Chemistry Alumna Awarded ACS Honor

Chemistr y Alumna Awarded 2020 American Chemical Society Honor Anastassia N. Alexandrova PhD’05 (Chemistry) receives Early Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry from the ACS Physical Chemistry Division

USU alumna Anastassia N. Alexandrova (PhD’05, Chemistry), professor and vice chair for Undergraduate Education, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA. Courtesy Reed Hutchinson, UCLA

Anastassia N. Alexandrova, professor and vice chair for Undergraduate Education in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, is the 2020 recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Early Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry from the society’s Physical Chemistry Division.

It’s not the first time the ACS has recognized Alexandrova’s accomplishments. In 2011, she received the society’s Younger Chemists Committee Leadership Development Award, along with the Rising Star Award from the ACS Women Chemists Committee in 2015. For the Early Career Award, the ACS Physical Chemistry Division cited Alexandrova for her “development of theory of catalysis on dynamic heterogeneous interfaces based on statistical ensembles of metastable states, and applications to surfacesupported catalytic clusters.” Her research endeavors are substantial. “My goal is to develop and to apply new methodologies to make detailed predictions of reaction and catalytic mechanisms for metallic nanoclusters,” says Alexandrova, a native of Russia, who completed her undergraduate education at Saratov State University in southeast Russia and the Vernaskii Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. “My next line of research involves the design of functional alloys.” With UCLA colleagues Richard Kaner and Sarah

element in determining the hardness of these materials. to see how he thinks; following him, I learned to trust my

“One of the most interesting aspects of this work is we

scientific intuition, to go after the problem until we beat it

showed how the bonding easily changes from covalent to

to the ground, to argue with a forceful scientific opponent.”

ionic, with the model, thereby explaining unusual aspects

Boldyrev encouraged her to publish, attend scientific

of the materials, such as unique property responses to meetings, network and “kept my mind open.”

pressure and isotopic substitution,” Alexandrova says. “He gave me an excellent start,” Alexandrova says.

“This result is part of a grander scheme I’m developing, “Actually, everyone in his group gets an excellent start. Alex

whereby bonding is based on high-quality cluster models is an incredible mentor, scientist and citizen of the world.

that are stitched together.” His research is top class and his group is well taken care of,

Still another research area the Aggie alumna is at the level that can make any student in

pursuing is aimed at the in-silico design of metalloany university jealous.”

proteins with specific, desired catalytic properties.

Boldyrev, she says, taught her

“My overall goal has been to design new artificial metalloenzymes analogous

how to be “a good and caring advisor of my graduate students, now at “If you are brave

to known, active metalloenzymes, but with different metals in combinations not found in nature,” Alexandrova says. UCLA.” Despite her many successes, Alexandrova has experienced some enough to believe you can change the

“To that end, I’m working on the design of new, in vitro enzymes that are inspired setbacks. “During my postdoc years, I almost world, you will.”

by in vivo enzymes, but gain higher efficiency due to the use of alternate metals not occurring in vivo due to quit science, twice,” she says, but she persevered. Achieving a work/life balance has helped. - Anastassia N. Alexandrova, PhD’05

biological constraints.” It’s an enormous task, she says, since it involves nested computational chemistry approaches ranging from high level ab-initio calculations for small systems to handle the electronic structure of the metallic core, to more approximate density functional theory (DFT) methods for the protein environment in contact with the metal, and finally to quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) techniques to elucidate and to understand the secondary and tertiary structures of the surrounding protein. In addition to her ACS awards, Alexandrova has received repeated UCLA honors in research and Teaching, as well as a 2014 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) grant and a 2016 Fulbright Scholarship. With all of those accolades, plus completion of a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University following graduation from USU, Alexandrova considers her first major career milestone her acceptance to Utah State’s graduate program. “For me, the balance is a central aspect of life,” says

Alexandrova, a mother of two. “I think without family, I would go crazy and would never be a good scientist.”

Science is not only about hard work and long hours, she says, but also, even more about creativity. “One cannot get truly fresh ideas or see new concepts staring at a problem for 12 hours a day,” she says. “On the contrary, taking a break, such as going on a bike ride with

the kids, can clear one’s mind and let one see new patterns or arrive at new ideas for research.”

Likewise, Alexandrova says, she wouldn’t be a happy person and hence, a good mother, without constant intellectual stimulation and excitement.

She also values friendships, old and new, with enriching her life and helping her dream. “People in your life are resources,” Alexandrova says.

“You never know when you might see an opportunity from teaming up with that one, old friend or when the expertise of that one person would help your next step. If you are brave enough to believe you can change the world, you will.” n

Bees are the Best!

Conservation Biologist Joseph S. Wilson (BS’05, PhD’10, Biology) Teams with Storyteller/Illustrator Jonny VanOrman to Create Whimsical Story of Bee Diversity and Broadening One’s Horizons

Conservation biologist Joseph S. Wilson is on a mission.

The USU alum, and now a Utah State faculty member, wants to encourage efforts to protect bees, but he realizes a lot of people know little about them. “Most people have a bee sting story or they know some bees produce honey,” says Wilson, associate professor in the Department of Biology at USU Tooele. “Most are familiar with at least honey bees and bumble bees.” But those are just a few of the more than 4,000 bee species living in North America. “As an academic, I’ve taught college classes on bees and written scholarly papers, but I’d like to reach more people,” Wilson says. Among those people are children. “If we want to conserve bees, teaching our rising generation may be the best strategy,” says Wilson, himself a dad of young children.

And what better way than through a storybook?

Wilson teamed with illustrator Jonny VanOrman to create Bees are the Best!, a colorful picture book geared to preschoolers through fourth graders. “Jonny is an artist and illustrator, as well as a storyteller, and he helped me convey important concepts about bee diversity in a welcoming, accessible format,” Wilson says. The story, he says, revolves around a young honey bee, appropriately named “Honey,” who ventures into the world and discovers not everyone is like her. “Along with our young readers, Honey learns about bee diversity and why her life, though wonderful, isn’t necessarily the only way to live,” Wilson says. “She discovers unexpected benefits of a community with members of varied talents.” Readers may recognize VanOrman’s style from his previously published works, including illustrations of characters in Nickelodeon’s Sanjay and Craig series and Amazon Originals’ Costume Quest. “Jonny and I experimented with characters that are fun and inviting, yet still somewhat scientifically accurate,” Wilson says. He says an added section at the end of the story provides facts and actual photos of the varied bees in the story, paired with their illustrated characters.

(Hint: One of the most bee friendly plants is the annual sunflower.) In addition to books, Wilson delivered the TEDxUSU talk, “Save the Bees! Wait, Was that a Bee?,” now posted on YouTube, in Fall 2016, and he’s also given public talks at venues throughout the state of Utah. Wilson also offers outreach through his website, www.beesinyourbackyard.com, which provides such information as how to build a bee hotel and a bumble bee house. “With our complicated jargon, we scientists sometimes ‘talk over’ people,” he says. “My goal is to make science communication more understandable.”

USU Biology alums Joseph Wilson (BS’05, PhD’10) and Olivia Messinger

Carril (BS’00, MS’06), published “The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America’s Bees” in 2015.

A Bee Book for “Big Kids,” Too

Bees are the Best!, available from Amazon.com, isn’t Wilson’s first foray into publishing or public outreach. In 2016, the Orem, Utah native, who earned bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Utah State in 2005 and 2010, respectively, published The Bees in Your Backyard with fellow Aggie Olivia Messinger Carril ’00, MS’06. The North American field guide introduces adults, both novices and experts, to diverse bee species and offers tips on bee conservation. “Like kids, most adults think of honeybees, when they think of bees,” Wilson says. “But honeybees are actually an anomaly.”

The Bees in Your Backyard features more than 900 images, most of them taken by the authors, to aid novices and experts alike in identifying the winged pollinators. Within the book, Wilson and Carril offer tips on how to attract bees to your own backyard.

Bee Conservation Research

And why is Wilson concerned with making sure people understand the importance of bee diversity? “Because bees play a pivotal role in our ecosystems,” he says. And Utahns, in particular, he says, might be surprised to learn the state’s critical role for the nation’s bee populations. Utah’s nickname, “The Beehive State,” refers to the state’s legacy of pioneer thrift, cooperation and industry. But Wilson adds the moniker is apt for another reason: One out of every four bee species in the United States is found in Utah, and the arid, western state is home to more bee species than most states in the nation. About half of those species dwell within the original boundaries of the newly reduced Grand StaircaseEscalante National Monument.

Continued

bee diversity,” says Wilson says who, with Carril, USDA entomologist Terry Griswold and USU emeritus

professor James Haefner, identified 660 species identified in the

protected region. They reported

their findings in the November 7,

2018 issue of PeerJ.

In a follow-up paper published

Dec. 4, 2018, in the same journal,

Wilson, Carril and New York-based

free-lance journalist Matt Kelly,

examined data on the 660 species

to focus on what the newly reduced monument boundaries mean for

the pollinators left out of protected

areas. A year earlier, President Donald Trump announced, in Salt Lake City,

USU alumna Olivia Messinger Carril (BS’00, MS’06, Biology), photographed at New Mexico’s Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, collaborates with fellow Aggie Joe Wilson on research and co-authored the North American field guide, “The Bees in Your Backyard.” Courtesy Morgan Timms, Taos News

his intention to sharply reduce Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. What does this mean for pollinators inhabiting those areas? “That’s exactly the question that should be asked, that’s not being asked,” says Wilson, lead author of the latter paper. “So that’s what my co-authors and I, using data from the first paper, have examined.” The good news is 87 percent of the 660 species identified by the USU scientists are found in the newly reduced boundaries of GSENM. “But that leaves about 84 species no longer inhabiting protected land,” Wilson says. “This includes some new, undescribed species, as well as ‘morphospecies,’ which are unique individuals that don’t match known species.” Further, he says, some species known only in the Mojave Desert are among the pollinators found in the now unprotected area.

At left: A view from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. USU conservation biologist Joseph Wilson says one out of every four bee species in the U.S. is found in Utah and the arid, western state is home to more bee species than most states in the nation. About half of those species dwell within the original boundaries of the newly reduced Grand StaircaseEscalante National Monument. Courtesy Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Managment

“This is significant because these are ‘edge’ populations,” Wilson says. “That is, in the face of climate change, they could be the first to go extinct as the region gets hotter and drier, or the area could provide a refuge for populations of the same species now inhabiting the Mojave desert.” A broader concern, he says, is the lack of consideration of pollinators in the monument’s new management plans. “Will the reduction in monument size affect the pollinators?” Wilson asks. “We don’t know. But if development is allowed in the unprotected areas, say, mining, road development, more recreational development than, yes, pollinator habitat could be lost.” He notes President Clinton specifically mentioned pollinators, when he led the creation of the national monument in 1996. “Bees need to be a part of the management decisions,” Wilson says. n

-MARY-ANN MUFFOLETTO