Legacy of Iron Science

LEGACY OF IRON SCIENCE

Melbourne J. Schriver, Ph.D.

A couple of years ago, I was reading a recently published article on a new class of anti-tuberculosis drugs written by a large research group in Sweden. The molecules that they studied were related to some chemical compounds that I have included in my research. Their work was a very well-funded study that looked at dozens of new compounds that all showed promising activity and centered on a single parent molecule which they had included in their study but was missing a crucial structural analysis.

As I read the paper, I realized that the students in my CH2113 Organic Chemistry class had, in fact, prepared and characterised exactly that molecule in their multistep synthesis projects several years earlier. I thought that there might be some wider interest in having the complete structure of the parent molecule to complement the larger study, so I wandered down the hallway to the sample archive in the chemistry laboratory. Without much difficulty, I found several samples of the compound, prepared by the students in 2003 and 2004.

Without a doubt, there was one sample that was much more crystalline and pure than the others. I turned the vial over and read the name of the student: Trevor Nason. Trevor had come through the Crandall Science program in the years 2003-2007; he was remarkable for his enthusiasm for science, his constant attempts to find humour in everything, and his persistent curiosity.

Trevor had continued into the Crandall University Education program and had become a teacher in the local school district. He eventually entered and won the Discovery Channel’s National High School Science Teacher competition called “Iron Science Teacher.”

Tragically, Trevor had died soon afterwards in a motorcycle accident, and he was deeply missed by everyone that knew him.

As I looked at the vial with his name on it, I realized that there was an opportunity to make something bigger than an organic chemistry lab report from this material.

I pulled out his lab reports and examined how he had prepared the pure crystalline sample and I was able to reproduce his work. I spent some spare time in the laboratory working on the samples and with the assistance of a Steeves Research Grant I was able to spend some time at Saint Mary’s University where we were able to complete the characterisation and the X-ray structure of the compound for the first time.

In 2017, we wrote and submitted a manuscript on the molecule that Trevor had prepared, and in recognition of his work on the preparation of the first pure crystalline sample of the compound, we included Trevor as a co-author to the paper, which was published by Acta Crystallographica in August of this past year.

About a quarter of the papers I have published have undergraduate students listed as co-authors, which is a reflection of what I feel must be an important part of research at any university.

For as long as the scientific literature exists, future scholars will know the name of the Crandall University Science student Trevor Nason and his contribution to the discovery and purification of this molecule.

I tell students how important it is to properly label their samples, and this was a remarkable example of how it paid off for a student ten years after he graduated!

Further Reading:

Nason, Trevor R., Melbourne J. Schriver, Arthur D. Hendsbee, and Jason D. Masuda. “Crystal structure determination as part of an ongoing undergraduate organic laboratory project: 5-[(E)-styryl]-1, 3, 4-oxathiazol-2-one.” Acta Crystallographica Section E: Crystallographic Communications 73, no. 9 (2017): 1298-1301.

Zhu, Shuguang, Melbourne J. Schriver, Arthur D. Hendsbee, and Jason D. Masuda. “The crystal structures of two isomers of 5-(phenylisothiazolyl)-1, 3, 4-oxathiazol-2-one.” Acta Crystallographica Section E: Crystallographic Communications 73, no. 11 (2017): 1726-1731.