Badger Chemist News

The latest news

• ACS Alumni & Friends Reception

    UW-Madison Department of Chemistry alumni and friends gathered at the ACS Spring 2023 convention to reconnect.

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  Classes begin inside new UW-Madison chemistry building

  Students returning to class for the spring semester last week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison were greeted with a new academic building at the heart of campus.

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  Inside UW-Madison’s new Chemistry Tower: modern labs, study spaces and a ‘library of the future’

  Goodbye, crowded chemistry labs. So long to space crunches so severe that some 20% of UW-Madison students took introductory organic chemistry at a different university. UW-Madison opened its gleaming nine-story Chemistry Tower to students this semester after months of construction delays. The new building at 1101 University Ave. will ease enrollment bottlenecks that have plagued the department for decades.

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  Graduate Student Creates Free Library of 3D Chemistry Teaching Tools

  When the COVID-19 pandemic forced UW–Madison’s in-person instruction online in 2020, undergraduate and graduate research students encountered a massive obstacle in their learning: How would they perform their research if they were unable to go into their labs? Michael Aristov, a 5th-year graduate student in the Berry lab in the Department of Chemistry, pivoted to another one of his interests when the pandemic impeded his research. He decided to build augmented reality models to aid chemistry education.

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  Chemistry graduate students use virtual zine to bridge gap between arts and science

  Although art and science are often viewed as unrelated ventures, over the years their coexistence has been realized as more compatible than immiscible. Graduate students from the Department of Chemistry, through their recently established art and literary magazine, are advocating for this interdisciplinary approach and the benefits it renders. The Benzine, besides being a great pun, is a platform for the Chemistry community to share their art, build a sense of community and alleviate stress.

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  Single-molecule measurements give insight into how pacemaker ion channels interact with cAMP

  If you’ve ever been on an amusement park ride, been scared suddenly, or maybe even had to address a large crowd when you were nervous; you’ve likely felt your heart start to thump faster even though you weren’t exerting a lot of energy. What happened was a certain chemical compound called cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) activated pacemaker ion channels, which caused an increase in electrical activity that led to your heart beating faster.

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  Bertram group finds ocean life helps produce clouds, but existing clouds keep new ones at bay

  Stand on the ocean’s shore and take a big whiff of the salt spray and you’ll smell the unmistakably pungent scent of the sea. That ripe, almost rotting smell? That’s sulfur. Marine plankton breathe more than 20 million tons of sulfur into the air every year, mostly in the form of dimethyl sulfide (DMS). In the air, this chemical can transform into sulfuric acid, which helps produce clouds by giving a site for water droplets to form. Over the scale of the world’s oceans, this process affects the entire climate.

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  Prof. Emeritus Lawrence F. Dahl: Department remembers brilliant researcher and thoughtful advisor

  Lawrence F. Dahl, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at UW–Madison, passed away unexpectedly on March 20, 2021, at the age of 91. He was preceded in death by his son, Chris Dahl and is survived by his wife of 63 years, Prof. Emerita June Lomnes Dahl and two sons, Lawrence Dahl and Eric Dahl, all of Madison, and grandson Lawrence Samuel Hendon-Dahl.

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  Graduate students win Department of Defense Fellowship

  Chemistry graduate students Christopher Dade (Forest) and Ashley Ogorek (Martell) have been selected for the Department of Defense’s National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (ND- SEG) fellowships, which for three years offer a monthly stipend, travel budget, health insurance and pay tuition and fees.

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  Undergrad researcher earns award to attend ACS Atlanta

  Christian Gomez, an undergraduate researcher with the Martell group, received an ACS Bridge Travel and Career/Professional Development Award, which helped him attend his first scientific conference – the ACS Meeting & Expo in Atlanta. The award supports underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students by funding conference attendance and career and professional development.

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  Doolittle earns Distinguished Faculty Associate promotion

  Dr. Pam Doolittle has been promoted to Distinguished Faculty Associate by performing at a level of proficiency, gaining extensive experience, knowledge, and skills, and providing guidance and training to peers and other staff.

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  Bertram, Bain receive Taylor Excellence in Teaching Awards

  The Department of Chemistry chose two recipients for the James W. Taylor Excellence Teaching Award – Prof. Timothy Bertram and senior instructional technology specialist Dr. Rachel Bain.

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  Postdoc uses social media to share STEM resources

  Stephanie Santos-Diaz, an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education, and a postdoc at the Department of Chemistry, recently started an Instagram account that is intended to be an empowering resource for underrepresented populations in the STEM field. Six months after her first post in October 2020, the STEMpowerment Instagram page has gained more than 200 followers, and has shared over 40 posts. Santos-Diaz explained that the Instagram page is a way to acknowledge her community and help them to overcome potential barriers.

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  New building scheduled to open for Spring

  The new Department of Chemistry tower, which was supposed to open in the Fall of 2021, is now scheduled to open for classes in the Spring of 2022, according to the Facilities Committee. As part of a $133 million upgrade to the building complex, the tower is poised to serve the rapidly increasing number of undergraduate students at UW–Madison.

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  Lab makes 3-D enzyme mimicking architectures using full pallet of synthetic chemistry

  The Martell group’s research focuses on making artificial enzymes and artificial receptors by combining biomolecules with synthetic molecules. “We synthetically modify individual DNA arms by using functional groups that are not found in naturally occur- ring amino acids and cofactors, therefore broadening the scope of our reactivity,” said Prof. Jeffrey Martell. “We then rely on complementary base-pairing for the arms to self-assemble into a 3-D cage, such that the attached functional groups are displayed into a central cavity.”

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  Widicus Weaver Lab finds new methods for prebiotic chemistry

  Over the past year, the Widicus Weaver group kept busy under the constraints of COVID-19, by finding new ways to approach research on prebiotic astrochemistry. The group focused on calculations, modeling, and computational work while evaluating the setup of their laboratory experiments.

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  Wickens Lab explores new method to make aziridines

  The Wickens lab primarily focuses on developing novel strategies for combating long-standing synthesis challenges in organic chemistry. This past year, they took the challenge of developing a new method to synthesize aziridines by leveraging electrochemistry.

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  Q&A with Chemistry Education Professor Ryan Stowe

  Professor Ryan Stowe joined the Department of Chemistry as part of the Chemistry Education path. As professors John Moore and Bassam Shakhashiri retire, Stowe reflects on his reason for joining the department and on the …

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  Retiring faculty legacies set stage for ChemEd colleagues

  For many years, the Department of Chemistry at UW–Madison has been a key place for Chemistry Education, with teaching, outreach, and dissemination of Chemistry Education materials second to none.

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  Q&A with Chemistry Education Professor Sam Pazicni

  Professor Sam Pazicni joined the Department of Chemistry as part of the Chemistry Education path. As professors Bassam Shakhashiri and John Moore retire, Pazicni reflects on his reason for joining the department and on the …

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  Exciting discovery made from incorrect hypothesis

  A hypothesis can be a scientist’s best-educated guess about how an experiment might turn out or why they got specific results. Some- times, they’re not far off from the truth. Other times, they’re wrong. Being wrong isn’t always a bad thing. Often, it means that the researchers get to discover something new and exciting. This exact scenario happened when the Burstyn and Buller labs decided to work together on a project.

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  Department launches Faculty Research Mentorship Program

  Community is an important aspect of any Department, especially in an age of virtual interactions. Recently, the Department of Chemistry took strides to strengthen mentorship relationships, engage in conversations, and initiate peer learning with a new mentor training program.

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  Annual Mole Day created by Badger Chemist

  Almost any student who has taken a chemistry course – whether it be in high school, college, or elsewhere – will have a story about how they celebrated Mole Day with their class. Few know, however, that the creation of the day has ties to the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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  Tireless advocate for science literacy retires

  Bassam Shakhashiri, the kinetic and tireless science educator and 81-year-old University of Wisconsin–Madison chemistry professor who for more than 50 years charmed and amazed audiences with the wonders of science, has retired. His steadfast advocacy for science literacy was a clarion call to scientists and politicians alike.

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  Chemistry Education through the years: Reflecting on Prof. John W. Moore’s retirement and impact

  Prof. John W. Moore, the W. T. Lippincott Professor of Chemistry at UW– Madison, retired from the Department at the end of Spring 2021. His wife, Program Manager Betty Moore, who retired at the same time, made major contributions to the Department and to John’s professional career.

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  Department welcomes Prof. Xuhui Huang

  Prof. Xuhui Huang, who arrived in Madison over the summer, is the newest faculty member added to the Department. His group is primarily focused on Theoretical Chemistry and Molecular Biophysics, particularly looking at the interface of the two fields.

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  Landis becomes Department chair: Grateful for legacy of past chair, ready to take on new challenges

  Prof. Clark Landis has taken over as chair of the Department of Chemistry, a position previously held by Prof. Judith N. Burstyn.

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  Burstyn leaves lasting legacy: First female Department chair implements change despite obstacles

  Prof. Judith N. Burstyn, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Chemistry’s first female Department chair and a member of the UW–Madison chemistry community for more than 30 years, finished her landmark term in June.

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  Treichel Group alumni meet in Hong Kong

  Alumni of Paul Treichel’s Inorganic Chemistry group (pictured above), David Shaw (Ph.D. 1975) and Rick Wong (Ph.D. 1977) had a reunion in Hong Kong in January. David and his wife Marsha completed a Singapore to …

• Iowa State names Dorhout (Ph.D. 1989, Ellis) as next vice president for research

  AMES, Iowa – Peter K. Dorhout from Kansas State University has been named vice president for research (VPR) at Iowa State University. Dorhout, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and …

• More 2021 Badger Chemist Magazine posts
• More Alumni Awards & Achievements posts
• More Department News posts