Fall/Winter 2022 Alumni Magazine

CHEMISTRY

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL

FROM THECHAIR

Dear Alumni and Friends,

As you will discover in this year ’ s magazine, a lot has happened in 2022, with celebration of life and new beginnings.

We lost two titans of Tarheel Chemistry this year with the passing of Professors Royce Murray and Maurice Bursey, both spent many decades as Chemistry faculty in teaching and training many of you that are now leaders in your chosen fields. Maurice Bursey profoundly advanced Mass Spectrometry during his time and codified our departments beginnings in his treasured book, Carolina Chemists. Royce Murray, on the other hand, revolutionized electrochemistry and many other research fields with his almost 60-year career in Carolina On October 22nd, 2022, we held a celebration of Royce Murray’s life in Murray Hall, a building named in his honor Royce’s life-long contributions were celebrated by many of his former students, current and past Chancellors, Kevin Guskiewicz and Holden Thorp, board members, Debra Rolison and Lowry Caudill, and current and emeriti faculty, Joe Templeton and Mark Wightman All shared powerful words on the impact of Royce to the University, community of North Carolina, and beyond We had the privilege of hearing happy memories from his family who joined from near and far Royce and Maurice have left an inspiring legacy that has impacted many of us, and become part of Carolina Chemistry forever

Building on their legacy of excellence, this year we welcome four faculty members to our department: Erin Baker (Analytical), Megan Jackson (Inorganic), Jade Fostvedt (Teaching), and Huong Kratochvil (Biological). Their research aligns with the cross-disciplinary culture in the department, ranging from novel mass spectrometry methods for measuring chemical exposure, heterogeneous electrocatalysis for energy conversion, evidence-based practices to maximize retention of undergraduate chemists, and engineering artificial proteins to address complex mechanistic questions in biology. We also welcome 20 new staff on both business and research teams. We are thrilled that over 30% of the team are Tarheel alumni!

It has truly been an exceptional year to both reflect on the past and build towards the future in every aspect of the department. We hope you will enjoy reading the 2022 edition of our magazine, and continue our joint efforts in sustaining the excellence of Carolina Chemistry!

WeiYou Department

Chairperson

chemchair@unc.edu

NEWS

Building up our Faculty: New Positions and New Faces

By UNC Chemistry Communication

The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce eight faculty members been promoted this academic year (2022-2023).

James Cahoon has been a member of the UNC Chemistry faculty since 2011 His work at UNC in nanomaterials/nanowire synthesis, solar and thermal energy, and photonics has awards such as Hettleman, an NSF CAREER Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Cottrell Scholar Award, and a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. He has also served as the UNC Director for the Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network (RTNN) and the Director of the Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory (CHANL). He was promoted to full Professor as of July 1, 2022.

JamesCahoon

Jillian Dempsey has been a member of the UNC Chemistry faculty since 2012. Her work at UNC in inorganic spectroscopy and solar energy conversion has awards such as the Harry Gray Award for Creative Work in Inorganic Chemistry by a Young Investigator, a Dalton Transactions UC Berkeley Lectureship, an Inter-American Photochemical Society Young Investigator Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Hettleman Prize, an NSF CAREER Award, and a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering She is currently Director of Undergraduate Studies at UNC Chemistry and the Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor She was promoted to full Professor as of July 1, 2022

JillianDempsey

Yosuke Kanai has been a member of the UNC Chemistry faculty since 2011 His work at UNC in theoretical/computational chemistry, chemical and material physics, condensed matters, and first-principles electronic structure theory has landed him awards such as the Pariser Global Lectureship for Innovation in Physical Sciences, a DOE INCITE Award, and an Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry. He has also served as a term member of the Chemistry faculty at Duke University and as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. He was promoted to full Professor as of July 1, 2022.

Alex Miller has been a member of the UNC Chemistry faculty since 2012 His work at UNC in energy catalysis, synthetic organometallic chemistry, and metal-ligand cooperation has garnered awards such as the Carlyle Sitterson Award for Teaching FirstYear Students, an NSF CAREER Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a an Emerging Investigator Lectureship, a Organometallics Distinguished Author Award, and he was named to Forbes "30 Under 30" Energy" list. He has also served as the Director for Graduate Studies at UNC Chemistry and as an Editorial Advisory Board Member of Chemical Communications and Organometallics. He was promoted to full Professor as of July 1, 2022.

AlexMiller

Andrew Moran has been a member of the UNC Chemistry faculty since 2007. His work at UNC in spectroscopy and dynamics in condensed phases and nonlinear optics has been recognized by awards such as an NSF CAREER Award He has had over 75 papers published that have been cited over 3,300 times He was promoted to full Professor as of July 1, 2022

FrankLeibfarth

AndrewMoran

Frank Leibfarth has been a member of the UNC Chemistry faculty since 2016 His work at UNC in polymer science, organic synthesis, and continuous flow chemistry has received many awards and recognitions such as Hettleman Award, Thieme Chemistry Journal Award, a Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, an NIH Maximizing Investigators Research Award, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Cottrell Scholar Award, a Beckman Young Investigator Award, an NSF CAREER Award, and a PMSE Young Investigator Award. He was also named as one of the "Brilliant 10" early career scientists by Popular Science and among the "Talented 12" by Chemical & Engineering News, and gave the UNC Winter Commencement Speech in 2021 He was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure as of July 1, 2022

Leslie Hicks has been a member of the UNC Chemistry faculty since 2013. Her work at UNC in proteomics, posttranslational modifications, and mass spectrometry has been recognized by awards such as an SfRBM Mentoring Excellence Award, a William C. Friday Award for Excellence in Teaching, a WCC Rising Star Award, an Agnes Fay Morgan Research Award, an Eli Lilly Young Investigator Award, a Robert J Cotter New Investigator Award, an NSF CAREER Award, and a Arthur C Neish Young Investigator Award She has also served as the UNC Chemistry co-chair for the Swell Committee She was promoted to Chancellor's Science Scholars Term Distinguished Professor as of July 1, 2022 The CCS Professorship bestows special recognition for her exemplary research and teaching record.

LeslieHicks

Domenic Tiani has been a member of the UNC Chemistry faculty since 2003 His work at UNC in chemistry education and lab curriculum development has led him to be both a faculty advisor for the UNC Medical School and an Undergraduate Advisor for the Chemistry Department. He has served as a Covenant Mentor for Carolina Covenant Scholars, and Continues to be a mentor in the Carolina Student Transfer Excellence Program. He continues to teach first year chemistry, sophomore analytical methods, and intermediate analytical chemistry. He was promoted to Teaching Professor as of July 1, 2022.

Building up our Faculty: New Positions and New Faces

By UNC Chemistry Communication

We are pleased to announce that we ’ ve had four new faculty members join us in 2022.

Erin Baker

Joining us from North Carolina State University, Erin Baker brings more than 20 years ’ experience Before working at NCSU, she spent almost 13 years as part of Dr Richard Smith’s lab at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, first as a postdoctoral researcher and then a research scientist She received her Ph D from the University of California, Santa Barbara and her Bachelor’s degree from Montana State University The list of her awards and honors is extensive, including the 2022 ASMS Biemann Medal, the 2022 Curt-Brunee award, a Spring 2021 Impact Scholar, and the ACS Rising Star award

Dr. Baker has over 150 publications, with almost 40 in the last 4 years alone. A strong tenant of her lab is respect and inclusion, demonstrated by the success of many of her students. The Baker lab has been actively using multidimensional separation techniques such as solid phase extractions, liquid chromatography, ion mobility spectrometry, and mass spectrometry to evaluate molecules present and changing in biological and environmental systems. These analyses allow the assessment of both xenobiotic and endogenous molecular changes to probe the perturbations occurring. Some of the ongoing research projects include the development of high-throughput analyses to study numerous samples in a short time period as well as informatics studies to evaluate and connect the complex multi-omic data with available phenotypic data. Read more about their work at her lab’s webpage, on her Google Scholar and LinkedIn pages, or follow her on Twitter for more exciting news about her research.

Jade Fostvedt

The latest addition to UNC Chemistry’s Teaching Faculty, Jade Fostvedt hails from the University of California Berkeley where she received her Ph.D in inorganic chemistry and worked as an Instructor underneath Dr. John Arnold. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of South Dakota. While at UC Berkeley, her efforts at teaching and research have been recognized with awards such as the Chancellor’s Fellowship for Graduate Study, the Teaching Effectiveness Award, an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, and the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award. Her specialties in teaching lay in general and inorganic chemistry. Dr. Fostvedt has done a significant amount of outreach, such as working with Community Resources for Science and her Science at Home videos during the pandemic. As a teaching professor, she aims to help students develop and follow their own passions through chemistry. Dr. Fostvedt's latest publications can be found on her Google Scholar page, and more information about her work at her LinkedIn profile.

Megan Jackson

Megan Jackson joined the faculty on July 1st as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dr Jackson received her B S degree from California Institute of Technology, where she conducted research in the lab of Dr Harry Gray She completed her Ph D in the lab of Dr Yogesh Surendranath at MIT as a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow

She then joined the laboratory of Dr Jeffrey Long at UC Berkeley, supported by an Arnold O Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship and a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Award

Her postdoctoral work focused on controlling the materials properties of metal–organic frameworks, including morphology, surface chemistry, and defect chemistry. At UNC, the Jackson Lab will use tools from electrochemistry, materials chemistry, and inorganic chemistry to bring bottom-up design principles to heterogeneous electrocatalysis for energy conversion. Keep up with the latest in the Jackson lab by following her Twitter account or by reading about her latest publications on her Google Scholar page and LinkedIn page.

Huong Kratochvil

Huong Kratochvil joins us from the University of California at San Francisco, where she spent 6 years as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr William DeGrado’s lab She received her Ph D in Physical Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin She has been previously awarded an NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the Ruth L Kirschstein NRSA F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship, and been named an Intersections Science Fellow She was heavily involved with STEM DEI work at all of her previous institutions

At UNC, the Kratochvil's lab will tackle questions of channel/transporter structure and function and key protein-protein interactions in immunology through protein design strategies. Please see more about Dr. Kratochvil's previous work on her LinkedIn profile and her Google Scholar page, and keep up to date with the latest happenings in her lab on her Twitter.

Photos in this article courtesy of UNC-CH, NCSU, UC Berkeley, and UC of San Francisco

You Leads Team To Power Future Tech With $7.5M MURI Award

Of Electronics Building the Next Generation Building the Next Generation Building the Next Generation

By College of Arts and Sciences

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill leads a group of four universities awarded $7.5 million from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop organic semiconductors for the next generation of electronics. Wei You, professor and chair of the department of chemistry in UNC’s College of Arts & Sciences, will collaborate with Harald Ade, Aram Amassian and Franky So of North Carolina State University, David Ginger and Xiaosong Li of the University of Washington and Baskar Ganapathysubramanian at Iowa State on the project supported by a five-year Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) award. Their work could improve the portable power, energy efficiency and durability of screens and information display devices used in both the cockpit and the field. Semiconductors, or microchips, are typically made from silicon and they serve as the brain of modern electronics Without them there would be no smartphones, radios, televisions, computers, video games or advanced medical diagnostic equipment. However, the intrinsic limits of current semiconductors (typically inorganic materials) has driven the need for fundamental advances in future

semiconductor development

The Carolina-led team of chemists, physicists and engineers has assembled to set new directions in a specific class of semiconductors called organic semiconductors or “plastic electronics.”

Enhanced functionality and ability of organic semiconductors– like the organic light-emitting diode TVs in many homes – are the result of a process called molecular doping It plays an important and growing role in organic electronics, ranging from OLED TVs and organic solar cells to thermoelectronics and bioelectronics like pacemakers, and will be a main focus of the

project “Achieving new advances in this critical class of materials requires collaboration and new thinking,” said You “Our work will transform the field by providing comprehensive, in-depth knowledge of doping mechanism and its effects on charge carrier density and mobility.” This MURI project brings together researchers whose efforts intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline. The team will employ new research methods using robotics and machine learning to better predict and understand the chemistry involving semiconductor enhancements The MURI award was made possible through a strong collaboration facilitated by Ralph House, associate chair of research in chemistry at UNC, and Leigh Ann Samsa in the Office of Research Development at UNC, You said. “This cross-fertilization of ideas can accelerate research progress to enable more rapid R&D breakthroughs and hasten the transition of basic research findings to practical application,” said Bindu Nair, director, Basic Research Office, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, in the DoD announcement

The Carolina-led project is titled “Next Generation Molecular Dopants for Organic Electronics: From Fundamentals to New Device Concepts ”

MURI All-Hands Team meeting (Mandy Melton/UNC-CH Chemistry)

ALEXANIAN AND LEIBFARTH GROUPS: CREATING A BETTER PLASTIC

By University Communications

The United States generates more plastic trash than any other country – about 46 3 million tons of it or 287 pounds per person a year, according to a 2020 study. The country’s 9% rate of recycling will never keep up. Why so low?

The chemistry of today’s plastics makes most difficult to recycle. Even thermoplastics that can be melted down weaken with each re-use. And that leads to the real barrier to recycling – economics. There’s just no profit incentive. But now a group of chemists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have turned the tables by discovering a method to break down plastics to create a new material that is stronger and tougher than the original – meaning it’s potentially more valuable

The stability makes it difficult to turn natural products into medicines and challenging to recycle commodity plastics But by modifying the carbon-hydrogen bonds that are common in polymers, the building blocks for modern plastic used in grocery bags, soda and water bottles, food packaging, auto parts and toys, the life span of polymers could be expanded beyond single-use plastic. With a newly identified reagent that could strip hydrogen atoms off medicinal compounds and polymers, the UNC chemists were able to make new bonds in places previously considered unreactive “The versatility of our approach is that it enables many valuable transformations of carbonhydrogen bonds on such a wide range of important compounds,” Alexanian said that it enables many valuable transformations of carbon-hydrogen bonds on such a wide range of important compounds,” Alexanian said.

“Our approach views plastic waste as a potentially valuable resource for the production of new molecules and materials,” said Frank Leibfarth, assistant professor of chemistry in the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. “We hope this method could drive an economic incentive to recycle plastic, literally turning trash into treasure ” Leibfarth and UNC-Chapel Hill professor Erik Alexanian, who specializes in chemical synthesis, describe the approach that could close the loop on plastic recycling in the journal Science. Carbon-hydrogen bonds are some of the strongest chemical bonds in nature.

Researchers envisioned using the innovative approach to help transform difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into a high-value class of polymers They started with plastic foam packaging used to protect electronics during shipping that otherwise ends up in landfills Samples of post-consumer foam were provided by High Cube LLC, a Durham, N.C., recycling company. The foam is made of a low-density plastic called a commercial polyolefin. By selectively pulling hydrogen atoms from polyolefin, the chemists came up with a way to expand the life of the single-use plastic into a high-value plastic known as an ionomer. Popular ionomers are Dow’s SURLYN , a go-to material used in a wide variety of food packaging Most recycled plastic is “downcycled” into lower quality products like carpet or polyester clothing, that may still end up in landfills Discarded plastics in waterways endanger sea life if turtles mistake ocean plastic for food. But if the chemistry can be repeatedly applied to polymers to help recycle them over and over again, “it could change the way we look at plastic,” Leibfarth said.

Study co-authors include Timothy Fazekas, Jill W. Alty, Eliza K. Neidhart and Austin S. Miller. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation and the UNC Department of Chemistry funded the study

The full article:

TM https://uncnews unc edu/2022/02/07/creating-a-betterplastic/

From left, Frank Leibfarth, Erik Alexanian, Eliza Neidhart and Austin Miller, collaborated on a method to modify traditionally unreactive carbon–hydrogen bonds to develop easier to recycle polymers Not pictured Timothy Fazekas and Jill W Alty (Photo by Jon Gardiner)

Photo by Jon Gardiner

Frank Leibfarth and Erik Alexanian

Wilkerson-Hill Lab: The Organic Process Research & Development Highlight

By The Wilkerson-Hill Lab

Cyclopropanes are strained carbon rings that have captivated chemists due to their myriad applications that have advanced our understanding of human health In the context of medicines, the cyclopropyl fragment is found in nirmatrelvir, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Paxlovid, used to treat SARS- COVID-19. Unfortunately, there is a critical gap in our knowledge regarding methods to build cyclopropanes that are structurally analogous to those found in nirmatrelvir The Wilkerson-Hill La these cyclopropanes that arise from the unstabilized or destabilized carbene in weakly activated or unactivated olefi cyclopr the s method

RedBy UNC

A new demon triclosa toothp other inflamm of rese of Nort University of Massachusetts Amherst

and Hong Kong Baptist University identified the bacteria, and even specific enzymes, that trigger triclosan’s harmful effects. Moreover, studies in mice suggest these bacterial enzymes can be blocked from driving intestinal damage.

“By identifying the culprit bacteria, new approaches could be developed for the diagnoses, prevention and treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases,” said study author Matthew Redinbo, chemistry and microbiology professor at the UNC College of Arts & Sciences and UNC School of Medicine. Previous research has shown triclosan’s toxicity, but the new study provides a

Recently the Wilkreson-Hill research group reported a method that uses sulfones as masked carbenes to creatively build cyclopropanes By using the geometric distortion present in sulfone anions, they showed that these intermediates are capable of reacting with less activated olefins and lend access to orphaned cyclopropanes. This work is impactful because it now allows for systematic relationship studies on drug ganic l for mpact

ed in ation. gut gut microbial beta glucuronidase (GUS) proteins, with triclosan and showed these enzymes drive triclosan to wreak havoc in the gut. Knowing which bacterial proteins were the culprits, the team used a

microbiome-targeted inhibitor to block triclosan processing in the gut. Blocking this process in mice prevented damage to the colon and symptoms of colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease. The study provides new clues about management of IBD among the growing number of people diagnosed with the disease IBD can be managed for long periods of time only to flare up out of seemingly nowhere Study authors suggest the need for better understanding of the impact of environmental chemicals on gut health.

Triclosan appears to be readily absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, leading study authors to write, “the safety of triclosan and related compounds should be reconsidered given their potential for intestinal damage.”

Photo courtesy of the Nature

A New Venture for the Crystallography CORE

By Josh Chen

Expanding the X-Ray Lab

The Department of Chemistry X-ray Crystallography Core Laboratory at UNC Chapel Hill (XCL) serves to support research effort within and outside the University with both single crystal- and powder X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD and PXRD) techniques XCL has recently acquired a new Bruker D8 VENTURE single crystal X-ray diffractometer, a much-needed upgrade from the decade-old diffraction systems in the laboratory The newly acquired D8 VENTURE contains a molybdenum microfocus source and a highintensity copper/diamond source, suitable for inorganic, organic, and macromolecular crystalline samples The copper/diamond is currently the strongest in-house X-ray radiation source available

X-ray crystallography is one of the most powerful analytical techniques in structure determination on solid state materials It provides direct and detailed structural information, including absolute configuration of chiral compounds and studies on intermolecular interactions, which are challenging using other analytical methods Recognized for its reliability in structure confirmation with little ambiguity, X-ray crystallography is often required for publications

Despite it's tremendous value, X-ray crystallography isn’t without drawbacks. For example, the sample must be crystalline. Many reaction products do not crystallize easily, resulting in small and poor-quality crystals that do not produce diffraction strong enough for structure elucidation with standard sealed-tube X-ray source and a CCD detector. Moreover, X-ray data analysis usually takes longer than other conventional methods such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Mass Spectrometry. A standard 4- to 8hour data collection per sample is not feasible for X-ray crystallography to be implemented in

undergraduate laboratory courses. In the past, most of the students could only experience X-ray crystallography through their graduate research.

in North Carolina and is specially designed to collect data on protein crystals and microcrystals (< 5 µm) that often diffract poorly using seal-tube X-ray sources. Together with Oxford Cryostream 800 Plus with operational temperature between 80-500 Kelvin, the instrument is capable of conducting temperature-induced phase transition study on a wide range of materials.

The new D8 VENTURE and its high-brilliance sources with a large, highly sensitive PHOTON III detector significantly shortens the data collection time (60 x the speed and efficiency comparing to the last-gen X-ray diffractometer), enabling structure solution in minutes! This opens up an avenue for X-ray crystallography to be implemented in our undergraduate curricula, allowing undergraduate students to be exposed to this wonderful analytical method.

Pictured: The D8 VENTURE (Mandy Melton/UNC-CH Chemistry)

Pictured: Josh Chen examines sample

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Developing A General Non-Equilibrium Theoretical Framework

By Zhiyue Lu

Energy and information are probably the two most crucial quantities to describe the vivid world evolving around us. Energy characterizes the potential of one system to alter another system. Energy gives one the ability to generate motion, separate and enrich materials, exchange heat, and drive chemical reactions. Information, then, characterizes the inherent statistical correlation between distinct systems For example, a living organism can increase its chance of survival by obtaining information, which is characterized by the correlation between the organism’s living strategy with the current (or even the future trend of) environmental conditions. The flow between energy and information constitute a critical a pillar to almost any process in the world.

Despite the success of thermodynamics theory and the trending studies of information thermodynamics, energy flow, and information flow can still only be well described for processes limited to near-equilibrium or at non-equilibrium steady states. However, most of the interesting chemical processes and living organisms operate at a distance from equilibrium. Can there be a general non-equilibrium theoretical framework to describe, predict and even guide the design of the energy and information flows for complex systems far from equilibrium? This is the question that guides thermodynamics study within the Lu group

The Lu group has made a number of baby steps (but important steps) made toward the long-term goal of developing a general non-equilibrium theoretical framework By constructing toy models and performing numerical simulations and mathematical derivations, researchers at the Lu group are actively identifying the universal principles behind non-equilibrium energy and information flows within several types of complex systems, examples of which are on the following page.

Generalized catalysis Traditional theory of catalysis has been successfully constructed on the concept of creating alternative reaction pathways of lower kinetic barriers. In this regime, the catalyst can only speed up a chemical reaction; it can never alter the spontaneous direction of the chemical reaction. However, according to recent result derived by the Lu group, there could be another general type of energy-flow-driven catalysts that can outperform traditional catalysts when it is exposed to a time-changing signal or environment For example, certain catalytic reaction pathways could harness the energy from a time-varying environment and convert that energy to either (1) invert or (2) strengthen a spontaneous chemical reaction. When the reaction is inverted, the catalyst resembles a thermal engine that pumps the reaction backward, converting low free energy products back into high free energy reactants When the reaction is strengthened, the catalyst assists the spontaneous reaction by utilizing the active dissipation of energy into the thermal bath, a notable distinction from the traditional catalysis mechanism. Moreover, Lu group researchers have derived a universal design principle to assist experiments to identify and design the optimal reaction pathways of these new type of catalysts.

Information sensors. Complex reaction networks are ubiquitous in chemical and biological systems Such reaction networks not only allow atom exchange and energy transfer among molecules but also transfer information Taking chemotaxis as an example, a single cell could couple the internal chemical reaction with the external concentration of food or toxins via a simple ligand-binding sensory network, thus enabling the environmental information to be transduced and computed by the internal chemical reaction network. The result would then be generation of environmentwise responses such as swimming to food or flee from danger Inspired by the delicate yet robust information flow in the biochemical reaction networks of the living organisms, the Lu group researchers are working toward a general theory to guide the design of chemical reaction information processors. Recently, the group has shown that even a single receptor molecule can transduce multiple channels of information, allowing for chemical reaction networks to perform multiplexing information transduction that is commonly found in electronic information transducers.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Settling in and Setting up for the Future

By Erin Baker

The Baker Group is extremely excited to be a part of the UNC-Chapel Hill Chemistry Department and continue their research evaluating how the environment affects human health. Humans are exposed daily to a broad range of anthropogenic molecules through drinking water, eating food, and interacting with everyday consumer products such as plastic bottles, food containers, toys, and cosmetics. While many of the xenobiotic chemicals from these sources may not cause any harm when ingested, some disrupt normal bodily processes and change how our hormones, organs, and immune system function. The Baker Group is therefore devoted to understanding how current and emerging xenobiotics such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, and organophosphate flame retardants affect human health and alter our endogenous lipids, metabolites, and proteins. The required environmental and clinical measurements are however extremely complex as thousands of xenobiotics exist and can transform in the environment and body. Thus, novel developments in both analytical techniques and computational methods are necessary to analyze and quantify the xenobiotics and endogenous molecules in highly complex sample types such as blood and urine.

Currently, the Baker Group is working on new methods to increase sample throughput and provide sensitive and confident molecular analyses using automated solid phase extractions, liquid chromatography, supercritical fluid chromatography, ion mobility spectrometry and mass spectrometry measurements. By combining these different analytical techniques, they have created ways to quickly analyze thousands of samples and probe both xenobiotic and endogenous perturbations. For example, to evaluate exposure the Baker Group will commonly assess xenobiotics present in water, food, and air and then probe the xenobiotics, metabolites, lipids, and proteins in clinical samples such as human biofluids and tissues to understand the molecular effects.

These perturbations can also be evaluated in disease cohorts to probe exposure and disease linkages, and the Baker Group is currently studying various cancer types and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s

Disease to explore their associations. The thousands of analytical measurements performed by the Baker Group for the exposure studies also demand advanced

computational approaches. The Baker Group is therefore creating new computational

software programs and machine learning approaches using R, Python, and Java for the evaluation and visualization

of their molecular detections and samples analyzed. The Baker Group is also working closely with bioinformatics and software development groups to add new capabilities to currently available software. Furthermore, it is extremely important to the group to release all datasets and software tools as open source so researchers worldwide can have access to the data and modify their tools if desired.

Due to the complex problems and disparate analyses the Baker Group is working on, they

have recruited graduate students from a variety of different departments including Chemistry, Bioinformatics, Toxicology, and Engineering. They feel that combining these diverse perspectives

and skills is fundamental to tackling the current and future challenges of the 21st century. Moreover, the Baker Group is extremely passionate about promoting their research and translating their results to the general public through

community engagement and outreach. The Baker Group members are often seen presenting at various local, national, and international conferences and are excited to get back into K-12 classrooms to inspire our next generation of scientists.

Frank Leibfarth receives the Journal of Polymer Science Innovation award

By Laura Yurco

Assistant Professor Frank Leibfarth received the 2022 Journal of Science Innovation Award. This award recognizes significant innovation and achievement in a polymer scientist under 40 year The award consists of a symposium in honor of Dr. Leib association with the Polymeric Materials: Science and Eng (PMSE) Division of the ACS and a dinner in recognition of the rec the ACS Fall meeting, a $5,000 prize, and travel expenses of up t to the ACS Fall meeting for the award year.

Frank Leibfarth chosen for the Hettleman Prize

By UNC Chemistry Communication

Frank Leibfarth, Associate Professor of Chemistry, has been recognized as a recipient of the 2022 Ruth and Phillip Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement for his research contributions to the fields of polymer stereochemistry and polymer functionalization Established in 1986 by the late Phillip Hettleman, a member of the Carolina class of 1921, and his wife Ruth, the primary aim of the award is to recognize the achievements of outstanding junior faculty. Recipients of the Hettleman Prize are recognized at a Fall Faculty Council meeting and invited to deliver a presentation on their research during the University’s annual University Research

Week. The Hettleman Prize is considered one of Carolina’s most prestigious acknowledgements of faculty excellence.

Dr. Leibfarth’s research is focused on developing new methods for the synthesis of functional polymers with the goal of discovering and studying their emergent macromolecular behavior. His approach is rooted in the belief that convergence of organic, continuous-flow, and polymer chemistries holds the key to making materials smarter, more functional, and more sustainable for the future Currently, his group ’ s focus centers around creating methods to control stereochemistry in ionic polymerizations, uncovering enhanced function in commodity polymers through selective C–H functionalization, and creating automated approaches for the synthesis of unique polymer architectures with novel functions

Frank Leibfarth

Frank Leibfarth in the lab (UNC-CH)

Alex Miller wins the Laboratory Safety Institute Graduate Research Faculty Safety Award

By UNC Chemistry Communication

Alex Miller, professor of chemistry, has received the ACS Laboratory Safety Institute Graduate Research Faculty Safety Award. This award recognizes graduate-level academic research faculty who demonstrate outstanding commitment to chemical health and safety in their laboratories.

Dr Miller is a standard bearer on lab safety for students and faculty For example, in conjunction with Dr Ian Tonks from the University of Minnesota, Dr Miller developed The Safety Net, a comprehensive resource on lab safety that has been used and referenced in labs all around the country

John Papanikolas retires after 25 years

By UNC Chemistry Communication

John Papanikolas, professor of chemistry, retired on July 1, 2022, and joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a full time program director.

Dr. Papanikolas joined the faculty as an

John Papanikolas (UNC-CH)

Assistant Professor in 1997. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004 and to full Professor in 2013. In 2017, he joined the NSF as a part-time program director.

Dr Papanikolas will also be remembered for having led the UNC-Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) as a Deputy Director starting in 2009 The EFRC still exists in Chemistry, but is now known as CHASE

Dr. Papanikolas and his lab made contributions to the research of ultrafast spectroscopy and microscopy, along with molecular assemblies, electron transfer and energy transfer to explore semiconductor nanostructures in solar fuels applications.

A Circuitous Path: Brian Hogan shares about his mental health struggles

By John Roberts, University Communications

Brian Hogan (UNC-CH)

Brian Hogan's journey to becoming a teaching professor in the College of Arts and Science's chemistry department has been anything but a straight path. But through perseverance and an ask for help, the Tar Heel found a way to quiet the doubt that lingered in the back of his mind. To read more about his path and what

he's doing now for students facing similar obstacles, visit https://www.unc.edu/discover/a-circuitouspath/ or scan the QR code above.

Photo courtesy of ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety

Alex Zhukhovitskiy receives DOE Early Career Award

By College of Arts and Sciences

Professor Alex Zhukhovitskiy has won an Early Career Award from the U.S. Department of Energy. The funding is part of DOE’s commitment to supporting the next generation of STEM leaders.

Zhukhovitskiy is an assistant professor of chemistry in UNC’s College of Arts & Sciences The award is for $750,000 over five years This is only the second time a UNC faculty member has won the award; the first recipient was Rene Lopez (department of physics and astronomy) in 2011

DOE awarded $110 million for groundbreaking research by 83 early career scientists this year, representing 47 universities and 13 national labs in 29 states. Awardees were selected based on peer review by outside scientific experts.

Zhukhovitskiy’s winning project is “Upcycling of All-Carbon Polymer Backbones into ValueAdded Amines via Skeletal Rearrangement.”

During the past century, development of polymers large molecules formed by repeated linking of smaller units has enabled unparalleled global technological progress However, this progress has come at the cost of a global plastics pollution crisis Among the most abundant polymers that contribute to this pollution are vinyl polymers and polyolefins Zhukhovitskiy’s project focuses on diene polymers, which make up a large proportion of commodity rubber materials and plastics but whose recycling remains an unsolved challenge If successful, the proposed research will transform rubber waste into building blocks for functional materials More broadly, it will advance plastic sustainability by introducing a new strategy namely, skeletal rearrangements for the upcycling of waste polymers

The awards are part of the DOE Office of Science’s Early Career Research Program, which bolsters the nation’s scientific workforce by supporting exceptional researchers at the outset of their careers, when many scientists do their most formative work.

Research topics are required to fall within one of the Office of Science’s eight major program offices: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, Isotope R&D and Production, and Accelerator R&D and Production.

“Supporting America’s scientists and researchers early in their careers will ensure the U S remains at the forefront of scientific discovery and develops the solutions to our most pressing challenges,” said U S Secretary of Energy Jennifer M Granholm “The funding announced June 7 will allow the recipients the freedom to find the answers to some of the most complex questions as they establish themselves as experts in their fields ”

Alex Zhukhovitskiy

Zhiyue Lu earns NSF CAREER award

By UNC Chemistry Communication

Zhiyue Lu, assistant professor of chemistry, is the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award

The award will be applied to his project, “Bioinspired Nonequilibrium Design Principles of Molecular Information Machines” The Lu Group seeks to find the general design principles of molecular information machines and nextgeneration responsive materials, and to lay the theoretical foundation toward predicting the physical limits of the performances and thermodynamics costs for operating such smart materials

“Our group aims to develop a non-equilibrium theory to quantify and predict the molecule’s intelligent response to various external stimuli,” explains Lu “By learning f from living organisms that intelligently respond to complex environmental information, our theory will reveal the design principles of next–generation smart molecules and intelligent materials that mimic life ”

The CAREER award is the NSF’s most prestigious early-career faculty award. It recognizes individuals who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department.

Sidney Wilkerson-Hill selected for the Herman Frasch Foundation Grant

By UNC Chemistry Communication

Sidney Wilkerson-Hill, assistant professor of chemistry, received the 2022 Herman Frasch Foundation Grant. This award will be used to further his research question, “How does the functional group pattern on the cyclopropane ring affect insecticidal activity of pyrethroids?” Professor Wilkerson-Hill’s research aims to develop new reactions to incorporate strained carbon rings into molecules using highthroughput approaches.

“We believe our studies will identify a totally new class of pyrethroids,” explained Wilkerson-Hill. “Our approach enables a greater structural diversity of products that can be obtained. This allows us to systematically identify what structural features of these compounds are important to combating mosquitoes.”

The Herman Frasch Foundation Grant aims to benefit the agricultural development of the United States by advancing research in the field of agricultural chemistry. Awarded to tenure-track faculty for a period of 5 years, Prof. Wilkerson-Hill will receive funding from the grant to work on this project until 2027.

Photo courtesy of Zhiyue Lu

Photo courtesy of Sidney Wilkerson-Hill

Chemistry's Student Leaders

Constructing the department, one committee at a time

By UNC Chemistry Communication

Hanne Henriksen is a 4th year graduate student in the Waters Lab. After completing her undergrad at San Diego State, she conducted research in two different labs, studying organometallics and peptide stapling. When she joined UNC Chemistry, she became involved in several committees, like the Sustainability Committee and Joint Safety Team (which she now chairs).

Sarah Sutton is a 5th year graduate student in the Cahoon Lab and Papanikolas Lab. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Mississippi, and she currently specializes in ultrafast pumpprobe microscopy. She participates in a number of committees and clubs both within the department and the university, and was formerly President of the Association of Chemistry Graduate Students (ACGS).

Hawa Keita is a 5th year graduate student in the Meek Lab. She hails from Brooklyn originally, with strong Malian roots. After completing her undergrad at UWMadison, she conducted research in the Yoon Laboratory, studying Lewis acid catalyzed triplet energy transfer in visible light photocatalysis. Since joining UNC Chemistry, she has jumped headfirst into committee work, becoming involved with the Graduate Studies Committee and the UNC Chapter of NOBCChE, while also co-chairing the graduate student subcommittee of the department's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Sutton

Photo courtesy of Hanne Henriksen

Photo courtesy of Hawa Keita

Allison Smith is a 4th year graduate student in the Miller Lab. Her work involves developing new methods for hydricity determination, comparing solution and surface hydricities, and using hydricity as a guide for assembling catalytic systems for liquid fuel generation. She, too, is present on a number of committees, including the

Graduate Committee for Professional Development (GCPD), which she co-chairs with Jennica, and AM WISE, where she is treasurer.

Lauren McRae is a a 5th-year graduate student in Scott Warren’s group, studying a combination of computational and experimental approaches to the discovery and synthesis of new crystalline phases. Her undergraduate degree comes from the University of Richmond. She has also participated in a number of committees and groups within the department and university

and is currently the student cochair for the Chemistry Department's Sustainability Committee.

Jennica Kelm is a 3rd year graduate student in the Dempsey Lab. Her research focuses on understanding surface defects on semiconductor quantum dots for renewable energy applications. She

received her undergraduate degree from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. She also participates in a number of department and university committees and activities, including co-chairing the Graduate Committee for Professional Development (GCPD) with Allison.

Supraja Chittari is a 3rd year graduate student in the Knight Lab, from Vienna, VA. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of

Virginia, and now studies nonequilibrium

phase behavior using temperature-dependent polymers and stochastic Markov state models She is also currently the Chemistry co-chair for Allies for Minorities and Women in Science and Engineering (AM WISE)

If you are a Chemistry Graduate Student, and are interested in getting more involved with the department, we would be happy to have you Please reach out to the chair of whichever committee you are interested in joining (the committee roster for the 2022-2023 academic year can be found at the QR code to the right).

Photo courtesy of Allison Smith

Photo courtesy of Jennica Kelm

Photo courtesy of Supraja Chittari

Photo courtesy of Lauren McRae

Irene Manning receives 2022 Impact Award

By UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate School

Each year, The Graduate School honors graduate students in programs throughout our University for their powerful discoveries that contribute to a better future for people and communities in North Carolina. Irene Mulloy Manning, now a member of UNC Chemistry Staff, was a recipient of 1 of 11 Impact Awards for 2022 — below includes her own descriptions of the research project.

“The Cape Fear watershed region is home to more than two million North Carolinians. Due to the prevalence of industry along the watershed, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), otherwise known as forever chemicals, now contaminate the watershed.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set a health advisory limit of 70 parts per trillion (ppt) of exposure to two PFAS known to cause adverse health effects. However, PFAS have been found at a total concentration of over 250 ppt in Pittsboro, North Carolina and 600 ppt in Fayetteville, North Carolina. A recent study of Wilmington, North Carolina residents’ blood serum found significant levels of PFAS in 99 percent of samples,” said Manning

Manning then continued, “Motivated by the lack of a way to reduce the level of PFAS in the water, we ’ ve used chemistry to develop a technology that we call Ionic Fluorogels. These Ionic Fluorogels remove a variety of PFAS from water, including water collected at treatment plants in the Haw and Cape Fear watersheds. We designed Ionic Fluorogels to be easy to implement both at treatment plants and in the home. Furthermore, we designed Ionic Fluorogels by intentionally working with materials that do not exacerbate PFAS contamination or environmental concerns. Ionic Fluorogels demonstrate considerable promise in affecting quality of water, and we ’ re working to continue more pilot tests in our state.”

Katelyn and Alexis earn Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

By UNC Chemistry Communication

Two doctoral students in the Department of Chemistry at the University of North at Chapel Hill were selected to receive fellowships by the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP).

This prestigious and competitive fellowship program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines who are pursuing researchbased master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial and educational support.

NSF Graduate Fellowship Program Award Winners

Katelyn Kitzinger, Johnson Research Group

Alexis Harvey, Atkin Research Group

Honorable Mentions

Guillermo Sebastian Colon, Dick Research Group

Karen Ehrhardt, Weeks Research Group

Caleb Kozuszek, Leibfarth Research Group

Eliza Neidhart, Leibfarth Research Group

Justin Neu, You Research Group

John Migliore, Dingemans Research Group

David Qiu, Weeks Research Group

Congratulations are also extended to the seven students who received special recognition from the review panels in earning honorable mentions.

Katelyn Kitzinger

Alexis Harvey

Nicholas, Rayshell, Tsian, Sarina, Kriti, and Kelvin earn Eastman Chemical Company Fellowships

By UNC Chemistry Communication

The Eastman Chemical Company Fellowship program is an award bestowed to first year graduate students for their committed effort to enhance the departmental mission to create a diverse and inclusive community Sponsored by the Eastman Chemical Company, Eastman Fellows receive a stipend that supports the continuation of their contributions to the Carolina Chemistry community. The group of students form a cohort to further fellowship and continue on their educational endeavors together.

Below are the recipients of the Eastman Chemical Fellowship 2022 award:

Nicholas Calzadilla – Nicholas worked on responsive disulfide linked polymer-drug nanoparticles for cancer therapy while at the University of Miami. He looks to expand his Organic Chemistry skills in areas of synthesis for potential environmental and medicinal benefit.

Sarina Jones – Sarina’s research interests lie in the broad topics of protein-protein interactions and drug mechanism/drug discovery She is passionate about how drugs interact in the body and how chemists can manipulate and control these interactions to develop and design new drugs that improve treatment and disease.

Kelvin Idanwekhai – As an undergrad at Obafemi Awolowo University, Kelvin worked to design dyes that could be used in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by tuning their electronic properties, using theoretical and computational methods. After he graduated, he worked as a software/machine learning engineer. As part of UNC Chemistry, he plans to work on developing fast and accurate models/algorithms for high-throughput molecular property prediction

Tsian Ramrattan - Tsian spent her time at Emory University working with pharmaceutical data with the Liotta Group, and as part of the Salaita Lab, which focuses on the role of mechanical forces in cell biology and tumor development.

Rayshell Torres-Santana – Rayshell’s time at Radford University was focused on forensic chemistry and toxicology, where she examined epinephrine degradation using liquid and gas chromatography

Kriti Shukla – As an undergrad at UCLA, Kriti used computational chemistry techniques to determine the mechanisms of organic reactions and also used bioinformatics to look at how diet affects fish gut microbiome. She remembers her summer research programs fondly, when she had opportunities to work on optimizing statins to treat mRCC and explore the phototactic properties of thermophilic cyanobacteria. Now at UNC, she hopes to use bioinformatics and i l h i h i l k h i i

Left to right: Nicholas Calzadilla, Rayshell Torres-Santana, Tsian Ramrattan, Sarina Jones, Kriti Shukla, and Kelvin Idanwekhai

2022 Fall Banquet

By UNC Chemistry Communication

Carolina Chemistry’s annual Fall Banquet celebrates the academic and research achievements of juniors and seniors This year, the banquet was held on November 7th and the featured speaker was Dr Crystal Waters, BS in Chemistry, ’14, who is the lead chemist in battery research development at Chemours. Awards were given out by Jillian Dempsey, director of undergraduate studies and Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor. The Spremulli Award was bestowed by the co-chairs of the Chemistry Diversity Committee, Nita Eskew, teaching associate professor, and Marcey Waters, Glen H. Elder, Jr. Distinguished Professor. The banquet concluded with closing remarks by Wei You, department chair of chemistry.

Tanya R Ellison Scholarship

Meredith Daughtridge

Elsa Huebsch

The Sophomore Chemistry Award

David L Stern Scholarship

Presented by Alpha Chi Sigma Anna Eblen

Elsa Huebsch

Fiona Gable

Spremulli Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research

Linda

Linda Spremulli Honorable Mention

Elizabeth Choi

Melissa Yu

Elizabeth Redding Maya Spencer

Jason D Altom Memorial Award for Undergraduate Research

Vittal Bhat

James H. Maguire

Memorial Award

Jamil Andrade

Meredith Daughtridge

Ruta Petrikis

Kailyn Lowder Hans Oh Alan Wong

Award recipients with Jillian Dempsey, director of undergraduate studies (far right) and Wei You, department chair (far left)

TAYLIZ RODRIGUEZ AND CHANCELLOR'S SCIENCE SCHOLARS PROGRAM AWARDED 2022 DIVERSITY AWARD

By UNC Chemistry Communication

Tayliz Rodriguez, and the Chancellor’s Science Scholars (CSS) program, directed by Thomas Freeman, received the 14th Annual Diversity Award presented by the UNC University Office for Diversity and Inclusion This award recognizes individuals and collaborative groups who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in furthering diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the Carolina community. Both Rodriguez and the Chancellor’s Science Scholars have put their time and effort into creating and developing different initiatives that have had a positive impact on departmental culture.

ThomasFreeman

TaylizRodriguez

Freeman joined the UNC Department of Chemistry in 2014 after a three-year postdoc position in the UNC SPIRE program. As the Executive Director of CSS, his responsibilities include managing and setting the program ’ s goals, supervising daily operations, establishing connections with other campus groups and various other tasks that keep CSS inspiring the next generation of leaders Additionally, Freeman serves as a Biochemistry instructor in which he employs inclusive and evidencebased teaching practices CSS was awarded under the “Intergroup Collaboration” category, highlighting group efforts to further diversity practices by bringing together different perspectives to address critical issues.

“The UNC Chancellor’s Science Scholars program serves as a national model for leveraging a holistic wrap-around support system to drive student success This effort facilitates and enhances social, economic, and cultural diversity across all STEM fields,” said Freeman. “This success really is a team effort. The CSS staff does a fabulous job working with the Scholars, and we have a very broad network of campus partners who support our mission.”

Rodriguez joined the UNC Department of Chemistry in 2017 after graduating from Florida International University with a BS in Chemistry. She served as the co-president of Allies for Minorities and Women in Science (AM WISE) and as the chair of the Chemistry Graduate Committee for Professional Development (GCPD). In her role with AM WISE, she developed and launched a peer mentoring program for incoming graduate students to facilitate their transition to graduate school and distributed the second iteration of a departmental climate survey, which provides valuable feedback on departmental initiatives and areas of improvement.

“My roles have allowed me to collaborate with people across the department and broader UNC to develop and execute meaningful and long-term initiatives that ultimately have a positive impact on departmental culture,” explained Rodriguez “Without the support of the amazing students, postdocs, faculty, and staff that I’ve had the opportunity of working with in AM WISE, GCPD and the chemistry department, this work wouldn’t be possible… I hope the department and University continue to support these efforts and celebrate those contributing to this work.”

Rodriguez won under the “Graduate/Professional Student/Post Doc” category and CSS under the “Intergroup Collaboration” division. Since receiving this award, Rodriguez graduated and now works at BASF.

2022 Chancellor's Science Scholars Graduates

DEI Committee Updates

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee has expanded this year, with new members and new co-chairs. Nita Eskew and Marcey Waters took over from Jerry Meyer and Leslie Hicks at the start of the 2021 Fall semester. Focuses for the committee for the 2022-2023 academic year include identifying evidence-based methods to increase and support diversity throughout all areas of the department, maintain a Diversity Strategic

Plan for the department as a whole, and to organize and promote the Slayton Evans Memorial Lecture and Slayton Evans Student Development Initiative (SESDI) SESDI's goal is to facilitate the transition into our graduate program during the summer prior the first year of entry into the Ph D program for students who identify as underrepresented and first generation students

NCCU and UNC Chemistry build a Bridge Program

UNC Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central University (NCCU) have been jointly awarded a $250,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which through its Pathways to STEM Graduate Education Program is investing millions of dollars in minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to boost the numbers of students of color entering science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields Because of this NCCU and UNC are establishing a program enabling students to enroll at UNC-Chapel Hill or other doctorate-granting institutions to obtain a Ph D degree in chemistry or a related field after earning their master’s degree in chemistry at NCCU Students will be jointly mentored by faculty and students from both institutions with opportunities to rotate between different research laboratories and classrooms. By establishing the Bridge Program infrastructure, we hope to increase the pool of highly trained minority students with M.S. and Ph.D. Chemistry degrees.

UNC Chemistry joins ACS Bridge Program

UNC Chemistry has been selected to join the American Chemical Society Bridge Program as a partner department The ACS Bridge Program is a concerted effort minority-serving and doctoral-granting institutions to provide support for underrepresented students seeking doctoral degrees. The Program also seeks to establish links between these communities through research activities, collaboration, and personal interactions. The overarching goal of ACS-BP is to increase the number of chemical science PhDs awarded to students who may not have had an opportunity to pursue such a degree otherwise, using this scaffolding of support for these students during their studies.

Chemistry staff go to NCORE

In June, the annual National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE) was held in Portland, and the department was able to sponsor three staff members to attend using Say Yes donations Marc ter Horst, Kathleen Nevins, and Mandy Melton in 2020 and 2021 worked to involve the staff at large within the department's DEI plan, and to find out where the staff felt the culture regarding DEI work was. They presented their work at NCORE this year, under a talk entitled "Engaging STEM Staff in DEI Planning". Currently, they are working to incorporate what they learned and the connections they made to foster a better culture of diversity, equity, inclusion and respect within the department.

Nita Eskew Marcey Waters

From left: Marc ter Horst, Kathleen Nevins, and Mandy Melton

Building a New Foundation: Welcome the New Staff!

By UNC Chemistry Communication

THEADMINTEAM

MichaelSmith EventsandSpecialProgramsManager

Michael is the departmental support for all departmental events, including seminars, colloquiums, and other special events.

PaulBeam AdministrativeSupportAssociate

Paul is the administrative lead for faculty and staff travel, PO’s, reimbursements, exam copying and other administrative actions.

THEHRTEAM

LaTonyaSimrel-Wright

HumanResourcesManager

LaTonya oversees the department’s HR operations. She supports academic and research endeavors by managing hiring processes and the review and promotion of personnel

THENEWCHASEMEMBERS

CaleyAllen

CHASEManagingDirector

As the CHASE Managing Director, Caley works to lead CHASE’s multifaceted, complex and evolving research program. Among many other things, she is responsible for ensuring compliance with the DOE, implementing communication between the center entities, and managing the budgeting process

CindyJaquith AdministrativeSupportAssociate

Cindy is the administrative point of contact for purchase orders, student travel, faculty awards, purchasing general supplies, summer program support, and other projects.

VivianLin CoresAdministrativeAssistant

Vivian is responsible for providing administrative support by managing core financial reports, billing, reporting and RTNN event planning for the Cores.

JustinAngell StudentPayrollManager

Justin is responsible for the graduate student payroll, enrollment into graduate student health insurance, temporary hire payroll, unpaid affiliate hires, department visa contact/management and TIM management.

DanKurtz

CHASETechnical Communications &IPManager

Dan serves as the CHASE Hub’s lead for intellectual property, identifying technologies for patent protection, along with managing CHASE scientific and technical communications, CHASE scientific conferences, and outreach programs.

THESTAFFOFCHANL

CarrieDonley Spectroscopist

Carrie oversees many of the tools in CHANL including the XPS, the XRD, the FTIR, UV-Vis microspectrophotometer, atomic force microscope , and the nanoindenter.

AmarKumbhar ElectronMicroscopist

Amar is a electron microscopist and has been with CHANL from 2008 He shares responsibilities of taking care of the electron microscopes, SEM and TEM, in CHANL.

BobGeil TechnicalDirector

Bob works with CHANL staff to manage and maintain instrumentation, guide new users and provide characterization and fabrication services to researchers

STUDENTSERVICESANDPEDAGOGICALCOORDINATOR

TiffanyRegister StudentServicesSpecialist

As a Student Services Specialist, Tiffany supports undergraduate and graduate students with their academic needs.

THENEWRESEARCHSTAFF

THENEWFACILITIESSTAFF

JulianneHall PedagogicalProgramCoordinator

Julianne, the department's first Pedagogical Coordinator, is responsible for supporting the faculty in managing the department's large format, multi-section courses.

Jill Fallin and Mandy Melton earn

By UNC Chemistry Communication

the Extra Mile Award

The Extra Mile Award recognizes individuals for nurturing a positive environment, demonstrating crisis leadership, embracing collaborative problem solving, innovating new ideas and encouraging team-thinking. This award is given in memory of Fred Young who exemplified these characteristics during his tenure in the department of Chemistry. Just like Fred Young, the awardees go the extra mile in so many ways and their efforts are appreciated by faculty, staff, students, and postdocs.

In the past year, Jill has done an excellent job in handling the Student Services unit all by herself since the departure of her team member, Donnyell. “Jill kept a positive environment and ensured things were getting done even when the workload was overwhelming... Jill deserves accolades for everything she did to keep the academic mission of the unit running, I’m not sure it would been possible without her” said Laura Yurco. Jill was promoted to Chemistry Student Services Manager in March 2022.

In the past year, Mandy Melton has done a wonderful job in handling a heavy workload for the administrative team during the staff transition. “Mandy ensured that tasks were getting done effectively even when the workload could be overwhelming due to staff shortages Mandy went the extra mile ... to share knowledge with her teammates by spending hundreds of hours answering questions and training the team” said Laura. Mandy was recently promoted to Public Communication Specialist in June 2022.

Karen Gilliam retires after 22 years of service to UNC

Karen retired on February 28, 2022. She served as the Student payroll manager, and was a dependable and reliable constant in the Chemistry human resources office since 2007. Her can-do positive attitude has been greatly missed by the department but we wish her the best in her retirement

JenniferChandler

Associate Director of Development

The Arts & Sciences Foundation E-mail: Jennifer.Chandler@unc.edu Phone: 919-843-5285

Jill Fallin

Mandy Melton

GIVING BACK: Ray Greenberg ’76

GIVE

During my undergraduate years at UNC, I was privileged to conduct several research projects under the direction of Dr. Maurice Bursey. Although his laboratory was well stocked with graduate students and postdocs, Dr. Bursey seemed to take special delight in welcoming neophytes into the world of science. He created an environment in which all his trainees, regardless of knowledge or experience level, felt valued and respected. The warmth of his personality, his youthful energy and infectious enthusiasm, were key to his success. A highlight of working with Dr. Bursey was publishing my first three papers. Although hardly a blip on Dr. Bursey’s curriculum vitae, I had the sense that he enjoyed the experience as much as I did. Ultimately, my chemistry career ended upon graduation, but the undergraduate research experience remained with me throughout the four decades of my academic career in medicine and public health. For that reason, and in the hopes that other undergraduates would have similar experiences, last year I established an undergraduate research fellowship in honor of Dr. Bursey. Mentors like Maurice Bursey are rare, but his legacy lives on through the work of the many trainees he influenced.

GIVE THE GIFT OF EDUCATION

The Say Yes Funds allow the Chair to ‘Say Yes!’ to exceptional and urgent requests from Chemistry Faculty, Staff, Graduate Students and Postdocs for small yet valuable amounts of support, which contribute greatly to their research and education. By Saying “Yes!” many new and exciting ideas have ignited for Chemistry education and research. Not only did new ideas spark, collaborations formed that may have otherwise gone undiscovered. The funds provide necessary resources for the expansion of research education and

opportunities. This year, funds enabled undergraduate students to engage in summer research with our renowned faculty, supported the purchase of new instrumentation that increased research capabilities for student researchers and established a new student mentorship program.

Your gifts to the “Say Yes” fund have already provided so many wonderful opportunities for our students and faculty. With your help, we can bring in the new year with the support needed for an exciting future ahead. Say Yes to Chemistry by contributing today, even the smallest gift will make a tremendous difference.

Maurice Moyer Bursey

Professor Maurice Bursey passed away on August 7th, 2022 at the age of 83. Professor Bursey taught within the UNC Chemistry Department for 32 years when he retired with emeritus status in 1996, and left the department to enjoy his retirement in 1998

A highly regarded teacher and researcher, Professor Bursey joined the UNC Chemistry faculty as an Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry in 1966, but recollected that before then "North Carolina and its University continued to insist upon coming into [his] life in odd ways " (Carolina Chemists). When given an offer of an assistant professorship, he "wondered if all this had been foreordained." He went on to setup a successful lab, and even found love with Joan Tesarek, who was a postdoctoral fellow within his lab (he "always maintained that the postdoctoral research advisor was obliged to aid his postdoctoral fellows in finding permanent jobs; he [thus] found a 52-year permanent job for Joan").

His work and efforts received numerous honors and accolades including the Marcus Hobbs Service Award from the North Carolina Section of the American Chemical Society in 1988; Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Pi Lambda Upsilon, Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 1982; the Tanner Award from the University of North Carolina in 1974; the Sloan Fellowship, 1969-1975, and the Order of Altotus (national president) of Alpha Chi Sigma from 1986-1988 and a director representing the southeastern United States 1992 until 2001 A fellow of the American Institute of Chemists and the Royal Society of Chemistry, he was inducted into the Society of Fellows at The Johns Hopkins University in 1982. He also authored several textbooks and monographs, and was the editor of the journal Mass Spectrometry reviews from 1990-1993.

Professor Bursey, in fact, wrote the book about the UNC Chemistry Department, by finishing Carolina Chemists: Sketches from Chapel Hill in 1982. An avid fan of history and dedicated stamp collector, he enjoyed exploring the past in all aspects. According to his obituary, "those who knew him will always [remember him] for a lifetime spent continually learning, an avid interest in history and an irrepressible sense of humor. A situation where Maurice couldn’t find an apt humorous historical anecdote was rare and he loved to share his wealth of amusing stories." His work, both chemical and historical, continues to be a source of pride among the department, and his historical research is currently often featured in the department's social media #ThrowbackThursday posts. He was instrumental to planning the department's 2018 bicentennial celebration. A selection of his chemical research can be found here. Though he had not been a daily visitor to UNC Chapel Hill for some time in recent years, his footprints have lingered within the halls here and in the lives of those he taught, and he will continue to be a part of this place for a long time to come. He will be deeply missed.

Pictured left: Maurice Bursey (Photo courtesy of the Family of Maurice Bursey)

Professors Bursey and Cahoon (Donn Young/UNC-CH)

Image courtesy of UNC-CH

Royce W. Murray

Students, colleagues, family, and friends are mourning the loss and celebrating the life of Professor Emeritus Royce W. Murray. Dr. Murray passed away on July 6, 2022 at Carolina Meadows at the age of 85 A giant in the field of electrochemistry, Dr Murray believed that knowledge and science should be a priority in all decisions, and he did his best to make it so, from chairing the Chemistry Department to heading building planning committees. Many at UNC and beyond remember him with his ever-present stack of papers, often a result of his 21year span as the Editor-in-Chief of Analytical Chemistry, and his 57-year membership on the Chemistry Department faculty His achievements and accomplishments have been well covered before and since his passing in all sorts of publications, and his work continues to be seminal in his field. Still, the memories being shared around the department since his passing are closer, more down-to-earth moments than what his legacy might first suggest. Dr. Leslie Hicks recalled “sushi Fridays” with delight and fondness, while several members of the department related the painstaking time and effort he spent preparing for each class he taught. Each class deserved his full attention and best effort, and he always strove to provide it

Over and over, stories of Dr. Murray speak to his continuing support for anyone and everyone who asked him for help. He did not see barriers between faculty and students; Dr. Ed Samulski recalled that during his “first visit to UNC; Royce took [him] to dinner at the Omni Europa At the time [Dr Samulski] thought it was curious that the senior analytical chemist at Carolina would be [his] dinner host” while Dr. Robert Bruce, a former Ph.D student under Dr. Wei You, remembers “[Dr. Murray’s] kindness toward those knocking on his door… amidst the intimidation [of having Dr. Murray on his doctoral prelim exam committee, Dr. Bruce] still remember[s] … gratefulness for the time and expertise [Dr. Murray] shared.”

It was not just momentary advice that Dr. Murray provided to his students and colleagues. Dr. Lowry Caudill recalled that “the way [Dr. Murray] conducted himself and the way he carried himself was a role model for [Dr Caudill] and how [Dr Caudill] has tried to behave in [his own] life ” Dr Caudill was so impacted by his time as Dr. Murray’s student that when Dr. Caudill donated funding to help build the new Chemistry Department complex, one of his stipulations was that a building in the complex carry Dr. Murray’s name. It is now known as Murray Hall (Dedication, Courtright) simply the name of Murray Hall. His influence has built careers, altered the trajectory of the department, and changed the very foundation of the university. “Murray has never felt an urge to leave UNC,” and though he may no longer be here physically, what he has left behind has ensured that he will forever remain with us at UNC.

Dr. Murray’s impact at UNC Chemistry cannot be overstated - he is threaded into the very fabric of the buildings here, beyond

Pictured left: Royce Murray (Photo courtesy of UNC-CH)

Group at Murray Dedication (Steve Exum and Peyton Lea)

Murray Family (Photo by Steve Exum and Peyton Lea)

DepartmentofChemistry

UniversityofNorthCarolinaatChapelHill

125 South Rd. CB #3290 Chapel Hill, NC 27599 chemistry@unc.edu 919-843-7100

Your gifts to the “Say Yes” fund provide so many wonderful opportunities to our students and faculty. With your help, we can bring in the new year with the support needed for an exciting future ahead. To make a gift today, you may use your phone or tablet camera to scan the QR code or visit chem.unc. chem unc edu/give edu/home/give/. We thank you in advance for saying “Yes” to chemistry!

To learn more about gift options, please contact Jennifer Chandler, Associate Director of Development at Jennifer.Chandler@unc.edu or 919-843-5285.