ABSTRACTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
October 25, 2014
MORNING SESSION
Session 1A - Synthetic Chemistry
I.
8:45 AM | Room 282
Eric Wagner (Rice)
Functionalized Fullerenes as Novel Agents for T Cell Labeling: Implications for Cancer Immunotherapy
II.
Nezhueyotl Izquierdo (UT Texas-Pan America)
Stability and Cyclability of Transition Metal Sulfides in the Reduction of Nitrobenzene
III. Monica Kiewit (UT San Antonio)
Synthesis of Transition Metal Complexes Containing the 7-azaindole Ligand
IV. Tyler King (UT Austin)
Dinuclear tri-decker luminescent lanthanide Schiff base complexes and their potential uses
Session 1B - Analytical Chemistry
I.
8:30 AM | Room 284
Trey Torno (Texas A & M)
Coupling between martensitic structures and magnetic domains in Heusler alloys near phase transition
temperatures
II. Nico Dwarica & Zach Tuten (Trinity University)
Investigating Diffusive and Convective Vapor Transport Mechanisms for the Evaporation of Hydrocarbons
III. Andrew Schaeffer (Texas A & M)
Dynamics of discotic liquid crystal formation
IV. Joshua Murley (Texas A & M)
An Indirect Approach to Magnetocaloric Entropy
V. Alexander Torres (Texas Southern University)
Identification of Volatile Organic Compounds in Various Incense
VI. Brandon Summerlin (Baylor University)
IM-MS characterization of asphaltene using a violanthrone-79 standard
Session 2 - Polymers and Materials Chemistry
I.
10:45 AM | Room 282
Sarah Ward (Texas A & M)
Cylindrical Magnetic/Polymeric Hybrid Nanoparticles Designed for the Environmental Remediation of Crude
Oil
Session 2 - Polymers and Materials Chemistry Continued:
II. Michael Crockett (University of Tulsa)
Plasticizing Sulfur with Limonene: A Functional Material Synthesized Entirely from Industrial Waste
III. William Guzman (Texas A & M)
Strategies for Recovery of Ru Catalyst Residues in ROMP Polymerizations
IV. Adam King (St. Edward’s University)
Carbon Dioxide Adsorbent Screening Characterization
V. Hannah Pearce (Texas A & M)
Fabrication of Thiol-Methacrylate PolyHIPE Bone Grafts with Accelerated Hydrolytic Degradation
AFTERNOON SESSION
Session 3A - Organic and Supramolecular Chemistry
I.
2:00 PM | Room 282
Gregory Jones (University of Tulsa)
New modes of reactivity for strained alkynes in biological systems
II. Eric Sikma (Texas Tech)
Synthesis and Characterization of Carbene-Stabilized Mono and Diradicals
III. Hamilton Lee (Trinity University)
Co-Host Mediated Divalent Recognition of Peptides
IV. Caleb Karmel (Rice University)
Small Molecule Binders for Lyn SH3 Domains
V. David Leach (Trinity University)
Sequence-Specific, Nanomolar Peptide Recognition via the Folding and Inclusion of Neighboring Sidechains
in Cucurbit[8]uril
Session 3B – Computational Chemistry
I.
2:00 PM | Room 284
Ugochukwu Ezenkewe (Texas Southern University)
Modeling Stray Radiation Produced from an x-ray Therapy Unit
II. Benjamin Corona (UT Austin)
High-Throughput Computational Screening of Nanoparticles for Chemical Catalysis
III. Ewa Nowara (St. Mary’s University)
The Ground State and Excited State Potential Energy Surfaces of Peroxyacetyl Radical
IV. Joseph Ellis (Texas Tech)
Rovibrational bound state calculations of sulfur dioxide isotopologues using ScalIT: Quantum mechanics
answers fundamental questions on the origins of life
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Session 3B – Computational Chemistry Continued:
V. Thomas Weinlandt (Rice University)
A method to formulate the unit cell for DFT calculations of the electronic band structure of heterostructures
of 2-dimensional nanosheets
Session 4 – Computational & Experimental Biological Chemistry
I.
3:45 PM | Room 282
Timothy Burt (U of Houston)
Heterogeneous Go-model captures robust folding nucleus of wild-type LysM domain and circular variant
II. Francisco Colón (U of Houston Downtown)
Computational Modeling and Optimization of Porphyrin Catalysts Useful for Artificial Photosynthesis
III. Liezelle Lopez (Trinity University)
Isolation and Characterization of a Mixed Disulfide Intermediate Between Thermus thermophilus Sco and
CuA
IV. Anastasia Lopez (Texas A & M)
Investigating acetaminophen influenced Post Translational Modification via acrloyl derivatization,
incorporation and targeting
V. Daniel Diaz (Texas A & M)
How nature makes vitamin B12; the last unsolved biosynthetic module
VI. Layla Nejad (UT Austin)
Structural Changes to Protein-Ligand Interactions and Thermodynamic Effects
Keynote Speaker
5:30 PM | Room 280
Dr. Peter Wolynes (D.R. Bullard-Welch Foundation Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Physics &
Astronomy, Professor of Materials Science & NanoEngineering at Rice University)
The Protein Folding Problem
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