The Department of Chemistry Times
An Electronic Newsletter of the Department of Chemistry
State University of New York
College at Brockport
Volume 2, No. 2
Brockport, NY 14420
April 2003
Undergraduate Research in Chemistry in
2002, which supported eight weeks of
research under Professor Margaret E. Logan
of the Department of Chemistry. This year,
in addition to the President’s Citation, she is
the Departmental Scholar of the
Department of Biological Sciences, the
Departmental Scholar of the Department
of Chemistry, and the Sigma Xi Award for
Research in Chemistry. She has also been
on the National Dean’s List since the 19992000 academic year.
Andrea Topolnycky Shares 2003
President’s Citation Award
By Thomas W. Kallen
For the fist time since the inception of the
award in 1982, two students have been
selected as the recipients of the President’s
Citation Award. Andrea Topolnycky, a
Chemistry and Biology double major
nominated by Professor Thomas W. Kallen,
Chair of the Department of Chemistry, and
Allen Harvey, a Physics, Mathematics and
Computer Science triple major nominated by
Professor Richard V. Mancuso, Chair of the
Department of Physics, were selected as corecipients of this prestigious award following
interviews of the top candidates in late
February. The award will be presented
formally at the 2003 Honors Convocation,
held at the conclusion of the Scholars’ Day
presentations on April 2nd.
Topolnycky, who has worked on a research
project with Professor Logan for a year and a
half, has presented the results of her research
at the Undergraduate Science Research
Conference at the University of Rochester
School of Medicine and Dentistry last fall.
She will also be presenting her research results
at Brockport Scholars 2003, the 48th Annual
Undergraduate Research Symposium of
the Rochester Section of the American
Chemical Society, and at the National
Conference on Undergraduate Research
(NCUR ’03) in Salt Lake City, UT this spring.
The President’s Citation is SUNY Brockport’s
highest award for a graduating senior who has
demonstrated outstanding scholastic merit, a
strong record of co-curricular activities,
significant contributions to SUNY Brockport
and community, and evidence of professional
promise.
Finally, Topolnycky has worked as a
chemistry and biology tutor in the Center for
Student Learning, has been the Treasurer of
our award-winning Chemistry Club for the
last two years, and has served as a volunteer
worker on primary and secondary school
programs such as the Science Olympiad
held here last year.
Topolnycky is no stranger to awards for
academic achievement. She received the
Outstanding Student Award of the
Department of Political Science in 2000,
the Freshman Chemistry Award in 2001,
and the Organic Chemistry Award in 2002
and was inducted into Alpha Chi, the
National Honor Society, in 2001. She was
the recipient of the Collier Fellowship for
Topolnycky has been tendered offers of
admission into the Fall 2003 entering class of
Tufts University School of Dental
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Medicine in Boston, MA, and the SUNY at
Buffalo School of Dental Medicine in
Buffalo, NY. She has already decided to
accept the admissions offer from SUNY at
Buffalo, not only because their program is
more highly rated, but because the proximity
of the school to her father’s home and dental
practice in Amherst, NY will allow her to
continue helping him manage his practice
when his medical condition requires it.
Five other chemistry majors have been
recipients of the School of Letters and
Sciences Award:
Letters and Sciences Award Recipients
Chemistry Majors
2000
1998
1996
1987
1986
Diana Topolnycky (’02), Andrea’s sister, was
the Departmental Scholar of the
Department of Chemistry last year and will
be entering the Osteopathic Medicine
professional medical program of Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University
(Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, VA, this fall.
All we can think of to say at this point is
“thank you for lending us your two fine
daughters, Dr. and Mrs. Topolnycky.”
This award, the highest in the School of
Letters and Sciences (a total of seventeen
member departments, including Chemistry,
and two programs), is presented annually to a
student who has completed a major in the
School of Letters and Sciences, has earned a
grade point average of at least 3.75, and has
made a significant contribution to either the
College or to the Department.
A Short (and Somewhat Biased)
History of College-wide Awards
Amanda Sturdevant and Andrea
Topolnycky Earn Chancellor’s
Award for Student Excellence
By Thomas W. Kallen
Andrea Topolnycky becomes the fifth
chemistry major to win the President’s
Citation since its inception at the beginning
of the President John E. Van de Wetering
administration in 1982. Chemistry majors
who have received this award are listed below:
By Thomas W. Kallen
Two senior Chemistry majors, Amanda
Sturdevant and Andrea Topolnycky, will be
recognized as SUNY Brockport recipients of
the 2003 Chancellor’s Award for Student
Excellence at an award ceremony and
reception to take place in the Convention
Center, Empire State Plaza in Albany on April
21st. Chancellor’s awards will pre presented to
a total of seven SUNY Brockport students by
SUNY Chancellor King.
President’s Citation Recipients
Chemistry Majors
2003
2001
1997
1987
1982
Tracy L. Wiesner
Walter J. Doherty III
Joseph C. McNulty
Joseph S. Sedita
Anne M. Yawman
Andrea N. Topolnycky
Michael G. Nicholson
Adam S. Buntzman
Jordan C. Poler
Marilyn J. Schneider
The Chancellor’s Award for Student
Excellence is a new honor, awarded for the
first time in 2002 to 187 students scattered
among the 56 Community Colleges, Colleges
and Universities and quarter million students
of the SUNY system. This award seeks to
honor graduating seniors who have best
demonstrated and been recognized for their
integration of academic excellence with other
aspects of their lives, aspects which may
include leadership, athletics, community
service, creative arts and performing arts,
The President’s Citation is SUNY Brockport’s
highest award for a graduating senior who has
demonstrated outstanding scholastic merit, a
strong record of co-curricular activities,
significant contributions to SUNY Brockport
and community, and evidence of professional
promise. Marilyn J. Schneider was the very
first recipient of the President’s Citation.
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entrepreneurship, or career achievement. It is
the highest student award that SUNY may
bestow.
Chemistry and a minor in Geology, was
named co-Departmental Scholar of the
Department of Earth Sciences at the 2003
Honors Convocation April 2nd. Brown also
received the Sigma Xi Award for Research
in Earth Science for his work under
Professor Mark R. Noll of the Department
of Earth Science.
Topolnycky’s many awards are described in
the lead article in this edition of the Times
(“Andrea Topolnycky Shares President’s
Citation Award,” pp. 1-2).
Sturdevant, who has been a President’s
Scholar throughout her four years at SUNY
Brockport, was also the recipient of the Paul
J. Kronthaler Memorial Prize in
Chemistry, the Chemistry Achievement
Award of the Rochester Section of the
American Chemical Society, and the Sigma
Xi Award for Research in Chemistry.
Brown has accepted an offer of admission and
a graduate teaching assistantship in the
Environmental
Engineering
PhD
Program of the University of Florida.
It is worth noting that Chemistry majors
earned recognition as Departmental Scholars
in three departments, Biology, Chemistry and
Earth Science!
Sturdevant’s research with Professor Mark P.
Heitz, supported by the Collier Fellowship
for Undergraduate Research in Chemistry
in the Summer 2002, has led to production of
a thesis entitled “Spectroscopic Studies of
DCM as a Molecular Probe for Solute-Solvent
Interactions” and will lead to the award of
Honors in Chemistry, as well as her
graduation with Honors Program Honors.
Six Chemistry Majors Present
Papers at NCUR 2003
in Salt Lake City, Utah
By Thomas W. Kallen
Six chemistry majors traveled to Salt Lake
City, UT, to present research papers at
NCUR 2003, the 17th National Conference
on Undergraduate Research, held at the
University of Utah March 13-15.
The
research of each of these students had been
supported by award of a Summer Research
Fellowship for 2002. The name of each
student presenter, her/his research advisor,
the title of her/his paper, and the source of
her/his research support follow:
Sturdevant, the current President of the
award-winning Chemistry Club, has served
the department as a laboratory assistant in
College Chemistry and Organic Chemistry.
She also serves the College as a Campus tour
guide for the Office of Admissions.
Sturdevant has accepted the offer of
admission and a graduate teaching
assistantship in the Forensic Chemistry MS
Program of Michigan State University.
 Jason Carr (Mentor, Markus M.
Hoffmann, “CO2 Thermodynamic Phase
Behavior Studies and Preliminary
Evidence for the Formation of
CO2/Ionic Liquid Microemulsions”)
supported by a Camille and Henry
Dreyfus Foundation Fellowship.
The Faculty of the Department of Chemistry
extends its heartiest congratulations to both
students!
Chemistry Major Earns
Departmental Scholar Award in
Earth Sciences
 Stacy Morrill (Mentor, Margaret E.
Logan, “Progress Toward an Improved
Synthetic Route to Amino-Substituted
Diaryl Tellurides”) supported by an
Ortho-clinical Diagnostics (Division
of Johnson & Johnson) Fellowship.
By Thomas W. Kallen
Gordon H. Brown, a major in both Water
Resources (Department of Earth Science) and
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 Amanda Sturdevant (Mentor, Mark
P. Heitz, “Spectroscopic Study of DCM
as Fluorescent Probe of Solute-Solvent
Interactions”) supported by the Morris
Fellowship
from
the
Brockport
Foundation.
Biology, and one from Political Science.
Professor Margaret E. Logan represented
the Department of Chemistry and must have
had her hands full riding herd on the
chemistry students.
Colleen Donaldson, Grants Development
Director at the College, provided the
financial support for the trip; and Marsha
Moss of Grants Development handled the
travel arrangements, accommodations, and
registration for all participants.
 Andrea
Topolnycky
(Mentor,
Margaret E. Logan, “Synthesis and
Evaluation of Novel Diaryl Tellurides”)
supported by the Collier Fellowship
from the Brockport Foundation.
 Jason Tubbs (Mentor, Markus M.
Hoffmann,
“NMR
Relaxation
Measurements of Ionic Liquid Systems”)
supported by a Camille and Henry
Dreyfus Foundation Fellowship.
A Fifth Chemistry “Alum” on
the Faculty of Other Colleges
By Thomas W. Kallen
Thanks to a chance communication with
Charles Scott (’88) following the publication
of the February edition of the “Times,” we
have discovered a fifth Chemistry alumnus
who is teaching at the college level. Jordan
C. Poler (’87) is an Associate Professor on
the faculty of the Department of Chemistry
at the University of North Carolina at
Charlotte.
 Christopher
Woods
(Mentor
Markus M. Hoffmann, “Surfactant
Studies Using Electron Paramagnetic
Resonance”) supported by a Chemistry
Alumni Fellowship from the Brockport
Foundation.
Sturdevant’s paper was submitted in full form
to, and has been selected for inclusion in, the
“Proceedings of the 17th National
Conference on Undergraduate Research.”
The “Proceedings” of NCUR typically accepts
full papers for inclusion only after peer
review.
Poler, a Chemistry and Physics major and
recipient of the 1987 President’s Citation
while at SUNY Brockport, earned a PhD in
Physical Chemistry/Materials Science from
the University of North Carolina in Chapel
Hill, completed a post-doctoral appointment
as an NIH Fellow in the Department of
Molecular Biology at Princeton University,
and joined the faculty at UNCC in 1995.
A total of 126 papers were presented in the
Chemistry Section of the conference. SUNY
Brockport chemistry students presented the
largest number of papers of any school in
New York with 6 papers. Colgate University
followed close behind with 5 papers, while
Clarkson University, the University of
Rochester, and Union College lagged far
behind with one paper, each. No other
SUNY school presented papers in the
Chemistry Section.
Poler reports on his Web page, “Most of my
research interests are materials related. My
efforts are toward the fundamental studies of
complex systems at the nanoscale with regard
to applications of materials at the macroscale.
Complex systems exist at surfaces, interfaces
and thin films. The experimental techniques
that I use to study these systems are both
optically and electronically based. Scanning
probe microscopies are the work-horses of
my research. In particular, the scanning
tunneling microscope (STM) and the newly
developed scanning thermopower microscope
The six chemistry majors were part of a
contingent of 18 students and faculty from
SUNY Brockport. This contingent included
six students from Chemistry, four from
Physics, two from Psychology, one from
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(STPM) are central in my studies of surfaces
and interfaces.
studies he and members of his undergraduate
research group, Amanda Sturdevant (’03)
and Lindsay Harrington (’02), have been
conducting in supercritical carbon dioxide and
ionic liquids (so-called environmentally
“friendly” solvents).
The complex systems that are of most interest
to me are in the areas of both; "hard"
materials (e.g. semiconductors and metals)
and "soft" materials (e.g. self-assembled
monolayers, biologically interesting molecules
and Langmuir films).”
During his visit, Heitz also made plans for a
collaborative research effort with Professor
Allen focused on making static and ultra-fast
Raman spectroscopic measurements in
supercritical carbon dioxide. He anticipates
that work on this project will begin during
Summer 2003 with the assistance of a SUNY
Brockport undergraduate who will accompany
him to OSU to help make measurements.
Poler’s research interests and recent
publications are listed on his Web page at
http://www.chem.uncc.edu/faculty/poler/gr
ad96.htm. He is currently the Chemistry
Graduate Program Director of UNCC.
Poler joins Jim Knittle (’74), University of
Cincinnati, Bill Stevens (’77), Southern
Illinois University at Carbondale, Paul
Smith (’88), University of Maryland
Baltimore County, and Charles Scott (’88),
Thomas Jefferson University, as Chemistry
alumni who are members of other college
faculties.
Heitz Visits Maroncelli at
Pennsylvania State University
By Mark P. Heitz
One of the research directions in the Heitz
group focuses on the solvation characteristics
of solutes in “green” solvents, including
supercritical CO2 and more recently ionic
liquids. Solute solvation is studied by using
measuring the luminescence of several highly
fluorescent solute molecules and how the
luminescence changes as the solute
environment changes.
Heitz Presents Seminar at The
Ohio State University
By Thomas W. Kallen
In October 2001 Professor Mark P. Heitz,
our 2001-2002 Seminar Director, invited
Professor Heather Allen, an atmospheric
chemist in the Department of Chemistry at
The Ohio State University in Columbus,
OH, to present a seminar in our department.
Her seminar, entitled “Understanding
Atmospheric Heterogeneous Chemistry:
Surface
Studies
and
Instrumentation
Advances,” and her outgoing personality
ended-up attracting one of our graduates, to
Ohio State University for graduate studies in
atmospheric chemistry.
During Spring Break 2003, Professor Mark P.
Heitz visited the laboratories of his
postdoctoral research advisor, Professor
Mark Maroncelli, at Pennsylvania State
University (PSU) to measure the timeresolved fluorescence of the solutes DCM and
C153 in room-temperature phosphoniumbased ionic liquids (RTPILs). Heitz used
Maroncelli’s ultra-fast lasers to measure the
temporal dependence of the emission spectra
(TRES) of these solutes. Measurements were
made using a time-correlated, single photon
counting spectrometer with a time resolution
of ~5 ps (that’s 5x10-12 s!).
This year, Professor Heitz accepted Professor
Allen’s invitation to “retaliate in kind!” Heitz
presented a seminar in the Department of
Chemistry at Ohio State U. on March 4, 2003,
as part of their Analytical Chemistry Seminar
program. In his seminar, “Characterizing
Solvation in Green Solvent Systems,” Heitz
summarized the recent results of fundamental
Collaborative work between Heitz and
Maroncelli will continue in the near future to
more
fully
elucidate
the
solvation
characteristics of RTPILs.
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Mallinckrodt, in Hobart, NY. I am truly
excited about finally using my degree for
something other than a wall decoration.
Mainly my job will be as an analytical chemist
in the lab, but I will update everyone as I learn
more about this job. The pay and benefits are
good and the experience will put me well on
my way to a bright, shiny future in chemistry.
I will email everyone with more details as they
become available. I hope to hear from you all
soon. Let me know what you are all up to as
well. Wish me luck!!! Larry.”
ACS Undergraduate Research
Symposium to be Held at SUNY
Brockport in April
By K. D. Schlecht and M. E. Logan
The 48th Annual Undergraduate Research
Symposium of the Rochester Section of
the American Chemical Society will be held
in the Seymour College Union at SUNY
Brockport on Saturday, April 26, 2003. The
Symposium will feature poster and oral
presentations by undergraduates participating
in research at Rochester area colleges.
Lindsay Harrington (’02) reports that Ohio
State was just not for her! She left OSU
following the Winter quarter and entered the
PhD Program at the SUNY College of
Environmental Science and Forestry
(ESF) in Syracuse, NY.
In addition to the student presentations,
symposium participants and guests will have
the opportunity to learn about the role of
chemistry in the development of new
information media as Douglas Robello of
the Eastman Kodak Company Research
Laboratories presents the keynote lecture,
"Imaging
Chemistry
for
the
New
Millennium.”
If you have news about yourself that you wish
to have included in the “Alumni News”
section of The Department of Chemistry
Times, please send it by e-mail to the editor,
Tom Kallen, at tkallen@brockport.edu.
The Rochester Section of the American
Chemical Society will provide a lunch for the
student presenters and their faculty advisors
following the symposium. Other symposium
attendees may join them for lunch at their
own expense.
The organizers of this year’s symposium are
Professor Margaret E. Logan and Professor
Kenneth D. Schlecht of the Department of
Chemistry at SUNY Brockport. Abstracts of
student papers should be submitted on or
before April 15, 2003.
The Department of Chemistry Times is
posted on the Department of Chemistry Web
site at irregular intervals by Professor,
Chairman and Editor Dr. Thomas W. Kallen,
Department of Chemistry, SUNY College at
Brockport, 350 New Campus Drive,
Brockport NY 14420-2971. You may visit the
Department of Chemistry Web site at
www.brockport.edu/~chemistry/.
E-mail
messages to the Times should be addressed
to Professor Kallen at tkallen@brockport.edu.
Alumni News
By Thomas W. Kallen
Larry Ducady Jr. (’02), in a recent e-mail
message writes, “Well, it's probably been a
while since I've contacted many of you, so let
me tell you all what is new in my life. Since
graduating college in May, it's been tough for
me to find a job in my field that I thought I
would really like. Finally, I have found just
such a job! On Monday, March 10th
(tomorrow as I write this), I start as a Quality
Technician
II
at
Tyco
Healthcare
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