The Department of Chemistry Times
An Electronic Newsletter of the Department of Chemistry
State University of New York
College at Brockport
Volume 2, No. 5
Brockport, NY 14420
October 2003
inviting, and “fun” way. Some of the
computational “tools” are designed to allow
students to explore in “real-time” how
changing variables affect the outcome of a
problem. Other “tools” give students the
flexibility to design their own models to solve
problems.
CMST Institute Opens for
Business at SUNY Brockport
By Mark P. Heitz
Professor Mark P. Heitz worked this past
summer with Professor Osman Yasar,
Chairman of SUNY Brockport’s Department
of Computational Science, and representatives
of the Departments of Biological Sciences,
Computer Science, Computational Science,
Earth Science, Mathematics, and Physics on
the first year of a five-year project to infuse
computational science into the mathematics,
science and technology curricula of local
secondary schools (grades 7-12).
A four-week long summer workshop, which
took place during July 2003, trained 56
teachers from the Brighton and Rochester
City School Districts in the use of several
software packages that can be used to
augment classroom lessons. The modules
introduced in these workshops included
training in Project Interactivate, Texas
Instruments Graphing Calculators, Microsoft
Excel, Agentsheets, Stella, and Interactive
Physics. Each of these “tools” can be used by
teachers to provide students with discoverylearning techniques to investigate math and
science concepts.
This project, dubbed the CMST Institute
(CMST = Computational Math, Science and
Technology), began operations this summer
under a five-year, $3.4 million NSF grant
awarded to Professor Yasar and co-PI’s from
the Departments of Biological Sciences,
Chemistry Computer Science, Education and
Human Development, Mathematics and
Physics. Under the terms of this grant,
partnerships between the Rochester and
Brighton school districts, local industries, and
SUNY Brockport are to be developed to help
secondary school students and their teachers
build a strong sense of the interconnected
nature of math and science. The central idea
on which the project is based is that using
computers to solve problems in the sciences
will stimulate student curiosity in both math
and science.
More recently, Prof. Heitz developed a new
collaboration between SUNY Brockport’s
CMST Institute, the Corning School District
and scientists from Corning Glass, Inc to
implement regional training of teachers. The
first of a series of workshops for Corning
teachers was completed in October 2003.
Monthly meetings will continue during the
academic year to introduce teachers to new
modules. These efforts will also foster and
strengthen the partnerships between the
teachers, schools, and local industry.
Using the power of computers and computer
simulations students will explore science and
math concepts and problems in a new,
Finley Publishes in JOC With
Undergraduate Co-authors
By Thomas W. Kallen
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letting me use his "baby;" as I recall that he
wouldn't let the organic chemists anywhere
near it. Do I now hold a chemistry
department record for the length of time from
when a student worked on a research project
to publication?!?!”
In June of this year, Professor K. Thomas
Finley published an article entitled
“Regiospecificity in the Synthesis of Diaryl
Sulfones” in the Journal of Organic Chemistry
having three former SUNY Brockport
undergraduates, as well as Professor Kenneth
D. Schlecht, as co-authors (D. E. Allgier, S. A.
Herbert, R. Nee, K. D. Schlecht and K. T.
Finley, J. Org. Chem., 2003 (vol 68, No 12),
4988-4990). While publication by Professor
Finley is not unusual, the time span over
which the title study was conducted must be
considered to be highly unusual.
This work is published as a three-page “note”
in the Journal of Organic Chemistry. “Notes
are concise accounts of studies on a more
limited scope” than articles. However, they
go through the same peer review process as
articles; and JOC is the premier journal in the
area of organic synthesis.
Daniel Allgier (‘72), who did most of the
original synthetic work, began this study in the
early 1970’s as an Independent Study project
under Professor Finley. Rory Nee (‘76), one
of Professor Kenneth D. Schlecht’s research
students continued the study in the mid-70’s,
obtaining 60 MHz NMR spectra and assigning
peaks to the various isomers produced by
Allgier. Sue Ann Herbert (‘98) picked up the
study as a summer research project in the
mid-90’s, collected 300 MHz NMR spectra
and defined isomeric abundance as a function
of the pH at which the synthesis was
conducted.
JOC is now Web-published as well to give
researchers faster access to information
contained therein. This note was Webpublished May 10, 2003 and published in
hard-copy format in June 2003. The Times
congratulates all who contributed to the
completion of this paper!
Chemistry Club Earns Honors
By Thomas W. Kallen
The Chair of the Department of Chemistry
has been notified the President of the
American Chemical Society that the
Chemistry Club, a Student Affiliates chapter
of the American Chemical Society, had
been selected to receive a “Commendable”
award for its chapter activities during the
2002-2003 academic year. The award winning
chapters will be honored at the 227th ACS
National Meeting in Anaheim, CA, on
Sunday, March 28, 2004. They were also
recognized in C & E News and in
Chemistry, the student affiliates’ newsletter.
Through all of this, Professor Finley has been
unbelievably persistent in directing this
project, putting the finishing touches on the
work, and fighting the inevitable battles with
referees. His co-authors owe a great deal to
his determination and drive to get this work
published in a “quality journal!”.
E-mail from Rory Nee perhaps sets the
proper context for this publication. Rory
writes,” Dear Dr. Finley, What a wonderful
surprise to get your letter and the JOC
reprints! I very much appreciate your kind
words and for sharing the authorship. I
learned much about research from Drs.
Bixler, Schlecht and yourself. As I recall, Dr.
S. and I had that old NMR (I suspect it is now
either in a museum or at the bottom of Lake
Ontario) so finely tuned that it was literally
"smoking" (from the low temp. liquid N2
sample probe)!! I still appreciate the
confidence that Dr. S. showed in me by
Last year’s Club officers who planned and
carried out the activities recognized by the
ACS, were: Amanda Sturdevant (’03),
President; Jason Tubbs, Vice President;
Andrea Topolnycky (’03), Treasurer, and
Beth Mastin, Secretary. The President of the
American Chemical Society extended “his
warmest congratulations to the students…for
setting such a fine example for other
chapters.”
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Professor Markus Hoffmann, Faculty
Advisor of the Chemistry Club, also received
special mention from the President of ACS
who wrote, “Few faculty members are willing
to make the great commitment of time and
energy that a successful chapter requires of its
advisors. It takes more than exceptional
effort to be an award-winning chapter; it takes
the nurturing attention of dedicated advisors.
Professor Hoffmann’s efforts certainly
represent the best in undergraduate science
education and mentoring around the
country.”
on the “Solvation Properties of a Room
Temperature Ionic Liquid;” and Penna
(Professor Margaret E. Logan, research
mentor) presented her research on “The
Antioxidant Properties of Novel Diaryl
Tellurides in a Linoleic Acid Free Radical
System”.
Bennett, (Professor Markus M. Hoffman,
research mentor), delivered an oral
presentation entitled “Surfactant Research
Utilizing Hydrogen Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance”.
Of the 950 student affiliate chapters in the
United States and Puerto Rico, 29 were
honored as being “outstanding,” 52 were
honored as being “commendable,” and 77
received “honorable mention.” Last year’s
President of the Chemistry Club, Amanda
Sturdevant, set the goal to “move up a
notch.” They certainly did! This year’s
President, Jason Tubbs, reports that their
goal remains essentially the same, to “move
up another notch to ‘outstanding!”
Above: pictured from left to right, Jim
Hutchings, Megan Bennett, Kristina Fuller
and Alicia Penna, 5th Annual Robert
Laudise Symposium presenters.
This year’s officers, in addition to Tubbs, are
Ashley Campanali, Vice President, Kristina
Fuller, Treasurer, and JoAnn Viterna,
Secretary.
According to Professor Heitz, all of the
student presentations were well received by
the attendees at the symposium.
Four Chemistry Students
Present Papers at the 5th Annual
Robert Laudise Undergraduate
Research Symposium
Hutchings’ research was funded last summer
by Professor Hoffmann’s Camille and
Henry Dreyfus Foundation grant, while
Bennett’s research was funded by a summer
research grant from Rochester Midland
Corporation.
By Mark P. Heitz
On Saturday, October 11, Jim Hutchings,
Megan Bennett, Kristina Fuller and Alicia
Penna traveled to Union college, in
Schenectady, NY, with Professor Mark P.
Heitz to present papers at the 5th annual
Robert Laudise Undergraduate Research
Symposium.
Fuller, recipient of the Morris Fellowship
for Undergraduate Research in Chemistry,
received support for her 2003 summer
research from the Brockport Foundation.
Penna, recipient of the Chemistry Alumni
Fellowship for Undergraduate Research in
Chemistry, received support for her summer
2003 research from the Brockport
Foundation, the Bixler Fund, and the
Rochester Midland Corporation.
Hutchings, Fuller and Penna presented poster
papers: Hutchings (Professor Markus M.
Hoffman, research mentor) reported new
results on the “Phase Behavior of Ionic
Liquids in CO2;” Fuller (Professor Mark P.
Heitz, research mentor) presented a poster
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MMEP program began her project on health
disparities and disease in Haiti. With Yale
Medical School funding, students have the
opportunity to research anywhere in the
world, given an excellent proposal. Yale also
offers undergraduate and post-baccalaureate
students opportunities to embark on summer
research
internships.
Specifically,
the
BIOSTEP program is designed for
underrepresented students with some or no
research experience to take part in a molecular
biology and biophysics project. Another
program that Yale offers is a postbaccalaureate program. This program allows
students to take free graduate biology courses
for credit, and work with a mentor on a
research project. This program is geared for
students who wish to enter an MD, PhD, or
an MD/PhD program.
Above: Poster Session at the 5th Annual
Robert Laudise Undergraduate Research
Symposium at Union College
Chemistry Student Participates
in Yale University Minority
Medical Education Program
Yale Medical School has the no grade system
for the first two years of medical school. The
tests are optional and are confidential. The
students are given a yearly evaluation, and that
would constitute as somewhat of a "grade".
The requirement, however, is successful
completion of the USMLE Step 1 before
entering the clinical phase of the curriculum,
which is at the end of the second year. Other
medical schools have letter grading, or passfail systems, and some do not even require
successful completion of the USMLE Steps 1,
2, or 3 to receive the medical degree; future
doctors need these steps for certification as a
physician though.. The didactic education
consists of lectures and group problem based
scenarios. For the most part, the classes at
MMEP were problem-based learning.
By Luis Labrador-MMEP Program
One of the greatest blessings that I have ever
received was the opportunity to participate in
the Minority Medical Education Program at
Yale Medical School. This experience allowed
me to essentially be a graduate student for the
summer and learn about different career
pathways in the biomedical field. Specifically,
MMEP consisted of biomedical lecture series,
an in depth MCAT preparation, writing and
communications classes, an up close and
personal participation in an autopsy, clinical
applied basic sciences scenarios, a financial
planning workshop, medical ethics lectures,
biomedical lectures, an introduction to public
health and epidemiolgy, interviews with
members of the medical college admissions
committee, and a series of mock medical
school interviews.
Enrichment programs such as MMEP allow
undergraduate and post baccalaureate
students the opportunity to explore the
different career pathways in the biomedical
field. It provides good preparation for what is
to come in these graduate programs and the
careers that follow, and it enables the
participants to look at alternatives that may
not have been considered previously. MMEP
fortified my decision to pursue a career in
medicine; for others it allowed them to
research and pursue other careers within the
biomedical field. Those who are interested in
Yale University is in the top ten colleges
known for its research. A requirement upon
graduation from the medical school,
epidemiolgy and public health, and other of
its graduate programs involves an in depth
research project and thesis. Most of the
medical students do their research during the
summer after the end of the first year of
medical school. One particular medical
student who was a teaching assistant for the
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graduate school, especially within the
biomedical field, should seriously consider an
enrichment program; it provides insight in the
decision making of the graduate program and
career.
“Hi Everyone, Phonesada and I have
wonderful news to share. On Sunday, Oct.
12, at 5:32 PM, Pallas Brenna Hoffmann
was born at Strong Memorial Hospital.
Pallas’ birth weight was 6 lbs and 7 oz and
she measured 19-1/4 inches long.
Phonesada and Pallas both came home
yesterday (October 14th) and we spent the
first night together as a family at home. God
is good. Markus”
Editor’s Note: Luis is a Biological Sciences
major, Chemistry minor and member of the
SUNY Brockport’s CSTEP program. His
CSTEP mentor is Professor Margaret E.
Logan of the Department of Chemistry, a
member of the College’s Premedical Advisory
Committee.
Luis participated in Yale
University’s Minority Medical Education
Program during the past summer.
Alumni News
By Thomas W. Kallen
Rory Nee (’76) who married fellow chemistry
major, Polly Ann Wells (’76), recently
“bumped into” our Web site; and, after
reading the back issues of The Department
of Chemistry Times, sent the following email message, reproduced in its entirety
following consultation with our lawyers.
It’s A Girl!
By Thomas W. Kallen
It has been such a long time since a child was
born to a faculty member in our department
that the Times just could not pass-up the
opportunity to announce formally the birth of
“Hi KDS & TWK! During some recent net
surfing I went to the SUNY Brockport Chem.
Dept. web site and had a great time reading
the issues of the Newsletter that are posted
there. It was good to hear that you guys are
still doing a great job preparing young folks
for futures in science/chemistry. It seems like
you have some very outstanding students to
keep you motivated. I was particularly
impressed with KDS's "Road Show" work
with bringing chemistry to young kids in a fun
way, and that the Chemistry Club has been
very active. It was also great to read some of
the alumni news of the "old folks" from back
in the early/mid-70's. (If you want to really
get depressed, I'll tell you that Polly and I are
now knocking at the door of 50!)
An update on us.... We live in Kalamazoo,
MI, and I have now been at Pfizer (formerly
Pharmacia, formerly Upjohn) nearly 25 years,
working as a QA Specialist. You would
probably be a wee bit disappointed that I have
been "out of the lab" for a long time, solidly
entrenched as a "bureaucrat," but there are
many things that need to be done to bring you
guys the high quality Lipitor, Viagra, Zoloft,
Detrol, Rogaine and Kaopectate that you
probably now need at your age; and it does a
Above: the proud father, Markus, and his
infant daughter, Pallas Brenna Hoffman.
a baby girl to Markus and Phonesada
Hoffmann! So, here it is, is Professor Markus
M. Hoffmann’s own words:
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great job with paying the bills for the high
priced college educations of our kids.
the first drop of oil on Schlecht's virgin garage
floor of the newly built Hex House (I needed
to change the oil in my car before we drove to
Cleveland for the Pittsburgh Conference),
watching the Celtics on Eiler's color TV,
babysitting 1 year old Kendra Schlecht.,
home-made ice cream and wine coolers at
Bixler's house, Frank Melia (chemistry major
and weightlifter) lifting Schlecht over his head
at a party in my apartment., Bill Stevens
passing out in the closet of my apartment
(same party), my all-time worst Brockport
memory - losing to Mancuso in a 1 on 1
basketball game (I intend to stop by someday
for a rematch. I heard he had some hip
replacements, so I may have a chance), and
my all-time best Brockport memory – meeting
Polly (in a chem. lab; little did Schlecht know
what he would start when he made Gen.
Chem. Lab Assistant assignments that year)....
and the list could go on and on! Thanks for
the memories.... Rory & Polly Nee ('76)”
You would probably be a bit more proud of
Polly, as she has stayed very close to lab
chemistry. She is the QA Manager at KAR
Laboratories, which provides analytical
services in both the environmental and
pharmaceutical industries. Thru a contact
from a previous job, they lured her away from
Pharmacia about four years ago. She keeps the
labs honest, making sure that all their
methods are properly validated and executed
so that only good data goes out the door.
We have both had great careers, and are also
thankful to you guys (and your past Smith
Hall compatriots) for the part that you played
in preparing us for it.
We have two daughters, who were both
adopted from South Korea as infants, who I
think you guys have met when we stopped by
a few years ago. Carmen (20) is a junior at
Hope College (Holland, MI) doing a double
major in Psychology and Kinesiology and is a
"flyer" on the cheerleading squad (this is the
kind of thing that makes you very grateful for
good medical insurance). She is looking into
grad schools in Psychology. Krista (18) is
starting her freshman year in the Honors
Program in Medicine at Northwestern Univ.
She had to be interviewed and pre-accepted at
the NU Medical School, and will spend 3
years at the campus in Evanston, IL (will get a
degree in Chemistry!) and then moves to the
med. school in downtown Chicago (only 1
block from the high-priced "Magnificent
Mile" shopping district). We are very proud of
both of them. We are also accepting
donations. We are considering having our
paychecks sent directly to Hope and
Northwestern and letting them send us a
small allowance to live on.
All this editor can say to Rory is, “thanks for
reminding us, the elderly, of all those
“memories!” KDS doesn’t even remember
being “pressed,” or was it “cleaned and
jerked,” by Frank Melia!
Lisa Stevens (’00) gave birth to twin boys on
August 28th. Lisa writes, “Hello Everyone:
Wanted to let you all know that the boys have
arrived. Andrew Keith Pace Stephens was
born at 11:59 am weighing 6 lbs 8 oz and
Philip Timothy Pace Stephens was born at
12:01 pm weighing 4 lbs 2 oz -- on Aug. 28.
Andrew and Lisa got to come home yesterday
(Monday) but Philip had to stay in the special
care nursery to grow a little. By God's grace
who should be able to join us at home
tomorrow. Thanks to all for your thoughts
and prayers throughout my pregnancy. Take
care, Lisa.”
Michael Nicholson (’01), now a a thirdyear graduate student in Biochemistry at
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore
MD, writes, “I am writing to share some
We hope that all is well with you, your
families, and the rest of the current and past
"Smith Hall Gang." We have many fond
memories…the "punch bowl" at the Dept.
Christmas parties, "re-convening" at a local
"establishment" after the Monday night
research project seminars/meetings, spilling
good new with you - my son, Graham
Thomas was born on August 24. He was and
is a very healthy baby (8 lbs 14 oz, 22 inches)
and is growing like crazy - pretty soon he'll be
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able to help his Dad out in lab. Sara is doing
well, and is pleased to find that the little guy
sleeps enough during the day that she has
been able to get some work done on her
dissertation.
“The VOC's are easily detected by GC and all
the instruments have auto samplers including
the HPLC and ICP.”
“This fall I am taking Fluid Flow in
Environmental
Systems,
Contaminant
Subsurface Hydrology, & Soil Physics. Next
semester I hope to take Environmental
Organic Chemistry, Pollution Prevention &
Control, and Wetland Hydrology or the
Bio/Geochemistry of Trace Metals.”
In other news, I passed my qualifying exams
this past spring and I'm gearing up for my
first Thesis committee meeting. I've also
started writing my first paper - we hope to
have it submitted by the New Year. I hope all
is well with you all, and please forward this to
anyone I unintentionally left out.”
“My advisor is great and his “post doc” is
extremely helpful. I am playing Flag Football
on the departmental intramural team (both
faculty and students) and hope to tryout for
the UF Roller Hockey Club team in October,
time permitting.”
Gordon Brown (’03), now a first-year
graduate student in Environmental
Engineering at the University of Florida in
Gainesville, writes “Hi there Profs, from
down here in sunny and hot (Yikes!) Florida.
So far I have made a very smooth transition
into my graduate work at the Environmental
Engineering Sciences department at UF.”
“Beka is doing very well in her job at Shand's
Hospital. She passed her Nursing boards, so
she is working as an RN on a medical/surgical
floor. It’s the premier hospital in the state,
much like Strong Hospital in Rochester. They
even cancelled her last 2 weeks of training
because she impressed them so much.”
“Dr. Annable, my research advisor, and I have
decided that I should evaluate the
effectiveness of “surfactant (SDBS) enhanced
air sparging of DNAPL's.” Much to my
liking, the work will incorporate both lab
experiments and lots of fieldwork. This year
will be mostly lab work with some trips to
field sites in Seattle (TCE at Air Force
Base) and Jacksonville (TCE & PCE at the
site of a dry cleaner).”
“We rented a house in the northwest side of
town with a fenced yard for our dogs, but
they don't go outside for long because it’s too
humid. Winters are supposed to be milder.
Now it rains ever day, for 20-30 minutes in
the afternoon.”
“Next summer I will be in Waterloo, Canada
monitoring the surfactant air sparging
remediation of a TCE/PCE release at Borden
CFB.
We will be measuring both
groundwater and contaminant mass flux
before and after remediation to evaluate the
effectiveness. Does 75% mass removal
decrease contaminant mass flux into
groundwater? It is pretty exciting stuff for
me. The work is a part of a three-part grant
from the EPA to study the effectiveness of
three remediation techniques, with the U of
Arkansas and the U of Texas involved with
the modeling and vapor remediation
technique. The PhD I'm under is evaluating
mass flux of DNAPL co-solvent flushing with
ethanol.”
“We are going to our first “Gators” football
game Saturday against San Jose State. It's
definitely the talk of the town.”
“Anyway, that's a quick summary for now.
Feel free to pass this on or contact me
anytime. Hope you all had a productive
summer and have a great fall semester. Even
though we are both making new friends and
settling in down here, we do miss you all and
Upstate NY. Gordon.”
Jason Carr (’03), who is now a graduate
student at the SUNY at Buffalo, writes,
“Greetings and salutations!! I hope the fall
semester has been pleasant so far. I just
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thought I'd drop a line or three to let you
know how life's been treating me.
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.
My first couple of weeks at UB have been
quite nice... I did well enough in the battery
(more like battering...) of ACS exams that I
had the pick of the litter as far as what 3
classes I was to take. I'm in Analytical,
Organic, and Physical (Surprise Dr.
Hoffmann!!!) and God as my witness, I
actually think P-Chem will be the easiest of
the three! I will be conducting 2 recitations
(and TA-ing the lab immediately after) each
week starting with the week of the 8th. I will
also have 2 office hours every week, during
which I'll be the only CHE 101 (general
chemistry) TA available for the 1000 (yes,
that's ONE THOUSAND) students taking
the course. Along with the 500 others taking
CHE 107 (chem for engineers, if memory
serves me well), I will be a busy little beaver.
I'm also close to choosing an advisor to do
my research under (if he'll have me...). He's
heavy into Mass Spectrometry (which I
enjoyed) and seems like he'd be easy to work
with.
On the personal front, Lynn is expecting in
early October so I'll then have 3 rug rats,
total, to deal with... I personally can't wait,
but don't tell Lynn that, I'm getting mileage
out of it. I also miss you all quite a bit. Keep
in touch and I'll do the same. I'm giving ya'll
my E-Mail address. Feel free to forward it to
students considering UB, I can answer lots, if
not all, of the questions they might have.
Take care... Jason Carr”
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.
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