March was a busy month for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Both Dr. Grace Muna (our resident analytical chemist) and Dr. Bonnie Huge (adjunct instructor) attended the annual Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy - commonly known as PittCon - during March 19-21. Muna present work done in collaboration with three undergraduate students on the electroanalytical performance of specially designed electrodes used to detect lead and cadmium in soils and water. Huge, who teaches our CHEM-C 121 lab in the evenings, presented some of her work from the University of Notre Dame - along with a graduate student in her group - where she works full time as a research scientist during the day.
Next was the spring American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting during March 26-30. Muna also attended this conference to present her efforts in merging research projects and coursework. Dr. Kasey Clear (our resident organic chemist) joined her there in Indianapolis to present his work on designing fluorescent molecular probes for a particular class of phospholipids with an inositol sugar attached to the phosphate group. Clear also served as the moderator/presider for the session on Molecular Recognition & Self-Assembly. Joining our two full-time faculty members was another adjunct instructor, Dr. Dave Alonso, who was there to advertise spectroscopy instruments from LECO Corporation and the outreach efforts of their mobile research lab. Alonso brough the mobile research lab to our camps last semester.
