on lasso peptides and other medicinally important chemistry that could lead to development of stable peptides as drug leads.
