USC CHEMIST
A Newsletter for Alumni and Friends of the Department
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of South Carolina
Fall 2001
Looking Back—
Guy Fleming
Lipscomb,
BS 1938
Having enjoyed the
article on Dr. Guy
White, 1929, I could
not help thinking about
my days as the son of
a department head,
Dr. Guy F. Lipscomb.
My first exposure to
the Chemistry Department was as a child
Lipscomb
living on the campus.
I remember Dr. William Burney, chemistry
head, as a warm, friendly man who was kind to
me as a young boy. Dr. Burney brought my
father from Clemson to USC in 1919. Dr. Mills
joined the department in the 20’s and left in the
30’s to develop the research department at
Sonoco Products in Hartsville—later, Mills had
Dr. Copenhaver, of the USC chemistry department, join him in Hartsville.
Entering the University in 1934, having listened to chemistry over the dining table for
years, it was almost a foregone conclusion that
I would be a student in my father’s freshman
chemistry class. One thing I soon realized was
that we would have a quiz every Monday
morning! And he would let us drop one score
during the semester for our final quiz score. He
also would let us skip the exam if we had a 95
Please see Lipscomb on page 10
You Can Help!
Help perpetuate the department’s tradition
of producing outstanding chemistry students
by making a donation to one of our scholarship, fellowship, or lectureship funds. See
the enclosed envelope for more information.
Thank you!
The New Graduate Science Research Center
Department Moves Into the GSRC
At long last, after literally years of waiting,
faculty, staff and students are occupying the
new Graduate Science Research Center
(GSRC). Although certain cynics jokingly
quipped that we’d never see the day when the
building was complete, the Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry began its laborious move in April 2000.
In the process of transporting equipment, files
and personal belongings from the Jones Physical Sciences Center (PSC, the “old” Chemistry
building) across Devine Street to the new
GSRC, the predominating feeling was perhaps
disbelief! “In truth,” says Dr. Roy Wuthier, “I
never thought I would live to see the day when
I was actually working in a new building. We
should be very glad to be here!”
As is always the case, the move was stressful,
and there were inevitable losses. Certain chemistry and biochemistry staff members lament
the disorganization of their files, which were
slowly but surely sorted out before the beginning of our first term in the new building. And,
because of the nature of the department’s lab
equipment (fragile and expensive!), the move
was especially trying. “After working in the old
building for almost my entire graduate career, I
was none too eager to move, even to a new
state-of-the-art facility,” says graduate student
Andrea Thomas. “Moving an office, much less
a fully-stocked chemistry lab is no one’s idea of
a good time.” But all worked out for the best—
“We found that teamwork and planning saved
the day. A lot got cleaned out, thrown out, and,
just like cleaning out your closet, we found
things we forgot we even had. Now it seems
like we’ve always been here!”
But none of the stresses of moving could possibly interfere with the elation of the faculty
and students who have the privilege of christening the brand-new, state-of-the-art labs with
their research! “The new building is beautiful!”
says Ms. Thomas. “The hoods are fantastic, our
laser room is well-designed and perfectly functional, and the wet lab is a pleasure to work in.
We have a lot to be grateful for in the GSRC.”
The space available for departmental research
has been increased 75 percent in our new building. Productivity is increased through modern
design—the building was designed as a chemistry research building and features a futuristic
Please see GSRC on page 5
Alumnus Reveals Secret to Stock Market Success
One of the University of South Carolina’s
most generous donors and friends, Dr. Fred
Weissman (BS, Chemistry, ’36), has published
his first book, In Bed with the Right People:
How I Made Millions on Wall Street. Fred
Weissman should be a familiar name to any
friend of USC. His dedication to the
University and his fascinating life
make Weissman a remarkable individual. During World War II he served
the U.S. Army flying C47s in North
Africa, Sicily, and England. He was
later assigned to a U.S. Army Air
Forces Intelligence Operation in Germany under the direct auspices of the
war department, where he served with
distinction. After studying medicine at
the University of Geneva Medical School,
Weissman worked his internship at the
City Hospital in New York, completing his
residency in neurology at Bellevue. Weissman held a private neurological practice,
and was a member of the staff of the New
York Medical College. He is also a longtime supporter of the department and the
University, both financially and by example.
In 1989, Dr. Weissman provided $100,000 to
establish a chaired professorship in chemical
ecology within the Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry. He has also funded an
endowment for faculty enrichment in the
College of Liberal Arts, and in 1992 established
the David and Esther Berlinberg Distinguished
Professorship in the College of Business. In
addition, Weissman has served on the USC
Educational Foundation Board’s Investment
Committee for a number of years. Dr. Weissman’s academic and philanthropic successes are
themselves testaments to the strength of a USC
education.
Weissman’s book is a detailed account of one
of his less celebrated successes: his career in the
stock market. It outlines the guiding principles
and methodologies that have led him to a
prominent position in the world of trading. A
fascinating story, Dr. Weissman’s book is an
intricate recollection of every step of his financial career. He reflects with insight both into the
psychological experience of the stock trader and
into the stock market itself. Although his modesty insists upon stressing the errors he made
during his 40 years of trading, Dr. Weissman’s
patience, perseverance, and appreciation of
those who came before him culminated in an
astounding success in the market. This book is
the story of the transformation of a young dabbler in the stock market into a confident and
seasoned expert.
What is perhaps
most remarkable about this book, beyond
Weissman’s amazing foresight into the stock
market, is that he wrote In Bed With the Right
People not out of a desire to promulgate or
aggrandize his financial success, but so that he
might share his insight—true to his philanthropic nature. This book is intended to prevent those
who read it from making the mistakes Dr.
Weissman did early on; to reinforce the lessons
which Weissman was forced to learn the hard
way—through loss of both money and confidence. He encourages the reader to follow their
reasoning faculties, but he also stresses the
importance of listening to one’s intuition.
The title of Weissman’s book derives from his
belief that one of the wisest paths for anyone
who “plays” the stock market is to learn how
the experts, the successful traders, earned their
positions, and to follow their example. One per2
son whose life is an example to Dr. Weissman
is George Soros, founder of the Open Society
Fund and the Central European University.
Weissman stresses the influence of Soros’ concept of “reflexivity” on his methods of trading
stock. As Weissman writes, “His is a prescription for thinking and acting upon problems
encountered in all walks of life, not just investment.” The idea has been crucial to Weissman’s
success, and is a theme in his book. He
explains the theory in his own words in the
introduction to In Bed with the Right People: “
… knowledge is always less than perfect,
hence the state of human knowledge about a
company’s potential, or for that matter a
society’s circumstances, always diverges
from reality. The greater the divergence, the
greater the chance of a dramatic shift.” This
leaves a wide gap of potential influence on
reality. “ … human action influences reality, and the greater the divergence between
our knowledge and reality, the greater the
potential for influence.” By our very
interactions with reality, we alter reality
itself. When we choose to invest in a
particular stock because of its upward
mobility, our investment influences and
alters that mobility. “ … relation
between knowledge and reality is
reflexive, hence the name of his paradigm … analysts assess value, value
in turn is altered due to the source of
the assessment, which in turn modifies the
assessment and so on.” Dr. Weissman describes
in his book how he has utilized the idea of
reflexivity in order to make certain crucial decisions in stock trading: What does one do when
a stock bought months ago is going anywhere
but up, but had been showing so much promise?
Should a person sell stock in a company that
hasn’t gone up in two years, but hasn’t gone
down, either? What risks should a novice be
willing to take? Using Soros’ idea of reflexivity
and other lessons learned from his predecessors,
Dr. Weissman offers worldly answers to these
questions and more, and creates for his readers
a how-to manual for the stock market.
Once again, Dr. Fred Weissman has served
the USC community well through his insightful
and interesting book. We applaud another success!
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Salutes Retirees
Last year, the
Department of
Chemistry and
Biochemistry said
goodbye to four
important members of its community. Commencement
ceremonies in
May 2000 and
May 2001
Gimarc
marked the retirements of faculty
members Daniel J. Antion and Benjamin M.
Gimarc, and long-time staff members Joel M.
Babbitt and Georgia Lloyd. The warm and tearful reaction from the departmental community
to these retirements is a testament to the effect
these four people have had on the department.
Dr. Gimarc has been with USC since 1966.
He earned a BS in Chemistry from Rice University, served in the United States Navy from
1956–58, and was awarded a Ph.D. from
Northwestern University where he received a
Union Carbide Fellowship. After completing a
postdoctoral at Johns Hopkins University, Dr.
Gimarc came to the University of South Carolina. Once at USC, he embarked on a varied and
assiduous career. He served on the Faculty Senate, as an undergraduate advisor,
as a medical technology advisor, as
a Fulbright program advisor, and
untiringly carried
out other committee work. Dr.
Gimarc served as
both chair and
department head
of the DepartAntion
ment of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He held visiting
appointments at Rudjer Boskovic Institute in
Zagreb, Yugoslavia, Princeton University, and
the University of California-Berkeley. Dr.
Gimarc published over 70 articles in the most
prestigious academic journals throughout his
career and wrote a book, Molecular Structure
and Bonding: The Qualitative Molecular
Orbital Approach, published by the Academic
Press.
Upon his retirement, Dr. Gimarc became a
distinguished professor emeritus at USC. At the
reception in his and Dr. Antion’s honor, Dr.
Gimarc indicated that he is at work on another
book that will stand as the second volume to
his previously published book.
Dr. Antion’s association with USC started
just three years after Dr. Gimarc joined the
University. He received a Ph.D. from the
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at
USC in 1969. He followed his Ph.D. by working as a research chemist at Carnegie-Mellon
University and then at E.I. duPont de Nemours
& Co. Dr. Antion returned to USC in 1973 after
a stint teaching chemistry at Stanly Community
College in Albemarle, North Carolina. Upon
arriving at USC, Dr. Antion was appointed
assistant dean of the College of Science and
Mathematics and also taught chemistry for the
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Since that time Dr. Antion has served the
administration admirably, holding positions of
associate provost, associate director of the
Office of Technology Transfer, and director of
outreach activities. Dr. Antion also served as
the chair of the South Carolina section of the
American Chemical Society, as president of the
South Carolina Academy of Science, and
received the Governor’s Award for Excellence
in Science in 1995.
Our two retiring staff members were both
well-loved people and dedicated workers
whose skill and service will be missed. Joel
Babbit, our master glass blower, received his
training from the University of Michigan. He
began his career working at Ann Arbor Scientific, Inc., in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he
provided glass blowing services to dozens of
public and private
organizations,
including General
Motors and
N.A.S.A. Later,
he became the
manager of the
glass blowing
shop at the University of Michigan, where he
worked for four
years. In 1983,
Babbit
Babbitt began his
3
work at the University of South Carolina, and
he has been with us since. As master glass
blower, Babbitt not only repaired containers or
other lab equipment made of glass; he also
designed and constructed glassware especially
made to fit a particular research need. For
instance, he assisted a number of faculty in
building vacuum lines so that they could conduct chemical experiments in the absence of
oxygen and other gases or in the presence of a
defined gas or mixture of gases. Thus, he
played a very significant role in the department;
the absence of a glass blower from the staff will
be felt by the faculty.
Georgia Lloyd, coordinator for the faculty
director of medical biochemistry, received a
bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of North Carolina, and is a registered medical technologist. During her tenure with us,
Lloyd worked
closely with Dr.
Roy Wuthier, then
Dr. John Baynes,
and finally with
Dr. Jim Sodetz.
Her primary
duties were to
organize the twosemester course
syllabus, arrange
for the staffing of
Lloyd
Clinical Correlation Conferences
by physicians, proctor and grade quizzes and
exams for at least 72 first-year medical students, and compile and report the performance
of each student. Former chair Dr. Bruce Dunlap
says, “Georgia’s industriousness and reliability
greatly lightened the load for the biochemists in
the department.”
The University and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry are eminently grateful
to these four community members for their
service to the University, and to the department.
Though they will be missed, we are glad to
have been a part of their lives and to have been
bettered by knowing them. We wish them well
in their future endeavors and hope to see them
from time to time.
Dr. Bill Harris Named VP for Research
The Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry welcomes
new faculty member Dr.
William Harris, recently named
vice president for research at the
University of South Carolina.
Dr. Harris is a New York
native who earned a Bachelor of
Science degree in chemistry
from the College of William
and Mary in 1966, and a Ph.D.
from USC in 1970. He served
for almost 10 years as a professor
at Furman University and was a
Dreyfus Foundation TeacherHarris
Scholar, 1975–80. His outstanding career with the National Science Foundation (NSF) included: serving as head of the
mathematical and physical sciences; managing
a $750 million budget; establishing the Science
and Technology Centers Program; developing
the complex LIGO, Gemi-Telescope, and Magnet
Labs; overseeing the development and funding of 25
interdisciplinary and multiple-institution science and
technology centers; initiating the Research Experience for Undergraduates
(REU) Program; establishing the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities; and acting as lead support-provider
for individual researchers.
Dr. Harris also was the
president and executive
director of Columbia University’s Biosphere 2 Center
from 1996–2000. The center,
a research and teaching branch of Columbia
near Tucson, Arizona, focuses on earth systems
science, policy, and management.
Dedicated to guiding the University of South
Carolina to a more competitive position in
terms of peer-recognized academic excellence,
Dr. Harris particularly stresses the importance
of research development. “Nothing could be
more important for the state than to have a
nationally prominent research university that is
built upon outstanding classroom teaching for
our undergraduates and research scholarship
that is recognized by scholars from the nation’s
leading research institutions.”
This new addition to the USC community is
sure to be a significant one, and Dr. Harris will
undoubtedly accomplish those goals he sets for
himself in the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry, and in the college community as
a whole. His optimistic attitude is one we
could all take as an example. He says, “We
must continuously look toward the future in the
pursuit of new knowledge, new ideas, and new
discoveries.”
Dr. Catherine Murphy Encourages
Students to Question
Dr. Catherine J. Murphy of the
Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry was presented the
Michael J. Mungo Teaching
Award this June. Each year, five
Mungo Awards in the amount of
$2,000 each are presented to
members of the undergraduate
faculty at the University of South
Carolina, three going to the College
of Science and Mathematics and
Murphy
the College of Liberal Arts. The
awards are presented after careful
examination of the candidates’ teaching
philosophies and involvement in undergraduate
advising, mentoring, and teaching of undergraduate students. After months of consideration,
the provost of the University makes the final
decision, and honors those professors whose
teaching goes above and beyond what is expected.
This year, Dr. Catherine J. Murphy received this
honor.
Dr. Murphy received a Ph.D. in Inorganic
Chemistry from the University of WisconsinMadison in 1990, and subsequently accepted a
postdoctoral position at the California Institute of Technology,
where she remained for three years.
In 1993, she began her career in
the University’s Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry. Dr.
Murphy says, “I am honored to
win another teaching award for
the chemistry department.”
Dr. Murphy’s work with the
department has been in the areas
of inorganic chemistry, materials
science, and physical biochemistry. Her research is in the optical properties of
semiconductor clusters, luminescent probes of
DNA wrapping and bending, and inorganic
coordination compounds for optical sensing.
Dr. Murphy is the principal investigator of the
National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in the
Department of Chemistry, where she integrates
a nanoscience theme, and has had a total of 48
undergraduates and high-school students work
in her lab since coming to USC in 1993.
Dr. Murphy clearly places importance on her
4
work with undergraduate students, and directs a
great deal of energy toward it. She has a clear
teaching philosophy that she incorporates into
her classes, she says, which has as its focus the
“How?” of science. “I try to emphasize in my
classes ‘how do we know that?’ and present
experiments that demonstrate how we come to
know things.” Having this question as the
ground of scientific investigation encourages
students to delve deeper into the often complex
concepts presented in their undergraduate
study. What urges a student to learn and to
excel is not the sheer memorization of facts and
figures, but rather an authentic grasp on the
ideas that are the foundation of scientific
knowledge, and Dr. Murphy’s philosophy has
been facilitating that drive in her students
throughout her career in chemistry.
Dr. Murphy has had a positive impact on the
academic lives of countless undergraduates
since 1993, and for this the Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry extends a warm
congratulations!
Dr. Scott Goode Lends an Ear to Undergraduates
The Ada B. Thomas Outstanding
Faculty Award is an honor which
is given to one faculty member
each year who has shown a level
of insight and sensitivity to students’ needs to merit recognition.
The nominees for the award are
elected by undergraduates, who
have first-hand experience with
the advisors, working closely with
them throughout the year. This
year, the students have spoken in Goode
favor of Dr. Scott Goode, an experienced and dedicated student advisor.
Dr. Goode knows all too well the frequent
opinion of advising amongst faculty at other
schools. “They view it as a chore,” he says. He
knows that this attitude can leave students with
no one to turn to when they need advice, and
perhaps more importantly, no one to nudge
them along their chosen path encouragingly.
“The trick to advising,” Dr. Goode says, “is not
speaking, but listening.” Advisors are not solely
authorities who ensure that their students have
taken the necessary courses and filled out the
proper paperwork, although these technicalities
are a part of the position as well. Advisors can
often serve as parental figures of a sort; people
who care about their students and
who are looking out for their best
interests. Dr. Goode takes a holistic approach when advising his
students, and works to see that, as
well as being academically and
intellectually secure, students are
happy and healthy; indeed, we
can only imagine the numbers of
students who have gleefully discovered the therapeutic nature of
Dr. Goode’s resounding laugh!
Because Dr. Goode has spent
years listening to his students, he has observed
differences in learning styles; certain tendencies
students have in their intellectual retention and
development. The recognition of these tendencies has helped Dr. Goode to structure the academic careers of his advisees in a manner most
beneficial to them. For example, he delineates,
“There are some students who are auditory
learners—they listen attentively during class,
but rarely take notes and don’t spend much
time reading the text.” These students, he
explains, would do well in those classes with
faculty who focus their energies on lectures, but
would flounder in classes structured around
written information. “There are other students,”
he says, “who can’t pay attention during class,
but read the text thoroughly, and pass all of the
exams.” This observation has given Dr. Goode
the ability to match students to the classes best
suited to their learning styles, and, in turn,
enhance the learning process. “I don’t tell them,
‘take this class, it’s easy.’ I describe to the student how the instructor grades and teaches, and
often students decide for themselves.”
In addition, Dr. Goode does not forget the
lessons he learned during his undergraduate
years: “Nothing taught me chemistry like the
research I did in school—I always place an
emphasis on research as early as possible.”
When asked if he dealt with some difficulties
in the early years of his advising, Dr. Goode
laughs; “Well, my first advisee almost didn’t
graduate!” Since that time, Dr. Goode has had a
wealth of experience with students, faculty, and
the chemistry curriculum that has made him
one of the best faculty advisors at USC today.
His thoughtful and generous approach to advising has endeared students to him for years, and
it has perhaps never been so clear as with the
receipt of the Ada B. Thomas award. On behalf
of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, congratulations on an award well earned.
GSRC continued from page 1
which, according to third-year graduate student
Rob Umpleby, “keep people’s spirits up.” The
electrical lighting was designed by a lighting
engineer. Dr. Goode remarks, “It is not only
safer to work in a bright, well-lit lab, but productivity is improved and morale is high.” Dr.
Wuthier echoes his sentiment: “Go back to PSC,
remember how dingy and dark and dirty everything was there. And the smell; PSC was dank
and just smelled old and dirty. How nice it is to
be in a clean, bright, new building.” Dr. Thomas
Bryson, director of the graduate program, reiterates the excitement of the department: “It’s wonderful to be in a brand-new, very safe research
facility.”
Following are some interesting facts about the
GSRC:
•The GSRC is 158,000 square feet.
•A lap around the floor is 1/10 of a mile.
•The building contains 148 chemical fume hoods.
•There are two 200-hp pumps with variable
speed drives to supply chilled water up the
five air handlers.
•The USC energy plant that supplies the GSRC
and 1/4 of the campus, only has one 150-hp
pump.
• GSRC energy utilization is controlled and
monitored by Energy Services—they have a
remote readout of all our indicators.
• The Columbia water pressure is not sufficient
to reach the fifth floor, so the pressure is
boosted by a pump in the first floor mechanical room—the pressure on the first floor is
about 60 psi and it drops 1 psi for every 28
inches of elevation.
• There is no hot water tank—the domestic hot
water passes through a steam jacket and exits
at 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The ground floor of the GSRC is 299 feet
above sea level.
• The distance from one floor to the next is 15
feet.
• The total cost of construction was $36.6 million and nearly half this cost is in the air handler system and other utilities that run above
the ceiling.
• The GSRC has class 1,000 and a class 10,000
clean rooms on the second floor.
system to control fume hoods. Dr. Catherine
Murphy feels that the hoods will increase the
quality of work done in the department’s labs.
Indeed, Dr. Scott Goode, who has been instrumental in the design and construction of the
GSRC, says that one of the most frequent comments he hears from faculty housed in the GSRC
is, “The hoods are awesome! For the first time,
my students are not working out on an open
bench.” This safe, energy-efficient system is
impressive—sensors determine whether a
researcher is working in a hood, and measure
the height to which the hood sash is raised. It
also measures pressures in the conditioned air
lines and hood exhausts, then adjusts the flow
rate to match health and safety standards. None
of the air used in the building recirculates. When
a researcher prepares to leave the lab, the hood
controller senses that lights are out and provides
a reminder to lower the sash to save energy.
Another benefit that the building offers and
which faculty, staff and students emphasize is
the lighting. The GSRC has many large windows,
5
Alumni News
Michael S. Alexander (BS ’91) is a
facility/process engineer for Phillips Petroleum
Company in Alaska.
William D. Anderson, Jr. (BS ’53) was a
biology major at USC who minored in chemistry. He serves as a professor emeritus for the
Department of Biology at the College of
Charleston.
Gary S. Bartley (Ph.D. ’96) is a research scientist at Protein Delivery, Inc. in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and is currently
developing water-soluble prodrugs of paclitaxel
(Taxol) and anti-obesity drug candidates.
Dr. Kim W. Baughman (Ph.D. ’83) has been
named managing director at Southern Testing
and Research Laboratories in Wilson, North
Carolina.
Jeffrey O. Boles (Ph.D. ’92) has recently
been promoted to associate professor at Tennessee Technological University. He is president
of the Biochemistry Division of The Southern
Association of Agricultural Scientists
(SAAS), and associate editor of the SAAS journal Biochemistry and Biotechnology. Bole’s
wife Tammy (MS ’92) is the metals specialist at
the TTU Center for the Utilization and Management of Water Resources.
William H. “Jack” Breazeale, Jr. (Ph.D.
’66) retired from FMU in 1997, and is living in
Mt. Pleasant and enjoying coastal South Carolina. He currently teaches part-time at the College
of Charleston. He also presents safety workshops for the Laboratory Safety Institute.
Dr. Rebecca Bullard-Dillard (Ph.D. ’96) is
assistant professor of biology at Claflin College
and chair of the Department of Biology. She
received the 1998–1999 James Hunter Award
for Excellence in Teaching and Education
(Claflin College Professor of the Year). She is a
board member of the Diversity Advisory Committee at the Medical University of South Carolina, College of Health Professions in
Charleston, South Carolina.
William J. Egan (Ph.D. ’98) is featured in the
June 5 issue of Chemical & Engineering News.
The article is about drug discovery and the work
he has done with chemometric methods to
search databases. He is working at U.S. Pharmacopoeia in Princeton, New Jersey.
Curtis N. Gadson (BS ’87) has used his
chemistry background in the U.S. Army. He is
currently the Installation Chemical Officer for Fort
Polk and the Joint Readiness Training Center.
Deedra Nunnally (nee Foxworth) (MS, ’96)
Jules E. Goldberg, Esq. (MS ’63) has joined
the law firm of Reedsmith LLP as a partner in the
intellectual property group of the New York office.
Sean O’Connor (MS ’78) is the director of
Mark Graham (BS ’83) is a graduate of the
Medical College of Virginia and currently works
as a physician.
Judith Iriarte-Gross (Ph.D. ’90) received an
early promotion to associate professor in her
fourth year at Middle Tennessee State University.
She was awarded the MTSU Foundation Outstanding Public Service award in recognition of
her work to encourage young women in math
and science.
Scott A. Jackson (BS ’96) is currently a thirdyear biochemistry graduate student in the lab of
Dr. Sarah Woodson at Johns Hopkins University.
The focus of his Ph.D. project is RNA-mediated
group I intron transposition through reverse
splicing.
Reka Kovacs (BS ’99) serves as a research
assistant at Yale University, in the School of
Medicine’s Dermatology Department.
David Lynn (BS ’94) received a Ph.D from the
California Institute of Technology in June (thesis
title: “Water-Soluble Ruthenium Alkylidene
Complexes: Synthesis and Application to Olefin
Metathesis in Protic Solvents”). He is headed for
a post-doctoral position at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology at the end of June1999.
and Brian K. Nunnally, Sr., reside in Indianapolis,
Indiana. In January 2000, they became the proud
parents of a little boy, Brian K. Nunnally, Jr.
quality control for CyGene, Inc., in Sunrise,
Florida, a company specializing in DNA diagnostics.
Blake Otwell (a former postdoctoral fellow in
Dr. Bruce Dunlap’s lab in the 1970s) is an assistant professor of chemistry at Jacksonville State
University in Jacksonville, Alabama. He
received a $60,000 grant from the Alabama
Department of Public Health and A.L.E.R.T. for
chemical Environmental Monitoring of Terrapin
Creek. He and his wife Cynthia adopted a sixmonth old girl named Chanee LeAnne this past
spring.
Angela McCaskill Roberts (BS ’79) is
using her “chemistry” as a home-schooling
mom of three boys (ages 7, 9, and 15) and as a
minister’s wife in the beautiful mountains northwest of Knoxville, Tennessee.
Dr. John W. Schofield (BS ’42) is “doing the
best he can.”
Donald W. Shenenberger (BS ‘92) received
a MD from USC School of Medicine in ’96, and
is currently finishing his chief residency year in
family practice at the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville.
D. Randolph Whitt (BS ’84) is a shareholder
in the Columbia law firm of Moses, Koon &
Brackett, PC.
Dawn McCary (nee Healy) (MS, ’96) works
Taffy J. Williams (Ph.D. ’75) has recently
for the new J. Org. Chemistry office at the University of Utah, and Jason McCary, who successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis in March and is
now in Dale Poulter’s group at the University of
Utah, have a son, Jacob, born last December.
accepted a position as president and CEO of
Photogen, Inc. Photogen is a small biotech company that concentrates on radio- and photo-sensitizers. The focus of the company is diagnosis
and treatment of cancer, but the technology may
be used to treat other diseases as well. She continues to live in the Philadelphia area.
Fred McLean (MS ’85) is a neuroradiologist
in a practice in east Tennessee. He likes his job
and was recently made a partner in the group.
His lives with his wife Laura and their children,
Alex (8) and Emily (5), who are a lot of fun and
keep them busy.
Alexander B. Morgan (Ph.D. ’98) has just
started a new job at Dow Chemical Company as
a senior research chemist in corporate R&D.
6
Ruilian Wu (Ph.D. ’92) is a senior
scientist/synthetic organic chemistry at Admetric
Biochem., Inc. Her husband Xiaoming is a senior software engineer at Intel. They and three
children (Connie, Kevin and David) have lived
in Groveland, Massachusetts, since 1996.
Dr. zur Loye Receives Prestigious Professorship
zur Loye
Dr. Hanno zur Loye was recently awarded
the David W. Robinson Palmetto Professorship
in recognition of his research accomplishments
and his service to the University. “It is a great
honor to be awarded such a professorship,” he
says. Dr. zur Loye, who was born in Frankfurt,
Germany, came to the University of South Carolina as an associate professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996. Having received his training at Brown University,
the University of California-Berkeley, and
Northwestern University, Dr. zur Loye has
enjoyed great success in the laboratory as well
as in the classroom. “I very much enjoy teaching. This is the main reason for my being in
academia. I teach freshman chemistry in the
spring and a graduate course in inorganic materials chemistry as well as University 101 in the
fall. This gives me the opportunity to interact
with the students.” Aside from teaching courses, he is also responsible for the instruction of
his research group, which has 10 members. “I
spend a large amount of time teaching my
graduate students the ins and outs of research. I
talk to them every day to see how they are
doing and how their research is going. This can
take minutes to hours, depending on circumstances. It’s fun to be in the lab, if only to talk
to my students,” he says.
Dr. zur Loye took to chemistry at an
early age. He cites his high school
chemistry teacher, Mr. Kietrys of Mendham High School in New Jersey, as one
of his strongest influences. Though Dr.
zur Loye gravitated initially towards natural products synthetic chemistry as an
undergraduate at Brown, a course in
inorganic chemistry with Professor
Aaron Wold proved pivotal. “It was an
exciting class and convinced me that I
wanted to change directions. I took two
more inorganic classes with him and
worked in his laboratory for one-and-ahalf years. Working in his lab got me
interested in solid state materials chemistry.” This interest in solid-state chemistry led him to study at UC-Berkeley
with Professor Angy Stacy.
Though Dr. zur Loye sometimes misses the weather at Berkeley, his feelings
toward the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry at USC are resoundingly
warm. “The department is one of the
most collegial that one can imagine.
There are lots of collaborations that arise naturally because everybody is interested in working together. This sets us apart from most other
places,” he says. A good situation got even better once the department moved into the Graduate Science Research Center (GSRC). “I am
extremely happy that we finally moved. Now
we have a state-of-the-art facility, customdesigned to some extent, which enables us to
carry out our research. The GSRC is a great
building.”
Dr. zur Loye’s research group is currently
engaged in three separate projects. The first is
in collaboration with a research group in
France headed by Jacques Darriet. The project
concerns the growth of oxide single crystals
and the determination of their structures and the
measurement of their physical properties. These
oxides often crystallize in structures that are
modulated and must be solved in four-dimensional space, as they are aperiodic in three
dimensions. The NSF supports this program,
and, starting next summer, together with ShiouJhy Hwu at Clemson University and Angus
Wilkinson at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Dr. zur Loye will be running the NSF
Undergraduate Summer Research Program in
Solid State Chemistry for the next four years.
7
His group is also investigating new catalysts
for the production of hydrogen gas from natural
gas. They work with Professor Michael
Amiridis in chemical engineering at USC on
the production of CO and CO2-free hydrogen
that can be used in fuel cells without the need
for further purification.
Lastly, he is working on organic/inorganic
hybrid structures. This work is done in collaboration with Professor Uwe Bunz and his
research group here in the chemistry department. They are working on the synthesis of
new organic/inorganic framework materials that
have applications in air separation and selective
absorption and in catalysis. “We’ve synthesized
over 100 new materials with new structures in
the last two years, and we are picking up the
pace. This is one of the most fun areas of
chemistry that I have ever worked in. It’s fastpaced, exciting, and full of the unexpected.”
Dr. zur Loye keeps quite busy and has additional responsibilities as the director of graduate admissions for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, as well as being an
associate editor for the Journal of Solid State
Chemistry, section editor for Chemtracts: Inorganic Chemistry, and a member of the editorial
board for the Journal of Alloys and
Compounds, and Solid State Ionics. In his offtime he spends time with his family, plays golf
when he can, and is hard at work teaching his
five-year-old son, Karl, to speak German.
Looking for up-to-date
alumni news?
Interested in faculty research?
Want to attend a seminar?
Visit our Website!
http://www.chem.sc.edu
Dr. James Sodetz Esteemed in Field of Research
Each year USC recognizes several faculty
members for outstanding scholarship. The Russell
Research Award was established in 1957 and is
the University’s most prestigious annual prize
for research. The award is given for innovative
research or creative achievement on a significant subject; this is defined as the collection
and organization of data with new insights into
and understandings of a defined problem, subject, or theme.
This year Dr. James M. Sodetz of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemsitry is the
recipient of the Russell Research Award in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering for his
research on the human “complement” system.
Dr. Sodetz received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry
in 1975 from the University of Notre Dame and
was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University Medical School from 1975–77. He
joined the USC faculty as an assistant professor
in 1978, and is currently a Carolina Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry in our
department and the director of Medical Biochemistry for the USC School of Medicine.
His major research interest is in the structure,
function, and molecular genetics of a group of
human blood proteins that work together with
the immune system to destroy bacterial cells
and other pathogens. The research uses cloning
and recombinant DNA technology to produce
altered forms of these proteins that can be used
in studies of how they disrupt the integrity of
cell membranes and thereby kill a cell.
The NIH has supported Dr. Sodetz’s research
at USC for 20 consecutive years, with additional support being provided by the NSF, the
American Heart Association, and the American
Cancer Society. That NIH has funded his project for so long is a remarkable achievement; it
is very difficult to obtain and especially to sustain NIH funding. In 1982 he received the prestigious five-year Established Investigator
Research Award from the American Heart
Association. He has been principal investigator
on 4.5 million dollars in external grants while at
USC, and has published over 50 full papers in
peer-reviewed journals and has authored several
book chapters and review articles. He has
served as an associate editor of the Journal of
Immunology, the most prestigious journal in the
area of immunology, as well as serving on
numerous grant review panels at the local,
national, and international level, including those
for the American Heart Association, NSF, and
NIH.
Dr. Sodetz’s research is specifically concerned
with how five protein components of the complement system (designated C5b, C6, C7, C8,
C9) interact and assemble to form a macromolecular complex on target cell membranes. This
“membrane attack complex” (or MAC) disrupts
the membrane structure of a target cell, which
leads to cell killing in the case of bacteria or the
triggering of inflammatory responses in the case
of mammalian cells. For nearly 20 years he has
been studying the mechanism by which this
occurs, and has approached this through
detailed structure-function studies of one of the
components, i.e. human C8. This protein is
unusual in that it is composed of three different
polypetide chains (subunits) each of which is
encoded by a different gene.
Dr. Sodetz’s research began with the development of purification procedures to obtain high
yields of C8 from human blood. This was followed by basic studies of the physical and
chemical properties of C8. Subsequently he
moved into the area of C8 molecular biology
and genetics. His lab isolated and utilized
human DNA clones to determine the complete
amino acid sequence of C8 and its constituent
genes. This information was crucial in that it
revealed that C8 was derived from the same
ancestral gene as C6, C7, and C9, and that
together these proteins comprise what is now
referred to as the “MAC protein family.” It also
facilitated development of rapid PCR-based
screening methods to detect point mutations in
the gene. Dr. Sodetz’s lab determined through
analysis of yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs)
that two of the C8 subunits are closely linked on
human chromosome 1.
Dr. Sodetz’s most recent efforts have taken
advantage of the many reagents and tools developed in his lab. He is now using recombinant
DNA approaches to study C8 structure and
function. He successfully developed methods to
produce all three human C8 subunits in cultured
insect cells and monkey kidney cells and is
using this system to map the location of important binding sites in C8. At the present time, his
lab is using the elegant approach of designing
chimeric recombinant C8 proteins in which specific segments of the human C8 subunits are
exchanged. These are cutting-edge experiments
that are technically very difficult because of the
8
multi-subunit nature of C8. One of their longterm goals is to identify functionally important
segments of C8 and develop recombinant analogues (fusion proteins, chimeras, etc.) that can
be targeted to attack undesirable human cells,
e.g. tumor cells.
Dr. Sodetz’s important research has prompted
several invited articles in the past few years, and
he recently wrote a book chapter on the MAC
family of proteins, the first such comprehensive
review of these proteins and their genes. He’s
also been asked to write a chapter for a new
series entitled The Encyclopedia of Life Sciences to be produced by the publishers of
Nature and Scientific American. He has a chapter on C8 in press in the Academic Press’s
FactsBook series and he was recently invited to
contribute a review article on C8 for a special
‘Lipocalins’ issue of BBA-Protein Structure and
Molecular Enzymology to be published in
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta.
Dr. Sodetz’s research accomplishments are
important to understanding protein structurefunction in general and the MAC proteins in
particular. His research achievement ranges
from the most basic protein chemistry and
molecular biology to the gene and the most
sophisticated level of study: producing recombinant human proteins. Throughout the gamut of
his experience, Dr. Sodetz has demonstrated
innovation and creativity by applying inventive
methodologies and technologies to the study of
this complex system.
USC Chemist is written and edited by
Psyche Ready, with help on this issue from
Shawn Miller and Guy Lipscomb. To
contribute alumni news or feedback:
Web: www.chem.sc.edu/news/alumni/alumniinfo or follow the links from the department’s homepage, www.chem.sc.edu
Or write: USC Chemist, Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of
South Carolina, SC 29208.
E-mail: chemweb@mail.chem.sc.edu
Student Awards
The department is proud to be the home of a number of talented students who have been recognized
at the departmental, University, and state levels. Following are some recent honorees.
Life Scholars
Brandi Nichole Andrews
Joshua B. Aronson
Patrick Atkinson
Jonathan D. Black
Nefertiti A. Brown
Eric E. Childers
Brandi L. Clelland
Maribeth C. Coleman
Gregory B. Collins
George A. Cooper
Emily S. Cox
Mary E. Dalton
John N. Dantzler
Nathaniel T. Green
Mark M. Hartney
Stephanie E. Hooper
Thua Huynh
Brent A. Keener
Courtney T. King
William Klauber
Jacob Lasovage
Dennis B. Martin
Kristen A. Matthews
Randolph B. Meekins
Megan J. Nikolai
Shital J. Patel
Angela C. Powell
Kyle D. Proffitt
Lan T. Quan
Carrie A. Sanders
Matthew J. Shmanske
Sandra Leigh Shotwell
Marisha L. Swinger
Pamela L. Tisdale
James N. Wilson
Bouknight Teaching Award Winners
The following graduate students were honored for outstanding teaching:
Fall 1999
John Berch
Christopher Dyke
Brian Long
Kimberlyn Caswell
Andrea Jurgens
Christopher Mubarak
Spring 2000
Steven Dubose
Matthew Davis
Vanessa Kinton
Thomas Metz
Della Smith
Chris Mubarak
Fall 2000
Brittnaie Bell
Paula Colavita
Vanessa Kinton
Chris Mubarak
Sherine O’Bare
Ruya Ozer
Shane Ricker
Spring 2001
Brittnaie Bell
Paula Colavita
Vanessa Kinton
Chris Mubarak
Sherine O’Bare
Ruya Ozer
Shane Ricker
These students were awarded travel funds to present research at national and international conferences:
June 2000
Rosemarie Chinni
Yong Chong
Charles Degenhardt III
Li Kong
Narendra Meruva
Marjorie Nicholson
Dimitra Stratis
Robert Umpleby II
Yunhan Zhang
October 2000
Kristine Eland
Lori Grabill
Richard Hoskins
Christine Little
Friday, October 19, 2001
1:30 p.m.
You are invited to attend!
Durig Travel Award Winners
February 2000
Steven Dubose
Kristine Eland
Quincy Ford
Susan Glenn
Vanessa Kinton
Narendra Meruva
Primrose Musingarimi
Sherine O’Bare
Allison Oxsher
Ruya Ozer
Neil Pschirer
Kristen Sellers
Winfried Steffen
Shane Waybright
Jessi Wildeson
Graduate Science
Research Center
Building Dedication
Narendra Meruva
Chris Mubarak
Michael Nivens
Allison Oxsher
Terri Wright
February 2001
Rosemarie Chinni
Shalawn Jackson
Sherine O’Bare
Katharine Stitzer
Robert Umpleby II
Featuring:
- Tours of the GSRC and labs
- Meet with faculty and students
Speakers:
Dr. Harry Gray,
Arnold O. Beckman Professor
of Chemistry, director of the
Beckman Institute at the
California Institute of Technology
Rear Admiral Jay Cohen,
Office of Naval Research
Please call Ann Cameron
at 803-777-9201 for details.
9
Faculty and Staff News
Dr. Richard D. Adams has been placed in an
inaugural position as the director of the new
Nanoscience Research Center at USC. He also
received the American Institute of Chemists
Chemical Pioneer Award and was a fellow of the
American Institute of Chemists. Additionally, he
was awarded the Outstanding South Carolina
Chemist of 2000 Award by the South Carolina
section of the American Chemical Society, and
was re-appointed as the Arthur Sease Williams
Professor of Chemistry. He spent the spring
2000 semester in Germany at the Technical University of Munich, the University of Karsruhe,
and the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg as the
first Senior Humbolt awardee from the USC
chemistry department. During this time, he gave
lectures at 17 major universities in Europe.
Dr. John W. Baynes was appointed to the
editorial board of BioGerontology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, and, in addition, was re-appointed as a Carolina Distinguished Professor.
Dr. Mark A. Berg was one of 10 scientists
elected by the Division of Chemical Physics to
fellowship in the American Physical Society.
Dr. Uwe Bunz received the Camille Dreyfus
Teacher-Scholar Award.
Dr. R. Bruce Dunlap was re-appointed as the
Fred M. Weissman Palmetto Professor of Chemical Ecology, and he and his former postdoctoral
fellow, John G. Moore, were awarded the South
Carolina Alliance for Minority Participation
Outstanding Research Mentor Award.
Dr. Michael L. Myrick was awarded the
1999 Imaging Solution of the Year Award,
Advanced Imaging Magazine.
Dr. Daniel L. Reger was awarded the Carolina
Trustee Professorship, awarded yearly to the
University’s best professor demonstrating excellence in a combination of research, teaching,
and service. Dr. Reger was also re-appointed as
a Carolina Distinguished Professor.
Dr. Jorge M. Seminario published Advances
in Quantum Chemistry: Density Functional Theory, Academic Press, New York, NY, 1999, and,
with Dr. P. B. Balbuena, Molecular Dynamics: From
Classical to Quantum Methods, Elsevier, 1999.
Dr. Timothy Shaw spent a year in Germany as
a recipient of a prestigious nine-month fellowship
from the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study to
conduct research at the Universities of Bremen
and Oldenburg and to give a series of lectures.
Dr. Roy E. Wuthier received a patent, “Angiogenesis Inhibitor for the Treatment of Cancer.”
Dr. Elizabeth H. Griffith and Dr. Licia
Wu received 20-year state service awards for
2000, and Ms. Sherri Howell-Redmond, Dr.
Masonori Sono, and Ms. Helga J. Cohen
received the award for 2001.
Dr. Brian R. Genge and Sherry L. Morrison received 10-year state service awards for
2000, and Dr. Bill Cotham received the award
for 2001.
Lipscomb continued from page 1
average on the quizzes. I well remember having
a 94 average. I had to take the exam and was
disappointed with a B!
My courses were aimed at a premedical
degree and I prevailed but never applied to medical school. I was an ordinary student who had
to work hard to get reasonable grades. Dad
knew what was needed—he told me that if I
didn’t have a B average every semester, I would
have to drop out of all extra activities—no more
basketball, no more tennis, no more track, no
more fraternity, no more girls! Well—you
know who made a B average! I loved competing on the USC teams and all the rest, so I
burned the midnight oil. I had a couple of Cs so
I took two courses that I was sure I could make
an A in and pull up the Cs. One was a New Testament course and the other was sex hygiene,
and, to my great disappointment, I got a B in
both. Everybody in the hygiene class read the
book in the first two weeks and then proceeded
to forget what we learned. Woe to me!
I learned chemistry from Dr. Whitsell, Dr.
Copenhaver, Professor Lincoln Moore and my
father, but I did not have a driving desire to go
to medical school. Dad and Dr. Penny along
with a student, Fred Killingsworth, started a little
enterprise in a vacant room under the steps at
the old LeConte College building. No windows, no ventilation, one door! This was the
beginning of a manufacturing effort, which
attracted me upon graduation. After additional
graduate work and stints with DuPont and
Goodyear, I returned to Columbia and worked
with my father in the fledgling manufacturing
business that grew over the years to become
Anchor Continental, an elastimer and tape
manufacturing company located in Columbia. I
worked closely for eight years with my father
after his retirement from USC in 1949 and was
responsible for the company from 1958 to 1979
when an English firm purchased it. At the time
of the sale there were more than 600 employees. My brother-in-law, Mr. George Fant,
became president in 1975 and ran the firm for
the English company until his retirement.
My life-long interest in art had continued to
grow and I began to be a very serious student
of painting. This passion has continued as I
have studied with many professionals, taught
workshops across the country and Canada,
written a book on painting in watercolor, and
shown my work in over 100 national open
juried shows through the years, receiving a
number of awards. Painting is still my major
activity as I enter my 84th year, along with (fol10
lowing in order of interest) gardening, reading,
and golf.
Upon the sale of Anchor Continental, I was
able to form a family foundation involving my
four daughters, my brother-in-law, and my
wife. Its mission has been aimed at the problems of youth and family along with other
established institutions affecting the quality of
our growing population of young people in the
South. It has been a difficult but rewarding
effort for all of us. I continue to be very thankful for what the University of South Carolina
has meant to my family and myself, and I
encourage all graduates to repay their debt to
this great school.
We would like to invite other friends and
alumni to submit any photos or stories to the
USC Chemist that might provide a glimpse into
the history and intellectual life of the University
of South Carolina. You may contact us at:
USC Chemist
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
E-mail: chemweb@mail.chem.sc.edu
Phone: 800.868.7588
Letter From the Chair
with the acquisition of a new class of X-ray diffractometer and an
outstanding lab director, Dr. Mark Smith. For those of you familiar
with this technique, we can now do structures of several compounds
per day and can solve structures of very large molecules even if only
small crystals are available.
We are very excited about the Graduate Science Research Center
Dedication, which will be held at 1:30 p.m., Friday, October 19. Dr.
Harry Gray, the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry and
director of the Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology, will offer the keynote address. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Other dignitaries, including Rear Admiral Jay Cohen from the
Office of Naval Research will also offer remarks. Guests at the ceremony will have an opportunity to tour many of our labs, and visit
with faculty and students. After the ceremony, Dr. Harry Gray will
offer a public lecture that will begin at 3:15 p.m. in Bouknight Auditorium. The dedication will be the kickoff for many exciting Homecoming activities that weekend. We hope that all graduates and
friends of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry will
attend. If you have any questions about the dedication or other
Homecoming activities, please call Ann Cameron at 803-777-9201.
In conjunction with the dedication of the Graduate Science
Research Center, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has
announced a $10,000,000 Cornerstone for Discovery Capital Campaign. To attract and retain the best students, faculty, and professional staff, we seek endowment funds to meet three crucial objectives:
1. to offer competitive graduate student fellowships
2. to enhance undergraduate research opportunities and initiate a
senior-level capstone course providing real-world experiences for
chemistry majors
3. to create a research and development fund whose proceeds would
provide matching funds for research proposals, seed money for
exploratory research, incentive funds to promote research collaboration, and support funds to assist faculty in moving in new
research directions.
Naming opportunities exist, ranging from $25,000 for a faculty
office to $10,000,000 for the Graduate Science Research Center. To
learn more about how you can arrange a naming opportunity, please
contact 803-777-0455.
As the new chair of the
Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry I want to
use this opportunity to
introduce myself and outline some of the exciting
happenings in our department. First, I wish to express
the feelings of the entire
department in thanking
Bruce Dunlap for an outstanding job as chair for the
past six years. He has
worked tirelessly for the
department, pushing us
Reger
ahead in many ways, most
importantly in the hiring of outstanding faculty and staff and in the
area of development. Still active, he continues his outstanding service to the department and to the University.
If you are wondering who the new kid on the block is, let me
introduce myself. I have been a member of the Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry since 1972. I have run an active
research group, with funding from the NSF, NIH, PRF, and DOE. I
have had 24 students receive the Ph.D. degree working in my labs
and have published 130 research papers. I teach introductory chemistry as well as senior- and graduate-level courses, and am very
proud to be the fifth member of the department over the years to be
awarded the University’s top award, the Amoco Undergraduate
Teaching Award (Drs. Bouknight, Teague, Odom, and Goode are
past winners). I have written a text for introductory chemistry, with
Drs. Goode and Mercer of this department, that is used here and
elsewhere across the country. I also served a two-year term as associate dean of research and finance in the College of Science and
Mathematics. I take over the reins of an outstanding department and
only hope I can do as good a job leading it as that done by my predecessors.
We have been in our new building now for one year and it is clear
that the dramatically improved conditions for our researchers are
having a major impact on the quality of research being carried out in
the department. As a synthetic chemist, I am particularly pleased
with the quality and number of fume hoods on our synthetic floors.
The number of hoods in my laboratory has increased from three to
eight. My students do 100 percent of their chemistry inside the
hoods. Frankly, I do not see how my group survived (I am sure my
past group members agree) the last 10 years in the old building. In
conjunction with the move, we improved the quality of our instrumentation, especially in our outstanding NMR and Mass Spectral
Centers. We also established a new center in X-ray crystallography
11
Department Welcomes Organic Chemist
In 1989 Dr. Wally Scrivens was
an undergraduate in the Honors
College at USC. Today he is an
assistant professor of organic
chemistry in the Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry.
During his time as an undergraduate, Dr. Scrivens did research in
synthetic chemistry in the labs of
Drs. Bob and Ruta Bly and computational work with Dr. Jim
Marshall. “I’ve always wanted to be a scientist,
but it was only late in my college career that I
seriously considered science as a career option.
I guess I figured you couldn’t make a living
doing science.” He tried his hand at medical
school at USC, though the experience wasn’t
much to his liking. He found himself logging in
excess of 100 hours a week studying, and he
“still wasn’t studying enough,” he says.
The real trouble with medical school was that
it failed to captivate his imagination in the way
his undergraduate research experiences in
chemistry had. So, Dr. Scrivens
returned to USC and earned a
second BS degree, this time in
chemistry. In 1994, he earned a
Ph.D. from USC under the tutelage of Dr. Jim Tour. He then
went to work for Milliken
Chemical in Spartanburg, South
Carolina as a research chemist in
patent defense cases and scalingup reactions at the Milliken
plant. Though the work was enjoyable, Dr.
Scrivens lamented the lack of intellectual freedom. “It got to the point where I was building a
laboratory in my back yard so that I could do
the fun and interesting science that I couldn’t do at
work.”
Now that Dr. Scrivens has traded his backyard labs for those of the Graduate Science
Research Center (GSRC), he is pursuing his
research in polymer and materials science.
“Some of my current work is fairly applied and
borders on chemical engineering, although I am
University of South Carolina
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Columbia, SC 29208
doing a lot of traditional synthetic organic
chemistry as well. My pet project right now is
making purely polymeric telescope mirrors for
space applications,” said Dr. Scrivens. Ever
inventive and resourceful, he uses an old
turntable to produce these mirrors.
Though he has taken a circuitous route from
and back to the department, Dr. Scrivens is quite
happy to be a faculty member at USC. “I still
feel a little awkward calling some of my former
professors by their first names, but I think that
will eventually pass.” The robust air-conditioning in the GSRC, however, does sometimes
throw him for a loop— he’s used to his lab
goggles fogging up during the summer as a
graduate student working in the muggy Jones
Physical Sciences Center.
Dr. Scrivens has been associated with the
University for some time now—his wife, Connie, is the assistant director for undergraduate
admissions—and it’s fair to assume that he’ll
be a part of the Carolina community for some
time to come.
NON PROFIT
ORGANIZATION
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT #766
COLUMBIA, SC
12