The Villanova Chemist
“Christmas” 2005 Edition
January 2006
From The Chairman
Greetings from the Chemistry Department,
and Happy 2006! It has been an extremely busy
year at Villanova, and I’m excited to tell you about
the many things that have happened this year.
Changes continue to abound in the Chemistry Department. Mike Spritzer has retired from the
Department after 39 years of service, and has
moved out to Lancaster County (or “Villanova
West”, as we like to call it) to join several other
Chemistry faculty who have left recently. Building
modifications are happening as we upgrade facilities to add a new x-ray diffractometer to the Department. Thanks to our newest faculty member, Dr
Timothy Dudley, we’ve also set up a new Departmental computing facility loaded with a PC computing cluster and a gaggle of Apple G5 servers. The
organic labs have been blessed with two new Perkin-Elmer FT-IR spectrometers with Attenuated
Total Reflectance sample accessories (no more KBr
films!), and a solvent purification system has eliminated our need for THF stills. And finally, we have
just received approval to offer a new undergraduate
major in Biochemistry.
I mentioned last year that our Department
web site contains lots of interesting tidbits of information. The site has undergone a total facelift this
year (thanks to Profs Anthony Lagalante and
Amanda Grannas), and has even more stuff and pictures to look at. If you’d like us to contact you by
email, please send your email address either to me
(barry.selinsky@villanova.edu), Oliver Ludwig (oliver.ludwig@villanova.edu), or Nancy Proud
(nancy.proud@villanova.edu). We would be happy
to put you on our mailing lists. We can also post
your email address on our website to give other Villanova alums the chance to contact you if you’d
like. Finally, if you’ve accomplished something
noteworthy that you’d like to tell the world, send
me the information by email and I’ll post it on our
“Department News” section of the site.
Faculty News –As mentioned above, we have
added Dr Timothy Dudley, a physical/theoretical
chemist, to our Department faculty. Also joining us
this year are Ms Heljena McKenney and Dr. Laurie
Morton, who are covering courses generated from
sabbatical leaves. On that note, Dr Carol Bessel is
currently on a leave of absence from the Department as she pursues a rotating Director position at
the National Science Foundation. Also, Dr Joseph
Rucker is leaving us to accept a position at Integral
Biosciences in Philadelphia. We have just completed a Biochemistry faculty search, and are in the
process of submitting offers to two outstanding candidates.
Students - We are extremely proud of the Villanova
Chemistry Class of 2005. Their names and affiliations follow:
BS Graduates: Elise Birkett (PhD program, Boston
University); Jonathan Blackwell; Jason Champion
(Law School, University of Southern California);
Kimberly Dallas (MA program in Education, Villanova University); Heath Evans (Dentistry, University of Oklahoma); Steve Gallagher (Cephalon);
Peggy Greene (DuPont); Riffard Jean-Gilles (MS
program, Villanova University); Dana Lilli (applying to Medical School); Mariana Melendez-Diaz
(MS program, Villanova University); Annsley Miller (Occupational Therapy, New York University);
Greg Riviello (PhD program, Princeton University);
Luci Safi (Philadelphia College of Osteopathic
Medicine); Jenny Shultz (Baxter); Chris Saeui; Tricia Sladicka (Merck); Kathleen Spencer (PhD program, California Institute of Technology); Steve
Ten Eyck; Richard Tyburski; Mike Werner (MS
program in Environmental Science, Indiana University). Congratulations all!
MS Graduates: Navneeth Daundikhed (GlaxoSmithKline); Oscar Miranda (PhD program, University of Massachusetts); Theresa Henry (GlaxoSmithKline); Ruth Hough (IsoSciences); Gopi Kasi;
James Nelson (GlaxoSmithKline); Damien Fink
(Centocor); Andrea Bondy (Centocor); Charles
Bornhoeft (Wyeth).
(Not so) Random Thoughts
Our Admissions Office has instituted a Science Open House in the fall, and this year a parent
of a potential student asked me about the state of
the chemical industry and the potential for future
employment. If you look at statistics published by
the American Chemical Society, you find the job
market for chemists is becoming more competitive,
with jobs going overseas and downsizing occurring
in the pharmaceutical industry. That said, I am optimistic about the future of Villanova chemists. If
you look at where our students have “landed” after
graduation, most have either found jobs in their major or have been accepted into some fine graduate
programs. When students come to me for advice
about courses, I always suggest that they challenge
themselves with more difficult courses. I remind
them about the difficulty of being a chemistry major, and how few students can handle the rigors of
the discipline. You should be proud of your accomplishments.
This is a landmark year for me and my family. My daughter is graduating from college in June
(with a Chemistry degree, of course!), and my son
is graduating from high school and looking at colleges for the fall. But as you know, change is inevitable. I hope that you enjoy life as it moves and
changes around you.
Barry Selinsky
Professor and Chairman,
Department of Chemistry
chemistry working under both Dr Alexander Gero
and Fr Jenkins. With a growing family he could not
afford to continue to work at Villanova as an instructor. He left Villanova and went to the Warner
Co and then to Fischer & Porter from which he retired in 1982. Jim. [The latest Villanova Magazine
notes that Francis Garvin '50 died on 5 Aug 05.]
*********
From Tony Zacchei ’61 MS ’64: Just received the
newsletter and thought that it is about time that I
put my name on the Alumni list. Checked out the
web site and noticed that almost 50% of my class is
listed. I'll have to remind my daughter, who also
graduated from VU with a chemistry degree, to add
her email address to the list. And later Tony continues: Hi: Just spoke to Michelle and she asked me to
request that you put her name on the alumni list if I
contact you. So here goes. Her name is Michelle
Zacchei Toth ’91. FYI she is married and has three
kids. She remembers you teaching her in freshman
chem classes and enjoyed your lectures. Tony. [Our
web page chemistry.villanova.edu/societies/alumni.html has data on lost and deceased alums as well as
email addresses for those who offered them.],
Alumni Notes
Oliver Ludwig ’57 Editor
Volume 22, begun February 2005
Well here, for the twenty second year, is
what we have learned about our Department and its
progeny over the last year. Just as some people collect stamps, your editor collects and disseminates
biography. [Editorial comments are in square brackets. By the way, your editor has just become the last
of the Old Guard, since Profs Mike Spritzer retired
last spring and John Wójcik will retire this spring.]
Retired Prof Tom Doyne emails: All's well
in these parts. I have adopted the more relaxed aspects of Amish farm life – early to bed, early to rise,
etc, but not the black hat, beard, nor horse and
buggy, etc. I am still doing substitute teaching at
the local high school. It continues to be fun – imparting "gems of wisdom from the old days". I have
joined the local YMCA and work out on the machines three times each week – must bring the body
back in shape!! Tom.
Necrology: Jim Markham ‘50 emails a
correction on a death notice in our last issue: Here
are the facts about James L. Henry. He never
taught in the C&F School; that was a Bill Henry.
Jim Henry got his BS in Chemistry from Villanova
College in 1944 and like so many at that time went
directly into the army. In 1946 he came back to Villanova as an instructor and worked as such until
1956. He was very well liked. He took care of freshman recitations and labs. But his major long-term
activity was as the laboratory instructor in organic
Hank Whalen ’57 has retired as Director of Industry Relations for the American Chemical Society.
From the Villanova Magazine Fall ‘05:
Tony Silvestri ’58 has retired from Mobil in NJ.
He’s in the Inventors Hall of Fame with 28 patents
and more than 60 publications. As well, he has endowed Villanova’s Chemistry Department with an
annual Lectureship.
From Richard Cordell ’61: I have just completed
my 40th year of teaching chemistry at Heidelberg
College in Ohio. I have also just retired since my
wife works for Microsoft and has been transferred
to their Redmond headquarters. I still enjoy teaching and interaction with students, so I may try to
look for an adjunct position after the dust of the
move settles. Another interesting tidbit (at least
from my perspective): I have been involved in reading AP chemistry exams on for many years (started
in 1969) and last June at the Reading at Clemson I
bumped into a 1960 alum whom I knew back then. I
didn't recognize him at first but he had a Villanova
sweatshirt on so I naturally went over to see who he
was. Turned out he was John Schmidt ’60, who
now is Professor of Chem at Shepherd University in
West Virginia. We had a nice reunion and reminisced about the "good old days" at VU. I also note
that my year (1961) has a pretty good representation among those listed on the chem website. I think
there were 10 in my year, and 7 of them are listed.
Hooray for us!! Anyway, I got a good start at Villanova with Drs Quam, Jenkins, Markham, et al.
Richard Cordell.
Chris Uzelmeier ’63 writes to Prof Barry Selinsky:
Thanks for the Villanova Chemist. Always enjoy
reading it and looking for news about the people I
went to school with. Some other info about me that
you may or may not have: BS Villanova, Chemistry
1963, PhD Case Western Reserve University 1967,
Shell Chemical Co 1967-1996, Union Carbide Corp
1996-2001, Dow Chemical Co 2001, now retired.
Wife Kathleen, married 41+ years. Children: two
sons; Tom, age 40 and Bill, age 38, one grandchild.
Hobbies: Golf, Travel. Chris.
George DeTitta ’69 writes from SUNY Buffalo: In
July’ 05 I was awarded one of the ten Center grants
from the NIH Protein Structure Initiative for the development of tools for structural genomics. This has
allowed (forced, really) me to go back into the lab
on a daily basis, and that's been good for my mental
well-being. An administrative life is not much fun at
all for a chemist at heart. The $17M grant unites
seven different labs in seven different cities to work
on all aspects of structural biology, in particular on
methods to do the work more easily, quickly, inexpensively. Our targets are proteins from bakers'
yeast, especially protein-protein complexes and
membrane-associated proteins. Plans for an early
retirement look less promising however. George.
From Jim Riehl ‘70: I am in my sixth year as Dean
here in Duluth. A piece of news is that last October
I was awarded the Gold Medal of the University of
Wrocław during the opening ceremonies of their
academic year. This award was given to recognize
my involvement for almost 15 years in cooperative
research and education projects with this university. [Jim is McKnight Leadership Chair and Professor of Chemistry and Dean, College of Science and
Engineering University of Minnesota Duluth.]
From Ernie Kelly MS’74, PhD’77: This has been
a blessed year for us in the Kelly house. We became
grandparents in September with the birth of a
daughter to our oldest son. Our second son returned from a year in Iraq with the 20th Airborne
Combat Engineers and is stationed at Fort Bragg,
NC. I completed my first full year with a local Bio-
Pharmaceutical company, Cephalon, in West Chester PA. God has truly blessed us this year. All the
best to you and alums, Ernie.
From Sr Joan Riethmiller MS ’75 (S. Richard
Christi): I wanted to tell you that I still find the
newsletter interesting. I went to the web site for the
"lost" chem students. I can tell you that the first
name on the list is a Ms, not a Mr [Aysegul Akgerman MS’74] was from Turkey. [VU’s computer
must have made a misteak!] I regret that you don't
have info on Tom Lan MS’75 and also the young
man from India we called Josh. [Phanibhushan
Joshipura PhD ‘74]. I was surprised at seeing
Gene Whitaker PhD ’75 as lost – he's my dentist!
He told me he didn't receive a newsletter. [We have
his address now; he’ll get this one!] Thank you for
all you do to keep the "homey" spirit alive. I always
look forward to hearing from the Chem Dept, even
though now I have been working the past ten years
in Kensington – a rough part of Philly. Blessings on
your work. Joan.
From Mike Lamb ’75: Recently I was invited teach
a two week seminar on internal medicine in Iizuka
Japan. I greatly enjoyed my time in Japan as a visiting professor. I received many awards and honors
while there and I have been invited to return next
year. My teaching style is very much based on the
problem-solving Ludwig approach that I learned at
Villanova. [They say a teacher never knows where
his influence ends – but Japan must be pretty close
to it! Mike has endowed a lectureship at Villanova
on “Augustine and Modern Science” which proved
pretty timely now that Evolution has been in the
news so much lately.]
Diane Schneider '76 is Associate Director of Clinical Research at Endo Pharmaceuticals in Chadds
Ford PA.
Mary Kaiser PhD ’76 emails: I am currently a Research Fellow in DuPont's Corporate Center for
Analytical Sciences in Wilmington, DE. Last year I
was busy co-authoring papers (7 accepted for publication so far) and preparing technical presentations (15). I'm also active in the ACS Division of
Analytical Chemistry's Graduate Fellowship Committee and am chairing the Eastern Analytical Symposium's award committee. Mary.
Sirirat (Ho-Ampawanwong) Kokpol PhD’79 is
Head of the Chemistry Dept of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. She writes that they have 78
faculty and 40 support staff. [I don’t envy her paperwork!]
From Kevin Gosselin ’82: No news other than,
"Does anyone have any spare basketball tickets?"
Still doing finance work vs. chemistry. Not sure how
to break into a science career after 25 years of doing everything but! Kevin.
Mark Czekaj ’86, MS ’89 writes: At present Andrea and I and our three kids are living in
Doylestown, PA and I work in Bridgewater NJ. My
oldest son is now 14 and my middle son is 12, my
youngest a daughter is 9. Things at work have been
OK considering we were taken over by Sanofi about
a year ago. They left our site pretty much the same
with no layoffs within chemistry with the exception
of the department head. It could have been far
worse. I still keep in contact by either e-mail or
phone with Scott Bolton MS ‘91, Vincent Manetta
MS ‘92, Janet Gagnon MS ’89 PhD ’93, Bill
Mathew PhD ‘92 and recently got to spend some
time in San Diego with Ann (Bradley) DiMasi MS
‘89 at an ACS meeting. I work with Charles Gardner ’75 MS ‘82. I have been doing traditional small
molecule synthesis for pretty much my whole career
and have enjoyed both the work and the new technical advances that make my job easier. I have happily adopted the use of an automated flash column
system to take the drudgery/bottleneck out of compound purifications. Does your department have
any of these instruments? They save our company a
lot of money by reducing the amounts of solvents
used. We run linear gradient elutions and obtain
pure compounds without having to mix
ethylacetate/heptane manually only to have to figure out what to do with the left over "mix". I hope to
make it to Villanova someday and will stop in and
say ‘Hi’ if I see your door open. Mark. Later Mark
writes: I recently had lunch with a few Villanova
chemistry graduate alumni over the holidays. They
included Vince Manetta, Scott Bolton and Chip Davis MS ‘94. At one time we all worked at Rorer in
King of Prussia. Various mergers and career goals
have separated us but we still manage to get together for lunch every year sometime during the
holidays. Mark.
From Chris Quigley ’86: Good to hear from you. I
was wondering when the next issue was being released. Things here in Boston are going great. Wife
and kids are both doing great as well. Kids are five
and seven and getting big as they are known to do. I
recently celebrated my 15th anniversary of being in
chiropractic practice in downtown Boston. I also
recently retired from professional politics having
attained the office of Secretary Treasurer of the International Chiropractors Association. I have been
following our basketball efforts closely and I was
greatly disappointed to see that VU was not making
any trips to either Providence or BC (their fault)
this season. Thank you for keeping the effort going.
I always look forward to the newsletter. Yours in
Health, Chris.
Ricardo Alvarado MS ’90, PhD ’92 was decorated
with the Order "José de Marcoleta", in the Degree
of Great Cross, in recognition of his efforts in the
service of Nicaragua as its Ambassador to Denmark, Finland and Ireland. [Just think of the temperature difference when Ricardo goes home!]
Gary Speier MS ’91 emails: All is well here in
Minnesota. I recently became a Partner at SLWK
(patent boutique law firm here in Minneapolis), we
recently moved to the suburbs and my wife is pregnant with our second child (due date mid-July). We
spent Christmas at my in-law's farm in southern
Minnesota. Growing up, I never thought I would be
driving a John Deere tractor on Christmas day. It
was a hybrid scene of Norman Rockwell and
Charles Dickens. Gary.
Tere Diaz ’91 writes to Prof Bob Giuliano: Dr G,
Greetings and salutations! I was requesting a transcript from VU and decided to check the chemistry
department webpage. Glad to see you are still
teaching. I'm well, still at NIH. Have managed to
pick up skiing and scuba diving along the way.
Went diving in Okinawa last November. Beautiful!
Do you remember a grad student, Irene Campbell
MS ‘91? She is getting married this summer, so I'll
have to swing around for that. Drop a line when
you have a chance. Tere.
Kellie (Mraz) Cutrona, ’92 writes to Prof Barry
Selinsky: Just an update: Currently Sr. Logistical
Analyst supporting Merck (West Point PA) Research Division logistical projects. I am married
now with two children (five and three). I have been
working at Merck since graduation. While at Merck
I worked in Research (Medicinal Chemistry) for
about seven years and then I moved to Manufacturing (Materials Management) and I have been there
for about six years. While at Merck I completed my
Master's degree in Chemistry from Lehigh University (Merck has a satellite program with Lehigh).
Kel.
Pat Grohar ’95 writes: I look back at my experience at Villanova as one of the highlights of my life.
I feel a tremendous amount of gratitude towards the
faculty and Villanova community for what I learned
while a student there as well as for making life
great for a few years. As a result, I feel that I have
something that I can give back to the current chemistry majors. I propose an opportunity for the chemistry majors to meet with me to discuss life after Villanova. I’m a 1995 BS Chemistry 2001, PhD in
Chemistry -Wayne State University, 2003, MD Wayne State University 2003. Residency training in
pediatrics - Johns Hopkins University 2005-2006
(currently). Research Track in residency and therefore spending a year at the National Institutes of
Health working on developing novel chemotherapies for pediatric osteosarcoma, 2006-2009. (Already accepted to fellowship for the combined
Johns Hopkins/National Institutes of Health Fellowship in Pediatric Oncology.) Since I have done
both a true PhD program and a medical program I
feel there is much I could inform the students about.
Pat. [We have been trying to schedule Pat into our
Professional Development Seminar, now required
of all Chem majors each semester.]
From Kevin Orlando ’01: I just received your
email and wanted to let you know Kelly and I now
have a beautiful baby girl. Samantha Nicole Orlando was born on October 24, 2005. She weighed
in at 8 lb 0 oz and 21 inches. Both mom and baby
are doing very well. I look forward to reading the
news letter soon! Kevin. [Our congratulations to all
involved!]
From Bob Canelli ’03: I am at St. George's University School of Medicine in the Caribbean, more specifically on the island of Grenada. My first choice
was UConn, however, I never made it off the waiting list. So my next option, which is proving to be
an amazing choice, was to come to Grenada. The
island is beautiful, I can hardly believe it will be my
home for the next two years. Every day is about 7580 degrees and sunny. The water is turquoise and
the sand is white. We are currently in the rainy season (hurricane season) however we are south of the
hurricane belt so we are not supposed to get hit
with any. Last year at this time was the first time in
50 years that the island did get hit, so it is not invincible. The rainy season consists of rain for about 15
minutes per day, so it’s not very rainy at all. It is
very humid however. I have made time between
studying to go to the beach, snorkeling, and going
on excursions to the open air fish and meat markets
in town. The school is a four year program. However, I will be in Grenada for a year and a half, St
Vincent (another small island) for six months, and
then I am back in the states for two more years. So
I'm not gone for that long. I have a feeling that it’s
going to fly by. All of my "extracurricular excursions" come in between class obviously. I've been
here for a few weeks and I've learned more than
you can imagine. I am taking anatomy, biochemistry, embryology, and histology now. I really like
anatomy. My cadaver's name is Dorris. She has
taught me so much already. Last Friday we dissected her thorax and I was able to hold her lungs
and heart in my hand. It was really really exciting!!
I'm doing well in biochemistry which is one of the
hardest classes that medical school students face. It
must obviously be from my excellent background in
chemistry that I got at ‘Nova. I study about six
hours a day (something I never did at ‘Nova but
don't tell any of the professors that!!!), so free time
is limited. However I have found a great spot to
study on a cliff overlooking the school, the beach,
and the airport. It’s gorgeous! I miss you guys and
Villanova a lot and I think about you all often, I
hope to hear back from you soon! Bob.
Chris Cummings ‘04 emails Prof Bob Giuliano
from his grad work at Yale. He says he's "learning
an awful lot". He takes Organic Synthesis from the
advisor to Heidi Shimp ‘03 and Justin Belardi
‘04. He expects to work for the advisor to Erin
Pusateri ‘01. [It seems that Villanova has a pipeline to Yale!] It has been quite the hectic semester,
and I can't wait for classes to be over. In addition to
classes I am teaching twice a week and grading a
stack of papers 5-6 inches tall each week, and I am
beginning to appreciate the life of a teacher who
has to grade constantly. I will be joining Andy
Hamilton's lab, and my research will be on a new
grant he has for alpha helix mimics which hopefully
will combat cancer. This is the same lab that Erin
Pusateri is in. I am excited to start, but right now I
am just reading background research and will most
likely get my hands dirty in the summer. Chris.
From Greg Riviello ’04: Things are going well for
me at Princeton; I've joined the research group of
Dr Herschel Rabitz in the Chemistry Department.
He is a theoretician whose work is centered around
the principles of quantum control, which involve the
use of tailored laser fields to induce very specific
constructive and destructive interferences within
molecules or materials. The specificity of these controls has been developed to the extent that it is pos-
sible, using a laser, to drive a molecule into a specific conformation or break a particular bond.
Greg.
If you enjoyed reading about some of your
old classmates, please think of reciprocating: write
us and you’ll see your news in our next edition. If
you would like to add your email address to our
web site, please email me and I’ll add it.
All the best… Alumnically, Ol Ludwig ‘57
6 March 2016
Chemistry Department
Villanova University
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Villanova PA 19085-1699
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