Department of Chemistry

Notes from the editor.

Greetings from the St. Thomas chemistry department. Another two years has passed since our last newsletter. As we move from day-to-day little seems to change, yet reflecting over a two-year period, the opposite seems to be closer to the truth. Some of the changes have been happy; some have been sad. We have enjoyed hearing from past students and hope that you will continue to write to us and visit the department or, at least, our website occasionally. We have celebrated good news from many of you who have had an excellent start in a graduate school, have taken on a new job, have recently received awards or have been promoted. Within the Chemistry Department at St. Thomas, Tony Borgerding was granted tenure, Dave Boyd was promoted to full professor and Tom Marsh was put on tenure track. But, in July 2003 we were also deeply saddened to learn that Ashley Evans, a St. Thomas biochemistry graduate in 2000, was killed in a car accident in Nevada on her way back to medical school from an internship at Stanford University.

In the spring of 2004 we said goodbye to Becky Bilek who taught in the chemistry department for two years and was a valuable colleague. Becky has taken a position as Technical Director at Braun Intertech in the Twin City area. The department said farewell to her at a summer pot-luck picnic at Lynn’s home, and presented her with a photograph of the entire faculty that had been take at our most recent planning meeting at the Gainey conference center (so that she will remember us!) We wish Becky every success in her new position. In order to fill the void left by Becky’s leaving, we recently hired another environmental chemist. Kris Wammer is currently finishing a postdoctoral project at the University of Minnesota and will join us in the fall. Kris is a native of Minnesota graduating from St. Olaf College in 1997 and then earning a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2003.

In a number of other ways the department has been trucking right along. We have made several additions to the department’s array of instrumentation and major equipment as a result of new grants, contracts, and donations. The ranks of students participating in research projects remains strong and the number of students giving presentations at the national ACS meeting or other professional conferences is at an all-time high. Several of our students have garnered national honors. We have added two new courses, one in materials characterization and another introductory class that is an accelerated general chemistry course for well-prepared students. Enrollments in all of our courses have continued to rise.

Furthermore, changes are taking place all over campus. A new high-rise dormitory is going up near Selby Avenue and construction is beginning on the block bounded by Summit and Grand avenues between Cleveland and Cretin Avenues. Both McNeeley Hall and the Christ Child building have been taken down to provide space for a new undergraduate business education center. This winter two houses along Finn Street were removed and replaced by a new preschool center for children of students and faculty. More development is scheduled for that block in the near future.

We hope to hear from more of you in the next year.

--Gary Mabbott, Editor.

Women Chemists Initiated into Iota Sigma Pi

In a special initiation ceremony on May 2, three St. Thomas faculty and staff women, along with eight students, majoring in chemistry or biochemistry, were initiated into Iota Sigma Pi, national honor society for women chemists. The society promotes professional development and personal growth of women in chemistry and related fields through recognition, public outreach and the formation of supportive networks.

The faculty and staff initiates are: Melva Cain, Dr. Lynn Hartshorn, and Dr. Kathleen Olson. The student initiates are Lauren Becker, chemistry and Spanish majors; Melissa Jones, chemistry major; and biochemistry majors, Christina Bye, Renee Hirte, Anna Lytle, Caitlin Pelletier, Callie Peotter and Janet Rollefson. They are members of the Mercury chapter of Minnesota, one of 40 chapters across the country.

Dr. Charlotte Ovechka, vice-president from St. Thomas, and Dr. Patricia Dunlop, secretary from the College of St. Catherine, conducted the initiation ceremony.

Larson Scholarships Awarded

Seven St. Thomas juniors have been awarded William D. Larson scholarships for the 2005-2006 academic year. The $5000 scholarships are provided by an endowment initiated by Dr. William Larson, a former faculty member in the Chemistry department for many years. They are awarded to students who show exceptional achievement in the field of chemistry, and who intend to pursue careers in chemistry, related fields, or medicine.

The Larson Scholarship recipients were: Lauren Becker, Christina Bye, Katy

Gieselman, Brandon Goblirsch, Tucker Johnson, Melissa Jones, and Janet Rollefson

Many Science Scholars Choose Chemistry or Biochemistry

More than one-third of the Science Scholars at St. Thomas over the past five years have chosen chemistry or biochemistry as their major field of study. The Science Scholars are the winners of the Science, Mathematics and Engineering Scholarships, offered annually to incoming freshmen who intend to pursue degrees in science or mathematics at St. Thomas. They are awarded either full-tuition scholarships or $4000 scholarships.

During the 2004-2005 year, seventeen Scholars were enrolled at St. Thomas, and five of them were chemistry or biochemistry majors. The biochemistry majors included: Lauren Hruby, Abraham Langseth, Angela Osmolak and Jennifer Payne. The chemistry major, senior Eric Fort, graduated with a B.S. (ACS-certified) chemistry degree and will pursue a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Boston College beginning in the fall of 2005.

Five scholarships were recently offered to high school seniors who will enroll as freshmen in the fall of 2005. Three of those students intend to major in biochemistry: Patrick Hawk, Anoka, MN; Marika Kuspa, Crystal Falls, MI; and Matthew Turner, Long Prairie, MN.

Three St. Thomas Students Win Goldwater Scholarships!

During the past two years, three St. Thomas science students have been awarded nationally prestigious Goldwater Scholarships – a biochemist, a chemist and a physicist.

In 2004, Abraham Langseth, biochemistry major from Fridley, Minn, was named one of 310 nationwide winners for his research in circadian neuroscience. In 2005 junior chemistry major Melissa Jones and junior physics major Molly Andreason received two of the 320 scholarships. Miss Jones, from Alexandria, Minn., conducted research under the direction of Dr. Tony Borgerding, of the Chemistry Department. Her research essay was entitled: “Sensitive In-Vivo Measurement of Nitric Oxide in the Brain Using Micro-membrane Extractors.” Miss Andreason, from New Brighton, Minn., wrote an essay on “Computational Modeling of Signal Transduction Pathways and Proteins in Pathogenic Infections.”

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships are designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields. They cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to $7500 per year. Ten of this year’s 320 scholarship winners attend Minnesota colleges and universities. The Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,091 students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide, according to Dr. Charlotte Ovechka, St. Thomas’ liaison to the Goldwater program.

Melissa Jones at work in the lab.
New Acquisitions

Something New Brewing

In the past year the president of a local company donated to the Chemistry Department a BioFlo 3000 fermenter. This is a sophisticated culture chamber under computer control. Based on information from sensors inside this apparatus the computer controls the temperature, oxygen, pH and nutrient levels in order to maintain optimal growth of yeast cultures.

Although there have been many different suggestions about what to brew with such a device, Kathy Olson and Tom Ippoliti’s group have been growing picia pastorius on methanol in order to harvest the alcohol oxidase enzyme. Tom has been interested in developing new diagnostic assays for clinically interesting targets based on enzyme-linked immunoassays using color forming reactions. Tom’s group has made many novel dye precursor molecules which convert to intensely colored products upon oxidation with peroxide. One strategy that the group is pursuing involves covalently linking the alcohol oxidase to an antibody that binds to an interesting target molecule or microoganism. The presence of the tagged antibody can be detected by introducing alcohol and a dye precursor. Upon oxidation of the alcohol the enzyme produces hydrogen peroxide which, in turn, reacts to form the dye.

Chemistry Department lands NSF grant for thermal analysis equipment.

In June, 2004, the Department of Chemistry was awarded a $35,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to purchase equipment for the thermal analysis of materials. David Boyd was the principal author of the grant proposal with the assistance of Bill Ojala, Tom Marsh and Gary Mabbott. During the summer they shopped for two different instruments and finally selected a package deal from TA Instruments. This company makes the Cadillac of thermal analysis equipment. Matching funds from the University enabled the Department to buy two new instruments. Futhermore, the sales representative liked our science building and lab facilities so well that he asked if he could bring potential customers here in order to test-drive their products. For that purpose he is lending the Department an additional, top-of-the-line differential scanning calorimeter from their fleet of instruments.

A differential scanning calorimeter (or DSC) is capable of measuring the temperature and energy transfer associated with processes in materials such as melting, the desorption of moisture or other adsorbed molecules, and phase changes such as the temperature where a plastic material converts between the brittle state and the rubbery state. These transitions are extremely important to the performance of modern materials and are often the focus of research and development in companies that make high-performance plastics, coatings, and structural materials. (A case in point was the first space shuttle disaster that was associated with a hydrogen fuel leak brought about by the embrittlement of an O-ring in the frosty air of the launch day.)

The other instrument is known as a thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA). A TGA monitors the mass of samples as they are heated in a furnace. From such an experiment one can learn such things as the amount of moisture or other volatile molecules that are adsorbed or are a part of the crystalline structure of a material, the decomposition temperature of a material, or the relative amounts of various components in a composite material such as a reinforced plastic or a polymer blend.

The new instruments have played a central role in a brand new course called Laboratory Methods in Materials Chemistry. Dave Boyd and Tom Marsh taught the 2 credit laboratory/workshop course in materials characterization for the first time during the spring semester 2004.

New Raman Spectrometer

A local company has donated a laser Raman spectrometer to the department in support of a consulting project that Tom Ippoliti’s group has been doing. The compact instrument has also been employed for vibrational analysis in Joe Brom’s spectroscopy and quantum chemistry course and in Gary Mabbott’s instrumental analysis course. Since Raman scattering is normally such a weak phenomenon it has generally been applied to the analysis of materials present in levels of, at least, a few percent. However, recently many chemists have become interested in the huge enhancement factor that can be observed for compounds adsorbed on the surface of sub-micron size silver or gold particles. This surface enhanced Raman spectral technique (SERS) is capable of detecting trace amounts of material at a level that rivals laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy in some cases. The photo of the new instrument our lab here shows the vibrational spectrum on the computer screen of rhodamine 6G adsorbed from a dilute solution onto a colloidal suspension of silver particles.

Chemical Research

Twenty-six students participated in research this summer in the Department of Chemistry. Students took turns talking about their projects at weekly pizza lunches throughout the summer. On three other occasions all of the student researchers and faculty in the chemistry departments at Macalester, Hamline and St. Thomas came together for lunch and two presentations by students from the host school. The summer was also punctuated by swimming and boating at Lake Sullivan and a Twins’ game that was highlighted by two grand slam home runs and fine pitching by Johan Santana. In August the students presented their results to faculty, administrators and other students in a poster symposium held on the fourth floor of Owens. The titles of student projects are listed below.

“Design and Characterization of an Improved ArSLID for Higher Temperature Detection of PAHs,” Anne Bainbridge and Dr. Tony Borgerding

“Analysis of Polar VOCs Extracted by Nafion Membrane Using Cryofocusing GC-MS,” Juliet Hong and Dr. Tony Borgerding

“An In Vivo Sampling Technique to Monitor Nitric Oxide Neurotransmitter Using

Chemiluminescence,” Melissa Jones, Dr. Mike Bowser, and Dr. Tony Borgerding

“Rapid Analysis of Aromatics in Water Using Fast Extraction/FID Results Against More Selective ArSLID,” Rachel Lundeen and Dr. Tony Borgerding

“Excited State Luminescence Quenching of Tris(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) by Electronic Energy Transfer to Nile Blue,” Adam S. Huss and Dr. Joseph M. Brom

“The Synthesis of a New Antibacterial Agent: Novel Isoxazolinone,” Lauren R. Becker and Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti

“Synthesis of a Leukocyte Esterase Substrate,” Jay Christenson and Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti

“The Synthesis of 1,1,6-Trimethyldihydro-naphthalene,” Laura Howley and Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti

“1,2,2-Trimethylcyclopent-3-enecarbaldehyde: A Component of Deteriorated Lemon Flavoring,” Austin Johnson and Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti

“Synthesis of a New Organic Emitting Layer for Organic Light Emitting Diodes,

" Amy Kittelson and Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti

“Epoxide Formation from Alkylated Ketones,”

Jennifer Mosier, Jill Spude, and Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti

“The Synthesis of an Isotopically Labeled Lamivudine,”

Duc Nguyen and Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti

“An Efficient Synthesis of Keto-Diols from Acid Chlorides,”

Susan Pribyl, Kayla Kent, and Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti

“Synthesis of an Oligophenylene for use as a Hole-Transporting Agent in

Organic Light Emitting Diodes,” John Schwerkoske and Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti

“The Synthesis of Zwitterionic Polymers,”

Jay Vlaminck, Dr. Marc Hillmyer, and Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti

“Hybrid Polymers Prepared via Sol-Gel Processes,”

Tyler Winkelman, Lindsey Beer, and Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti

“A Universal Method of Detecting and Identifying Viruses,”

Benjamin Colwell and Dr. Gary Mabbott

“Fluorescent Probes for Detecting Carbon Dioxide Inside a Cell,”

Nell Herrera and Dr. Gary Mabbott

“Microspectrophotometry for Forensic Purposes,”

Kathryn S. Hoy and Dr. Gary Mabbott

“In Situ Decoration of G-DNA Networks with Gold Nanoparticles,”

Callie M Peotter and Dr. Thomas C Marsh

“Crystal Structures of Bridge-Flipped Isomers,”

Benjamin L. Sanders and Dr. William H. Ojala

“Synthesis and Purification of Alcohol Oxidase from Pichia pastoris for Use in

ELISA,” Christina Bye, Dr.J. Thomas Ippoliti, and Dr. Kathy Olson

“Expression of the Superoxide Dismutase Gene,”

Janet Rollefson and Dr. Kathy Olson

Student Presenters at the National ACS Meeting in San Diego, California

Kneeling: (left to right) Kayla Kent and Lauren Becker

Standing: (left to right) Ben Sanders, John Schwerkoske, Jon Smieja, Jay Christenson, Susan Pribyl, Adam Huss and Jay Vlaminck.

St. Thomas Introduces New Courses

As noted in the Editor’s introduction to this edition of the newsletter, enrollments in chemistry classes are at or near record highs due to interest in the major, as well as significant interest in other science majors like biochemistry and engineering. General chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, biochemistry, and quantitative analysis are all attracting very large numbers of students. This has placed pressure on both the faculty and the facility as we attempt to offer classes to all interested students. Some changes in our offerings designed to address increased enrollment include offering CHEM 111 (General Chemistry I) and CHEM 300 (Quantitative Analysis) both fall and spring semesters, a summer section of CHEM 112 (General Chemistry II), and the creation of a new course entitled CHEM 115: Accelerated General Chemistry. This class covers virtually all of the material traditionally found in a two semester general chemistry sequence in one semester, The target audience of very well prepared freshman science majors is screened carefully, and are encouraged to move to an analytical chemistry class in the spring semester of the freshman year. The response to the class has been very positive from faculty and students alike. Kudos to Tony Borgerding for successfully bringing the concept of a one semester general chemistry class to life.

The other area of curricular change in the department lies in our offerings in the area of materials chemistry. CHEM 430 has now been officially re-titled “Polymer Chemistry”, and is a two credit, lecture only, introduction to this incredibly significant field of endeavor, CHEM 430 is taught by a practitioner from the local industrial sector as a night class in alternate years. The partner to CHEM 430, also offered in alternate years, is a newly created class entitled “Laboratory Methods in Materials Chemistry”. This lab intensive class introduces many areas of solid state chemistry including synthesis and characterization of polymers, ceramics, and integrated devices. Our DSC and TGA (recently acquired through a NSF grant) figure prominently in this class.

We very much value the feedback of our alumni. If you have thoughts about improving, refining, or expanding our curriculum, please call or email the department chair. (David Boyd, 651-962-5577, dcboyd@stthomas.edu)

Chemistry Club Organizes Teacher Symposium As Part of Annual Service Activities

The 2004-2005 academic year was one of the more active ones in recent memory for the UST Chemistry Club, which had over 45 members. As usual, through various fundraisers, the club was able to finance one of the students who presented their research at the national ACS meeting, and the club also helped to cover the cost of the annual chemistry banquet.

One of the biggest activities of the year was to organize and host the 1^st Annual UST Chemistry Symposium, which was a meeting held to discuss the teaching of chemistry at both the college and high school levels. The symposium brought together 20 high school teachers and college professors from 6 local colleges to discuss topics relating to student preparation for college chemistry courses. The formal program included presentations of science education research by Dr. Randy Moore (U of MN) and Dr. Lynn Hartshorn (UST), and a panel discussion including those two, high school teacher Kathrine Koch-Laveen (a UST alumnus), and 3 freshman chemistry students. More informal discussions in smaller groups occurred at a morning coffee hour, during lunch, and in small group discussions at the end of the symposium.

The club was also very active in giving presentations and organizing hands-on chemistry experiments for elementary age students. Club members visited 7 different classrooms, and also participated in the local ACS program “Chemistry in the Libraries”. They also volunteered as judges for the Ramsey Junior High Science Fair.

Officers this year were Rebecca Faber (president), Melissa Jones (President Elect), Kim Gauquie (Vice-President), Nell Herrera (Secretary), Eric Fort (Treasurer) Jon Smieja (Activies Coordinator) and Kayla Kent (Activities Coordinator).

If you are interested in participating in the 2^nd Annual UST Chemistry Symposium next spring, or if you are interested in having Chem Club members perform any volunteer activities for an organization you are associated with, please contact Tony Borgerding (ajborgerding@stthomas.edu).

Chem club members work with students at Groveland Elementary in St. Paul

Chemistry Faculty: front row (left to right) Tony Borgerding, Tom Marsh and Dave Boyd.

Back: Tom Ippoliti, Lynn Hartshorn, Kathy Olson, Joe Brom, Brad Glorvigen, Gary Mabbott and Bill Ojala.
News from the Faculty and Staff.

Tony Borgerding

The Borgerding Group had decent year, with constant student activity resulting in 2 international meeting presentations and preparations for 2 publications. Four students worked this summer, three of whom continued working during the school year. In addition, 3 other students worked in the group during the year.

Melissa Jones has been working on a project to perform in-vivo measurements of volatile compounds. Using 1 cm lengths of a 200 µm diameter dialysis tube, she has constructed tiny membrane extraction probes through which volatile analytes flow from aqueous media into the gas phase. A helium flow of ~100 mL/min sweeps the extracted analytes to the detector, or to a Fast GC instrument for separation. The small size of the extraction membrane results in equilibrium being established between the solution phase and gas phase analytes in less than 10 seconds. This is at least 10x faster than any other membrane extraction previously reported, which is important for analytes with short lifetimes. They are collaborating with Mike Bowser at the U of MN to assess the potential of this device for measuring nitric oxide in rat brains to support neurochemical studies. Melissa presented her results at the International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography and Electrophoresis (ISCCE) this May.

Rachel Lundeen and Anne Bainbridge worked on improvements to the Aromatic Selective Laser Ionization Detector (ArSLID), a new GC detector we built and reported in 2004 (Analytical Chemistry, 2004, 76, 1702-1707). This detector utilizes resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI), which gives it excellent sensitivity and nearly perfect selectivity for aromatic compounds. Because they perform the experiment at atmospheric pressure and use a small, inexpensive laser, the detector is very simple and low cost. Our previous design had an upper temperature limit of 100 ^oC, which prevented its use for higher boiling compounds. Anne redesigned the detector to make more efficient use of heaters, machined the parts, and constructed a detector with an upper temperature of 210 ^oC, allowing her to do GC-ArSLID separations of samples containing PAHs. Rachel Lundeen took advantage of the new capabilities of the instrument to analyze total aromatic content of water samples. Because the detector does not respond to water or any other non-aromatic solvent, water samples could be directly injected into a small extractor that vaporized the entire sample and sends it to the ArSLID. They are also studying the ionization process in the detector to try to predict detector response. Specifically, they hypothesize that the response of various compounds should be proportional to their absorbance at the laser wavelength (266 nm). Eric Moeker, who was a co-author on the first paper reporting this detector, designed a high temperature cell to allow us to collect UV absorbance data of high boiling PAH compounds in the gas phase. The results of these projects were also presented at ISCCE this May.

Juliet Hong worked on a project using polar solid phase adsorbents for pre-concentration of volatile, polar analytes prior to analysis by GC-MS. Josh Speros picked up the project in the fall when he entered UST as a freshman. Analytes that are polar and volatile are very difficult to measure at low concentrations because nearly all of the available packings or extraction fibers available to concentrate analytes are non-polar. They are slowly gaining new information on the performance of more polar adsorbants like Nafion for retaining these analytes.

Tony Borgerding with students (left to right) Juliet Hong, Anne Bainbridge, Rachel Lundeen, Melissa Jones.

David Boyd

David just completed a four-year term as chair of the Chemistry Department, and was appointed to serve a second term in the position. In his capacity as chair, David oversees budgeting, faculty hiring, faculty assignments and evaluation, department reporting, and long range planning (among other tasks) on behalf of the department’s faculty and staff. David continues to teach general chemistry, advanced inorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, and has led the creation of two new courses (accelerated general chemistry, and laboratory methods in materials chemistry). David was the co-instructor for the first offering of the laboratory methods class (with Tom Marsh), and was the principal investigator on the NSF grant used to fund the purchase of the DSC and the TGA.

Unfortunately, time has been scarce for research over the past few years, but David does have two students in the lab this summer. The students are working on developing sensors for the detection and quantification of volatile organics, and on the synthesis of organometallic compounds that show promise as elements in the fabrication of organic light emitting diodes.

Away from St. Thomas, the Boyd family continues to grow with the addition of Nora Elise this spring. Yes, that makes six children! Many of you know that Mrs. Boyd enjoys a thriving practice as an intellectual property litigator for Faegre and Benson in Minneapolis. In his spare time (if there is such a thing) David enjoys hunting, fishing, and coaching youth sports.

Joe Brom

Joe Brom continues to work with students in the laser spectroscopy research lab. He and senior chemistry major Adam Huss have continued research on the quenching mechanisms from organometallic complexes to organic dyes. Adam presented a very nice poster on this work at the Spring 2005 National ACS Meeting in San Diego. The poster, titled “Excited State Luminescence Quenching of Tris(2,2’-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) by Electronic Energy Transfer to Nile Blue and Oxazine 725,” was based on his research during the summer of 2004 and the spring semester of 2005.

In the classroom the big change is the large increase in enrollment in the CHEM 331/332 courses. Driven by an increase in the number of B.S. Biochemistry majors, it seems likely that an additional lab section of the CHEM 331 course will soon be in the offing.

Joe attended national conferences in Phoenix, AZ in June 2004 and in Baltimore, MD in June 2005. These were APIC conferences actually attended by Helen Brom (coordinator for Infection Control at Shriners Hospital for Children). Joe has learned how to wait quietly by the hotel pool sipping summertime beverages while Helen is off to meetings.

Joe’s twin grandchildren are now 5 years old. In July, 2005 Joe and Helen will meet up with them at Disney World in Orlando. The last time Joe was there was in 1972 to celebrate the 4^th birthday of daughter Suzanne (the mother of the twins). Word is that the Disney complex in Orlando has grown a bit since then.

Melva Cain

The spring semester was barely finished when summer research began with some of the early birds starting to work the week after finals. The number of workers reached an all-time high of 34. This also meant a busy summer for the stockroom, trying to keep everyone supplied with the chemicals and equipment they needed.

A chemical inventory software program was purchased in February 2003 that allows us to do “cradle to grave” tracking. Each container has its own barcode. The Chemistry Dept hosted a training session for the vendor in early June 2003 and trainees came from the Twin Cities and New Jersey. We have over 10,000 individual containers of chemicals in our department and track each one according to its location in the building. It is much easier to find chemicals now when we need them: we know what we have and where it is. In November of 2004, we upgraded to a web version of the software and will host another training session in March 2004. As hosts, we do not pay for our training.

In early August, Melva attended the annual meeting and vendor trade show of the National Association of Scientific Materials Managers (NAOSMM) in Philadelphia. E-Commerce and security in the chemical stockroom were hot topics. Most of our purchasing is now done on-line using a corporate VISA card. The Drug Enforcement Agency and Environmental Protection Agency have recommended that certain chemicals be kept under lock and key at all times besides being in a controlled stockroom. It is also becoming more difficult for us to procure certain chemicals since the Sept 11 strike on the World Trade Center.

Melva and Heather McCollor of Macalester College applied for a grant from the ACTC Collaborative Grant Program to cover food and mailing costs for regular meetings of the science materials managers at all MN colleges. The group met for the 2nd time March 18 and there were 17 in attendance, including Duane Krueger and Doreen Schroeder.  All ACTC schools are interested and at least 3 have been represented at each of the 2 meetings.

One of the highlights of 2004 was an opportunity for a mission trip to Greece in May.  Melva was part of a construction team that hung 60 sheets of drywall to prepare a house for hosting people coming to the Olympics.  They also dug the trench to put in a water line.  Team members came from Indiana, Georgia, and Minnesota.  The home is in the country about an hour’s drive southeast of Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece.  Several of the Olympic soccer games were played in that area.  The Greeks were very hospitable and the food was wonderful.  Melva hoping go on another mission trip to that area.

Brad Glorvigen

Brad was on sabbatical for fall semester 2004. His primary work was in developing new lab experiments for the organic teaching lab. A good source for such material comes from the revered Beilstein’s Handbuch der Organischen Chemie. Many interesting reactions can be modernized for student investigation by incorporating the use of NMR spectroscopy to compare the reactants with the products. This is especially useful if the reaction is one with which the students are not familiar from the lecture part of the course. Five new experiments were successfully incorporated into the spring 2005 CHEM 202 lab. Many of these labs involved varying substituents on the reactants from section to section in order to make the NMR evaluation more interesting across the course. Older lab manuals also contain some good experiments which can be improved by changing solvents, often employing a polar aprotic solvent to speed reaction time and improve yields.

The past school year found a great improvement in Dr. G.'s health after a

very rough time with some serious medical problems during the previous year.

He always loves to visit with ex-students. Perhaps alumni might have a

difficult time recognizing the new sleeker version.

Lynn Hartshorn

Lynn has had a busy year--attending the ACS national meeting in Anaheim in March 2004 (see below) and also in Philadelphia in August . As Director of the Science Division, she has had several tasks including organizing meetings of the Science Division faculty to look at matters such as curricular reform and new pedagogy. She has led the General Chemistry program and worked with a large team of faculty to keep the labs and classes more or less on track. Lynn continues to work with local teachers for the Teacher Research Network and was part of the team that obtained an NSF grant whose objective is to increase the number of majors in science, mathematics, engineering and computer science

In March 2004 six chemistry students attended the American Chemical Society National meeting in Anaheim, CA, together with Lynn and Tom Ippoliti. Each of the six students gave a poster on their research at the Undergraduate Poster session. The students were: Amanda Bialke, Nate Coleman, Kim Gauquie, Rebecca Faber, Kayla Kent, Jon Smieja and Jay Vlaminck. Jon Smieja's research project was with Bill Ojala; the other students had done research for Tom Ippoliti. Tom gave a paper in the Organic Chemistry section, and Lynn gave a paper in the Chemical Education section of the meeting. The funding that allowed the students to attend this meeting was partially provided by a Bush grant. All enjoyed the balmy weather and the flowers and palm trees in Anaheim in March.

Tom Ippoliti

Tom mentored a large number of research students this past year. In the summer of 2004 he had 13 students in the group, in the fall of 2004, 7 students, 8 students worked over January and in the spring of 2005 there were 10 students in the group. As a result of these hard working students the Ippoliti research group had a very productive year. Tom started collaborative projects with 4 new companies this year. Boston Scientific, Chromatic Technologies, Pepsi and Imation. The project with Boston Scientific relates to developing new polymers for use in their balloon catheters. They synthesized a compound called “wine lactone” for Pepsi, this compound is responsible for the smell and flavor of many white wines. The group synthesized a variety of novel thermochromic polymers for Chromatic Technologies for possible use on tires as a temperature indicator. As a result of this collaboration Chromatic Technologies also donated $10,000 that was used to purchase a new Raman Spectrometer. The project with Imation involves synthesizing compounds for possible use on their new Blu-ray DVD disks. In addition to these industrial projects, the group has been synthesizing novel antibacterial compounds, hole transporters and new zwitterionic polymers. A patent summarizing the last couple years work on photochromic compounds was published in February. Tom obtained a grant to send 6 students to the national ACS meeting in San Diego this year. Tom also applied for and was granted a sabbatical leave for the Fall semester of 2005.

Tom’s two daughters Francesca (10) and Christina (6) keep him very busy swimming and fishing. Francesca came to work with Dad in May for “bring your child to work day”, and during the visit she ran a reaction to make a thermochrome and ran a column – she may become a chemist yet! This past spring Dad finally broke down and bought a new pontoon, which the kids are really enjoying. The first group cabin trip is coming up at the end of June so the students can enjoy it also.

Ippoliti Research Group Summer 2004:

Duane Krueger

Duane presented one of the scientific talks at the Minnesota Microscopy Society’s Spring Symposium, which was held at the Science Museum of Minnesota on May 6, 2005. The primary topics of the presentation were confocal light microscopies and environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) as related to fragile materials and non-biological materials characterization.

The talk included a brief background concerning the theory, instrumentation, use, and application considerations of each technique. Confocal light microscopy is divided into three different instrumentation types: Nipkow spinning disk, scanning laser, and 2-photon. All three instruments operate on the basic premise of scanning across a sample to obtain a very shallow depth-of-field in-focus image slice. Multiple image slices act to “optically section.” The slices may be stored in a computer, then recombined to provide a high resolution, extended focus of the sample that is not possible using a normal light (optical) microscope. By using fluorescence wavelengths to analyze a neat or component-specific stained sample, internal and structural information can be rapidly obtained that would not be possible using other techniques. Confocal microscopy is a powerful tool for biological research and, less commonly, used to examine industrial materials. The analyst must consider the effects of a high photon flux on the sample that may cause bleaching of the fluorophore or physically damage the sample being analyzed. As with any light based analysis technique, the wavelength of light limits resolution to approximately 0.2 µm.

ESEM and similar vapor-pressure scanning electron microscopes (VPSEM) allow surface imaging of wet, vacuum sensitive, and insulating samples. The instrumentation is a dynamic tool to study samples at high magnification without the necessity of conductively coating the sample, and to study materials in a moist (or some other gaseous) environment. The instrument also allows elemental analysis and can be modified to perform and observe mechanical manipulation effects of the sample.

A highlight of the year for Duane and his wife, Marlene, was their trip to Oahu and Maui in Hawaii.

Gary Mabbott

In the past two years Gary has taught courses in quantitative analysis and instrumental analysis and forensic chemistry. Gary and Tony Borgerding (who also teaches analytical chemistry) have decided to group the topics in quantitative analysis to serve students, such as biochemistry majors, who do not have time in their schedules to take more than one analytical chemistry course. Primarily that means that separation techniques were moved into the first semester. Quant is now offered both semesters. The response was very good for this first year.

Lately Gary has been developing an interest in spectral imaging. As digital cameras have grown in popularity, their features and performance characteristics have continued to improve. The charge coupled devices (CCDs) which are at the heart of digital cameras also have been used in spectroscopic equipment for the past 15-20 years. It seemed almost inevitable that these two applications for CCDs--capturing visual images and recording visible spectra--would some day converge. An area of research where this combination might be particularly fruitful is the study of biochemical processes that occur inside living cells. Although many scientists have used digital cameras to photograph cells, organelles, and other biological specimens, relatively few have tried to record the visible spectrum at every pixel for an image taken through a microscope. Two of Gary’s students, Renee Hirte and Krina Hoy, have demonstrated the feasibility of doing this with a conventional camera. Gary will spend the next year on sabbatical leave at the University of Minnesota in Edgar Arriaga’s research lab applying this technique to studying the distribution of an anti-cancer agent within various compartments of treated cancer cells.

Tom Marsh

Tom Marsh has just completed his first year as a tenure track faculty member after serving four years in a limited term appointment at St. Thomas. During this time Tom has taught Biochemistry and has maintained an active research program focused on developing novel self-assembling nucleic acid molecular scaffold. In addition to teaching Biochemistry, Tom has a great interest in bio-nanomaterials and teamed up with Dave Boyd in developing and teaching a new laboratory course in materials chemistry. The course covers methods employed in the characterization of various materials such as differential scanning calorimetry, thermal gravimentric analysis, gel permeation chromatography and others. Students also perform synthesis and characterization of polymers and nanoparticles.

Research in the Marsh group is focused on studying the self-assembly of guanine rich DNA into higher order structures toward the development of nanoscale devices. The use of DNA in the development novel biomaterials is of great interest in the new and rapidly developing field of nanotechnology. Advancement of this project has involved a number of undergraduate students and participation in the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) program at the University of Minnesota for the past three years. Most recently Tom and one of his research students, Joe Skaja, were able image Au nanoparticles attached to a G-DNA nanoscaffold. Colloidal Au nanoparticles in this work were prepared by Tom, and students, Callie Peotter, Tim Slama and Brady McCarragher.

A new project has begun in Tom’s lab providing biochemical analysis of biological samples collected from the environment. Specifically we are looking at storage lipids in certain native species of frog, in collaboration with Tony Steyermark and storage lipids in spittle bugs in collaboration Adam Kay. Tony and Adam are UST Biology faculty who are interested in collecting quantitative data toward understanding the ecological stoichiometery of the species and ecosystems they are studying. This project looks at the abundance of the elements that make up living things such as carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous and track how levels of these elements changes and how they are distributed. Tom and his students have specifically collected lipids and have analyzed lipid composition by GC-MS. The recent addition of an evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD) to our existing HPLC system will enable characterization triacylglycerols and carbohydrates in these samples.

At home Tom spends time having fun with his wife Sharon and three children, Alex 11, Melissa 8 and Caitlin 1.5. Tom is an avid home repair addict and has renovated four bathrooms, put up numerous new walls, installed kitchens, re-roofed a house etc. since he and Sharon have been together. The other Dr Marsh (Sharon) wishes that the latest projects would get done soon.

Bill Ojala

Bill Ojala is a staff member of the Chemistry Department whose responsibilities include laboratory teaching and development. He also teaches one of the three lecture sections of organic chemistry and maintains an undergraduate research program of his own in solid-state organic chemistry and X-ray crystallography. In June 2004, Bill was awarded a three-year $50,000 grant from the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society to support his undergraduate research program.

Undergraduate students Yeng Moua and Ben Sanders worked with Bill during the summer of 2004, performing research in the area of solid-state organic chemistry. Two major research problems were investigated. The first was the preparation and structure determination of organic solids that would undergo a phase transition (a change in the packing arrangement of the molecules in the crystal) when heated in the solid state. The second was the preparation and structure determination of “bridge-flipped isomers,” pairs of molecules in which the only difference in atomic arrangement consists of a reversal of the order of atoms linking two major parts of the molecule. These “bridge-flipped” molecules are expected to be different enough from each other in composition to have different chemical and physical properties, but they might also be similar enough in size and shape to be co-crystallized to prepare interesting new solid materials. Yeng and Ben determined the structures of their molecules by means of X-ray crystallography. Data sets (the recorded intensities of X-rays scattered by the crystalline samples) were collected at the X-ray Crystallographic Laboratory of the University of Minnesota Chemistry Department. The data sets were then brought to the Solid-State Organic Chemistry Lab in OWS458 here at the University of St. Thomas, where the structures of the crystals were solved and refined using the Chemistry Department’s SHELXTL software package.

Bill presented a lecture, “Structural Preferences of N-Substituted Monosaccharide Derivatives,” in July 2004 at the annual meeting of the American Crystallographic Association in Chicago. Co-authors were current or former UST students Summer E. Hanson, Thomas M. Skrypek, and Jonathan M. Smieja, as well as Charles R. Ojala, Bill’s brother and a chemistry instructor at Normandale Community College, and Charles’ students Robyn J. Sabo and Joanne M. Ostman. At this meeting Bill also served as co-chair for the Margaret C. Etter Early Career Award Symposium, which recognizes scientists who have shown outstanding achievement and exceptional potential at an early stage of their independent career. In March 2005, Bill’s students Jon Smieja and Ben Sanders presented posters on their research at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego.

Among his other activities, Bill helps coordinate the annual United States National Chemistry Olympiad for the Minnesota Section of the American Chemical Society. This event is intended to identify and recognize high school students of exceptional promise in the field of chemistry. If you are a high school teacher (or student) and would be interested in participating in this event, be sure to contact Bill at whojala@stthomas.edu or at (651)-962-5585.

Kathy Olson

Kathy has been teaching biochemistry since her start at St. Thomas. A new undertaking this year was her coordination of the chemistry seminar. We were fortunate to have several outstanding seminar speakers, including alumni Dr. George Stancel (St. Thomas ’66) from the University of Texas at Houston, and Dr. Mark Vitha (St. Thomas ‘92) from Drake University.

Last summer Christina Bye and Janet Rollefson carried out research in Kathy’s laboratory. Janet worked to investigate how the FUR (ferric uptake regulatory) protein regulates DNA transcription in bacteria. She developed a new assay for the laboratory that employs reverse transcriptase and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to quantify the amount of mRNA produced in the presence or absence of FUR. This technique has the advantage in that very small amounts of mRNA can be accurately quantified. Janet will continue her work with RT-PCR this fall. Christina worked on a relatively new project, in collaboration with Tom Ippoliti. Christina was able to grow large batches of the yeast Pichia pastoris. From this organism, she purified the enzyme alchohol oxidase (AOX), with the goal of exploring AOX’s in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). This spring, Christina will continue this project by trying to tether the enzyme to estradiol in hopes of developing an ELISA for estrogen, the basis of pregnancy tests. The advantages of using AOX in ELISA are that AOX is cheap and it may prove faster than current enzymes used in similar assays.

Outside of work, Kathy has been busy with her husband Greg, children Brian (5) and Bethany (4), and dogs Butch and Sunny (8). In her free time, she likes to run, hike, and birdwatch.

Charlotte Ovechka

Charlotte continues to teach organic chemistry labs each semester and is teaching a chemistry course for non-majors this summer. In May, she coordinated the initiation of eight female students and three faculty and staff into Iota Sigma Pi, the national honor society for women.

Charlotte has several roles at St. Thomas. As the Pre-Health Professions Advisor she provides guidance for students interested in pursuing careers such as medicine, dentistry, chiropractic, pharmacy, physical therapy, etc. The record of student acceptances into these professional schools continues to be very good. Charlotte’s Pre-Health Professions Office moved in 2003 from Aquinas Hall to the Science Center. She is happy to be there in the midst of her colleagues and many science students. One of the highlights of the year for the pre-medical students is the annual Day of Medicine, held in November. At this event, undergraduates learn what it’s like to be a physician by listening to practicing physicians, residents, medical students and medical school admissions officers. Last June, Charlotte visited the medical school and veterinary school of Ross University in the Caribbean islands of Dominica and St. Kitts.

Functioning as St. Thomas faculty liaison for the national Goldwater Scholarship Program, Charlotte was gratified to learn that two St. Thomas students were awarded scholarships: Molly Andreason, sophomore, physics and philosophy majors, and Melissa Jones, junior, chemistry major. There were only nine winners from Minnesota colleges and universities this year!

The Science, Mathematics and Engineering Scholarship program occupies much of Charlotte’s time. Each year, about 150 high school seniors apply for these scholarships, and 50% of the applicants enroll at St. Thomas. The top applicants win two full-tuition scholarships and four $4000 scholarships. This scholarship program contributes to the increasing number of top-quality science students who come to St. Thomas each year.

Charlotte is now the proud grandmother of three little girls, Madeleine (4), Erika (3) and Dorothy (2). They live in Seattle with their parents, Pete and Suzanne, Charlotte’s oldest daughter. She will visit them again in August. Her oldest son, Ivan, is a financial advisor in San Diego and recently became a CFP. Daughter, Senta, is a personal trainer in Naples, Florida, and daughter, Rebecca, works at McDonald’s in Forest Lake. Youngest son Nick graduated from St. Thomas in 2004, with majors in electrical engineering and physics and works as an applications engineer in Minneapolis.

News from Alumni.

Larry Baer (class of 1964)

Ironic, in that it was Chemistry that ultimately drove me from Pre-Med in my Junior year, 1963.

Those distasteful experiences were overshadowed by my great memories of Dr. Jim Carney who attempted to teach me both General Chem and Organic. I do remember his talent at writing on the board while simultaneously erasing with his other hand. I also remember his habit of wandering into the lab where ether was invariably present, with his stubby cigar in his mouth - apparently unlit as I don't remember the occurrence of any explosions.

Dr. Carney was also the person who directed the "Cholesterol From Gallstones" experiment each year, proudly displaying a massive gallstone, a small, apparently precious shaving of which would be given to each student - as he told the story of how the stone had been removed from his wife's body. I would love to know how many years that stone lasted.

The peak of my frustration with the Organic Chem class came in the evenings when the set of wooden tinker toys came out, to demonstrate the almighty carbon bonds - and then the torquing of them to form whatever those damn mirror-images were called. Between the twisting and the use of the special springy-thing bonds, the project invariably crumbled in my hands, sending little balls everywhere.

As I looked around the labs, I saw Gordy Klatt, Pat Mentone, Dave Bucheck, and a host of others that seemed to "get it". I never did, but will never forget the experience.

Larry’s address is 5900 Hansen Rd., Edina, MN  55436

lbaer@mn.rr.com

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George Stancel (class of 1966)

In the spring of 2004 we were delighted to have George visit and give a talk on medical research for the department seminar program. George has been the Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Texas at Houston since 1999.

Joseph McGrath (class of 1967)

Joe joined the UST Chemistry Dept. as an adjunct in 2004.  He retired after 30+ years of technical and management experience at 3M in research, development, intellectual property, production scale-up and product commercialization.  Joe obtained his Ph.D. at Michigan State University in Physical Organic Chemistry and enjoys teaching undergraduates again.  He is active in numerous church and charitable organizations, and with his family, now including two grandchildren.

Ron Fedie (class of 1989)

In February, 2003 we learned that Ron was granted tenure in the Chemistry Department at Augsburg College. Ron did his Ph.D. at Minnesota in physical chemistry with Wilmer Miller and recently spent a summer working there with Tim Lodge, a collaboration made possible by an NSF-RSEC award. Lately Ron has been the Department Chair at Augsburg as well as the Chair of the Minnesota Local Section of the ACS. Many of the UST faculty run into Ron at meetings. Since Ron did his research at St. Thomas with Joe Brom, he likes to introduce Joe to his Augsburg students as their grandfather in chemistry. That is what happens when you get older.

You can reach Ron at fedie@augsburg.edu.

Mark Vitha (class of 1991)

In May, 2003 we received the following from the media relations director at Drake University.

VITHA RECEIVES TOP AWARD FOR TEACHERS AT DRAKE

Mark Vitha, assistant professor of chemistry at Drake University, recently received the University’s most prestigious award for faculty or staff teachers - The Madelyn M. Levitt Teacher of the Year Award. The award was established in 1994 by Madelyn M. Levitt, a member of the Drake Board of Trustees and special assistant to Drake President David Maxwell.

Vitha, who holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of St. Thomas and a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Minnesota, teaches chemistry as well as quantitative and instrumental analysis. He joined the Drake faculty in 1998 after teaching at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Vitha currently serves on the Departmental Recruiting Committee as well as Drake Faculty Senate. In addition, he is the Barry M. Goldwater Science Scholarship campus coordinator. He also has obtained numerous research grants from organizations such as the National Science Foundation.

“Early in my education, I became a keen observer of my teachers, comparing their different philosophies and approaches, while thinking about their teaching methods, and assessing which methods enhanced my own learning,” Vitha said. “The distillation of those years of observation and analysis, combined with the lessons I am learning from my own teaching experience, yields the overriding principle that guides my teaching: clarity - clarity in presenting material, clarity in detailing expectations, and clarity in expressing educational goals.”

“Sometimes I see how much Dr. Vitha undertakes on a daily and yearly basis and am completely amazed,” wrote Sarah Nehm, a senior, in her letter nominating Vitha for the award. “He is able to juggle so many things in his career. Then if I take a closer look and notice how much he enjoys everything that he does, I realize why the juggling is so easy for him. He wants to be a great teacher; he wants students to learn; he wants to do excellent research; and he wants to learn himself.”

Drake is a private, independent university in Des Moines, Iowa, with an enrollment of approximately 3,300 undergraduate and pharmacy students from 46 states and 60 countries.

Mark visited St. Thomas this spring on his way to Sidney, Australia for a year-long sabbatical. Mark’s e-mail address is mark.vitha@DRAKE.EDU__

Barbara English White (classof 1991)

In March, 2004 Barb wrote Dave Boyd

All is well with me--I am working in real estate law at Target Corp., occasionally helping out with some basic environmental law, and busy being a mom to a 2 year old girl, with kid #2 set to arrive in the first week of June.

Wendy (Sweno) Nelson (class of 1992)

Shortly after our last newsletter went out in December, 2002, Wendy wrote:

A lot has happened for me since graduating from St. Thomas in 1992. June of 1996 I received my Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Iowa State University.

My thesis concentrated on CE, MS, and development of immunoassays. My next dilemma was to decide between careers in academia or industry. I chose

industry.

I started working for Merck & Co. in August of 1996. My first job was working as a chemist developing and validating HPLC assays for small molecules. Through the 6.5 years I have worked at Merck, I have always worked in the Manufacturing Division in technical support groups. In 2001 I was asked to develop a new technical support group (with laboratories) for the Vaccine and Sterile Pharmaceutical Quality Operations organization. We are now 41 people strong and have scientists in the areas of virology, microbiology, bioseparations, chemistry and biochemistry. Our main role is to provide technical support for trouble shooting manufacturing or assay issues. I have truly enjoyed the opportunity to learn the biological science applications in a manufacturing setting. I continue to appreciate learning about and facing the challenges of vaccine research, and product development and manufacture.

However, the greatest joy of my life was the birth of my son (Brady Nelson) this past August. My husband and I are enjoying every moment of being parents.

Every once in awhile I think back to St. Thomas and remember what an inspiration you and the rest of the Chemistry faculty have been to me. I am sure that so many students have prospered from the sound guidance the Chemistry Department has given over the years.

Wendy can be reached at email: wendy_nelson@merck.com

Carl Iverson (class of 1993)

After finishing a post-doc at Los Alamos, Carl wrote Dave Boyd in September of 2003:

        I have just taken a job with Dow Chemical in Freeport, Texas (about

50 miles south of Houston). I start on October 6th. I'll be doing catalytic

chemistry, making polyolefins and elastomers. Sounds like a good gig.

Jeff Kirkwold (class of 1994)

Jeff sent a very nice letter of appreciation to Dave Boyd in May, 2004. Here is part of what Jeff had to say.

I wish I had the opportunity to relive my undergraduate career and achieve all I was capable of achieving. I do not believe I would be the same person now if I had, however. That may sound a bit odd, but I believe it to be true. I have always been somewhat difficult from the standpoint of tending to “learn things the hard way.” I am just thankful that when I have set goals for myself I have been able to achieve them even though I had built significant barriers for myself due to not living up to my potential. And now that I am a father myself—my daughter, Annika, is two-and-a-half years old, and I can’t tell you how much of a joy it is to be a parent—I think I will be able to pass these lessons down to her.

I am currently a Product Manager for a significant product line at Entegris, which produces plastic injection molded products for the semiconductor industry—here in Chaska, Minnesota. I had been a Process Engineer at Applied Materials (in Silicon Valley) for a couple of years after I graduated from the Chemical Engineering department at the University of Minnesota. However, I decided to move back to Minnesota to be closer to family and friends, and I have been working in Minnesota since. Additionally, I am pursuing my MBA at the Carlson School of Management.