Department of Chemistry...labs and teaching general chemistry, left when her husband trans-ferred to...

Department of

Chemistry

Fall 2006 | Volume 25

Department of Chemistry Fall 2006 |

Chair’s ReportTelling the Story – Staying in Touch25 Years of Chemistry DepartmentNewsletters

This issue of the GW Chemistry

Department Newsletter marks the

twenty-fifth consecutive departmen-

tal newsletter we’ve published. Its primary

goal has always been to assist in remaining connected to our

alumni. It was in 1980 that co-editors, Robert Vincent and

Theodore Perros set out to “inform you of our current activities,

to trace the wanderings of our graduates, and to report where they

are and what they are doing.” Bob and Ted had no idea whether

their goal of informing and being informed would succeed when

they set out on to tell the marvelous story of this department and its

alumni, but some 25 years later I think it is fair to say it was a win-

ning effort. During that time span the three

chairs, Ted Perros, Dave Ramaker, and I have

endeavored to maintain a connection with our

alumni and share the pride we have for all of

you and your achievements and in the Depart-

ment’s growth and development over this pe-

riod. Thus, instead of the usual review of

activities or focus on changes, I thought it might

be interesting to look through some of those

newsletters and share a few snippets of those

yearly highlights. My apologies that space will

limit mentioning only a few of you who have

written over the years and condensing quite a

bit of departmental history into only a few snip-

pets.

Among the interesting notes the first newsletter

reported was that Dr. LeGrand Van Uitert received an Alumni

Achievement Award from the University. At the time he held 50

patents and had received the ACS Award for Creative Invention,

among a host of other honors. Among the 21 graduates of 1980

was Scott Han (BS’80), who went on to receive his doctorate under

F. Albert Cotton and whose son now attends the University. Sadly,

the newsletter also reported the sudden passing of Prof. Reuben

Wood, who had joined the faculty in 1945 and served as chair from

1976 to his passing.

The response to the first newsletter was over-

whelming. Some 57 alumni wrote back including

news from Madeleine Reines Jacobs (BA’68) who

began working as a science writer for the Smith-

sonian News Service, Robert Brasted (BS ’38),

who was directing the General Chemistry pro-

gram at the University of Minnesota, and G. Lee

Southard (MS ’62), who was president of his own

research laboratories in New Brunswick, NJ. The 1981 newsletter

also described the recruitment of Prof. Akbar Montaser as our new

analytical chemist.

1982 told of the beginning phases of the renovation of Corcoran

Hall and plans for an alumni reunion. A complete renovation,

bringing the building up to code and adding a means of egress from

the large teaching labs, ultimately took place in 1987. Among the

reports from our alumni, we learned that Joel Selbin (BS’53) was

serving as Director of Graduate Studies at LSU and James Pavlik

(Ph.D.’70) was Head of the chemistry depart-

ment at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The alumni reunion of 1982 was reported a

success, with George W. Irving, (BS’33) re-

calling former days and Richard Reeves

(BS’50) flying in from Rochester. Prof. J.

Houston Miller joined the department that

year and Alexander J. Fatiadi (MS’57) re-

ceived the CSW Hillebrand award. We

learned about the doings of 71 alumni, includ-

ing Bourdon Scribner (BS’33), Joel Schulman

(BS ’65) at Proctor and Gamble, William

Worthy (BS’67), David Venesky (BS ’44) at

NRL, and Joseph Covey (BS ’76) postdocing

at NCI.

Sad news was reported in 1983 with the pass-

ing of Prof. Emeritus Robert Vincent, a tour-de-force for all of our

majors. Following that news was the sudden death from a heart at-

tack of a former chair, Prof. A.D. Britt, as reported in 1984. The

Britt family established a scholarship in his memory, which has be-

come a fund to support undergraduate research in the summer.

Among those we heard from were Helen Dyer (Ph.D. ’36), Stephen

Krop (BS ’39), Nancy Jackson (BS’79) working on her doctorate,

and Alexis Gilliland (MA’56) who had become an award-winning

science fiction writer. Harden McConnell (BS’47) shared the Wolf

Several faculty members, circa 1955:Van Evra, Vincent, Naeser & Wrenn

Robert Brasted

Prof. King

| Fall 2006 Department of Chemistry

Foundation Prize that year as well.

Dean Calvin Linton retired in 1985 and was succeeded by Dean

Clara Lovett; sponsored research in the department was approach-

ing $300K/year. Among the alumni we heard from were: Larry

Fertel (BS’81), Scott Keeler (BA’78) and William Sager (AA ’38,

BS’39, MA ’41), who had just been awarded the Distinguished Ser-

vice Award from the University of Illinois at Chicago. By 1986,

with $5 million allocated, plans were underway for the Corcoran

Hall upgrade; sponsored research rose to $400K and Prof. Akbar

Montaser published his first book. Phyllis Brown (BS’44) reported

that she was on the faculty at U of Rhode Island and had published

two books, among other honors. Lt. Jack Crawford (BS’82) wrote

about his move into computer resource management with the Air

Force, and Claire (Pierozak) Cullen had become chair of Pediatric

Medicine at the University of Detroit Dental School. Anthony

Winston (BS ’50) was chair at West Virginia University and James

Pavlik (Ph.D.’70) was chair at U Mass.

1987 was consumed with the Corcoran Hall renovation. By 1988,

the newsletter reported that all of the teaching labs were redeployed

to the 4th floor, and the “chaotic state” of affairs was ending. Prof.

Theodore Perros turned the reins of the department over to Prof.

David Ramaker in 1988, expressing sincere thanks for the support

from alumni, who were now contributing to the Department’s E&R

funding and thereby supporting cost-sharing and startup packages

for the faculty. Harden McConnell (BS’47) was selected as the first

GW Distinguished Alumni Scholar, Stephanie Smith (BS’88) was

chosen as a Distinguished Student Scholar, graduating with 4.0

GPA, and Richard Wallis (BS’45, MS’48) coauthored a book.

While adjusting to his new role as chair of the Department, Prof.

Dave Ramaker was selected by Chemical Society of Washington

as the Hillebrand Awardee for 1989. He joined colleague Prof. Ni-

colae Filipescu, who had won the award in 1971. The newsletter

also reported that the University received a bequest from the estate

of Theresa Karger (BS’17, MS’18). A portion of the bequest be-

came a new equipment fund for cost-sharing and the general chem-

istry labs were renamed in her honor. David Goldberg (BS’54)

reported from Brooklyn College on his continuing output of books.

The 1990 Newsletter greatly expanded the contributions from indi-

vidual faculty, noting their scholarship and academic activities over

the year. Undergraduate enrollments were beginning to soar, par-

ticularly in Prof. Nicolae Filipescu’s Contemporary Science course.

Prof. Diana Sedney, who had been with us for two years handling

labs and teaching general chemistry, left when her husband trans-

ferred to China. Professors Theodore Perros and Akbar Montaser

were honored by the College for excellence in teaching and re-

search respectively. Calvin Richie (BS’60) published the second

edition of his “Physical Organic Chemistry”, and Mary Lee Tupling

(BS’74) founded Radiant Life Products in Fort Lauderdale.

A new interactive computer-assisted instructional lab was estab-

lished in 1991 by Prof. Dave Rowley in conjunction with the Foren-

sic Sciences Department. This facility was the start of the extensive

incorporation of technology in our instructional program and sup-

port for our teaching mission. Professor William Schmidt (BS’43)

became an emeritus after a

career of 38 years at GW, but

stayed on to teach quant for

us a few more years.

Richard Wallis (BS’45,

MS’48) was selected for the

Distinguished Alumni

Achievement Award, while

Alan Nadel (BS’71) became

the 53rd member of the GW

Athletic Hall of Fame and

first member of the crew

team to be so honored. Prof.

Dave Ramaker was honored

by the Washington Academy of Sciences for “outstanding achieve-

ments in the Physical Sciences.”

Further faculty changes began in 1992, when Prof. David White

took half-time retirement and Professors Joseph Levy and Theodore

Perros (Ph.D. ’52 ) retired. New faculty included Assoc. Prof. Akos

Vertes, and Assistant Professors Rosina Georgiadis and Martin

Johnson. The second edition of Prof. Akbar Montaser’s book was

published that year, as Prof. Ted Perros took over chairmanship of

the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. Robert

Bowen (MS’64) retired from the David Taylor Naval Ship Research

and Development Center. Nancy Jackson (BS’79) completed her

doctorate and joined Sandia Labs, while

Robert Pike (BS’82) joined the faculty at

the College of William and Mary, having

completed his doctorate at Brown.

Alumni learned in 1993 of a new Insti-

tute for Material Science at GW, co-di-

rected by Prof. David Ramaker and a

colleague from Engineering. Prof. Joan

Hilderbrandt began the first of many ap-

pointments as Coordinator of the labora-

tories courses for Introductory Chemistry

and Contemporary Science, Prof. Andy

Knight joined the faculty as an Assistant

Professor and Prof. Nicolae Filipescu received a Fullbright Schol-

arship for his sabbatical in Romania. Enrollments were soaring at

all levels as the first BS degrees in Forensic Chemistry were

awarded. A highlight of the year was the awarding of an honorary

degree to Professor Harden McConnell (BS’47) of Stanford.

Professor Dave White took full retirement in 1994 after 40 years on

Prof. David and Mrs. Marge White

Harden McConnell,GW DistinguishedAlumni Scholar

Renovation of Corcoran Hall, room 302, 1987

Fall 2006 | Department of Chemistry

the faculty, 25 as graduate advisor. The department completed a

self-study which highlighted a doubling of enrollments over 10

years and seven fold increase in sponsored research over the same

period. Professor Akbar Montaser began his third book, Prof. Akos

Vertes co-edited one of his own, and the Alpha Pi Chapter of Alpha

Chi Sigma was reactivated as a colony through the efforts of Prof.

Ted Perros and Emily Yourd (BS’95). Thoughtful reflections of

chemistry at GW were served up by Murray Berdick (BS’42),

Charles Wales (BS’49), Harden McConnell (BS’47), Marie O’Dea

(MS’23), Guy Miller (’80), Harry McCament, Jr. (’58), Joel Sel-

bin (BS’53), William Sager (MA’41), and Emanuel Horowitz

(Ph.D.’63) among others.

GW’s Trachtenberg Prize for

Scholarship was awarded to

Prof. Dave Ramaker in 1995,

while Prof. Rosina Georgiadis

received the first of several

NSF Career awards given to

GW chemists. Sponsored re-

search rose to over $1 million,

stockroom manager Russell

Kingsbury celebrated his 25th

year at the University and

Prof. Joan Hilderbrandt re-

ported that over 1000 students were

doing labs in room 402 in the fall

for the first time. Equipment grants from NSF supported purchases

of a Phase Dopler Analyzer and new ICPMS. An annual depart-

mental retreat grew to be a regular part of our program. Madeleine

Jacobs (BA’68) became editor of C&EN and Le-Nhung McLeland

(MS’76) and Alan Nadel (BS’71) told of their roles as Patent Attor-

neys.

Professors Rosina Georgiadis and Martin Johnson bid adieu in

1996, replaced by Professors Michael Wagner and Richard Tarkka,

bringing new synthetic talents to the department. Professor Dave

Ramaker closed his 8th year as chair by taking a sabbatical at

Utrecht and turning the chairmanship over to Prof. Michael King.

During Dave’s 8 years, the department experienced tremendous

growth in research activity in terms of funding, invited and con-

tributed talks, and publications. We heard from Carolyn Knobler

(BS’55), a Professor at UCLA, Thomas Munson (BS’51) who had

retired as President of a product development company and was

entering publishing, and N. Jani (BS’82) now Chief of Surgical Ser-

vices in Salinas California.

Professor Akbar Montaser was honored with GW’s Trachtenberg

Prize for Scholarship in 1997 and a Center for the Study of Com-

bustion and the Environment was established by Prof. Houston

Miller and newly recruited colleague, Prof. Stephen Barone. The

department was delighted to report on two major gifts, one from

Harden McConnell (BS’47, D.Sc. ’93) (a Professor at Stanford) to

support graduate students and the second, a gift annuity from

Carolyn Knobler (BA’55) and her husband (both are Professors at

UCLA) to create a discretionary fund for the chair. A scholarship

to honor former Professor Robert Vincent was also established.

Alpha Chi Sigma celebrated full reactivation and we read from a

letter by William Worthy (BS’67), who delighted us with anecdotes

about Professors

Wrenn, Naeser, Minn,

Schmidt and Perros.

Strategic planning

was the focus of

1998, as set forth by

our new Dean, Lester

Lefton. Data on the

department showed

incredible progress

by a committed fac-

ulty, motivated and

engaged majors, and

increasingly capable

graduate students. A mission statement was adopted and a set of

goals established. Former Faculty Member Frederick Minn estab-

lished a Charitable Remainder Unitrust, which subsequently has

grown to $1million. Minn said that GW was “a terrific place to

teach and I loved the environment.” Professor Ted Perros received

the AIC Honor Scroll Award and new multimedia technology was

added to our instructional capability. Among the alumni we heard

from, Sigmund Schwimmer (Ph.D.’43) was recipient of the ACS

Agriculture and Food Chemistry Award, Lala Mathers (Dunbar)

(BS’54) was at LSU Medical Center, George Latimer (BS’55) was

State Chemist in Texas, Mary Lee Tupling (BS’74) was a licensed

Acupuncturist in Florida, and Susan Menke (Ph.M.’70) was an As-

sistant Managing Editor of Government Computer News.

The 1999 Newsletter highlighted the growth in departmental in-

strumentation to support teaching and research. Resources to sup-

port these major purchases came from NSF instrumentation grants

(e.g. Thermal Analysis, Laser systems, ICPMS, Phase Dopler) and

Departmental and University support (FT-NMR, FTIR, GCMS,

HPLC, AA, etc.) A biochemistry course was introduced into the

curriculum and Prof. Dave Ramaker’s research space was remod-

eled into a laboratory with a fume hood. Professor Michael Wagner

was awarded an NSF Career grant and Prof. Akbar Montaser served

on the King Faisal International Prize in Science selection commit-

tee. Alumnus Richard F. Wallis (BS’45, MS’48) established an en-

dowment in Chemistry and Physics to be used at the discretion of

the chairs and Prof. Emeritus Ted Perros celebrated 50 years as an

educator. The department received some 50 gifts from alumni and

heard from Nahla El-Kadi (Ph.D’92) who was teaching in Cairo,

Lily Marcano (MS’83) who was teaching

in Venezuela, and Bob Pike (BS’82) who

had been tenured at William and Mary.

The growing successes of our graduate

students were highlighted in 2000 with a

wonderful retelling of their current

awards and honors from predoctoral fel-

lowships to conference awards. Profes-

sors Martín Zysmilich and Christopher

Cahill joined the faculty, while Professors

Andy Knight and Stephen Barone moved

on to other positions. Professor Akbar Montaser and his student

John McLean were honored with one of R&D Magazine’s R&D

100 Awards. Other colleagues honored that year were Prof. Nicolae

Russell Kingsbury’s 25thanniversary

AXE fundraiser, selling donuts, [left to right]Nancy Kim, Jackie Gesumaria, and EmmaSpaulding

John McLean, circa1997


Filipescu with an honorary membership in the Romanian Academy

of Sciences and Prof. Dave Ramaker as a Columbian Professor at

GW. Alexander J. Fatiadi (M.S. ’57) was named one of the 2000

Outstanding Scientists of the Twentieth Century.

In 2001 we reported that Prof. Akbar Montaser was the latest of our

winners of the CSW Hillebrand Prize and that Prof. Michael

Wagner received the CSW Community Service Award. Graduate

student John McLean (Ph.D.’00) was only the second American

graduate student to be awarded the prestigious Bunsen-Kirchhoff

Prize of the German Working Group for Applied Spectroscopy. We

all celebrated the 38 year association with GW of Professor Nico-

lae Filipescu as he retired and sadly noted the passing of Prof.

Emeritus Joseph Levy. Professor Vlad Sadtchenko joined the fac-

ulty as Prof. Richard Tarkka moved on to another University.

Alumnus Robert J. Bowen (BA’59, MS’64) presented a gift of IBM

stock as the founding gift for a new Chemistry Alumni Fellowship

fund. His benefaction was supplemented by support from Rosland

Kornfield, Frank Miller, David Goldberg and Charles and Francis

Midkiff. Lee Silverberg (BS’86) was featured in C&EN, Joel

Schulman (BS’65) had become Manager of External Relations in

R&D at Proctor and Gamble, and Paul Veale (PhD’99) was settling

in as a Senior Lecturer at Dartmouth.

A 2002 feature story in C&EN related Prof. Dave Ramaker’s work

on X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy. He was also appointed to the

Debye Chair at Utrecht and became an Associate Editor of Physi-

cal Review Letters. Prof. Akos Vertes was awarded the title Doc-

tor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences by the HAS General

Assembly, Martín Zysmilich was named the winner of the Robert

W. Kenny Prize for outstanding teaching, and Ed Caress received

a GW Award for contributions to the University. With Sponsored

research continuing at a rate of greater than $1million/year in ex-

penditures, the department was leading the college in awards per

faculty. Marc Alembic (BS’84, MS’86), now a physician in

Alexandria, visited the department and committed to a multiyear

gift to benefit the Department, as did M. Diana Metzger (BS’64).

Mitchell Ross (BS’77) also visited and shared fond memories of

Prof. Robert Vincent.

Among the notable high-

lights of 2003 was the

Honorary Degree for

Madeleine Reines Jacobs

(BS’68), who was pre-

sented to the Commence-

ment throng by Carly

Levin (BS’03). Dr. Jacobs

was the featured speaker at

the Phi Beta Kappa exer-

cises. Prof. Michael King

was award the Trachten-

berg Prize for University

Service that year and had

the pleasure of presenting

the Distinguished Alumni

Scholar Prize to Emanuel

Horowitz (Ph.D. ’63) . Akbar Montaser presented the 2003 Fassel

Lecture at Iowa State and Martín Zysmilich was selected to receive

a Morton Bender Award for outstanding Teaching. Graduate Stu-

dent Maggie Teliska (Ph.D.’04 ) was one of five students honored

by the University when the Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award

was inaugurated. Zhengtao Xu joined the faculty, and David

Rowley took over as Deputy Director of the Honors Program.

Michael Mavrofrides (BS’97) enhanced his previous gift with sup-

port for undergraduate research early in one’s program. Theodore

Kim (BS’90) wrote of extensive travels after medical school from

Texas to Korea to Hawaii, while Paul Thomas (BS’47) returned to

campus for the 50th reunion of his medical school class.

The 2004 Newsletter reported the retirement of Professors Dave

Rowley and Ed Caress, who collectively had been at the Univer-

sity for over two generations. Prof. Christopher Cahill became the

second NSF Career

Awardee during my

tenure as chair and

added icing by win-

ning a Major Instru-

ment Grant for an

X-ray Diffractometer.

A team lead by Akos

Vertes won the first

ever W.M. Keck

Foundation Award for

the University to cre-

ate an imaging device

for proteins at the

neuromuscular junc-

tion. Nancy Jackson (BS’79, MS’85) was honored with the Univer-

sity’s Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award. Quite active in

ACS governance and educational institutions, she joined Sandia

National Labs after obtaining her doctorate and became Manager of

Chemical and Biological Sensing. Scott Dubow (BS’97) reported

finishing up pediatrics training in Philadelphia, while Doren Indritz

(BA’73) wrote of fond memories of Drs. Rowley and Caress.

Last year (2005) we learned about the renovation of the fourth floor

laboratory complex to create a new space for wet analysis and a

prep space for general chemistry, as well as a state-of-the art facil-

ity for the Vertes research program. Prof. Emeritus Ed Caress es-

tablished an endowment to support graduate student travel and

alumnus Bourdon Scribner (BS’33) made an outright gift of $500K

to be used to support graduate students in the department reflecting

continuing confidence in the strength of our program. Sadly we

reported the passing of Professors Emeritus David White and

Charles Naeser. We were pleased to welcome Prof. Henry Teng

who transferred to chemistry from the former geosciences program

and celebrated with Professor Emeritus Dave Rowley for his GW

Award. After 27 years John Van Patten (BS’85) retired from the

Navy and settled in upstate New York, where he intends to teach.

Jack Crawford (BS’82) is Founder and Director of Managed Ven-

tures in California and Karl Miller (BS’98) is a counterfeit special-

ist with the Secret Service. Bob Pike (BS’82) was promoted to full

professor, having just finished a Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award.

Of course there were more stories of our alumni told in the Newslet-

ter over these 25 years. Hopefully the few tidbits and snapshots

gave you a glimpse of the successes we have felt and the delight we

Prof. Emeritus Theodore Perros &Distinguished Alumnus EmanuelHorowitz, Spring 2003

Professors Emeritus David Rowleyand Edward Caress

Department of Chemistry Fall 2006 |

Chemistry by the Numbers

Twenty-nine new multiyear grant proposals totaling almost $13 million were submitted during the year to external granting agencies and

organizations. Over $1.1 million in new multiyear funding was awarded by the External Sponsors during that cycle. An additional $25K

was awarded from Internal GW funds to chemistry faculty, whose proposals were funded. As of May 1, the department had 20 ac-

tive awards from external sponsors valued at about $5.1 million for their life.

Colleagues published 18 papers, journal articles, book chapters or conference proceedings during the year. An additional 14 papers

have been accepted and 17 more have been submitted as well. Furthermore, colleagues gave 24 contributed talks or posters at

meetings and conferences, and delivered some 30 invited talks at conferences, Universities, and other sites. One additional patent

application was submitted this year. Professor Vertes and colleagues received the Elsevier/Spectrochimica Acta Award honoring the

most significant article published in this top journal during 2003, and one of Professor Miller’s articles was featured on the cover of

Spectroscopy. Professors Cahill, Montaser, Ramaker and Vertes serve as Associate Editors of journals.

Seven new doctoral candidates matriculated during 2005-2006, keeping our doctoral student population at a healthy level as three new

doctorates and three new Master’s degrees in Chemistry were awarded. The number of chemistry majors continued to increase to a

total of 61 declared major advisees as of this spring. Total undergraduate enrollments in chemistry courses rose again this year by 3%,

totally saturating the available laboratory spaces. Summer session registrations increased another 11% such that they have risen

101% since 2000. Six of the refereed papers published in 2005-6 included undergraduates as co-authors, as eleven students were reg-

istered for undergraduate research.

take in everyone’s achievements. Congratulations to all. And es-

pecially thank you to Professors Perros and Vincent for initiating

this marvelous instrument of communication. We love retelling

your stories and sharing the goings on in the Department. Please

stay in touch and let us know what’s going on in your lives.

Memorial service for Dr. Charles Naeser at Arlington NationalCemetary on September 12, 2005

Prof. King, winner of Trachtenberg Prize for UniversityService, and President Trachtenberg 2003 Dinstiguished TA Award winner Maggie Teliska

with Prof. King (left) and Prof. Ramaker (right)

Department of Chemistry | Fall 2006

2006 Distinguished Alumni Scholar

We are delighted to report that Dr. George Mushrush was honored as the University’s Distinguished Alumni Scholar for 2006. Dr.

Mushrush has had a long and distinguished career in environmental and fuels research since he received his Master’s and Doctoral

degrees in chemistry from the The George Washington University in 1965 and 1968 respectively. His name caught our attention when

we learned that he was being considered for an award from the Professional Chapter of the American Institute of Chemists which

was subsequently given to him a few weeks after GW’s award.

Dr. Mushrush was a doctoral student in the 60’s of Prof. Nicolae Filipescu,

completing his degree in 1968 in physical organic chemistry. He went di-

rectly to an academic position at the George Mason University where he rose

to become a Full Professor in 1977. Coincidentally, he served as chair of the

chemistry department at George Mason for some 12 years (plus a year as act-

ing chairman). During his thirty seven-year career at George Mason, he has

published 266 scientific papers in refereed journals, delivered some 296 pre-

sentations and acquired over $2 million dollars in sponsored research since

1990 to support his program. This record is truly a monumental accomplish-

ment for any scientist in any field. Additionally, Dr. Mushrush has written a

book, published in 1995, titled Petroleum Products: Instability and Incompatibility,

and has four patents to his name. One of his patents, which was featured in

Science News, is for aircraft deicing. He has won awards for superior publi-

cations, inventions, and technology from the Naval Research Laboratory and

from the Virginia Academy of Science. These honors are based on his pro-

ductive and influential research, primarily focused on fuels research, includ-

ing the analysis of petroleum, shale, tar sands, biofuels, additives, oxidative

stability and diesel fuel composition. He has also studied indoor radon, its sig-

nificance as a natural pollutant and its regional occurrence in Virginia and Maryland. As a consequence of his prolific and respected

scholarship, he sits on 3 different editorial boards in the area of fuel science.

In addition to all of those accomplishments, Dr. Mushrush has been a remarkably good citizen of his discipline and his institution. He

has served as the President of the Chemical Society of Washington, served on various American Chemical Society committees, organ-

izer and session chair at a host of scientific meetings, judge of local science fairs and has provided distinguished service to the faculty

of the George Mason University. Some twenty-five students since 1990 have received Master’s or Doctoral degrees under his direction

and an additional 33 undergraduates have been a part of his research program during the same period.

Dr. Mushrush’s scholarship has been fresh, sharp, innovative, and current. We are quite proud that he has joined the ranks of other chem-

istry alumni who were selected as Distinguished Alumni Scholars.

Assoc. VP Craig Linebaugh, Assoc. Dean DianaLipscomb, Prof. Michael King, Exec. VP DonaldLehman, Distinguished Alumni Scholar GeorgeMushrush, Exec. Dir. Cheryl Beil, and Prof.Emeritus Theodore Perros

Fall 2005 retreat: Yue Li explains his research toBrendan McAndrew, Ryan Brennan and StephanieMcCartney

Corcoran 405, newly renovated instructional lab


Special Gift Acknowledgements

Madeleine Reines Jacobs Undergraduate Fund in Chemistry

We are delighted to announce that Madeleine Reines Jacobs, who received a BS in Chemistry in 1968

and an honorary Doctor of Science in 2003, recently created the Madeleine Reines Jacobs Undergradu-

ate Fund in Chemistry. Income generated from the fund will support undergraduate students majoring in

chemistry by providing research grants, tuition assistance, and summer research stipend support.

Madeleine, who has had an illustrious career as a public affairs executive and a scientific journalist, is the

CEO of The American Chemical Society.

Jacobs’s motivation for establishing the fund centers on her appreciation of her undergraduate experience

at GW and her desire to help others. “I am enormously proud of my alma mater, which launched me on

a successful career as a chemist, journalist, and now CEO of the world’s largest scientific society,” she

says. “Our nation desperately needs more talented and trained scientists. I hope that my endowed fund for

undergraduate students majoring in chemistry will help, in a modest way, to meet student needs and na-

tional goals.” The department enthusiastically endorses this goal and is pleased that this new fund will be

especially helpful in enabling students to pursue research projects during the summer so they may con-

tinue the momentum and energy of the research activities initiated during the academic year.

Timely Generosity Yields Competitive Startup Funds

In the late winter, as the department was in the throes of some negotiations to recruit Dr. Susan Gillmor (See related story), we were pleas-

antly surprised by a special gift that made the negotiations much easier. As a physical chemist, Dr. Gillmor’s startup needs were a bit

higher than we had been able to manage in recent years, but we wanted to be able to present a serious offer to her. The Dean stepped up

with more resources, but also asked the Department to put up a larger share toward the package than we had been able to afford in the

past. It was at this point we learned that Dr. Thomas M. Hall had made a very generous gift of 500 shares of stock worth roughly $22,000

as discretionary funds for the benefit of the department. The timing of the gift was incredible and made it possible for us to present a

competitive offer and complete the recruitment of Dr. Gillmor.

After completing his undergraduate degree in Chemistry in 1973, Dr. Hall entered our Medical School, where he received his M.D. in

1977. Of his special gift to the department, Dr. Hall wrote, “I appreciate the educational foundation I received in the physical sciences

as a GW undergraduate. It’s a pleasure to give something back to the University, and I trust you will use my gift for a worthy cause.”

Indeed, helping our newest faculty get started with the appropriate resources is as important as any cause, and so we are most grateful

for this very generous and timely gift.

Thirtieth Anniversary Reunion Gift

As lead off gift in observance of his 30th anniversary class, alumnus Joseph M. Covey (BS ’76, Ph.D. ’82 in Pharmacology) designated

the Department of Chemistry as the beneficiary of his life insurance policy. The Gift will be used to establish the Ellen and Joseph M.

Covey Endowed Scholarship Fund to memorialize his parents, and will provide support for undergraduate chemistry majors. Starting

out as a part-time student, Joe completed his bachelor’s degree in 1976 and then went on to complete a doctorate in Pharmacology. When

he finished his degree, he joined the National Cancer Institute, where he is currently with the Developmental Therapeutics Program in

the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis. In July, Joe came by to visit the University, providing an opportunity for us to share

memories, show off many of the changes that have occurred since his graduation, and of course to thank him for his support. We wish

Joe the best and assure him that the proceeds of his gift will be used to benefit undergraduate chemistry majors in a meaningful manner.

In Memoriam

We are saddened by the passing of Sidney Collegeman (BA ’36), a loyal alumnus and supporter of the Chemistry Department. Mr.

Collegeman was a chemical engineer for the Naval Air Systems Command, specializing in fuels and lubricants. He leaves behind his

wife Esther, his children Janet and Steve, two granddaughters, and two great-grandchildren.

Dr. Madeleine ReinesJacobs


The department is delighted to welcome Professor Susan Gillmor as its newest faculty member. A Dean’s List,

honors graduate of Williams College, Dr. Gillmor was a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in the

Material Science Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Following receipt of her Ph.D. under the men-

torship of Professors Max Legally and Lloyd Smith, where she studied patterned surfaces for biological arrays, Dr.

Gillmor undertook at brief stint at Trex Enterprises in Hawaii as a scientist developing protein sensors using her

skills in surface science and imaging. She currently holds a post-doctoral appointment in the preeminent group

of Professor Paul Weiss at Penn State University, where she has added her expertise in materials science and sur-

face chemistry to a group distinguished for its program in nano-scale scanning probe microscopy. Dr. Gillmor

will now bring her broad experience to George Washington as a contributor to the Institute for Material Science

and collaborator with colleagues in the college-wide research cluster on nano-scale biomaterials. Her interests

complement those of Houston Miller (spectroscopy), Michael Wagner (materials and membranes), and David Ramaker, Akos Vertes and

Henry Teng (surfaces and imaging) of our Department, and colleagues in the Department of Biological Sciences. Dr. Gillmor’s research

on the study of extracellular matrix architecture influences on membrane structure is likely to help coalesce a growing interest across de-

partmental lines in “Imaging” at the University. Based on the quality of her presentations and her previous experience mentoring students,

she will also be a first-rate educator and another exceptional contributor to the research and teaching mission of this Department. Although

Dr. Gillmor will not officially begin her University appointment until January 2007, she has already been by for the new faculty orientation

in August and for the Departmental Retreat at Twin Lakes Virginia. It is a pleasure to welcome her to the department.

New Faculty

Special Congratulations

It is with great pride that we report that Dr. Phyllis Brown (BS’44) will receive the 2006 EAS Award for achievements in Separa-

tion Science. A Professor Emerita at the University of Rhode Island, Dr. Brown was cited for her pioneering work on HPLC and

CE separations particularly with respect to biomedical applications. A prolific author, she recognized early on the potential of re-

verse phase chromatography in biomedical work, becoming an authority on the analysis of purines and pyrimidines by RPLC and

CE. She has authored over 200 articles, written or cowritten four books, and coedited some 30 volumes of Advances in Chromatog-

raphy, all the while serving on the editorial boards of Analytical Chemistry, J. of Chromatography and four others.

In reviewing materials for this edition of the Newsletter we chanced upon a note from Dr. Brown published in the 1986 edition. In

it we learned that she had received an award for Excellence in Research from the University and had been selected as a plenary

speaker at the 5th American-Eastern European Symposium on Chromatography. That note was a portent perhaps of other awards to

come for this highly accomplished alumna of the department. At this time we join with others in congratulating her for all of her

accomplishments.

Commencement 2006, Nelu Marginiean andProf. Vertes

ARCS Scholar Dan De Lill with Prof. Cahill

Prof. Gillmor


The Cahill group enters its seventh year at GW

with a strong line up of graduate students, under-

graduate students and for the first time- a post-

doctoral researcher. DOE funding has provided

for the hire of Dr. Nebebech (Neely) Belai, a

2004 PhD from Georgetown University. Her ex-

pertise in synthesis has made her a very welcome

addition to our efforts to explore rare oxidation

states of uranium in aqueous solution. We also

welcome undergraduate Kate Ziegelgruber from DePauw Univer-

sity in Greencastle, Indiana. Kate is spending a full semester in our

laboratory as a Science Research Fellow and has already made a

few interesting compounds. NSF was kind enough to provide sup-

plemental funding for Kate’s living expenses while in DC and thus

let her concentrate on research full-time.

Veteran graduate students Mark Frisch, Daniel de Lill and Karah

Knope have each been making significant progress. Mark got his

second Dalton paper published (“Synthesis, Structure, and Fluo-

rescent Studies of Novel Uranium Coordination Polymers in the

Pyridinedicarboxylic Acid System”), Dan was selected as an ARCS

Scholar (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists), for the sec-

ond year in a row- a prestigious title that comes with $15,000 to-

wards tuition. Karah received a full tuition scholarship to attend the

America Crystallographic Association’s Summer School in

Small Molecule Crystallography. She brought her skills

back to the department and has been solving crystal struc-

tures at a record pace. Further, Karah earned a Sigma Xi

Grant in Aid of Research (aka GIAR) from the annual na-

tional competition and now has funding to travel to national

facilities for synchrotron x-ray work. Noel Gunning (MS

2005) has moved on to a PhD program at the University of

Oregon. Dan Bozzuto (BS 2006) is teaching high school

biology (gasp) at a private school here in the District and has plans

for graduate school in chemistry for Fall 2007.

Other exciting news includes the promotion of Professor Cahill

(with tenure) to Associate Professor. A sigh of relief was heard

throughout the DC area with the news that he’ll be staying put and

continuing his research here at GW. Two high-profile publications

are also noted: Cahill and Borkowski have written a review chap-

ter for “The Structural Chemistry of the Actinides” to be published

this fall by Elevier, and de Lill and Cahill have written a chapter for

“Progress in Inorganic Chemistry” entitled, Lanthanide Coordina-

tion Polymers: A Structural Survey.” We look forward to the com-

ing year and are excited about some great projects that are

underway and/or planned for new students.

During this past academic year, the Miller group added

two graduate students, but lost postdoctoral scientist

Brendan McAndrew to the Army Research Labora-

tory/Aberdeen Proving Ground (where he now works

with Reed Skaggs, GW Ph.D. 1997). Returning grad-

uate students Maria Puccio and Eric Fallows were

joined by Jennifer Herdman, who came to us from

St. Mary’s College (Indiana), and Esra Yonel who

joined us after doing graduate work in chemical engi-

neering at Lehigh University. In her first year, Jen

worked on theoretical studies of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon

agglomeration using both electronic structural calculations and mo-

lecular dynamics simulations. A complimentary experimental pro-

gram in which fame gases will be sampled, and rapidly frozen in an

inert matrix of solid argon is beginning to take shape. Esra will be

working in the field of biophotonics. Her first project has been ex-

ploring the use of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)

with gold nanoparticles to detect dipicolinic acid (DPA) thought to

be a chemical marker for anthrax spores.

Maria has been supported by the National Science Foundation in an

ongoing project aimed at understanding the interaction of chem-

istry and fluid mechanics in acoustically-forced, flickering flames.

A manuscript, co-written with our colleagues from Yale University,

describes the agreement between concentration profiles from ex-

perimental data and direct numerical simulation of flames and will

appear in the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute. A second

manuscript with the same authors will be submitted for publication

in Fall 2006 that focuses on experimental diagnostics for heat re-

lease based on formaldehyde detection.

Eric spent most of the last year testing our “smart” fire

sensor that simultaneously detects the concentrations

for carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, acetylene,

and carbon dioxide at various test facilities at the

Building and Fire Research Laboratory of the National

Institute of Standards and Technology. The sensor is

based on cw laser cavity ring down spectroscopy.

Although never likely to displace residential CO and

smoke detectors, technology such as this would be

valuable for the protection of capital in larger commercial and in-

dustrial facilities. This approach to fire detection will form the basis

for continuation of our NASA funded work that aims to deploy a

“brassboard” optical fire sensor for use in human space flight. In re-

lated work, Miller coauthored a paper describing the cavity-en-

hanced absorption of formaldehyde using a novel, mid infrared,

Interband Cascade laser [Applied Physics B].

Finally, two manuscripts were published describing the application

of (SERS) using gold nanoparticle aggregates to the detection of

bacteriophage binding events [Proceedings of the National Acad-emy of Sciences] and to the (first) in vivo detection of tumors [An-alytical Chemistry]. Both of these articles were coauthored by

Glauco Souza (Ph.D., 2003). The second article is also authored by

Carly Levin (B.S. 2003).

Further details can be found on the internet at

http://home.gwu.edu/~houston.

Prof. Cahill

Cahill Research Group

Miller Research Group

Prof. Miller


Professor Montaser and his group con-

tinued their research program, address-

ing, from theory to practice, novel

plasma sources and sample introduction

devices for optical emission and mass

spectrometry. Department of Energy and

several industrial firms sponsor this re-

search. The primary aim is to ultimately

develop measurement technologies that

will, compared to the existing technol-

ogy, offer better selectivity, sensitivity, precision, reliability, and

ease of operation; allow chemical analysis at reduced cost with less

sample consumption and minimal waste generation; diminish in-

strument size and cost; and simplify analytical measurements. The

research team published 6 manuscripts, including a Cover Page ar-

ticle in the special issue of the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spec-

trometry (JAAS), and presented 7 papers at national and

international meetings, including 3 invited lectures at major confer-

ences. Professor Montaser also organized and chaired a symposium

on Advances in Sample Introduction at the Federation of Analyti-

cal Chemistry and Spectroscopy Society (FACSS) conference. The

U.S. patent application on d-DIHEN was also granted in 2006.

These contributions are due to the selfless efforts of B.W. Acon, R.

Brennan, M. Farmand, J. M. Gray, K. Jorabchi, K. Kahen, J. A.

Levine, S. E. O’Brien, C. M. Nechita, W. F. Rutkowski, S. Samii,

M. Taghioskoui, and C. S. Westphal.

Members of the research team made progress and shined in their re-

search and in the scientific community.

Kaveh Jorabchi received this year the prestigious Swiss based D.

N. Chorafas Prize, a $4,000 international prize for exceptional

achievements in research, in addition to the 2005 American Chem-

ical Society - Division of Analytical Chemistry Graduate Fellow-

ship and the 2005 Society for Applied Spectroscopy Graduate

Student Award. The research by Kaveh, Ryan Brennan, and

Jonathan Levine on interferometric droplet imaging in plasmas

led to the selection of the paper by the Editors as the Cover Page ar-

ticle in JAAS in 2006, the fourth Cover Page article by Professor

Montaser’s group since 1998. Ryan Brennan was also recognized

by three awards; 1) the 2006 Society for Applied Spectroscopy Best

Student Poster Award at FACSS; 2) 2006 Sigma Xi Student Re-

search Award, and 3) FACSS Graduate Student Travel Scholarship.

Mazdak Taghioskoui received travel support for his presentation

at FACSS. Jessica Gray received the Benjamin Van Evera Me-

morial Prize for Best Graduate Teaching Assistant.

Four members have graduated and started new careers. Kaveh

Jorabchi received his Ph.D. in June 2006 and began postdoctoral re-

search with Professor Lloyd M. Smith at the University of Wiscon-

sin-Madison. Jessica Gray and Cristina Nechita received their MS

degrees. Jessica is employed by the Scientific Services Division,

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of Treasury Depart-

ment. Cristina works at the Northern Virginia Community College

where she teaches and manages chemistry labs. Undergraduate re-

search scholar Jonathan Levine received his BS degree, and started

a Ph.D. program in biochemistry and molecular biology at the

University of Maryland, Baltimore. They will be missed by all of

us, and we wish them the best.

We are grateful to former members of the group, who despite their

departure from GW, still contributed to the publication of several

manuscripts as the result of joint research. Dr. Billy W. Acon fin-

ished his postdoc at the FBI, and accepted a permanent position as

a physical scientist with US Customs at the Targeting Center in VA.

Dr. Craig Benson is now employed at NASA Goddard Space Flight

Center after a postdoc experience at NRL. Congratulations to Dr.

John McLean and Dr. Mary Widmark Tungol (now Dr. Mary W.

Carrabba) for accepting tenure track assistant professorships at the

Vanderbilt University and Southern Oregon University, respec-

tively, effective August 2006. Finally, we congratulate Dr. Craig

and Mrs. Jenny Westphal for the birth of their baby boy Charles

Robert, who is now 7 months old.

Joan Hilderbrandt continues as the Coordinator of the laboratory courses for Honors Chemistry (Honors

33/34), Contemporary Science (Chem. 3/4) and General Chemistry (Chem. 11/12.) These laboratories take

place in Corcoran 402 and in Acheson Hall on the Mount Vernon Campus. (Approximately 120 students per

semester now complete the laboratory requirement at MVC. The enrollment on the Foggy Bottom Campus is

close to 1100.) Professor Hilderbrandt remains a lecturer in the Chemistry 11 and Chemistry 12 series. She is

the Departmental Advisor for the Graduating Class of 2009. Joan will continue as the advisor for the 7 year

BA/MD program. Professor Hilderbrandt is also part of the newly formed nine-member Undergraduate Stud-

ies Committee of the Columbian College. In reflection, Professor Hilderbrandt notes “that when she began as

the Coordinator for the introductory laboratories in 1990 the combined total for the Fall 1990 Semester was

697 students. The current registration, Fall 2006, for just Chemistry 3 is 720 students. The growth of the intro-

ductory laboratory programs in chemistry has been a tremendous challenge!”

Montaser Research Group

Professor Joan Hilderbrandt

Prof. Hilderbrandt

Prof. Montaser


Prof. Ramaker and his group continued

work this year on the utilization of x-ray ab-

sorption spectra (XAS) to study operating

fuel cells. This year was marked by two fac-

tors:

1) Frances Scott completed her disserta-

tion on the application of X-ray Absorption

Spectroscopy (XAS) to study CO poisoning

of the anode in operating fuel cells in both

methanol and in hydrogen reformate. Badri

Shyam, a new graduate student in the group will be working on

the interpretation of XAS data taken both in heterogeneous cat-

alysts and from operating full cells. Badri has already had two

trips to the synchrotron at Brookhaven National Lab to take data

on RhS2, a possible non-Pt fuel cell catalyst showing some

promise.

2) Prof. D.C. Koningsberger from the University of Utrecht, NL a

long time collaborator, spent nearly 2 months working at GW

writing papers and working on data interpretation. This work

continues along with his other collaborators at NRL and North-

eastern University. This year Prof. Ramaker and his group pub-

lished 4 papers, and gave 4 presentations at conferences such

as at the North American Catalysis Society meeting in Philadel-

phia and the ECS meeting in Denver. Graduate student, Danny

Gatewood, and postdoc, Denis Areshkin, continue in his

group, the latter funded by an NRL contract.

Since this year marks the 25th anniversary of this newsletter, Prof.

Ramaker gives some personal reflections on the changes over the

years to the Department, which he has witnessed in his 30 years at

GW. He lists the following points:

a) The dramatic growth in graduate student enrollments from

around 5 students to about 30.

With a graduate enrollment of 30 students, around 6 per year

graduate (this year there were 8), thus faculty spend a lot

more time reading dissertations and attending the oral exams

and defenses of graduate students.

b) The dramatic growth in outside funding in the Department,

with currently all faculty being funded. 25 years ago, he re-

calls only one faculty member was funded. However, the

number of tenure slots still stands at 13, and currently we

have 2 vacancies. Research lab space has grown within Cor-

coran Hall, by taking over some lecture space and class-

rooms, and converting still other space to research labs.

c) The dramatic growth in undergraduate chemistry enrollments

from 2,252 in 1996 to 2,829 in 2006. However, the amount

of lab space for freshmen and sophomore chemistry labs has

not grown by one square foot. Chemistry 3/4, 11/12, and

153/154 are still taught in the exact same fourth floor labs,

although they were upgraded approximately 20 years ago.

Labs sections are now held from early morning into the late

evenings to handle the load.

d) The long range stability exhibited by the Department Chairs

over these 25 years, with Prof. Perros serving 7 years, Ra-

maker - 8 years, and King - now at 10 years, in spite of the

exponential growth in complexity of this task over the years.

This can be compared with 7 different deans in CSAS dur-

ing this same time period.

e) Finally Prof. Ramaker notes that the students, although sup-

posedly representing a higher cross section on the SAT na-

tional percentile scale, still struggle with the math in

Chemistry, but remain a joy to teach and interact with.

Thus much has changed, but much has not.

Ramaker Research Group

[First row, left to right] Prof. Akos Vertes, Prof. Martín Zysmilich,Prof. Joan Hilderbrandt, Prof. Akbar Montaser and Prof. VladSadtchenko [second row, left to right] Prof. Chris Cahill, Prof.Michael Wagner, and Prof. Houston Miller

Prof. Ramaker


Over the past five years, the Sadtchenko group has in-

vested an outstanding effort in the development of

unique experimental techniques for studying phase

transitions, molecular transport and reaction in volatile

condensed phases. Using our novel approach, termed

Fast Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy –Ultrafast Mi-

crocalorimetry, we have been able to resolve several

long-standing controversies in the field of condensed

phase aqueous chemistry. For example, our most re-

cent article published in the Journal of Chemical

Physics, describes the first ever ultrafast mi-

crocalorimetry study of the thermal properties of Amorphous Solid

Water in a temperature range which was thought to be inaccessible

with current analytical techniques, called “No Man’s Land.” The re-

sults of these experiments provide fundamental insights into molec-

ular structure and dynamic properties of water, which are still not

well understood.

Taking advantage of the unique capabilities offered by

our Fast Thermal Desorption method, we were also

able to conduct the first ever studies of vaporization

kinetics of single crystal ice at temperatures near its

bulk melting point. Very recently, we demonstrated

that this technique is also capable of studying reaction

in polycrystalline ice films. Our measurements of the

isotopic exchange kinetics between D2O and H2O in

thin polycrystalline ice provided a wealth of informa-

tion on the properties of water confined at the grain

boundaries at temperatures near ambient. The results of

these studies were presented by Stephanie McCartney, Haiping

Lu, and Prof. Sadtchenko at several scholarly meetings, including

the Gordon Research Conference, the Annual Meeting of the Geo-

logical Association of America, and the 11th Conference on the

Physics and Chemistry of Ice. Our conclusions were received with

great enthusiasm by diverse members of the scientific community.

This year has been a transition period for our group,

a time when we were transformed from GEO-

chemists to geoCHEMISTS. This is not to say we

suffered the pain of shedding; rather the opposite,

we grew and thrived happily. Several events can

be cited to indicate our well-being. First of all, we

successfully renewed our DOE project and ex-

tended the research funding for another 3 years.

Secondly, we established a strong and productive

collaboration with scientists at Nanjing University,

China, supported by a grant from the Chinese Na-

tional Natural Science Foundation. And thirdly we acquired a

Scanning Electron Microscope from the Smithsonian Institution

and expanded our instrumentation capability. Most importantly,

thanks to the help and encouragement of chemistry colleagues, we

felt right at home in the chemistry department and never had the

feelings of being a foster child.

The Teng group is also growing in size. When we joined Chem-

istry, we had two PhD students, Chunfang Fan (Congratulations to

him for the recent GCA paper!) and Eli Pauli (Congratulations to

her for getting a student grant from NASA this year!). Since then,

we have taken on two more students, Dawn Hawkinson (MS) and

Jessica Stolee (undergraduate). Our research continuously focuses

on mineral surface chemistry with two directions: one is

the thermodynamics and kinetics of surface processes

during crystallization and dissolution, the other is inter-

actions of bio-molecules with minerals. We have re-

cently begun to investigate mineralization process

mediated by microorganisms such as bacteria. We pub-

lished four papers in three different journals, contributed

a book chapter to the Water Encyclopedia, and delivered

a number of lectures (including three invited ones) in

conferences and other research universities/institutions.

On the teaching front, Prof. Teng is still heavily involved in the

courses listed under the Geology program. However, geochemistry

related courses are now cross-listed under both geology and chem-

istry. In the Spring of 2006, for the first time in the recent history

of GW, the ‘Aqueous Geochemistry’ class had a roster of half

chemistry and half geology majors.

In addition to research and teaching, we also hosted a visiting sci-

entist from China who spent 9 months with us on campus doing re-

search using Atomic Force Microscopy. Her visit was supported by

Prof. Teng’s NSF grant and is part of our collaboration with Chinese

scientists.

Sadtchenko Research Group

Prof. Sadtchenko

Teng Research Group

Prof. Teng


It was easy to get used to our new laboratory on the fourth floor of

Corcoran Hall. Conditioned and regular power, cooling water and

compressed air, brand new air handling and furniture enable us to

focus on scholarship and research at a new level. With state-of-the-

art equipment, including four mass spectrometers, at the four exper-

imental stations the conditions are ideal to advance our three

projects at full speed. Fundamental studies of laser desorption ion-

ization from nanostructures, funded by the Department of Energy,

inquiries into forced and natural pulsation of electrosprays, sup-

ported by the National Science Foundation and the development of

a one-of-a-kind protein microscope, sponsored by the W. M. Keck

Foundation are the research areas pursued in the group.

Even the best environment, however, cannot lead to scientific ad-

vances without talented and focused students. At six graduate stu-

dents, two undergraduates and two postdoctoral scientists the group

is fully staffed. This past year was especially eventful in terms of

changes in group membership. Three of the senior graduate stu-

dents completed and defended their dissertations. In his thesis en-

titled “Internal Energy Transfer in Soft Laser

Desorption/Ionization: MALDI and Silicon Nanostructures”

Guanghong Luo described how the experimental parameters in

these ionization methods affect the produced spectra. Now Dr. Luo

works at Western Digital Corporation as a senior scientist in re-

search and development. His exceptional motivation, persistence

and reliability will serve him and his employers well in any future

position he takes.

Dr. Ioan (Nelu) Marginean, now employed at the Pacific North-

west National Laboratory, was a key member of the electrospray

project in the Vertes Lab. His dissertation entitled “From Chaotic

Cone Pulsation to Ion Evaporation in Electrosprays” stands as one

of the most insightful dissertations ever written in the group. It has

also resulted in international recognition at various meetings and

high profile publications, including most recently a paper in the

prestigious Physical Review Letters. Nelu’s future research as a

postdoctoral research scientist at PNNL with Prof. Richard Smith,

a leader in the field of mass spectrometry, focuses on how to make

electrospray ion sources more stable.

During his career in the group, Yong Chen distinguished himself as

a superb experimentalist. He not only built one of our mass spec-

trometers from scratch but also came up with the idea of using sil-

icon microcolumn arrays as laser desorption substrates. These

surfaces gave us new insight into how nanostructures produce ions

under laser irradiation. They also turned out to exhibit such unique

properties that the University decided to protect the intellectual

property and filed a provisional patent application. Yong’s disser-

tation entitled “Laser Desorption Ionization of Large Molecules:

From Matrix-Assisted to Matrix-Free” describes how these and

other nanostructured surfaces can produce ions from large biomol-

ecules. Dr. Chen’s current employer is the Novartis Research Insti-

tute in San Diego, CA, where as a postdoctoral scientist he works

on the biomedical applications of mass spectrometry.

With three senior students leaving the projects, new group members

were urgently needed. Fortunately student interest in these projects

is high. Last year Peter Nemes joined the group and quickly took

over the helm from Nelu on the electrospray project. Bindesh

Shrestha joined the protein microscope project to work with the

new and very capable postdoctoral scientist Dr. Yue Li in this ex-

citing endeavor. More recently, Bennett Walker and in a half time

assignment Mazdak Taghioskoui started to work on the laser des-

orption project. Dr. Zhaoyang

Chen, a computational physicist,

provides new insight to both the

protein microscope and the electro-

spray projects.

The last year also brought exciting

changes in the personal lives of

some of us. Chief among them was

the marriage of two group members,

Lida Parvin and Ioan Marginean.

They tied the knot in a beautiful

outdoor ceremony shortly before

their departure to Washington State.

We wish them well in what surely promises to be a thriving life to-

gether.

The multiple graduations in the group also resulted in a flurry of

publications. During this one year period we published nine peer re-

viewed research articles in leading journals (Analytical Chemistry,

Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Physical Chemistry and Phys-

ical Review Letters) and Prof. Vertes completed a chapter for the

book entitled Laser Ablation and its Applications. He also deliv-

ered invited talks at the US Naval Research Laboratory, the Depart-

ment of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the University of Delaware,

the 2006 DOE/BES Analysis Program Contractors’ Meeting, the

231-st American Chemical Society National Meeting and the 2005

Conference on Laser Ablation in Banff, Canada. Other members of

the group also gave numerous talks and poster presentations at na-

tional and international meetings. Additional information on the

group is available at our redesigned web site:

http://www.gwu.edu/~vertes.

Fully operational new laboratory is home to six graduatestudents, two undergraduates and two postdocs.

Lida and Nelu tied the knot.

Vertes Research Group


This past year has been a very good one for our

group and former group members. Rob Doe com-

pleted his Ph.D. last summer and has moved on to

MIT as a postdoctoral researcher in Gerd Ceder’s

group. He will be studying computational model-

ing of advanced material, a departure from his doc-

toral studies that should make him an extremely

well rounded scientist. Amal Bassa decided that

she would rather spend more quality time with her

first child and left GW with a M.S. degree. Michael Erikson, a

postdoctoral researcher who worked on lithium ion battery project,

accepted a permanent position at Alza Corporation and has moved

out to the beautiful bay area in California. Three graduate students,

Olivera Zivkovic, Cliff Cook and Chao (Jerry) Yan continued

their studies here, and another, Jonathan Cox has joined the group.

Olivera should finish her Ph.D. research this year, studying ferro-

electric nanorods and nanocrystalline phosphors for field effect dis-

play technology, potentially a “next generation” replacement for

LCD displays. Cliff is developing membranes that will enable the

use of lithium/water batteries. His first cells made with our mem-

branes are running well, raising our hopes that we will succeed in

developing the first viable lithium/water battery. Jerry is develop-

ing ways to coat nanoparticles to make them air stable and biocom-

patible, hopefully enabling much better contrast in MRI images so

that, for instance, tumors can be located at much earlier stages.

Jonathan has just started his research and will be continuing the Li-

ion battery research that Rob started, investigating the reasons why

fullerene soot can so dramatically extend the life of the

batteries, a process for which we have applied for patents.

I’m very pleased to report that my former students are

also doing very well. Jennifer Nelson, my first Ph.D. stu-

dent, left her postdoctoral position at Penn State for a per-

manent position at Duracell in Boston. Kim Mooney

moved on from her postdoctoral position at the FBI for a

permanent position as a Forensic Chemist at the US Army

Criminal Investigation Laboratory in Atlanta. Kim also became the

proud mother of a healthy baby boy, Caleb! She has had quite a

year. Louie Rendek, is still enjoying sunny Florida working for the

Harris Corporation and raising his son, Aedan, who recently passed

his first birthday. Susie Keeton, left CMS Field Products for a po-

sition as a process/business analysts for a health informatics com-

pany (MedMined) and enjoyed a second year of motherhood.

Bhoomi Bhrambratt is now a gynocologist, and judging from her

mood when she dropped by to say “hi” recently, she is very happy.

Khalid Hanif left his postdoctoral position at the Naval Research

Labs for a permanent position at Ventana Medical Systems in sunny

Arizona. I hope I’m not letting the “cat out of the bag”, but Khalid

recently informed me that he has found the love of his life and will

marry in December. Congratulations! Oh, and on a more personal

note, I married, and my wife and I had our first child, Richard James

Wagner, who is healthy and growing bigger every day!

In August 2000, Prof. Martin G. Zysmilich joined

the Chemistry Faculty at The George Washington

University as an Assistant Professor. His main re-

sponsibilities include teaching two of the most

highly populated courses at GW, Contemporary

Science for Non-Science Majors (CHEM003 and

CHEM004). The steady improvement of these two

courses, with the inclusion of science topics that

make headlines in some of the most respected news-

papers and publications in the world, as well as the

use of state-of-the-art classroom technology, have kept CHEM003

and CHEM004 among the most popular courses at GW, with enroll-

ments surpassing 700 students per semester. Professor Zysmilich

is also a member of the Honors Program, teaching the highly

praised Honors General Chemistry courses, HONR033 and

HONR034, and has recently been appointed to the Honors Science

Pro-Seminar Development Team.

In recognition for his achievements, he has received the student-

nominated 2002 Robert W. Kenny Prize for outstanding teaching

innovation, creativity, and originality in teaching an introductory

course, as well as a Bender Teaching Award for the year 2003. In

2005, he was The George Washington University Nom-

inee for the U.S. Professors of the Year Award, offered

by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of

Teaching.

In March 2006, Professor Zysmilich presented an invited

talk “Innovations in Contemporary Science for Non-

Science Majors” at the 231st American Chemical Soci-

ety (ACS) Meeting, in Atlanta, GA. The presentation

focused on the incorporation of different kinds of class-

room technologies in large lecture courses.

He has been advising Chemistry majors since 2001, and joined the

freshman advising team in 2004 by teaching a Proseminar for

Scholarship and Advising (CCAS001), and by participating as a

Faculty Advisor in the 2005 Colonial Inauguration.

Professor Zysmilich holds an appointment to the 2006 Chemistry

in Context Examination Committee of the ACS Division of Chem-

ical Education.

Wagner Research Group

Professor Martin G. Zysmilich

Prof. Zysmilich

Prof. Wagner


Amal Bassa

MS, Summer 2006

Yong Chen

PhD, Summer 2006

Robert Doe

PhD, Summer 2006

Kaveh Jorabchi

PhD, Summer 2006

Kunhao Li

PhD, Spring 2006

Guanghong Luo

PhD, Summer 2006

Ioan Marginean

PhD, Summer 2006

Cristina Nechita

MS, Fall 2005

Frances Scott

PhD, Summer 2006

Hanhui Xu

MS, Fall 2005

Daniel Bozzuto

Teaching high school biology for 1 year before going to graduate

school in Chemistry.

Kelly Brown

Working at The Bode Technology Group Forensic DNA Identifi-

cation Laboratory in Springfield, VA.

Deepak Chander

Applying to medical school.

Kristen DeDominicis

Working as a Formulations Technician at Gene Logic in Gaithers-

burg, MD. Applying for medical school in 2008.

Lauren Gassman

Applying to the Arlington County police department before grad-

uate study in forensic psychology.

Lauren Haar

Working at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in

Rockville, MD.

Heather Jameson

Doing research in neuroscience at the GW Medical Center with

Dr. David Mendelowitz, Department of Pharmacology and Physi-

ology.

Jay Johnson

No information at this time.

Julia Lee

Working as a research assistant for the Emergency Medical and

Trauma Center at the Children's National Medical Center.

Jonathan Levine

Ph.D. program in biochemistry and molecular biology at the

University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Ashley-Brooke Lynch


Ryan McCormick


Mahdee Monam

Employment with the State Department in Iraq.

Sunjeet Sidhu

Attending medical school, which is the second half of his 7 year

BA/MD program.

Mill Tran


Timothy Tran


Katherine Weiberth


Graduation 2006

Undergraduate Students

Graduate Students

Dr. Kaveh Jorabchi and Prof. Akbar Montaser


Chemistry Department

Prizes and Awards 2006

Alpha Chi Sigma

Awarded to the graduating senior with the highest aca-

demic record in chemistry courses (with at least 16

hours at GW). Sunjeet Sidhu

American Institute of Chemists

Awarded to the graduating senior majoring in chemistry,

who excels in scholarship, integrity and leadership. Un-

dergraduate: Daniel James Bozzuto, Graduate: Ioan

Marginean

A. D. Britt Memorial Scholarship

Awarded to one or more outstanding junior or senior un-

dergraduate majors to carry out research in the summer.

Megan Janelle

Chemical Society of Washington Prize

Awarded to the outstanding junior majoring in chem-

istry. Alexander Lee Matz

Byrne Thurtell Burns Memorial Prize

Awarded to the graduating chemistry major who has

show the greatest proficiency in organic chemistry as

demonstrated by a written examination.

Daniel James Bozzuto

William E. Fitch Prize

Awarded to the graduating chemistry major with the best

written comprehensive examination in chemistry.

Deepak Prabhat Chander

Chemical Rubber Company Freshman Chemistry

Achievement Award

Awarded to one or more freshmen who have achieved

the highest records in their respective sections of Intro-

ductory Chemistry. Sible Antony, Jennifer Hanson,

Joseph Lombardi and Sonia Samtani

Benjamin D. Van Evera Memorial Prize

Awarded to the most effective Graduate Teaching As-

sistants in Chemistry. Nausheena Baig, Jessica Gray,

and Frances Scott

Dan Bozzuto, recipient of Byrne ThurtellBurns Memorial Prize, and Prof. Akos Vertes

May 2006 Commencement[first row, left to right] Jay Johnson, HeatherJameson, Lauren Haar, Julia Lee, and KristenDeDominicis [second row, left to right] JonathanLevine, Kelly Brown, Deepak Chander, Katherine Weiberth and Dan Bozzuto


Alumni News

Billy Acon, Ph.D. ’04, fin-

ished his post-doc at the FBI,

and he recently accepted a

permanent position with the

U.S. Customs Targeting

Center in VA. He says the work is “very in-

teresting, as it combines the technical as-

pects of science for CBRNE initiatives

within the framework of security and trade

compliance issues.”

Craig Benson, Ph.D. ’02, reports that his

postdoc at NRL has been completed and

that he was recently hired by the Goddard

Earth Sciences and Technology Center, a

cooperative agreement between NASA

Goddard Space Flight Center and Univer-

sity of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is

currently based at NASA GSFC, working in

the field of global climate modeling with a

large team of scientists. Craig sends his

best to everyone.

Kelly Brown, B.S. ‘06, wrote to let us

know that after a bit of a wait, she received

word that she was accepted at VCU for their

Masters of Forensic Science program.

Heather Canavan, PhD ‘02,

one of Dr. Ramaker’s stu-

dents, was a postdoc at

University of Washington

under Dave Castner and

Buddy Ratner. Since ‘05, Heather has been

an assistant professor at The University of

New Mexico, Albuquerque. She is involved

in a new research aspect in the use of ‘smart

polymers’ as a novel cell culture substrate

to study cell/surface interactions. An image

of her work was on the cover of Langmuir

in March 2005.

Mary Corrabba, Ph.D. ’95, has accepted a

position at Southern Oregon University

starting in September. She expects this to

be a big change from anything she has done

before, particularly the first year when she

will be filling in for an electrochemist who

is going on sabbatical. After that, she as-

sumes things will get easier and she will be

able to spend more time on forensics with

the Fish and Wildlife Forensic Lab. Mary

keeps thinking of Bill Schmidt and his drop-

ping the mercury electrode!

Alan Abood Cohen, B.A. ‘72, completed

GW School of Medicine ‘75, GW Depart-

ment of Medicine, Internship Radiology

Residency, ‘76-‘79, Chief Resident, ‘79,

and Medical Practice, ‘79 to present.

Stuart Cohen, PhD ‘84, who was a student

of Dr. Filipescu & Dr. Lou Cohen, NIH, left

the EPA in 1986 to work for Biospherics. In

1991, he started his own firm, Environmen-

tal & Turf Services, Inc., which is a small

high tech firm that specializes in risk assess-

ments, risk management, and water quality

monitoring. Stuart is remarried and he and

his wife have a total of 7 children. He’s an

avid baseball player and lives in Silver

Spring, MD.

Claire L. (Pierozak) Cullen, B.S. ‘74, one

of Dr. Naeser’s students, received her DMD

at University of Medicine & Dentistry of

New Jersey in ‘77. She practiced and taught

physical therapy in Boston at Tufts Univer-

sity (‘79-‘81), was full-time faculty at

University of Detroit School of Dentistry

(‘81-‘90), and taught at University of

Western Australia in Perth (‘90). Currently,

Claire works full-time at a private practice

in Novi, Michigan. She is married to Tim

Cullen (Geology, ‘73) and her daughter,

Abbey, age 24, is starting a Ph.D. program

at Loyola University, Chicago in History.

Anitra P. Denson, B.A. ‘97, graduated

from GW Medical School in 2000. Anita

completed a pediatric residency in 2003 at

Miami Children’s Hospital and just finished

the clinical portion of her fellowship to spe-

cialize in Pediatric Infectious Disease at

Children’s National Medical Center in DC.

Currently she works at Children’s in the In-

fection Control Department.

We hear that Lala Mathers Dunbar (B.S.

’54, M.S. ’69, Ph.D. ’72) was the ER Direc-

tor of Charity Hospital (A casualty of hur-

ricane Katrina) in New Orleans. Her father

received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry

from GW with Dr. Samual Wrenn as a men-

tor. He returned to his birthplace,

Mathersville, Mississippi, to develop a wine

producing facility which regrettably suf-

fered substantial damage in Katrina.

Marsha Caganap Galicia,

M.S. ‘01, who was a student

of Dr. Vertes, transferred to

California (Bay Area) in Oc-

tober for work. Previously,

Marsha worked for the Alcohol and

Tobacco, Tax and Trade Bureau in the Trea-

sury Department for a little over a year in

Beltsville, MD.

Lauren Gassman, B.S. ‘06, reported that

she’s taking a year off before earning a mas-

ter’s in forensic psychology/counseling.

Lauren would like to pursue a career in

criminal investigation after getting her mas-

ters, but is also considering becoming a high

school science/math teacher.

Jennifer Gauntt, M.S. ’00,

was accepted at Georgetown

University Medical School,

to which she matriculated

in August. Best of luck,

Jennifer.

Matthew Gummerson, B.S. ‘01, graduated

from GW School of Medicine in ‘05. The

year following, he completed a 1 year in-

ternship in general surgery in San Antonio.

Matt just began a 3 year residency in anes-

thesiology for the US Air Force. He is cur-

rently an Air Force captain and will be an

attending anesthesiologist for the USAF

after his residency.

Susan Heald, B.A. ‘85, completed her

graduate degree at the University of

Delaware/Winterthur Museum in art con-

servation. She is a Senior Textile Conserva-

tor at the National Museum of the American

Indian and has worked for NMAI for the

past 12 years. Her favorite part of her job

is mentoring her department’s interns and

post-graduate fellows. Previous to her time

there, she worked for the Minnesota Histor-

ical Society. Susan is married and has 2

children (4 and 7).

Stephanie Holt, B.S. ’76, and her son Seth

visited campus in Sept 2005 as part of the

fall marathon of pre-college campus visits.

It was a delight to show off the labs to

Stephanie and talk about her time as a chem

major.

Blake Horridge, B.S. ‘05, is a 2nd year

Masters of Divinity student at the American

Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley,

CA. He is also an active member of the

Center for Theology and the Natural

Sciences.

Michael Hudson, B.S. ‘99, recently gradu-

12


ated with a PhD from the University of

Washington and is currently searching for

positions at a biotech/pharmaceutical firm

in the Puget Sound area. Michael’s disserta-

tion was on the NMR characterization of

beta hairpin and sheet peptides. As an un-

dergrad he did his research with Dr. Tarkka

on rigid rod polymers.

Malika Jeffries-El, Ph.D.

’01, accepted an appointment

as an Assistant Professor at

Iowa State.

Helen Jeppson (BS’46)

wrote in to say that she is finally on our

mailing list! We look forward to a continu-

ing dialog.

Kaveh Jorabchi, Ph.D. ’06, is now a Re-

search Associate in the Department of

Chemistry at University of Wisconsin-

Madison.

Meanwhile, Kaveh Kahen, Ph.D. ’05, ex-

pressed the hope that things are going well

south of the border! He is finally getting set-

tled in Toronto. He writes that “it is a very

nice city and everything is OK, except that

I am still living in a hotel room (a nice one,

though!). Nevertheless, Sciex has been

quite helpful in the relocation process. I

hope that I can attend the Winter Confer-

ence and see GW colleagues there.”

Preethy Kolinjivadi, B.S.

‘00, who resides in Silver

Spring, MD, is currently

working on an NIH-funded

research study on prevention

of diabetes in middle school children and is

completing a 2nd MS in epidemiology at

GW. Preethy has received an MHS in inter-

national health from Johns Hopkins Univer-

sity.

This fall is one of new beginnings for Teira

(Zajac) LaBrie, B.S. ‘05, which includes

her marriage to Joseph LaBrie in August as

well as beginning to teach chemistry and

physics at Kent County High School in

Worton, MD. Teira is also working towards

her Standard Certification for teaching

through the Resident Teacher program at

Chesapeake College.

Bryan Laliberte, B.S. ‘02, received his

M.S. in Forensic Science from GW in ‘03

and is currently working on his M.D. at

Medical School at Virginia Commonwealth

University in Richmond, VA (expected ‘07).

He is a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army’s

Medical Service Corp. and will be pro-

moted to Captain after graduating in May.

He is married to Alana (Conors) Laliberte,

who is also a GW grad (B.A. psych/M.A.

art therapy) and they have a puppy. Bryan

hopes to become an otolaryngologist.

Congratulations go to Carly

Levin, B.S. ’03, who was

married this fall in Cleveland

to Sebastin. Emily Barter,

B.S. ‘03, served as the Maid

of Honor. Carly is a doctoral student with

Naomi Hallis at Rice.

Kira Kalvik Lueders, B.S. ’62, M.S. ’65,

wrote that she very much enjoyed reading

the story about Dr. Naeser in the fall 2005

issue of the Chemistry Department

Newsletter. “I’m glad he had such a long

life. His entertaining lectures to chemistry

freshman class are still vivid even though I

experienced them 47 years ago. Other mem-

ories are of Dr. Wrenn climbing out the

classroom window to retrieve flasks from

the adjoining rooftop, and his efforts to beat

back the ivy growing up the outside walls

of Corcoran Hall with a chloroform soaked

rag on the end of a stick. Needless to say,

he was not successful in the ivy department.

Also memories of boring holes in cork and

rubber stoppers in labs, and having to suffer

labs with medical students whom we chem-

istry students considered a lower form of

life since they were not at all serious about

the subject. Undergraduate organic chem-

istry with Dr. Wrenn was the most miser-

able experience of my life at GW. In

contrast, I loved my graduate level organic

classes with Dr. Theodore Perros, from

whom I actually learned the subject.

I recently retired from the Laboratory of

Biochemistry at the National Cancer Insti-

tute, NIH after a 43 career doing research,

mostly molecular biology. After earning my

B.S. in Chemistry at GW in 1962, I got my

M.S. at GW in 1965 while working at NIH

and attending GW part time. I later got a

Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University

of Maryland, College Park in 1975.”

After graduation, Christa Marandino, B.S.

’98, spent one year in the AmeriCorps pro-

gram in LA. She is currently pursuing a

Ph.D. in Earth System Science at the Univer-

sity of California, Irvine. Christa is writing

her dissertation, which is entitled “Eddy

Correlation Direct Air/Sea Flux Measure-

ments of Trace Gases Using Atmospheric

Pressure Chemical Ionization Mass Spec-

trometry”. When it is complete, she plans

to do a postdoc with her current advisor,

Eric S. Saltzman.

Larissa May, B.S. ‘97, received her MD

from GW in ‘02. Before medical school,

Larissa worked at a healthcare consulting

company and Shire Pharmaceuticals. She

completed her residency at GW and is now

an attending physician in Emergency

Medicine at GW. Larissa has a 9 year old

daughter, Leila, whose father she divorced

in ‘01, but Larissa is now engaged to a

physician and the wedding is scheduled for

May.

Robert McClenon, B.A. ‘69, received a

MA in History of Science from Yale (‘72)

and a MS in Computer Science from GW

(‘80). Before getting his MA, Robert

worked as a scientific programmer and is

now working for Northrop Grumman in Re-

ston, where he designs databases and tests

software. Robert lives in downtown DC and

has 2 children and a granddaughter.

John A. McLean, Ph.D. ’00, was pleased

to report that he accepted an appointment at

Vanderbilt University as an Assistant Pro-

fessor. John wrote that “in something as

complex as faculty negotiations Vanderbilt

truly impressed me and I look forward to

the teaching and research opportunities that

this appointment will provide. It also re-

flects well on the caliber of teaching, re-

search, and training in the Department of

Chemistry at The George Washington

University.”

Since 1963, Alan Mighell, B.S. ‘57 & M.S.

‘60, has been a research scientist at NIST in

the Materials Science and Engineering Lab-

oratory. Alan attended Princeton University

for graduate school. He has done lots of

work with structural crystallography, crys-

tallographic databases, and the mathemati-

cal properties of lattices.

Kate (Richardson) Omron, B.S.’97, went

on to graduate from GW medical school in

‘01. By ‘04, she had completed her intern-

ship and residency at Johns Hopkins Hospi-

tal and returned to DC. Currently, Kate

works at a community clinic in Adams Mor-


gan and occasionally at Children’s Hospital. Kate has kept in touch

with Nikki (Hutt) Edleman, B.S. ’97, who completed her PhD in

chemistry at Northwestern University and now lives in New York

with her husband and their 2 children. Kate has also had contact

with Christine Booth, B.S. ’97, who attended medical school in

Florida and went on to complete her internship and residency with

the military. Christine was recently married and is an OB/GYN in

North Carolina.

From 1961-63, Adam Peiperl, B.S. ‘57, worked as a Russian sci-

entific translator for the Library of Congress and was then self-em-

ployed as a translator. Afterwards, he began a successful career as

an artist.

Bryan Rabatic (BS ’98) noted our posting for a faculty position in

Nanoscale Biomaterials last year and was happy to see the depart-

ment moving into this type of research. He writes that he did his

graduate work with Sam Stupp at Northwestern studying inorganic

templating of self-assembling systems and is currently a postdoc-

toral fellow investigating the interface between metal oxide

nanoparticles with biological molecules at Argonne National Lab

in Chicago. While at GW he did his undergraduate research with

Dr. Tarkka.

After graduating wih a B.S. in 2003, Scott Ruplinger moved to

Florida to train full-time for distance running going into the 2004

Olympic trials. He then worked at the State Crime Lab in Tallahas-

see doing DNA analysis. In April ’05, Scott moved to Texas where

he is currently a drug chemist in a crime lab and owner of his own

athletic training company.

Jacqueline Ryan, B.S. ‘05, recently began a full-time

job at Hoag Hospital in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit in

Newport Beach, CA. She has also volunteered her time

at Hoag Hospital as a Clinical Care Extender and addi-

tionally volunteers as a calculus tutor and at a local rescue/retreat

for parrots. Jacqueline is also applying to medical school.

Lee Silverberg, B.S. ‘86, works at Johnson Matthey in West Dept-

ford, NJ doing Pharmaceutical Process R&D. Lee still rows com-

petitively at Fairmount Rowing Association and is active with the

GW program.

Rekha S. Thomas, B.S. ‘98, previously worked at the Behavioral

Pharmacology Research Unit at Johns Hopkins University until ‘02.

Rekha will graduate with a PharmD from The University of Mary-

land, Baltimore in May of 2006.

Mike Tolocka, Ph.D. ’98, has accepted a position in the Chemistry

Department at LSU starting in this fall.

The report on renovations of the fourth floor of Corcoran brought

back some memories for Charles Wales (BS. ’49). Charles began

at GW in 1944. After 1945-46 US Army time, he resumed his stud-

ies Feb. 1947. In that semester he had Qualitative Analysis under

Dr. Vincent in the old lab. The summer of 1946 he had Quantita-

tive Analysis there. The teacher was someone from the Bureau of

Standards, which was then located in D.C. Probably about 1948

came Organic Preparations under Dr. Wrenn.

Hanhui Xu, M.S. ‘05, is currently working towards

a Ph.D. at Georgetown.

After working in the CNS Drug Metabolism Depart-

ment at Pfizer Research Headquarters in Groton, CT for four years,

Adam Yasgar, B.S. ‘01, accepted a job in August to work as a Re-

search Associate for the National Chemical Genomics Center

(NCGC) at NIH. Good Luck in your new position.

2005 Department Fall Retreat at Alpine Lakes, WV


Dr. Marc C. Alembik *** Mr. & Mrs. Samuel G Meyer *

Mrs. Shelesa A. Brew Dr. J. Houston Miller ***

Mr. Donald E. Buglass Dr. Tarik Mustapha Nabi *

Dr. Mary Frances Campagnolo * Mr. & Mrs. Alan S. Nadel ***

Dr. Roy S. Clarke, Jr. *** Mr. Stanley Nesheim

Mr. Sidney M. Collegeman Dr. Marriner Krumm Norr

Mr. & Dr. Timothy R. and Claire Cullen * Dr. James H. O’Mara *

Mrs. Elizabeth B. Donaldson * Dr. Theodore P. Perros ***

Mr. Richard J. Evans * PSEG Energy Holding Inc. **

Dr. David Firestone * Mrs. Stephanie Czech Rader *

Mr. James Wilson Gladden Dr. Richard L. Reeves *

Dr. Thomas M. Hall *** Mr. & Mrs. I.M. and E. Reines *

Dr. & Mrs. Forest K. Harris Dr. Wilbert J. Robertson *

Dr. & Mrs. Lee S. Harrow * Dr. Mitchell Harris Rosner **

Dr. John C. Hoffsommer Dr. Mitchell Neal Ross *

Professor Emanuel Horowitz * Dr. William F. Sager

Dr. Charles R. Hurt * Dr. William Edward Schmidt ***

Dr. Doren Indritz * Mrs. Arlene H. Senser **

Dr. Frank Louis Joe, Jr. * Dr. & Mrs. Joel I. Shulman *

Dr. Scott Allan Keeler * Dr. Karen J. Skinner *

Drs. Charles and Carolyn Knobler * Professor & Mrs. John E. Stecklein **

Dr. George W. Latimer, Jr. * Dr. Jere B. Stern

Ms. Carly Sue Levin Mrs. Shirley M. Stuntz *

Mr. Tin W. Li * The Jeppson Family Trust *

Mr. & Mrs. Harry D. McCament, Jr. * W.M. Keck Foundation ***

Dr. Charalambos Evripidou Menelaou * Mr. Charles P. Wales *

Dr. M. Diana Metzger ** Mr. William W. Worthy, Jr. ***

* = $100 or more ** = $500 or more *** = $1000 or more

Chemistry Department GiftsJuly 2005-June 2006

We are deeply appreciative of the gifts from our alumni to the Department. Each gift, whatever the amount, allows us to fur-

ther our research and educational goals. If your check is made out to the Chemistry Department, the money’s earmarked for

our use. If not, it goes into the general fund. So please remember to cite the Chemistry Department E&R Account on any

gift. Many thanks to each of you for your thoughtfulness, and a special thanks to donors who gave $1000 or more.

Department of Chemistry

725 21st Street, NW

Washington, DC 20052

Phone: 202-994-6121

Fax: 202-994-5873

email: [email protected]

www.gwu.edu/~gwchem

Newsletter publications and editing--

Michael King and Shanna Roth

Corcoran Hall, Home of the Chemistry Department

Dr. Michael M. King, Chairman

Department of Chemistry...labs and teaching general chemistry, left when her husband trans-ferred to...

Documents

Transcript of Department of Chemistry...labs and teaching general chemistry, left when her husband trans-ferred to...