UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON
GREEN CHEMISTRY NEWSLETTER
Issue 3
June 2015
The Green Chemistry Track in the Chemistry Ph.D. Program at UMass Boston was established in 2002. It is the first
such program in the world. Students obtaining a degree from this program will be prepared for conventional chemistry
jobs in industry, government and academia. Green chemistry involves an ecologically sustainable view of chemical
research, development, and manufacture. Toxicological understanding and environmental fate are necessary
components to understanding the entire "molecular life cycle" of any commercial endeavor. The unique complement of
the chemistry and biology department as well as the school for the environment faculty has allowed the University of
Massachusetts Boston to create such a program.
http://www.umb.edu/greenchemistry
News
UMass Boston’s ACS Student Chapter has earned the Green
Chemistry Chapter Award for the second year in a row.
Jonathan Rochford has been invited to present at “CO2
reduction and utilization symposium” 250th ACS National
Meeting, Boston, MA, August 16th – 20th, 2015.
“
Dr. Berkeley Cue and Prof. Wei Zhang are serving on the
international advisory board of 2015 Drug Discovery & Therapy
World Congress in Boston.
Jonathan Rochford gave talk on “Metal ligand cooperativity
in solar energy conversion and catalytic CO2 reduction” at
Bridgewater State University, MA, Feb. 20th 2015
PhD student Shuai Liu received the travel scholarship to
attend 2015 Green Chemistry Symposium organized by
Green Chemistry Initiative at the University of Toronto in
May
Graduate students, Meaghan McKinnon and Sabrina Akhter was
accepted to and will attend the ACS Summer School on Green
Chemistry & Sustainable Energy at the Colorado School of Mines
in Golden, Colorado in July.
Dr. Berkeley W. Cue will give the opening keynote talk at the
19th Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference in North
Bethesda, MD on July 15th titled, "The ACS Green
Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable: A
perspective from one of its founders." Check out this video!
UMass Boston will host the 3rd Workshop of the Global Green
Chemistry Centres (G2C2) on Aug. 20-21, 2015. This event is coorganized by the University of York, ACS Green Chemistry
Institute, and UMass Boston
Recent Publications
As part of a series of Earth Day events in April organized by the
Office for Sustainability at Harvard University, Prof. Zhang was
invited to give a talk on green chemistry at the Chemistry and
Chemical Biology Department at Harvard (Apr. 2015).
Pham, K.; Huang, X.; Zhang, W. “One-Pot Fluorination and
Mannich Reactions of 1,3-Dicarbonyl Compounds”
Tetrahedron Lett. 2015, 56, 1998-2000.
Undergraduate students Anthony P. Tran and Jeremy H. Hyatt
(Prof. Zhang’s lab) presented two posters on recyclable
organocatalysts for asymmetric synthesis at the 21st Annual
Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference at
UMass Amherst (Apr. 2015).
Qian, J.; Yi, W.; Huang, X.; Miao, Y.; Zhang, J.; Cai, C.;
Zhang, W. “One-Pot Synthesis of 3,5-Disubstituted and
Polysubstituted Phenols from Acyclic Precursors” Org. Lett.
2015, 17, 1090-1093.
Graduate students Xin Huang and Shuai Liu (Prof. Zhang’s lab)
presented two posters on green organocatalysis and medicinal
chemistry at 2015 Northeastern Student Chemistry Research
Conference and Career Symposium at Tufts University (Apr.
2015).
Ngo, K.T.; Rochford, J.*; Hao, F.; Batarseh, A.; Chitre, K.;
Rangan,
S.;
Bartynski,
R.A.;
Galoppini,
E.*
“Photoelectrochemical Properties of Porphyrin Dyes with a
Molecular Dipole in the Linker” Faraday Discuss. 2015,
accepted.
Javier Reinoso of Hannah Sevian’s group presented a poster on
the use of green indicators for undergraduate chemistry
laboratories. This work was presented at SACNAS regional
meeting at Boston College
"
Lee, N.A.; Frenzel, B.A.; Rochford, J.*; “Dye-sensitized
solar cell performance of a cobalt(III/II) redox mediator
with the 2,6-bis(8-quinolinyl)pyridine ligand” Hightower
S.E.* Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2015, accepted.
Felix Nampanya of Hannah Sevian’s group presented a poster on
a design of greener kinetics reaction for undergraduate chemistry
laboratories. This work was presented at NSCRC at Tufts
University in April.
”
Zhou, Y.; Lee, N.A.; Ngo, K.T.; Peng, X.; Feng, Y.*;
Rochford, J.* “Rigid triarylamine donor–π–acceptor
porphyrin dyes and their application in dye-sensitized solar
cells” RSC Advances 2015, 5, 41193-41202.
UMB GreenChemistry 1
Green Chemistry
Symposium at the 250th
ACS Conference
UMass Boston graduate students Ray Borg and
Maria Kipreos have collaborated with Wasiu
Lawal from the National Presence Younger
Chemists Committee to organize a green
chemistry symposium for the 250th ACS
conference to be held in Boston, MA this
August. The symposium titled Careers for Young
Professionals in Green Chemistry: Breaking Bad
Chemistry Habits, is designed to attract and
introduce young chemists to the field of green
chemistry. The program will present younger
chemists with various career paths in academia,
industry, government, and business that utilize
green chemistry principles. The symposium
also aims to help attendees break bad chemistry
habits by introducing them to online tools,
resources, and opportunities to get active
within the GC community. The following
speakers will be presenting at the symposium:
Dr. Martin J. Mulvihill, Executive Director,
Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry
Dr. David J. Constable, Director, ACS Green
Chemistry Institute
Dr. Sherine O. Obare, Professor, Western
Michigan University
Dr. Emily A Peterson, Senior Scientist,
Amgen
Dr. John C. Warner, President and CEO,
Warner Babcock Institute
Dr. Nicholas D. Anastas, Green Chemist, US
EPA
Ms. Savannah Sullivan, Strategy
Development Officer, NESSE
The Symposium will be held in the Boston
Convention & Exhibition Center (room
number TBD) on Monday, August 17th from
8:30 am to noon.
For more information please email Ray Borg at:
Raymond.borg001@umb.edu
Become a Green Chemist
Undergraduate Opportunity
Are you an undergraduate student of chemistry or
biochemistry who is looking to get more involved
on campus and network with colleagues and
faculty? Enrich your academic career by becoming
a member of UMass Boston American Chemical
Society Student Chapter.
For more information visit:
http://www.umb.edu/academics/csm/chemistry/beyo
nd_the_classroom/acs
Graduate Opportunity
If you are interested in an innovative and exciting
career in science, then the Green Chemistry Track
in the Chemistry PhD program is a perfect
opportunity for you. As the world moves to focus
on sustainability in both an environmental and lab
setting more job opportunities arise within
industry, government and academia.
For more information visit:
http://www.umb.edu/academics/csm/chemistry
UMB GreenChemistry 2
People in Green Chemistry
Emily Peterson
Q: Can you tell us a little bit of your background and training that
has brought you to the position you now hold?
A: I completed my Ph.D. at the University of California, Irvine under the
direction of Prof. Larry E. Overman where I completed the total
synthesis of alkaloid natural products. I then went on to do postdoctoral
studies with Prof. Eric N. Jacobsen at Harvard where I studied the
enantioselective intermolecular addition of indoles to N-acyliminium
ions. In 2007, I started working at Amgen doing Medicinal Chemistry. In
addition to my work doing Medicinal Chemistry, I was asked to build a
Green Chemistry team at the Amgen Massachusetts site in 2009.
Q: Could you give a brief synopsis of your current work and its
direction?
A: My current work is focused on the discovery of new drugs to treat
grievous illness. I am currently working on projects in both the
neuroscience and cardiovascular areas.
Q: What inspired you to become a chemist? In particular, what
directed you towards developing green methods for your area of
research?
A: I actually started out as an Environmental Studies major in my
undergraduate at Western Washington University. I ended up taking
organic chemistry for “chemistry majors” because I thought it would
improve my marketability as an environmental scientist. It turns out that I
really excelled in that class and enjoyed it, so I ended up switching to
chemistry. I am excited by the concept of being able to design and build
biologically active molecules and this inspired me to become a synthetic
organic chemist. It is nice that I can now come full circle to incorporating
more sustainable practices in organic chemistry and drug discovery.
Q: Amgen is a member company of the ACS Green Chemistry
Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable. Can you tell us what efforts
Amgen is making concerning green chemistry with this
organization?
A: Amgen is heavily involved with the ACS GCI PR. John Tucker, a
Process Chemist at Amgen in Thousand Oaks is one of the co-chairs of
the ACS GCI PR and I am involved as a member of the Medicinal
Chemistry Subgroup of the ACS GCI PR. Scientists at Amgen have
contributed to a Green Reagent Guide that will be rolled out soon from
the Roundtable. I co-authored the Round Table publications “Sustainable
Practices in Medicinal Chemistry: Current State and Future Directions” J.
Med. Chem. 2013, 56, 6007 and “Sustainable Chromatography (an
oxymoron?)” Green Chem. 2014, 16, 4060.
Q: What is your role as Amgen’s “Green Team Lead”?
A: I am the Green Chemistry Team lead for Medicinal Chemistry. John
Tucker is the lead for Green Chemistry within our Process Organization.
My role is to partner with others on our team to conceive of practical
initiatives that can help the Medicinal Chemists in our organization
reduce the environmental impact of their activities without slowing down
the speed of their science. I work to coordinate the collection of metrics
on solvent consumption as well as educating our chemists on Green
Chemistry methods.
Q: Due to the nature of the research, the pharmaceutical industry
is notoriously not green. Currently, what do you see as the largest
hurdles in greening medicinal chemistry research?
A: The largest hurdles are the widespread use of organic solvents for
chromatography and the lack of precedent for greener synthetic
methods applied to heterocycles. At Amgen, we have been successful at
significantly reducing chlorinated solvent use in chromatography and
that has been an important change to make our medicinal chemistry
efforts more sustainable. The use of silica gel chromatography is still the
largest source of organic solvent waste and until alternate methods are
available that can provide the same ease of use, broad utility and speed,
this will remain a significant challenge.
With regard to the incorporation of greener reactions, it is also difficult
to change people’s habits and get them to try new methods that have
limited precedent using heterocyclic substrates. For reactions where a
greener precedent does exist, sometimes convincing chemists to change
from methods they are comfortable with can be difficult. I encourage
any academic researcher looking to publish a green chemistry method to
include several heterocyclic substrates as examples in their paper to
increase the utility and impact of their work.
Q: You’ve already worked on alternatives for solvents for general
use and chromatography, do you have another target in mind?
A: Right now I am heavily focused on waste reduction and diversion.
Reclaiming precious metals from our waste stream as well as finding a
way to repurpose our borosilicate glass waste are important endeavors
that we are investigating. We are also currently pursuing ways to reduce
wasteful ordering and disposal practices in our industry. This includes
encouraging chemists to order the smallest size possible and to resist
buying more of a chemical because it is cheaper per gram in larger sizes.
Often the cost of disposal rivals the cost of purchasing a chemical and
making chemists aware of that can help to reduce ordering of excess
chemicals.
Q: We’ve heard Amgen has been organizing some community
outreach programs to educate on and promote green chemistry.
How do you think the undergraduates (and graduates) are
receiving this message? What has been their response to these
programs? What else do you have in store along this line?
A: John Tucker has presented on Green Chemistry in our industry at
several universities and my understanding is that his efforts have been
very well received. We plan to continue this outreach and it is likely that
I will join him for some of the upcoming presentations.
Q: What benefit do you see in having green chemistry teams for
departments and research groups in both industry and academia?
A: There is a huge benefit to having a Green Chemistry team in an
organization, academic or industrial. For example, chemists serving in
this role that are imbedded within Medicinal Chemistry departments are
able to evaluate new green chemistry methods before advertising them
to their colleagues. This action often results in chemists having a more
open mind to trying greener techniques because they have already been
vetted by their colleagues. This goes back to the importance of good
precedent.
In a broader sense, Green Chemistry is safer chemistry and cleaner
chemistry. Furthermore, often Green Chemistry is more efficient
chemistry. For example, skipping flash column chromatography by
telescoping a reaction not only saves a significant amount of organic
solvent, but saves the chemist time, if performed appropriately. From a
business justification perspective, less waste generated means less money
spent on disposal and a safer working environment benefits everyone.
Q: Finally, do you have any hobbies that you like to do in your free
time?
A: Yes, I am an avid sailor. I have been racing sailboats since college.
When I was 22, I was part of a crew of 5 that sailed a 35 ft. sailboat
across the Pacific from Hawaii to Washington State. I still race in and
around Boston Harbor when time allows.
UMB GreenChemistry 3
This interview was conducted by Meaghan McKinnon
Bringing science to policy:
New paths to support sustainable
development
By Maria Ivanova, PhD (*)
Interactions between science and policy are at the
core of global environmental governance. Biology,
chemistry, and environmental science inform the
policy process by identifying the scale, scope, and
nature of problems that need to be addressed.
Social sciences often identify obstacles to and
opportunities for addressing these problems. The
science-policy interface is an important concept
that has gained traction within academic and
policy circles. In 2012, the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20
recognized the “contribution of the scientific and
technological community to sustainable
development” and called for renewed
collaboration between academic, scientific and
technological communities, to foster research on
sustainable development and to strengthen the
science policy interface (United Nations, 2012).
Furthermore, as the international community
finalizes the new Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) to take effect in September 2015, science is
expected to make a contribution in the definition
of targets and indicators and the mechanisms to
monitor and measure progress.
The United Nations is working to bring rigorous
scientific analysis to these discussions to ensure
that the new set of goals and other policy
decisions incorporate a range of environmental,
social, and economic concerns. In 2013, the UN
Secretary-General created a UN Scientific
Advisory Board on science, technology and
innovation for sustainable development to provide
advice to the UN Secretary-General and heads of
UN agencies. Bringing together 26 experts from
25 different countries and a variety of disciplines,
the Scientific Advisory Board has deliberated on
the role of science in the articulation,
measurement, monitoring, and reevaluation of the
Sustainable Development Goals, on big data,
climate change, and means of implementation,
among others. During the latest meeting, held in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on May 24-26, 2015,
Board members responded to an invitation from
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to present to
him scientific concerns about the future of people
and planet that require a global response.
Through a Delphi process run over a few months,
members suggested different strategies in areas
such as ocean management, biodiversity
conservation, investment in fundamental research,
and prevention of natural disasters.
Involving scientists in direct discussions with
policymakers is challenging and rewarding. As a
member of the Board, I have had the privilege to
engage in these discussions and help articulate
proposals for global action. A set of policy briefs
will outline recommendations to improve the
science-policy interface, to develop scientific
assessments, to reduce the data divide, and to
develop mechanisms that allow the communication
of the risks of climate change. Creating a network
of scholars interested in bringing scientific rigor to
international policy processes is a possible first step
toward more effectively integrating science into
global decision-making. Green chemistry could be
the pioneering field in this regard when scholars
suggest solutions that merit global attention and
action.
(*) Maria Ivanova is Associate Professor in the
Department of Conflict Resolution, Human
Security and Global Governance, and Co-Director
of the Center for Governance and Sustainability. In
2013, she was appointed to the UN SecretaryGeneral’s Scientific Advisory Board.
Bibliography :
United Nations. (2012). A/RES/66/288 The Future
We Want - Outcome Document from Rio+20
United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development. Rio de Janeiro.
This Issue of UMB Green Chemistry Newsletter
was brought to you by:
Ray Borg
Meg McKinnon
Caitlin Pollock
Rachel Sadok
If you are interested in joining our mailing list
please contact Ray Borg at:
GreenChemNewsletter@umb.edu
UMB GreenChemistry 4