Chemistry Highlights 2019, Harvey Mudd College

2019 Dear Friends, It is such a pleasure to share good news! Let’s start with the press release: The American Chemical Society has awarded Kerry Karukstis, Ray and Mary Ingwersen Professor of Chemistry, the 2020 ACS Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution. Sponsored by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the award recognizes the importance of research with undergraduates and honors a chemistry faculty member whose research in an undergraduate setting has achieved wide recognition and contributed significantly to chemistry and to the professional development of undergraduate students.

The citation for Kerry’s award reads: “In recognition of her research accomplishments, mentorship and professional training of undergraduates, advancement strategies for women STEM faculty and national efforts to promote undergraduate research.”

Of course, there is so much more behind a press release. Kerry has mentored student research colleagues since her arrival at HMC in 1984. She has been instrumental in building the infrastructure for undergraduate research nationwide through her work with the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) since 1993. She has been a PI on a series of NSF ADVANCE-funded projects to facilitate the advancement of senior women chemistry and physics faculty members at liberal arts institutions to the highest ranks of academic leadership.

Kerry has been honored nationally as an ACS Fellow, a CUR Research Fellow and a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar. At HMC, she has held the Joseph B. Platt Chair in Effective Teaching and has been awarded the Henry T. Mudd Prize for Outstanding Service.

In winning the ACS award, Kerry joins an elite class of honorees, one per year from across the nation, including Harvey Mudd chemistry professors emeriti Phil Myhre (1991) and Mits Kubota (1992).

I encourage you to send a note of congratulations to Kerry.

With warmest regards,

Hal Van Ryswyk John Stauffer Professor of Chemistry and Department Chair

HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE | CHEMISTRY HIGHLIGHTS 2019

This Issue: Crompton Dedication Kubota Fellowship Awards Celebration Study Abroad Vosburg’s Sabbatical Student Prank ACS Climate Change Green Chemistry Class of 2019 Senior Theses Alumni Happenings Summer Research Safety Summer Bake-off Faculty & Staff Collage

NOTE: This newsletter was prepared before COVID-19 events transpired. We'll have details about the impacts of this event on our department in the 2020 newsletter.

For college-wide information, visit hmc.edu.

Crompton Lounge Dedication The Chance Crompton ’13 Student Chemistry Lounge was dedicated on Saturday, May 4, 2019, during an event attended by the Crompton family, students, alumni, faculty and staff. The lounge, adjacent to the newly renovated Alumni Laboratory for Advanced Chemistry, is available to chemistry majors 24 hours a day and features comfortable seating, amenities for making snacks and beverages, a projector and a write-on wall, photos from the early years of the department, and the department’s library.

President Maria Klawe painted and donated the watercolor portrait of Chance.

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The Kubota Research Fellowship Linden Conrad-Marut ’21 The Chemistry Department at Harvey Mudd College has two research fellowships in chemistry in honor of Mitsuru Kubota and Philip C. Myhre, emeriti professors of chemistry, in recognition of their dedicated service and significant contributions to the College.

The 2019 Kubota Research Fellowship was awarded to Linden Conrad-Marut ’21 in the lab of Professor Lelia Hawkins.

During the next two years working with Professor Hawkins, Lindy will be studying atmospheric brown carbon reactions and their properties in relation to anthropogenic climate change. Her work has two parts. The first (summer 2019) is a cloud chamber study in Paris, France, with international collaborators. The second is a large field study in 2020 with local and regional collaborators, based throughout the Los Angeles area.

The cloud chamber study focuses on understanding the chemical processes that transform organic

HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE | CHEMISTRY HIGHLIGHTS 2019

particulate matter in aerosolized environments. In particular, the researchers are interested in connecting the optical and chemical properties of the products synthesized. The Los Angeles CalNexT study is even more complex. Instead of studying particular reactions in a controlled setting, they will be monitoring the ambient air and determining the average chemical composition and aerosol concentrations over time in relation to air pollution. They will simultaneously observe the aerosol color, which relates to climate effects.

Hopefully, through further understanding of the radiative impact of aerosols on climate and climate change, they will have better insight into reducing and reversing the effects of climate change and a stronger ability to prevent future damage to the environment.

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Annual Departmental Celebration and Awards Luncheon The chemistry department holds this event each fall to recognize those chemistry and joint chemistry/biology majors who have been selected for departmental awards. As an additional and traditional part of the program, a senior who studied abroad during 2018–2019 shared highlights of her experience, and Professor David Vosburg recapped his sabbatical in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Campbell Prize Emily Hwang ’20 & Emily Shimizu ’20

Professor Haushalter presenting

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Sly Prize Candice Chen ’21 & Sydney Towell ’21

Professor Van Hecke presenting

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Annual Departmental Celebration and Awards Luncheon (continued) CRC Press Chemistry Achievement Hanna Porter ’22, Celine Wang ’22, & Stephen Gross ’22 (not shown; Thomas Fleming ’22)

ACS Analytical Division Emily Hwang ’20

Professor Van Heuvelen presenting

Professor Hawkins presenting

ACS Inorganic & Organic Division Emily Shimizu ’20

ACS Physical Division Brandon Wada ’20

Professor Johnson presenting

Professor Van Hecke presenting

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Jeni Zhu ’20 – Study Abroad in London, England

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Professor Vosburg’s Sabbatical in Guanajuato, Mexico My family and I had a great sabbatical year in Guanajuato, Mexico from, July 2018 to July 2019. It's a beautiful and culturally rich city, somewhat like what you see in the animated movie Coco. The local geography and climate are great, too.

The Vosburg family: David, Kate, Isabella, Nathan and Diego.

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ii. casca e:

gi-3CR / a a Diels- l er / -ac lation / aromati ation

Vosburg’s Sabbatical (continued) I learned a lot about green chemistry and multicomponent reactions (in which three or more reactants combine to form a single product) in the research group of Professor Rocío Gámez-Montaño at the University of Guanajuato. I gave some talks on organic synthesis and green chemistry (in English and Spanish), served on some PhD thesis committees (also in English and Spanish) and worked on several research articles (in English, because most Mexican chemists publish in English journals). I was also invited to give over 20 talks on science and religion, all in Spanish, due to interest in the book that Kate and I had written in 2017 on the subject. We may publish a Spanish version of the book in the next year or two.

We were fortunate to explore many parts of Mexico, as well as Guatemala and Peru, during our year abroad. In addition to amazing sights, people and food, we visited alum Marco Fernandez ’11 (engineering) and his family in Guatemala—we were even invited to his brother’s engagement party!

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Students Prank Professor Adam Johnson

During fall 2018, I made the mistake of reminiscing about the time my office was pranked (HM, BC, KF and TA, I'm looking at you) while I ran a marathon. Well, it happened again while I was out of town running the Antelope Canyon 50-miler.

For some reason, I figured that my students would not remember, replicate and even outdo the original prank, but I was wrong. I need to be more careful with my reminiscing. Thanks a bunch, “Thesis Gang,” whoever you are.

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American Chemical Society National Conference – Spring 2019 Orlando, Florida

Ben Mitchell ’18 (Pitzer), Chris Ye ’19, Fanrui Sha ’19, Hannah Slocumb ’19, Jenny Zhen ’19, Sydney Towell ’21 and Professor Johnson

V ACS

Chemistry for Life"

I The 257th National Spring ACS conference was held in Orlando, Florida, in April, at the Orange County Convention Center.

Brandon Wada ’20 and Oliver Baldwin ’21

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American Chemical Society National Conference (continued)

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Daphne Guo ’19

The National Meeting and Exposition featured presentations on new discoveries in science.

The topics included food and nutrition, medicine, health, energy, the environment and other fields where chemistry plays a central role.

Christopher Ye ’19

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Climate Change and uman

ehavior

Professor Hawkins’ jointly taught course Psychology 180C Climate Change and Human Behavior had a Skype guest call from climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe at Texas Tech. Hayhoe does a lot of advocacy work regarding climate change and public opinion. The class was really grateful to hear her perspectives on open and empathetic communication, and she was excited to hear about our students’ work.

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Green Chemistry Faculty members in the Department of Chemistry at Harvey Mudd College challenge students to apply chemical principles and sustainable practices to solve societal problems. The department recently formalized these efforts by joining a growing cadre of likeminded institutions who are members of the Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC).

Launched in 2013 by the green chemistry outreach and education nonprofit Beyond Benign, the GCC includes more than 60 signers from 20 U.S. states, two Canadian institutions, and one institution each in Australia, Columbia, Brazil, Nigeria and Thailand. Harvey Mudd is one of only five California institutions and is the only Claremont college in the program.

As a GCC signatory, the HMC chemistry department seeks to implement green chemistry in general and in organic chemistry courses and teaching labs, incorporate green chemistry into new and existing research projects, and develop and publish new green chemistry experiments.

Throughout the history of the department, HMC chemistry faculty have included green chemistry components, sustainability topics and practices in the classroom, instructional labs and research programs. Faculty members have been at the forefront of teaching green chemistry concepts or having research projects that are specifically focused in this area. Lelia Hawkins, associate professor, researches aerosol particles in the atmosphere and teaches the chemical and physical basis of global climate change. Hal Van Ryswyk, John Stauffer Professor of Chemistry, developed a research and educational program to test lead levels in soil at local elementary schools. Katherine Van Heuvelen, associate professor, draws inspiration from nature to develop new, environmentally friendly catalysts for important reactions to degrade toxins. Gerald Van Hecke ’61, Donald A. Strauss Professor of Chemistry, teaches how chemical structure influences the physical properties and applications of modern materials. Professor of Chemistry David Vosburg, who teaches students about green organic synthesis of medicinal substances, spearheaded the effort to have the department join the GCC. The GCC is a reflection of what the department has already been doing,” says Vosburg, who received the 2015 ACS-CEI Award for Incorporating Sustainability into Chemistry Education and wrote a chapter in a book that celebrates the 10th anniversary of the award. “There’s a lot of interest and excitement about green chemistry and sustainability among our students.”

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He says faculty members look forward to the networking opportunities, green chemistry curriculum and training offered through the GCC. The HMC chemistry department will also be able to share its programs and practices through the network.

The GCC sets a benchmark to track progress on adopting green chemistry student learning objectives, which are at the core of the program.

Upon graduation, GCC institution chemistry majors are expected to have proficiency in essential green chemistry competencies that include a working knowledge of green chemistry principles, an understanding of the molecular mechanisms of how chemicals affect human health and the environment, and the ability to assess chemical products and processes and design greener alternatives when appropriate.

“Our goal is to develop new and better ways to think about chemistry that will benefit the environment, our students’ education and our research projects.”

––Professor Vosburg

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Class of 2019

Ali Khan, Althea Hansel, Christopher Ye, Leah Stevenson, Fanrui Sha, Hannah Slocumb, Micaela Homer, Daphne Guo and Simone Griffith. Behind them, jumping for joy, Professor Hawkins and Professor Johnson. Not pictured: Christopher Doering and Liya Zhu

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Senior Theses Christopher Doering

Hannah Slocumb

Control of Gene Expression Profiles within the RpoS Regulon of E. coli K-12 Advisor: D. Stoebel

Asymmetric Intramolecular Hydroamination of Aminoallenes using Titanium Complexes of Novel Sulfonamides as Catalysts Advisor: A.R. Johnson

Simone Griffith Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce Advisors: L. Hawkins T. Srebotnjak

Daphne Guo Binary Mixtures of Organic Acids Have Potential Applications in Thermal Energy Storage Advisor: G.R. Van Hecke

Althea Hansel In Pursuit of Generalized Alkane Parameters for the MASTIFF Intermolecular Force Field Advisor: M.J. Van Vleet

Micaela Homer Solution-phase Ligand Exchanged PbS uantum Dot Inks in Bulk Heterojunction Photovoltaics Advisor: H. Van Ryswyk

Leah Stevenson Determination of the Reentrant Nematic Phase in Binary Mixtures of n-Alkyl-cyanobiphenyl Li uid Crystals Advisor: G.R. Van Hecke

Christopher e Investigating Dechlorination Mechanisms using Biomimetic Model Compounds Advisor: K. Van Heuvelen

Liya hu Establishing a High Throughput Assay using MoClo Golden Gate Cloning to Investigate the Temporal Behavior of RpoS-dependent Promoters in Escherichia coli Advisor: D. Stoebel

Ali Khan Measuring the Dielectric Constant of Ferroelectric Nanoparticles in an Epoxy Composite Advisor: A. Dato

Fanrui Sha Titanium and Tantalum Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydroamination with Sulfonamide Alcohol Ligands Advisor: A.R. Johnson

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Alumni Happenings

Anastasia Patterson ’14 defended her PhD thesis at UC Santa Barbara and joined DuPont in Marlborough, Massachusetts, on the Emerging Technologies team in Electronics and Imaging.

Eric Nacsa ’10 has accepted an assistant professor of chemistry position at Penn State.

Tom Aldrich ’12 (wearing the tie) celebrated his PhD defense at Northwestern. Tom will be joining DuPont R&D.

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Alumni appenings ( continued) Jason Casar ’18, a former Hawkins Lab researcher, is a co-author in a recently published manuscript in aerosol measurement techni ues (AMT). Jason spent a summer working at Aerodyne Research in Boston to improve an air pollution simulator and is now in the materials science and engineering doctoral program at Stanford University.

After a Fulbright year in Ireland, Anna Cunningham ’11 received her PhD from Stanford in chemical and systems biology and now works at Freenome (a biotech startup).

Omar Velaz uez ’18 and ella Lee ’18 are engaged.

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Alumni appenings ( continued) Ral w and llsn attend the Colorado School of Mines. Both are doing well, skiing every weekend, practicing work-life balance.

Allison is working on organic thin films that fluoresce when bombarded with neutrons as a radiation detector and is hoping to finish the last two years at Lawrence Livermore lab. Rachel is finishing her first year after working at NREL.

Do you recognize the HMC chemistry alumna pictured in this issue of Chemical Engineering ews n n was spotted at the ACS meeting in San Diego. She recently passed her PhD ualifying exam at UCLA, as did n

s kn started a postdoc at Harvard Medical School with Matt Waldor studying bacterial pathogens.

Jeep is across the river from where he was a grad student in Harvard’s chemistry department with a y ay in the Kahne lab.

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Summer Research Undergraduate chemistry and chemistry/biology joint majors strongly considering a major in either discipline were invited to participate in the 2019 Summer Research Program. The summer program ran for 10 weeks under the direction of Professor Lelia Hawkins. Students conducted research, learned about the chemistry profession and honed their presentation skills.

Professor Haushalter

Professor Van Heuvelen

The Haushalter lab focuses on understanding how DNA processing enzymes function in the repressive environment of chromatin.

Kyro Ibrahim ’21 (CMC) Lilliy Johnson ’22 Celine Wang ’22 Lucy Wong ’22

The Van Heuvelen Lab uses a combination of synthesis, spectroscopy, reactivity studies and computational chemistry to understand how important reactions occur in biological systems, and they use this understanding in the development of new catalysts.

Thomas Fleming ’22 Ellie Kim ’22 Jason Misleh ’22 Toty Polanco ’21

Professor Hawkins The Hawkins research team returned to the University of Paris in Creteil, France, to conduct chamber studies of the formation and transformation of atmospheric pollutants.

Lindy Conrad-Marut ’21 Ellie Smith ’22

Professor Johnson The Johnson group studies the asymmetric hydroanimation of aminoallenes with chiral titanium and tantalum catalysts.

Emily Fok ’22 Fanrui Sha ’19 Veronica Show ’22

Professor Van Ryswyk The Van Ryswyk Lab does fundamental materials chemistry research on photovoltaics, aiming to improve the efficiency of cells constructed from lowcost materials that can be applied to large-area surfaces.

Aech Loar ’22 Hanna Porter ’22 Anandi Williams ’22

Professor Van Hecke The general theme of research in the Van Hecke lab is the study of li uids, the physical chemistry of li uids, particularly li uid crystals and binary mixtures of alcohols and hydrocarbons.

Oliver Baldwin ’21 Brandon Wada ’20

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Summer Research in France Harvey Mudd College chemistry majors Ellie Smith ’22 and Lindy Conrad-Marut ’21 joined Professor Hawkins this summer for an international research project in Paris, France. Professor Hawkins has an ongoing collaboration with the University of San Diego and the University of Paris in Cr teil to better understand the chemical transformations occurring in clouds. Lab Director Jean-Francois Doussin was very excited about the team and their results. There are fewer than five chambers in the world capable of simulating atmospheric clouds.

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Summer Research in France (continued)

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Student Lab Safety Officers & Safety Day The laboratory safety program at Harvey Mudd College includes comprehensive training for employees, students and volunteers who work with chemicals. Summer research groups select a student lab safety officer (SLSO) who receives more intensive safety training and acts as liaison between the chemical hygiene officer and research labs. A highlight of the SLSO program is an annual Safety Day when researchers gain hands-on experience in the use of safety euipment, such as spill kits and safety showers.

Andres Cook ’21

Garrick Jensen ’22

Lucy Wong ’22

Gabby Teodoro ’21

Anna Soper ’22

Sydney Towell ’21

Emily Fok ’22

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Jason Misleh ’22

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Student Lab Safety Officers & Safety Day (continued) The Student Lab Safety Officers hosted Safety Day in July 2019. All summer researchers participated in hands-on safety demos including spill clean up, protective eye-wear, glove removal and hand washing technique, and hands-only CPR.

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Student Lab Safety Officers & Safety Day (continued)

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Summer Bake-off What started off as a small, one-department summer baking contest years ago between research labs has now evolved into a campus-wide bake-off with fierce competition from talented students, staff and faculty. This year’s Best Overall winners were Aech Loar ’22 and Oliver Baldwin ’21 with a delicious entry of Kouign-Amann, and Best in Chemistry was awarded to Toty Polanco ’21 for her wonderful Tres Leches Cake.

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Faculty and Staff 2019 pdat es R

a

B.S., Michigan State University PhD, California Institute of Technology Physical Chemistry

ll a

a

B.S., Pomona College PhD, Stanford University Organic Chemistry

The 2019 calendar year found me stepping into a new role, that of the associate dean for academic affairs. The job has its own set of stresses, but it is interesting and provides me with the opportunity to work with people across campus in DSA, whom I know in passing, but did not know well. It is a great opportunity to look at student life through a different lens, a more student-centered lens. The job certainly has its challenges, but it also has real rewards that have been uite satisfying.

And the people I met there are talented, fun and interesting. They also love to laugh.

In terms of teaching, I taught Carbon Compounds and Carbon Compounds Lab last spring. For the uninitiated, that course disappeared at the end of May 2019 to be replaced by Organic Chemistry I and Organic Chemistry I Lab. I kind of felt like I closed a chapter for HMC chemistry that Phil Myhre, Paul van Eikeren and I opened so long ago. The course remains the same, but the title was one that had an emotional hold on me as it reminded me of my old friends Phil and Paul.

On the personal side, our first grandchild (Matthew) is growing up and will soon be followed by a baby brother. We continue to travel to the Seattle area to see him and our son, Michael, and his wife, Taryn, and be a part of their lives as best we can. Our daughter, Mary Beth, is midway through her second year at Furman teaching organic chemistry and is enjoying it. She was married in June at West Point, and that was a fun experience. Our last child! As Paul Simon once wrote, time hurries on ....

Our eldest son, Eric, continues to work at the Alan Turing Institute in London doing data science with people in both industry and academia. Our third son, Brian, continues his work at the National Lab in Livermore where he lives with his wife, Ginger. And my wife works here in Claremont, where we talk regularly with our cats about retiring one of these days.

I still ride my bike, play golf, cook and roast my own coffee. Still lovin' the espresso every morning. As my label says, I don't always drink coffee, but when I do, I prefer to roa st my own!

Here’s hoping that 2020 will be a good year for all things in HMC Chemistry!

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Faculty and Staff 2019 pdat es (continued) an l

a

B.A., California State Polytechnic University M.S., California State Polytechnic University Laboratory and Stockroom Manager

a l Ha s al B.A., Rice University PhD, Harvard University Chemical Biology

One of the highlights of my year at Harvey Mudd was joining the teaching team in our latest version of the Core chemistry lecture course: Chemistry in the Modern World. Teaching the updated course with its increased emphasis on the connection to society was simultaneously challenging, rewarding, exhausting and inspiring. In addition to the modules that had been developed by my colleagues, I was pleased to add a biochemistry module on influenza in which the students had a chance to debate whether research to create engineered strains of highly pathogenic, airborne-transmissible H N1 should continue. I was impressed with their ability to think carefully about the impact of this work, both beneficial and risky, on society. It was especially fun to co-teach the course with my colleagues Lelia Hawkins and Kathy Van Heuvelen.

My research laboratory continues our work on adapting our long standing projects on DNA base excision repair to a new in vivo system with the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as budding yeast. In addition to the great science being done by the Mudd students, the Haushalter Lab smells delightfully like baked bread many days, one of the advantages of using yeast as a model organism.

Beyond Mudd, I have been deepening my collaborations with SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) and Campus Compact. Working with these two organizations, I hope to expand HMC’s capacity in community-based learning.

At the Haushalter home, Jenny and I are in awe that our daughter Laura is already a junior in high school, driving and starting to look at colleges. We have enjoyed trips to the East Coast and our annual RV camping trips in Pismo Beach. Laura and I are currently training for the Los Angeles Marathon, which we will run together in March 2020.

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Faculty and Staff 2019 pdat es (continued) la

Hawk ns

B.S., University of California San Diego PhD, Scripps Institute of Oceanography Environmental Chemistry

In spring 2019, I taught the first offering of a new blended course, Climate of Change, with my coinstructor Professor Adam Pearson (Pomona College Psychology). Our course is a seminar-style blend of the physical and behavioral science of climate change, and it was very popular among our students. We are teaching it again in spring 2020 and have a large waitlist. I was also fortunate to teach Advanced Analytical Chemistry in the spring and to again teach both Core chemistry and a frosh-friendly Introduction to Global Climate Change in the fall. The fall course welcomes all students, but is targeted at first years, and had 40 students this year. It is clear that the demand for courses on climate change is growing, and I enjoy offering them.

In research, 2019 was also uite productive. I traveled to Paris, France with two students as part of a new NSF-funded program to study the reaction of air pollutants in cloud water using a state-ofthe-art laboratory simulation chamber. Our instruments performed better than ever before, and we are working toward a publication of our results. This summer, I will take two new students with me, to study additional reactions. Work in this project, as well as my Claremont-based measurements of air pollution, was presented at two research conferences. In addition, I was invited to UC Riverside and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to give research seminars and meet with their faculty and students.

My family continues to enjoy living in Claremont and is now making use of our local public school, Chaparral Elementary. The year 2019 also brought the first family trip to Paris and London.

My son (now age ) was right at home among the croissants and crpes , and is cravi ng to return to Paris this summer. We are all looking forward to the new year and new adventures!

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Faculty and Staff a

R

ns n

B.A., Oberlin College PhD, Massachussetts Institute of Technology Inorganic Chemistry In spring 2019, I taught Inorganic and Inorganic Lab (Chem 104/110). Due to chemical shortages, I had to uickly replace one experiment. Then, at a summer workshop, I learned of an experiment involving main group compounds, and I’m going to pilot that. Both of these experiments introduce students to DFT, multinuclear NMR and APCI-MS. I also supervised three rotations of Chem 40 firstyear researchers. The project this year was to carry out the synthesis of some bulky imine-diol ligands as a follow-up to our publication in alton Transactions that appeared early in 2019. The project continued into the summer when I welcomed two first-year students, Emily Fok and Veronica Show, to the lab. They were very productive, and I think that after one more summer, we will have a publishable story.

My thesis students for 2019 were Hannah Slocumb and Fanrui Sha. Both seniors did uncountable hydroamination reactions to collect data for a paper that was to have been submitted this fall, but like most things, there is always one more last data point to collect (or e uipment failures), and now I think we will be lucky to get this out the door this coming spring. Fortunately, Emily Shimizu is continuing the project this year. This paper will include several current HMC students, so I really am trying to get it submitted as soon as the glove box cooperates. I will have two posters at the ACS meeting in Philly if you are planning to attend. Hannah is now at UC Irvine doing organic chemistry and Fanrui is at Northwestern studying materials and MOFs. In fall 2019, I was the lead instructor for the first-year laboratory and taught a private reading on advanced group theory. I’m ramping up spring courses (and grading lab notebooks). I am part of the VIPEr project studying the efficacy of face-to-face workshops on improving the student learning outcomes for inorganic chemistry students. I learned a lot at last summer’s workshop and hope to incorporate that into the course.

Nathaniel has been thriving at Cornell College where he ran cross country (and beat my college PR in his first meet by more than two minutes). He will be running steeplechase in the spring. Oh, and he is doing well in his classes, too. Miriam has continued her interest in theater, so we often go weeks at a time not seeing her as she participates in rehearsals and shows. It’s fun to watch her perform. Crista and I purchased entry-level, high-end road bikes and have been riding uite a bit. We just completed our first 0-mile race in Death Valley last month and I'm getting better at not falling down when I forget to remove my feet from the toe clips. Hope to hear from you or see you in person.

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Faculty and Staff y

a

ks s

B.S., Duke University PhD, Duke University Physical Chemistry My sabbatical continued during the first half of 2019. I kept busy with my work on the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Professional Training with meetings in San Diego (twice) Orlando, and Washington, D.C. I also continued to serve as co-principal investigator on my National Science Foundation IUSE (Improving Undergraduate STEM Education) grant helping 24 departments of biology, chemistry, physics, and psychology across the country integrate and scaffold the components of undergraduate research throughout a four-year curriculum. My co-PIs and I have been working together on NSF grants involving undergraduate research for over 1 years, and that work is a rich part of my professional life. I traveled to Providence to give a keynote address at Brown University on undergraduate research as they celebrated 0 years of their Open Curriculum. Before returning to teaching in the fall of 2019, I received an unexpected call from the president of the American Chemical Society notifying me that I was the recipient of the 2020 ACS Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution. I’m proud to continue following Phil Myhre and Mits Kubota in receiving this award and thank all of my research students over the years for their incredible contributions that led to this award. Returning from sabbatical is always difficult, but I was thrilled to have 29 students in PChem and co-teach PChem lab with VH and 23 students.

On a personal note, my sabbatical was bittersweet with the passing of my dog KC. I was blessed to have her for 14 years. I’m slowly getting back to traveling, having stayed close to home as KC aged. A birthday celebration in Charlotte with my twin brother was the highlight of the year for me. I hope you all continue to be happy and fulfilled in your lives. Stay in touch.

nny

an s

B.S., University of Southern California Laboratory Technician Chemical Hygiene Officer

Safety awareness is among the top priorities for employers seeking new hires, according to a 2014 report by the American Chemical Society (ACS). To this end, I have endeavored to create safety trainings and promote safety culture based on the needs of the audience.

First-year students receive training based on the hazards they will encounter in the instructional laboratory. Research students receive training that aims to increase their ability to analyze hazards in their day-to-day laboratory work. The training provided to student researchers is comprehensive and includes recognition of hazards (chemical and otherwise), assessing risk, mitigating risk and preparing for emergencies. The acronym RAMP (recognize, assess, mitigate, prepare), developed by ACS is used to remind students of these steps in safety awareness and preparation. Promoting awareness is a best practice in promoting a strong safety culture.

Promotion of safety awareness is also evident in the new Safety Information do or signs that will be available soon campus-wide. Colorful signs will indicate hazards within each lab, reuirements for entry (PPE, no food, etc.), location of emergency euipment (s pill kits, safety showers, fire extinguishers, etc.). We look forward to rolling out this program in Spring 2020.

The year 2019 has been an especially joyful year for the Manisco family. Our youngest son, Brett, married Kristin on Oct. 12, and our daughter, Kacie, married Dante on Nov. 2! It was a very busy fall indeed!

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Faculty and Staff an Scientific Instrumentation Technician

al R Van H

k

B.S., Harvey Mudd College PhD, Princeton University Physical Chemistry

Industrial Chemistry celebrated its 40th anniversary this fall since I first taught it in 1979. Any of you remember the course I hope so. This fall saw 23 students taking Physical Chemistry Lab— recent record number. This spring, there are 12 students in Group Theory and Spectroscopy, a good number for close interactions. I will be mentoring a first- year student in C40, our introduction to chemistry research for first years, a relatively new course in the department. A section of C24 Modern Chemistry Laboratory will keep the semester busy even without any senior research students.

Summer 2019 was modestly busy with two research students. Brandon Wada ’20 continued his 2018 project to determine the isothermal compressibilities of binary mixtures of aliphatic and aromatic compounds. The approach is to measure separately adiabatic compressibility, density, coefficient of thermal expansion, viscosity, refractive index, heat capacity and combine these values using a classic thermodynamic identity to calculate isothermal compressibility. These measurements are possible through the acuisition of new euipment for the PChem Lab, including the NSF MRI-funded TA instrument DSC2 0.

Oliver Baldwin ’21 joined Brandon on the isothermal compressibility project, and they traded off using the instruments to make the measurements.

The 2019–2020 academic year will be another light travel year. (Attendance at the spring, ACS Meeting in Philadelphia is on tap. If you are going to be at the meeting, look for the traditional Chemistry Brunch the Sunday of the meeting week. ou should also attend one or more of the various presentations in honor of Kerry Karukstis who is being recognized with the Research Corporation Award for Undergraduate Research.)

The 2019–2020 academic year will finish with a sabbatical. The finish of this academic year also represents 0 years of teaching here at HMC. The sabbatical should allow me to catch up on the many papers that should be written based on the work of so many of you former students.

So—as I usually end these comments—keep those cards and letters coming in, even if they are electronic texts.

Cheers, VH

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Faculty and Staff a

n Van H

l n

B.A., St. Olaf College PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison Inorganic Chemistry This year I continued to teach in the Core, and it is always a joy to work with our first-year students. In Writ 1, our class, Curiouser and Curiouser, asked students to think about curiosity through an essay titled, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge. We considered the merits of fundamental research as opposed to applied research, and we read about CRISPR, the James Webb Space Telescope and Einstein’s work on the atom bomb. In Chem 23, we continue to use societal problems as a lens for thinking about chemical applications. Many of our modules touch on climate change, as we explore both the chemistry behind the problem as well as possible carbonfree technologies for the future.

My research students and I continue to work toward homogeneous catalysts to help remediate groundwater pollutants. Over the summer, my students Toty Calvo Polanco ’21, Thomas Fleming ’22, Ellie Kim ’22 and Jason Misleh ’22 made tremendous progress on elucidating the reaction mechanism, and Brandon Wada ’20 is spending his senior thesis collecting new data about our system.

I am eager to see what the next year has in store. When you are in the neighborhood, please stop by and say hello.

Hal Van Ryswyk B.A., Carleton College PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison Analytical and Materials Chemistry I’m proud of our new core chemistry se uence, Chem 23A/B Chemistry in the Modern World. The course has blossomed with the nurturing and dedication of my colleagues. Teaching in this se uence has allowed me to place two modules into the spring term course while learning much from both my colleagues and our students. The Tesla vs. Toyota Smackdown contrasts batteries with fuel cells as a means to power personal vehicles, while 22TW in our Lifetime examines the role of solar energy via the development of solid-state uantum dot photovoltaics. The work is invigorating and satisfying. Beyond the first year, we now have a nanoscale materials lab that runs in series with Chem 194 Chemistry of Materials and Chem 192 Materials Science of Energy Conversion Storage.

In addition to our ongoing collaboration at ETH- urich, we have recently teamed with Profs.

Janice Hudgings and David Tanenbaum ’88 in the Pomona College Department of Physics to build infrastructure for photovoltaics research in Claremont. A recent NSF-Major Research Instrumentation award will allow us to build a toolset that will benefit all of our work. While we will be sad to see many of our student-built instruments replaced by commercial, industrystandard devices, our productivity promises to increase. In addition to ac uiring the hardware, holding biweekly research meetings with physicists and engineers lends a new flavor to summer research and provides experience with how multidisciplinary projects progress.

Charlotte and I continue to travel when and where we can, most often to visit our daughters and their families. All is well. With the advent of our first grandchild, we have finally matured to the point where our daughter speaks to her son and us in the same tone of voice.

I particularly appreciate hearing what is new with you—please keep in touch!

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Faculty and Staff Mary J. Van Vleet B.A., Harvey Mudd College PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison Physics of Intermolecular Interactions

Mary spent the last year in the department as a visiting assistant professor. She recently accepted a tenure-track faculty position in the chemistry department at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

David A. Vosburg B.A., Williams College PhD, The Scripps Research Institute Organic Chemistry One highlight is the department's signing the Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC) from Beyond Benign along with 60+ other colleges and universities. We are excited for progress we have already made in this area and for new developments. We also hope that more schools will join the team. Any alum faculty at other institutions are welcome to contact me about the GCC, especially if you'd like to consider it for your own department.

One way in which I continue injecting green chemistry into the curriculum is in developing new green experiments for the organic lab. Emily Shimizu ’20, Michelle Lee ’22, my older son Nate, and all of the Organic II lab students have participated in developing a greener synthesis of the anesthetic lidocaine. That experiment will be tried in Organic I lab in 2020 along with a rapid, green synthesis of drug analogs based on a peptide coupling reaction developed by a collaborator in the process chemistry division of the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb. Both of these experiments are likely candidates for future publications and will definitely include HMC student coauthors.

Two publications this year include a Journal of Chemical Education article on a green synthesis of a pentacyclic compound in water from salicyl alcohol (with HMC student coauthors Emily Shimizu ’20 and Johnson Hoang ’20) and a Frontiers in Chemistry article that arose out of my sabbatical at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico. Both papers involve cascade Diels-Alder reactions to rapidly generate molecular complexity in a single step from simple reactants.

My family is now settled back into California life after the year in Mexico (see page 7). Kate continues to foster students’ spiritual well-being in her work on campus with 5CIV. Nate’s now in ninth grade, loves computers and recently completed a science fair project on lidocaine (as mentioned above. He made seven batches) and a history project on the good guy/bad guy chemist Fritz Haber.

Isabella and Diego are in fifth grade, and both enjoy playing with our new dog, Krissy. Izzy is now a Girl Scout and rides horses. Diego will soon be joining Nate’s scout troop and loves low-tech engineering projects.

Kimberly Young A.A., Chaffey College (May 2020) PACE Certified Academic Coordinator

This year was a big one for me. I received my 30-year service plaque to be placed in Hixon Court.

What an honor to work on such a wonderful campus and in the best department! I’m almost finished with my degree. Once all my classes are complete, I’ll have to take up several hobbies or volunteer my talents as I am an empty-nester. My oldest daughter was married in January and my youngest daughter was engaged in June. We are now in the planning stages for a 2020 November wedding. In my spare time, I am learning folded book art and, trust me, I have plenty of supplies with all the old hardback textbooks and reading material here on campus. I recently folded/created a heart, but my goal is to work up to a very ornate project.

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Collage – 2019

Annual collage created by Professor Van Hecke. Photography by Professor Daub and Professor Van Hecke.

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