Department
of Chemistry
Undergraduate
Advising Office
Orbitals
104 Chemistry
Building
Issue 139
979-845-0520
Chemistry Open House Held October 25
Preregistration begins
November
13
As a culmination of National Chemistry Week,
the Chemistry Open
House & Science Exploration Gallery was held on
Saturday, October 25
from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in
the Chemistry Building.
According to event organizer Dr. Wendy KeeneyKennicutt, an estimated
3000 people attended to
explore chemistry and
other sciences.
Inside this issue:
Registration
2
Summer
Internship
Opportunity
3
CHEM 100
visitors
3
Events and
Opportunities
4
What’s Happening in Chemistry Circles
Dr. Jim Pennington
(pictured) with help from
Michelle McNeil and Josh
Hunt hosted three showings of The Chemistry
Road Show featuring fires,
explosions, weird polymers, and other cool
chemistry.
Hands-on demonstrations
were hosted by the
Chemistry research
groups of Drs. Marcetta
and Don Darensbourg,
Dr. Christian Hilty, Dr.
J.P. Pellois (Biochemistry)
plus other TAMU student
groups including the
CHEM116 students, Student Engineering Council
and TAMU Student Chap-
November 4, 2008
Dr. Jim Pennington puts on a show!
ter of the American Nuclear Society. Drs. John
Bevan, Dong Hee Son, and
Cody Folden also had activities featuring lasers,
nanoparticles, and nuclear
chemistry, respectively.
Other popular activities
included making foam and
goop. Ms. Carrie Nichols
and Dr. Kim Dunbar’s
group helped with these
activities and nail painting
with sun-sensitive nail polish.
The Physics Department
had demonstrations and
low-temperature shows.
Other participants included the Department of
Chemical Engineering, the
Chemistry Graduate Student Honor Society—
PLU, Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History,
and Dr. Lisa Perez, of the
Laboratory for Molecular
Simulation.
Tours were available of
the glassblowing facilities
and other chemistry laboratories.
This is an annual event, so
if you didn’t volunteer this
year, you can participate
next year.
Page 2
Orbitals
Majors Sections of General and Organic Chemistry
Need Advice?
Please call 979-8450520 to schedule an
appointment with Dr.
Gaede or Dr. Tiner to
talk about course
schedules, undergraduate research,
and career plans.
It is especially important to check in with us
if you plan to graduate
in May or August.
Majors-only sections of
CHEM112 will be offered
this Spring. These labs are
section 531, which meets
Tuesday from 2:20PM5:10PM, and section 549,
which meets Wednesday
from 3:00PM-5:50PM. All
majors enrolled in
CHEM102 should enroll in
one of these laboratory
sections.
CHEM228 section 501,
offered MWF from 9:1010:00 a.m. is the section of
organic chemistry that
chemistry majors are expected to take.
Remember that chemistry
majors take different or-
ganic laboratory courses
than non-majors. The majors first-semester organic
laboratory course is
CHEM231 (2 credits), and
the second semester majors
organic laboratory course is
CHEM234 (3 credits).
Please be sure to enroll in
the correct laboratory.
Expected Math Progress
Chemistry majors are expected to enroll in a math
course every semester until
they have completed their
requirements.
First-year students must
receive credit for
Graduating
Chemistry
Majors
● Don’t forget to
send in your biographies for inclusion in the December Orbitals.
● We want to know
where you came
from, what you did
here, and where
you’re going.
● Send bios to Dr.
Gaede at
hgaede@mail.che
m.tamu.edu no
later than November 26. (Earlier is
better!)
MATH151 /MATH 171 and
MATH 152/MATH 172 with
Cs or better by the end of
the first academic year after
enrollment at A&M. Students who have completed
only MATH151 (MATH
171) will be allowed to remain in the program, provided that the earned a B or
better in that course and
are enrolled in MATH 152
(MATH 172) for the following semester.
Registering for Research: CHEM291 and CHEM491
If you plan to enroll in research next semester, you
need to find a research advisor now. Guidelines for
beginning research can be
found at our webpage.
http://www.chem.tamu.edu/
ugrad/research.php
Once a faculty member has
agreed to accept you, go to
Ms. Warren in Room 104 of
the Chemistry Building to
find out the correct section
number. Each faculty member has his or her own section of CHEM491, but these
sections are not automatically listed. You will have to
type in the course number
and section (rather than just
click on an existing one).
The correct section will be
created.
Advanced Chemistry Courses
Two special topics courses,
CHEM 489, will be offered
next Spring.
are CHEM228 and
CHEM327. Dr. Yang is the
instructor.
highly recommended. The
instructor is Dr. Don
Darensbourg.
CHEM489-500—Special
topics in Spectra of Organic
Compounds will be offered
MWF at 10:20-11:10. The
prerequisites for this course
CHEM489-501— Special
topics in Green Chemistry
will be offered TR at 9:3510:50. The prerequisites are
CHEM228, with CHEM362
Either of these courses will
count towards an advanced
chemistry elective.
Issue 139
Page 3
Summer 2009 College Intern Opportunities: www.oxea‐chemicals.com Dr. Christopher Bischoff (B.S. 1987, Ph.D.
1991) of Oxea Chemicals in Bay City, TX
dropped by the Undergraduate Office to advertise some internship opportunities for chemistry
majors. Applications must
be received in the next
few weeks.
claves. The chemist is
responsible for interpretation and reporting of
daily results and suggesting new ideas or approaches based on
evaluation of experimental work. Chemistry degree plan required.
Dr. Bischoff also said a
chemistry major with inProcess Chemist Interest in environmental
chemistry could be contern:
sidered for the following
The job will require
internship:
the chemist to plan and
Environmental Engiperform laboratory experiments with supervineer Intern:
sion by a process chemist The job will require the
in the area of process
intern to work with envidevelopment or analytical ronmental engineers to
testing. The chemist may identify effective solutions
conduct distillations in
on managing environlaboratory equipment and mental compliance at a
carry out reactions under manufacturing facility.
pressure using autoAnalyze the regulatory
and legal aspects of environmental requirements
and apply compliance solutions and alternatives to
meet the requirements. Improve current
environmental compliance practices, develop
cost effective solutions
for environmental compliance, and evaluate improvements on environmental aspects and technology. Environmental or
Chemical Engineering
degree plan required. Requirements for all positions:
Successful candidates
shall demonstrate
through course work,
extracurricular activities,
and prior work experience superior problem
solving skills, the ability to
work in a team environment, and strong
oral and written communication skills. Minimum of sophomore
year completed with a
3.0 GPA.
To apply send resumes
to:
Oxea@CareerResourc
eServices.Com attention to Lesley Regalado,
Recruiter.
All positions will be
located in Bay City,
Texas (South of Houston)
Dr. Bischoff’s contact
information is christopher.bischoff@oxeachemicals.com
Visitors to CHEM 100
On October 9, Ashlee
Jahnke (BS 2007) and
Jessie Taylor (BS
2008) spoke to the
CHEM100 class about
their careers at Lynntech,
a company located right
here in College Station. In
addition to speaking
about their research projects, both former students talked about some
of their courses and activities they undertook
while at A&M.
On October 23, a student panel addressed the
CHEM100 students. The
panel consisted of Jacob
Dean, Candace Hayes,
Kathy Webb, and Jamie Wheeler. The students spoke about their
internship and research
experiences, experiences
in math and chemistry
courses, and their favorite courses taken at
Texas A&M.
On October 30, Dr.
Shawn Kucera (B.A.
2000 ) spoke about his
experience as a senior
application scientist at
Evonik Industries in Piscataway, NJ. Shawn’s specialty is industrial pharmacy, and he uses his
knowledge of polymer
chemistry to design drug
formulations. Depending
on the polymer used to
coat drugs, the drug may
be dissolved in the stomach, small, or large intestine.
Welcome to
Recently
Declared
Chemistry Majors
Anita Castillo
Ashley Cooke
Joshua Kammer
Events and Opportunities
DEPARTMENT OF
CHEMISTRY
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
77843
Phone: 979-845-0520
Fax: 979-845-2338
E-mail:
hgaede@mail.chem.tamu.edu
Check out our new
look on the web
http://
www.chem.tamu.edu/
ugrad/
Aggie Polar Palooza,
November 5, 2008,
Rudder Auditorium
7:00 PM - FREE ADMISSION
Why should people in
Texas or the Brazos Valley care about the Poles?
Why do penguins live in
the south and polar bears
in the north? How can
thousand-year old ice
help us understand
Earth's future climate?
Who are today's polar
explorers, and why do
they risk frostbite and
crevasses to study some
of the most extreme conditions on our planet?
Where can you find answers to these questions
and hear the latest and
most authoritative information about climate
change?
AGGIE POLAR PALOOZA has the answers
to these and many more
questions.
http://
aggiepalooza.tamu.edu/
UT Southwestern
Graduate School of
Biomedical Sciences
SURF and QP-SURF
Program.
For the sixteenth consecutive year, UT Southwestern Graduate School
of Biomedical Sciences is
sponsoring the Summer
Undergraduate Research
Fellowship (SURF) Program.
The goal of SURF is to
give students an intensive,
ten-week, research experience. Students immerse themselves in the
laboratory and work on
individual research projects with UT Southwestern Graduate School faculty members. The research interests of the
faculty are diverse. Most
areas of modern cancer
biology, cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, neuroscience,
and pharmacology are
represented. In addition
to research, SURF provides seminars, a GRE
prep course, social
events, and an end-ofprogram poster session.
We have increased the
number of fellowships for
SURF to 65. The website
and on-line application
for SURF can be found at
http:/
www.utsouthwestern.edu
/SURF
For the fifth year, we are
also sponsoring the
Quantitative and Physical
Science Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (QP-SURF) Program. This program, initially funded by a NIGMS
training grant and now
funded internally, will accept ten students who
are earning their undergraduate degrees in the
field of mathematics,
computer science, physics, or chemistry. The
goal of QP-SURF is to
give students an intensive,
research experience and
demonstrate to students
in the physical and quantitative sciences how their
knowledge and skill sets
are applied in a biomedical research setting. QPSURF students would
carry out their ten-week
research project in a biophysics, computational
biology, or quantitative/
analytical chemistry laboratory.
QP-SURF students also
participate in similar enrichment activities. The
program website and online application for QPSURF can be found at
http://
www.utsouthwestern.edu
/QP-SURF/QP-SURFAPP
Both summer programs
run from June 1st
through August 7th,
2009. Participants will
be selected based on
their letters of reference,
course work, and experience.
The stipend for the tenweek program is either
$4,000 or $5,250 depending on whether or
not housing is required.
The application deadline
is February 9th, 2009.