Community Outreach: Science Alive

Yesterday, the Biology Chemistry Club participated in the annual Science Alive community outreach event at the Main Branch of the St. Joseph County Public Library. IU students and faculty showcased student-made artwork of bacterial cultures in petri dishes (pictured on the left); let children peer through microscopes at plant, animal, and fossil samples; and offered a hands-on slime/putty-making opportunity using borax and glue. The right picture shows Dr. Ann Grens (Biology) in the back helping a student with a microscope while the foreground shows Dr. Kasey Clear (Chemistry), Rachel Hall (Biochemistry major), and Ellie Gore (Biology major) helping kids make colorful slime. One kid under 10 years old exclaimed "This is the best day of my life!" several times while making slime as she was thoroughly impressed by all of the wonderful activities provided by the many organizations cooperating to make Science Alive a success in the community once again. Thanks to the many student volunteers who gave up time studying for classes for this rewarding, but taxing, effort at inspiring local kids to think and wonder.

The Universe Revealed - Making Sense of Our Senses

At the beginning of the semester (January 10), biochemistry professor Shahir Rizk gave the talk Making Sense of Our Senses: The Art and Science of How We Perceive the World at the Main Branch of the St. Joseph County Library in downtown South Bend. This is just one talk in The Universe Revealed lecture series which is a partnership between the Science faculty at IU South Bend and University of Notre Dame to explore diverse topics in science. Rizk talked about the seeming magic of proteins that, for example, can distinguish different colors of light in our eyes, serve as antifreeze in polar fish, and let fireflies glow in the dark. The artwork above was created by IU South Bend B.S. biochemistry graduate, Maggie Fink, who is now working on her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame. Fink researched with Rizk while she was an undergraduate and she continues to work with Rizk in their collaborations on the intersection of art and science. At the sites below, you can watch a recording of the lecture and also learn more about the lecture series, in particular the time and subject of upcoming lectures.

Video recording - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFHnZUnOk0g

Lecture series - https://universerevealed.nd.edu/

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go ...

We just ran a Google job search for "chemists" and "biochemists" in a 60-mile radius from South Bend (excluding Illinois) and found over 30 positions available (not including pharmacy jobs and internships). The results were not exhaustive (there are more positions) and some of the positions require experience, or further study, that a fresh graduate would not have. Still, the results look promising:

South Bend, IN
   Tri-Pac                                         
   Catalytic Life Science  
Mishawaka, IN
   InfoSoft                                       
   Siemens Healthineers              
Angola, IN         
   Trine University                         
Elkhart, IN
   Voyant Beauty                            
   Career Transitions, LLC             
   Clean Harbors                          
Plymouth, IN
   BC Forward                                
La Porte, IN
   American Renolit Corportation
   Tradebe Environmental Services
Griffith, IN
   TRADEBE                                     
Portage, IN
   Covanta                                       
   Hire Support                               
   Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories
Hobart, IN
   Eastern Catalytics                      
Hammond, IN
   Clean Harbors                            
Waterloo, IN
   CyberCoders                              
Notre dame, IN
   Saint Mary's College                 
Winona Lake, IN
   Grace College and Seminary   
Valparaiso, IN
   ShoreMet, LLC                            
Kalamazoo, MI
   Bausch & Lomb                          
   Trusted Human Capital            
   EG Workforce Solutions           
   Resume Library                          
   Eurofins USA PSS                       
   Zoetis                                           
Niles, MI
   H B Fuller Company                  
Benton Harbor, MI
   Lake Michigan College              
Stevensville, MI
   Alpha Resources - Michigan    
St. Joseph, MI   
   LECO                                            
Portage, MI
   Eurofins           

Guest speaker from Loyola University

Dr. Colin Gates, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, from Loyola University, Chicago visited our campus last Friday. He spoke to a large group of students from both of the chemistry and biology senior seminar classes and also the physical chemistry class.  The purpose was two-fold: (1) to advertise the M.S. and Ph.D. programs at Loyola University to our graduating seniors, and (2) to let the senior seminar students see a professional seminar to consider points when making their own presentations later in the semester.  Dr. Gates gave a very interesting talk about his research into photosynthesis for a special bacterium with very rapid growth rate.  It was jam-packed with data and experiments new to our students. Loyola University offers full-tuition scholarships and a stipend to all of its Chemistry Ph.D. students (details here). While they do not offer a Ph.D. in Biology, there are competitive awards for the Biology M.S. degree that include tuition and a stipend (details here).  

Kasey Clear publishes research of napthoquinones

Professor Kasey Clear just published his second research article from his work here at IU South Bend. This research is a collaboration between IU South Bend, Rice University and several medical schools - one of which is the IU Medical School (in South Bend) where the lead author, Kenneth Olson, teaches and researches. The reaction shown above shows a naphthoquinone being reduced by hydrogen sulfide, or, from another point of view, shows a naphthoquinone oxidizing hydrogen sulfide. Naphthoquinones can affect the body in at least two notable ways through their redox chemistry: (1) They can bind to proteins by reacting with the thiol groups of cysteine residues on the proteins; this change in protein structure leads to a change in protein function. (2) They generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) like hydrogen peroxide which are strong oxidants. The article was published as "open access" so anyone can view it free of charge here.

LECO mobile lab helps with chemistry courses

Adjunct organic chemistry instructor, David Alonso (holding a printout in the left picture), arranged to have a mobile science lab come to IU South Bend for three days this week to help with our organic chemistry and analytical chemistry laboratory classes. For the past 12 years, Alonso has worked at LECO Corporation. LECO Corportation develops analytical instruments with a focus on elemental analysis and separation instruments. They have been in business, with headquarters in St. Joseph, Michigan, since 1936 although originally they were named Laboratory Equipment Corporation. LECO Corporation has four different mobile labs that tour the country. Alonso and his colleagues, Scott and Bruce, brought the Separation Science Mobile Lab so that students in CHEM-C 343 (organic chemistry) and CHEM-C 310 (analytical chemistry) could use the state-of-the-art Pegasus GC-TOFMS instruments to analyze samples they prepared in class. GC (gas chromatography) separates the components of a gas mixture which are then identified by TOFMS (time-of-flight mass spectroscopy), essentially relying on how long it is takes heavy versus light gas particles to flow. It was a wonderful experience for the students in all the classes to see the step up in instrumentation from our teaching labs - and for Alonso's students to see their professor in his main employment. While many of our adjunct instructors are retired, just as many are working full time jobs in their main career.  Thank you, David, for making this happen. 

The Universe Revealed - Nobel Prize Talks

This evening, Organic chemistry professor Kasey Clear represented IU South Bend at The Universe Revealed lecture series which is a partnership between the Science faculty at IU South Bend and University of Notre Dame to explore diverse topics in science in an accessible way.  The talk was given at the Main Branch of the St. Joseph County Library in downtown South Bend and the topic was this year's Nobel Prizes. The event began with a brief historical introduction to the Noble Prizes and their creator, Alfred Nobel, given by IU South Bend biologist Deb Marr. Then, three of the six prizes were discussed: for chemistry, Clear discussed "click chemistry and biorthogonal chemistry" which are modular approaches to chemical synthesis; for physics, particle physicist Antonio Delgado of UNC talked about the mysterious phenomenon of quantum entanglement; and for medicine Director of the Genomics Core Group at UND, Michael Phrender, discussed human evolution and the genomes of extinct hominins.  At the sites below, you can watch a recording of the lecture (from which the still picture above of Clear was taken) and also learn more about the lecture series, in particular the time and subject of upcoming lectures.

Video recording - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t617vsPI3qg

Lecture series - https://universerevealed.nd.edu/