Richard Hark
2015 Chemistry Department Newsletter Update
Each year as I write these short summaries I am always amazed at all of the things
that get packed into 365 days of living! In 2014-15 I taught the OCC sequence for the
last time. While I always enjoyed teaching organic chemistry to the freshman I am
excited for the new curriculum our department has developed. I will have an
opportunity to teach the second half of the new Integrated Chemistry Principles
sequence this coming spring.
This past year I was able to publish one paper with undergraduate co-authors,
continue or initiate research collaborations with several colleagues at laboratories
in the US and abroad, contribute to an article on the state of laser-induce breakdown
spectroscopy (LIBS), and obtain modest amounts of funding, while maintaining an
active research group with several students. My research involves collaborations
with an organic mass spectrometrist (University of Bielfeld), a laser spectroscopist
(University of Malaga), and several geological scientists (US Army Corps of
Engineers and the Museum of Natural History). We continue to do organic synthesis
of isotopically labeled compounds as well as a variety of LIBS-related projects. I
attended one national (Reno, NV) and one international (Beijing) meeting where I
gave a total of five presentations. The trip to China was amazing! This was the first
time that a LIBS conference was held in the East and our hosts did a wonderful job. I
was able to visit the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Great Wall. I also
participated in a proper Chinese business dinner with numerous courses and eat in
several Beijing noodle shops!
This past year I secured about $8,000 in funding for the 2nd Laser-induced
Breakdown Spectroscopy for Undergraduate Research and Teaching (LIBS-URT)
workshop. We had 25 participants this past fall, which included guest speakers from
Mount Holyoke College and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, who spoke
about LIBS on Mars and deep-sea LIBS.
My work with cultural heritage objects took a strange turn when I was asked to
determine if a book in the Juniata Special Collections that was purported to be
bound in human skin was in fact genuine. Jacob Gordon (one of the Juniata
reference librarians and an alumnus) alerted me to a news story about a organic
mass spectrometrist who had used peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) to show that
a so-called human skin book at Harvard was of ovine rather than human origin. I
contacted him and he agreed to analyze samples from our book. We likewise
determined that the covering on the Juniata tome was from a sheep. This led us to
begin a survey of putative example of anthropodermic bibliopegy (AB) at
institutions in the US and abroad. Our team now includes people from the Mütter
Museum in Philadelphia and a medical librarian at USC. So far about half of the two
dozen books we have examined have turned out to be actual examples of AB.
This past year, working with Jen Streb in the Art Department and two students
(Kate Passannante, Chemistry POE and artist, and Emma Campbell, History and
Museum Studies POE and budding scientist) we invested a great deal of effort in
project to analyze Juniata’s collection of portrait miniatures project. An exhibition
and associated catalog represents the fruition of over two years worth of work.
Along these same lines I am still working with Kate on the analysis of an Indian
manuscript that is part of our Special Collections.
On a personal note, my wife, Memory, and our two youngest sons, Jonathan and
Joseph, drove out to Utah this summer so that we could drop Jonathan off at the
Missionary Training Center in Provo to start his two–year mission for the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jonathan spent two months there learning
Cambodian and is now serving in the California Long Beach Mission, where he is
working with the large population of Khmer people who live in that area. While in
Utah we visited with our daughter and her family for a while, which gave us ample
opportunity to play with our granddaughters. While there I climbed Mt. Timpanogas
(11,750 feet) with some of my children. Memory and I could took a weeklong
vacation and visited Death Valley, Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks, and toured
places in the eastern Sierra Mountains. On the way back to Pennsylvania we spent
some time in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. All of these places were
absolutely amazing!
PAPERS
Kuck, D., Heitkamp, S., Sproß, J., Letzel, M.C., Ahmed, I., Krohn, K., Parker, R.G., Wang,
Y., Robbins, V.J., Ames, W.A., Schettler, P.D., Hark, R.R. “Consecutive loss of two
benzyl radicals from the [M + Na]+ adduct ions of di- and tri(benzyloxy)benzenes
under ESI/CID conditions,” Intl. J. Mass Spectr. 2015, 377, 23-28.
PRESENTATIONS
Brumbaugh, R., Taylor, R., Hark, R.R, Kuck, D., Ames, W., Schettler, P. “Synthesis of
tetra(benzyloxy)benzenes for mass spectrometry studies,” ORGN 148, Abstract of
Papers, 249th American Chemical Society National Meeting, Denver, CO, March 2226, 2015.
Cueto, C., Hark, R.R. “Neat boron trifluoride etherates as reagents for efficient
esterification of carboxylic acids and derivatives,” ORGN 593, Abstract of Papers,
249th American Chemical Society National Meeting, Denver, CO, March 22-26, 2015.
Defnet, P., Hark, R.R., Wise, M., Harmon, R. “Garnet classification and provenance
using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS),” CHED 276, Abstract of Papers,
249th American Chemical Society National Meeting, Denver, CO, March 22-26, 2015.
Clausen, J., Bol'shakov, A., Gonzalez, J., Hark, R., Russo, R., Courville, Z., Osterberg, E.
“Comparison of LIBS to ICP-MS for analysis of ice,” SciX 2014, Reno, NV, September
28-October 3, 2014.
Hark, R.R., “Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in undergraduate research and
teaching,” SciX 2014, Reno, NV, September 28-October 3, 2014.
Richter, C., Hark, R.R., Steigen, L.A. Gregory, B.D. “Provenance determination of
cumin spice using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS),” SciX 2014, Reno,
NV, September 28-October 3, 2014.
Cueto, C.J., Hark, R.R. “Insights into the mechanism of the base-catalyzed
condensation of o-phthalaldehyde and malonic acid,” Undergraduate Research
Poster Symposium, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, September
9, 2014.
Defnet, P.A., Hark, R.R., Harmon, R.S., Wise, M. “Garnet classification and provenance
using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS),” Undergraduate Research
Poster Symposium, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, September
9, 2014.
Clausen, J., Bol'shakov, A., Gonzalez, J., Hark, R., Russo, R., Courville, Z., “Ice Core
Analysis using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS),” 8th International
Conference on Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS 2014), Beijing, China,
September 8-12, 2014.
Richter, C., Hark, R.R., Steigen, L.A., Gregory, B.D. “Provenance determination of
cumin spice using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS),” 8th International
Conference on Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS 2014), Beijing, China,
September 8-12, 2014.
Wise, M., Defnet, P.A., Hark, R.R. Harmon, R.S. “Garnet classification and provenance
using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS),” 8th International Conference
on Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS 2014), Beijing, China, September
8-12, 2014.
FUNDING
JR Plumer Associates, LLC, research contract, $1758
Army Corps of Engineers, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (ACE
CRREL), research contract, $2,400
NSF Chemistry Collaborations, Workshops and Community of Scholars (cCWCS),
support for 2nd LIBS-URT workshop, $3,221
Quantel Laser North America, support for 2nd LIBS-URT workshop, $3,500
Andor Technology, support for 2nd LIBS-URT workshop, $1,000