Chemistry at Hamilton College

Shields & Kirschner publish paper

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 10:03:46 -0500

Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields and Co-Director of the Center for Molecular Design Karl Kirschner recently published a paper in Synthesis and Reactivity in Inorganic, Metal-Organic, and Nano-Metal Chemistry. Their article, "The Limitations of Certain Density Functionals in Modeling Neutral Water Clusters," was published in a special issue of the journal devoted to water clusters.

Hamilton College Researchers Discover New Molecules with the Potential to Treat Breast Cancer

Fri, 4 May 2007 14:20:00 -0400

Article Published in Highly Cited Journal of the American Chemical Society

Hamilton College researchers have identified molecules that have been shown to be effective in the fight against breast cancer.

The Hamilton researchers used state-of-the-art computational techniques in a novel way to design molecules that they predicted would be effective lead compounds for breast cancer research. Scientists from the Albany Medical College subsequently synthesized the predicted molecules and showed that they were indeed potential anti-breast cancer compounds in animal systems.

A paper detailing the research, "Computational Design and Experimental Discovery of an Anti-estrogenic Peptide Derived from Alpha-Fetoprotein," will be published in the May 16 issue of the Journal of American Chemical Society.

Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields and co-director of the Center for Molecular Design Karl Kirschner led the Hamilton research team with undergraduate students Katrina Lexa '05, Amanda Salisburg '08, Katherine Alser '09.

Leanne Pasquini '07 Receives Society for Applied Spectroscopy Award

Wed, 2 May 2007 14:20:00 -0400

Leanne Pasquini '07 has received the 2007 Undergraduate Student Award from the New York Section of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. She will be honored at the NYSAS celebration meeting to be held at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on June 17. A Phi Beta Kappa chemistry major, she was nominated by Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren. He nominated Pasquini for her self-directed project that looked at the Raman spectral features associated with various gemstones. The work was done in collaboration with Professor of Chemistry Camille Jones, Professor of Geosciences Dave Bailey and Professor Elgren. Pasquini presented a poster on the project at the Chicago American Chemical Society meeting in April.

In his nomination letter, Elgren noted: "As a junior physical chemistry student, Leanne became interested in probing the structures of various gem stones. For her physical chemistry laboratory, she designed a self-directed project that would look at the Raman spectral features associated with the gems. She approached me with this project because I have a Raman microscope in my research lab. I quickly trained her on the instrument and the principles of Raman spectroscopy. She borrowed a broad range of gem stones from our geosciences department. I worked with her closely on her first couple of samples to make sure that she was getting off on the right foot.

"As hard as we tried, we could not get a good spectrum from a beautiful 'jewel quality' emerald. We did not observe the typical sharp spectral features characteristic of the lattice vibrations of emerald. Instead, we observed a very broad feature at low energy. After collecting data on other rough native emerald samples, we quickly realized that the 'jewel quality emerald' was nothing more than cut glass. She then went on to characterize rubies (synthetic and natural) and 'diamonds' (real diamonds, cubic zirconium, and cut glass)...(Her poster) is a beautiful systematic study that relates the vibrational features observed to the lattice structures of the various gem stones (and lack of lattice structure in the amorphous cut glass samples). Her poster presentation goes well beyond simply reporting the data and uses the opportunity to highlight an exciting and useful application of Raman spectroscopy."

Shields Lectures at Brown University

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 14:10:00 -0400

Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields presented a seminar to the chemistry department at Brown University on March 22. The title of his talk was "Working with Undergraduates on Research: Cancer Drug Design and Modeling Atmospheric Chemistry Processes with Computational Methods." His lecture highlighted the work that he and Karl Kirschner, co-director of the Center for Molecular Design, have carried out with Hamilton students over the past few years.

Shields discussed the work of Katrina Lexa '05, Amanda Salisburg '08, Katherine Alser '09, Damien Ellens '03, Lorena Hernandez '03, Sam Bono '00, Jenn Derby '01, Jaime Skiba '02, Karilyn Larkin '06, Amy Barrows '08, Becky Mackenzie '08, Alexa Schwarzman '09, Sarah Taylor '03, Abby Markeson '04, Valery Danilack '06, Sarah Felder '07, Frank Pickard '05, Chantelle Rein '03, Becky Shepherd '06, Amber Gillis
'06, Cecilia Disney '07, James McConnell '07, Emma Pokon '04, Meghan Dunn '06, Tim Evans '05, Mary Beth Day '07, Marco Allodi '08, Kristin Alongi '08, Jovan Livada '08, Ngoda Manongi '08, Greg Hartt '08, Alexa Ashworth '09. Andrew Beyler '10, and Tom Morrell '10. Brown is in the midst of a curricular review and is working on increasing the number of undergraduates working on research projects, and plans to
copy part of the successful Hamilton College model.

Shields Presents Seminar at Middlebury College

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:10:00 -0400

Discussed Research Conducted With Hamilton Students

George Shields

Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields presented a seminar, "Computational Design and Experimental Discovery of an Anti-estrogenic Peptide Derived from Alpha-Fetoprotein," to an audience of 60 faculty and students in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at Middlebury College on March 16. His lecture highlighted the work that he and Karl Kirschner, co-director of the Center for Molecular Design, have carried out with Hamilton students over the past few years.

Shields discussed the work of Katrina Lexa '05, Katherine Alser '09, Amanda Salisburg '05, Damien Ellens '03, Lorena Hernandez '03, Sam Bono '00, Jennifer Derby '01, and Jaime Skiba '02 in detail. In addition he talked about the research that Karilyn Larkin '06, Amy Barrows '08, Alexa Schwarzman '09, Sarah Taylor '03, Abby Markeson '04, Valery Danilack '06, and Sarah Felder '07 have done on developing a computational assay for the Estrogen Receptor. Shields also talked about the group's work on enediyne anticancer antibiotics, especially the work of Frank Pickard '05, Chantelle Rein '03, Becky Shepherd '06, and Amber Gillis '06.

Hamilton Students, Alumnae and Faculty Well-Represented at Sanibel Symposium

Wed, 7 Mar 2007 14:10:00 -0500

Professor George Shields Has Taken 27 Undergraduates to the Conference Over 12 Years

Hamilton students, alumnae and faculty at St. Simon's Island.
Five current Hamilton students, two alumnae, and two professors attended the 47th Sanibel Symposium from February 22-27. The first Sanibel Symposium was held on Sanibel Island in 1960, and over the years moved across Florida and up the coast. This year's meeting was held on St. Simon's Island, Georgia, at the King & Prince Resort, and was devoted to theory and computation in quantum chemistry, condensed matter and chemical physics, nanoscience, and quantum biochemistry and biophysics. The students all presented posters co-authored with their professors. Each poster presentation consisted of a two-minute public advertisement followed by the traditional poster session. Faculty from all over the world talked with the Hamilton students, giving them feedback and ideas on their research projects and on their future plans after Hamilton.

Jovan Livada '08 Named Third GOLD Scholar

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 14:00:00 -0500

Jovan Livada '08

Hamilton College is pleased to name Jovan Livada, a junior from Belgrade, Serbia, as its third GOLD Scholar.

To find Livada, you might search the chemistry laboratories, sports fields, ballroom dancing class, the stage, or the Writing and Oral Communications centers unless, of course, you were looking for him this past fall, in which case he was on the water enrolled in Boston University's Semester at Sea program. Livada, a junior from Belgrade, Serbia, is the paradigmatic multi-talented Hamilton student.

Elgren and Whitebean 08 Present at the National Press Club

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:50:00 -0500

Elgren and Whitebean 08 Present at the National Press Club
February 22, 2007
As members of a panel sponsored by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) at the National Press Club, Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren and neuroscience major Kateri Whitebean 08 spoke on the value of undergraduate research. The event, held on Feb. 21, was organized to spark a national conversation on the topic by introducing CUR's new publication, Developing and Sustaining a Research-Supportive Curriculum: A Compendium of Successful Practices. Elgren and Kerry Karukstis, professor of chemistry at Harvey Mudd College who was also a presenter, co-edited the volume.

Kinnel Presents Poster at 12th International Conference on Marine Natural Products

Thu, 8 Feb 2007 13:20:00 -0500

Robin Kinnel
February 8, 2007
Following up on work carried out by Silas D. Childs Professor of Chemistry Robin Kinnel at the University of Hawaii during the spring of 2005, two students, Andrew Glossner '06 and Danielle Massee '07 completed the synthesis of a natural product isolated from the sponge Amphimedon compressa; this was reported at the meeting in a poster. In addition, Kinnel served as one of six judges for the poster prizes at this meeting in Queenstown, New Zealand, which took place from February 4 to February 10.

Elgren Presents Research at Metals in Biology Conference

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:20:00 -0500

Tim Elgren
January 31, 2007

Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren presented "Halogenase and Oxidative Dehalogenase Activities of Sol-Gel Encapsulated Peroxidases" on Jan. 31 at the "Metals in Biology" Gordon Research Conference in Ventura, Calif. The work presented was done this past summer in collaboration with Hilary Gamble '07, Kathryn Hansen '07 and Marielle Matthews '09. Their efforts focused on the development and characterization of novel biologically active materials which are capable of catalyzing the degradation of toxic halogenated compounds. A grant from the National Science Foundation funds the work.