Are Your Grades Dropping? Help is Available!

There are just seven weeks left in this Fall semester.  To make sure you get the most from your courses, please be aware of all the opportunities for help.  Here are some:

 

(1) Your instructor's office hours.

      After-hour appointments may be possible.

(2) Tutoring at ACE's Learning Center in the administration building.

      Click here for schedule.

(3) SI sessions often available once a week for freshman courses.

      Consult your professor for details.

(4) ACE's "Study Smarter" sessions are available.

      Click here for more information

(5) Form a study group with classmates - two heads are better than one.

      But stay on task and don't let it degenerate into a social event.

 

Additionally, the library is now hosting a Monday evening (6:00 to 8:00) chemistry tutor in the Dorene Dwyer Hammes Media Commons and Café area. 

2015 Nobel Prize Winners

The winners of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry were recently announced. Three men shared the prize this year and they were all biochemists who explored how enzymes help to repair damaged DNA. An article describing their achievements can be viewed at the website for Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN). The image above highlights the history of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and shows how many awards have been given in each area of chemistry. It also lists each prize winner and the reason for the award.  Click here for the full image at C&EN.  How many scientists have won the prize twice? How many women prize winners can you find? How many minority prize winners have there been? In what year will you win?

New York Times Spots Alumna

Alumna Celeste Warrell (Biochemistry, 2011) was a star student at IU South Bend winning several awards and engaging in undergraduate research.  She then earned a masters degree in biochemistry in 2013 from Michigan State University in the lab of Professor Rober Hausinger.  But the call to science could not compete with a higher calling that she heard and Warrell joined the Sisters of St. Francis (of Perpetual Adoration) right here in South Bend.  New York Times photographer, Damon Winter, caught her on film (third from the left) as she waited for a chance to see the Pope during his visit to Philadelphia.

NSF Fellowship Winners are Honored

On September 10, two alumni from our department were honored at a gala with three other students for winning the very prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. Pictured third from the left is Ashley Tong [Compton] (Biochemistry, 2014) who won her award as a graduating senior at IU South Bend.  Ashley went straight to MIT to research proteins of the photosynthetic pathway of purple bacteria with Professor Gabriela Schlau-Cohen using ultrafast spectroscopy.  The day after the gala, Ashley gave a wonderful presentation on her work to the students of our department.

Third from the right is Bonnie Huge [Jaskowski] (Chemistry, 2010) who worked as a research assistant at the University of Notre Dame for a few years before starting her graduate work. Bonnie researches with Professor Norman Dovichi in Notre Dame's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry developing instrumentation.  Our department is extremely proud of Ashley and Bonnie and wish them great success in their research and studies.

Biochemistry Program Grows with Professor Rizk

The department eagerly welcomes its newest full-time tenure-track member: Assistant Professor Shahir Rizk. In fact, we welcome him back, because Rizk graduated from IU South Bend in 2000 with a B.S. in Biology. Rizk later received his PhD in Biochemistry from Duke University in 2006 for his thesis on rational design of biosensors and multi-sensor arrays.

Once the long, but necessary, period of education and training had ended, Rizk served as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health at the University of Chicago in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology where he worked on engineering antibodies and drug delivery in cancer. In 2012, he joined the faculty at the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame as a Research Assistant Professor and Director of External Programs at the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases. Rizk’s collaborations at the University of Notre Dame allowed him to apply his work in antibody engineering to study the pathogens that cause malaria and Ebola.

Rizk's research program at IU lies in the area of protein engineering, specifically the design of new antibodies that can recognize different conformations of the same protein. His seminar on this subject during his interview last year impressed both students and faculty. He is also working to develop biosensors for environmental pollutants. If Rizk has some free time, he might continue some of his non-academic interests such as painting and music; he plays both guitar and bass.

Rizk's position is the first [necessary] duplication in the department. For years we have had a single professor for the various sub-disciplines, but our growing biochemistry program demands more than one biochemist. We are very excited for this new addition to our faculty and are confident that Rizk will have an outstanding inaugural year.  Welcome "home" Rizk.

The Chemistry Administration

The leadership skills of the chemistry faculty are remarkable.  Recently Bill Feighery (our inorganic chemist) chaired the Department of History and Doug McMillen (our organic chemist) served as Dean for the College of Health Sciences.  Both Feighery and McMillen have also served as assistant or associate dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. For the past six years, Gretchen Anderson (our biochemist) has chaired our department. These three professors make up half of the full-time faculty and their leadership is still desired across campus.  

For the 2015-2016 academic year McMillen will continue as one of three associate deans for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  Feighery takes the reins as chair of our department, though he is not a newcomer to the role of chair having lead us for many years before Anderson.  He is very excited to welcome our new hire, Shahir Rizk, as our second biochemist, who will help maintain and develop our growing biochemistry program. Feighery's immediate plans are to make curriculum changes to maintain our American Chemical Society accreditation under their new requirements and to find ways to attract new students to our programs.

Anderson embarks on a role new to her and new to the campus: Director of Science Initiatives. Her biggest task is probably the pursuit of new science programs such as nanoscience, pharmecutical science, and pharmacy. Anderson will make new connections with industry and arrange for collaborations and internships for all of the science departments. She will also continue to foster relationships with the IU Medical School, IU Cancer Center, and other medical centers - particularly in the area of scholarship and research opportunities.  Anderson is eager to work with physicist Jerry Hinnefeld who was named the Chancellor's Professor for 2015-2016 as they advance the Year of Science.

Professor Muna ReceivesTenure

Assistant Professor Grace Muna was recently promoted to Associate Professor and has also received tenure. Muna is known for her ability to take struggling students and motivate them to succeed. She is our only analytical chemist and is solely responsible for the two upper-level courses C-310 Analytical Chemistry and C-410 Instrumental Analysis which combine lecture and laboratory components. Muna is one of our most active researchers and routinely mentors undergraduate students in research. This summer she is working with SMART student Chris Warkentin. 

Their summer research involves testing the analytical performance of biometallic modified glassy electrodes in the hopes that they will offer improved analytic detection of aqueous steroid hormones over nickel modified electrodes. The metal combinations are Pt/Ni, Pd/Ni, and Pt/Pd.

In addition to her (1) ongoing research this summer, Muna is (2) teaching the summer section of our freshman general chemistry course C-106, (3) developing a new course for freshman students who are in the awkward position that they have placed out of, or already taken, C-101 but are not yet ready for C-105, and (4) preparing a proposal for her research sabbatical in the Spring 2017 semester. With a summer like this, she must be eager for the fall semester to begin.

Congratulation Professor Muna on your promotion and tenure!