For decades, Chemistry at Wisconsin has attracted outstanding graduate students, faculty, postdoctoral associates and visiting scholars.
The reputation for excellence in our department is recognized locally and nationally by funding agencies and corporate research sponsors. This facilitates the establishment and maintenance of first-rate instrumentation, library, shops and laboratories.
In an age when microbial pathogens are growing increasingly resistant to the conventional antibiotics used to tamp down infection, a team of Wisconsin scientists has synthesized a potent new class of compounds capable of curbing the bacteria that cause staph infections. Writing online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, a group led by University [...]
Flipped classrooms. MOOCs. Clickers for real-time class surveys. New technologies are constantly changing the educational landscape. Tehshik Yoon, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is one of the professors at the forefront when it comes to thinking about and testing out new technologies while teaching. His students and colleagues say his efforts [...]
Seven projects in the College of Letters & Science have received funding to advance the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s commitment to Education Innovation. Educational Innovation is a campus-wide initiative to create innovative approaches to education and research and set the university on the path to greater self-sufficiency. All of the EI projects were chosen based on [...]
Bassam Shakhashiri, a chemistry professor and William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has received the 2013 Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science. Named for the astronomer whose enthusiasm and broad scientific knowledge helped inspire a generation to look at science as a fascinating discipline that makes [...]
The Department of Chemistry recently recognized 70 undergraduate and graduate students at its 2013 Student Awards Ceremony. Thanks to the generous support of alumni and friends, the department was able to recognize students for their outstanding achievements in chemistry teaching and learning, research, and outreach. This year’s award winners were: 2013 Summer Undergraduate Research Awards [...]
University of Wisconsin-Madison chemists have identified an approach to use oxygen gas to convert lignin, a byproduct of biofuel production, into a form that could allow it to replace fossil fuels as a source of chemical feedstocks. Lignin is a complex organic material found in trees and other plants and is associated with cellulose, the [...]
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has awarded six faculty members Educational Innovation (EI) funds designed to provide them the opportunity to extend their sabbatical plans to further an educational innovation project. Three of the recipients are faculty members in the College of Letters & Science. EI funds are used to supplement the sabbatical program in order to facilitate [...]
The 2013 Academic Staff Excellence Awards honor staff members representing a broad spectrum of fields and duties at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ten individuals have been selected to receive recognition for their achievements in leadership, public service, research, teaching and overall excellence. Two recipients are from the College of Letters & Science. This year, a [...]
Randall Goldsmith, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently received a 5-year, $630,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemistry for “Single-Molecule Spectroscopy as a Mechanistic Tool for Studying Catalyst Reaction Dynamics.” The prestigious CAREER Award funds promising assistant professors and helps them establish broad foundations for their future [...]
Within the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the late professor emeritus Howard Zimmerman (1926-2012) was widely known for two things: his pioneering research in the field of organic photochemistry and his pride in the many alumni whose careers began in the Zimmerman (or “Z”) lab. Zimmerman even maintained a world map depicting [...]
After more than tripling attendance last year, the Wisconsin Science Festival is coming back for year three with plans for more activities at more sites that reach more people. The organizers announced today the 2013 festival will be held September 26-29 and issued an open call for presenters, communities, organizations and sponsors to get involved. As in [...]
Several graduate programs from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Letters & Science are ranked among the nation’s best in the 2014 edition of U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools.” “We’re proud of all of our graduate programs and particularly pleased that once again many have been rated so highly,” says Provost Paul [...]
Seven faculty members from the College of Letters & Science have been chosen to receive this year’s Distinguished Teaching Awards. Interim Chancellor David Ward will present the awards at a ceremony on March 19 at the Pyle Center. A reception hosted by the Wisconsin Alumni Association will follow; to attend, register here. The awards, chosen by a committee, honor [...]
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Chemistry will be well represented at the June 2013 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Chemistry. Four members of the department have been selected to attend the meeting in Lindau, Germany, along with 620 other students and postdocs from 78 countries. The four participants are: Shakeel Dalal, a graduate student [...]
In 2005, Zoology Academic Curator Paula Holahan made an accidental discovery: he unearthed a priceless collection of ocean invertebrates made out of glass. Holahan revealed a collection of rarely seen glass models that depict numerous fragile figurines of jellyfish, radiolarians and sea anemones with spiky tentacles. Handmade by Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka in the 19th-century, the glass works were produced in a time when the mystery of the deep-sea sparked the interest of many.
Three faculty members from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Letters & Science are among 126 scientists from around the country who have been awarded prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships. Elena D’Onghia, assistant professor of astronomy, Christopher Ré, assistant professor of computer sciences, and Jennifer Schomaker, assistant professor of chemistry, will receive two-year, $50,000 grants from [...]
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found a new way to accelerate a workhorse instrument that identifies proteins. The high-speed technique could help diagnose cancer sooner and point to new drugs for treating a wide range of conditions. Proteins are essential building blocks of biology, used in muscle, brain, blood and hormones. If the [...]
Five promising young faculty in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Letters & Science have been honored with Romnes Faculty Fellowships. The Romnes awards recognize exceptional faculty members who have earned tenure within the last four years. Selected by a Graduate School committee, winners receive an unrestricted $50,000 award for research, supported by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). [...]
The Academic Staff Art Gallery in Bascom Hall this semester features works that combine art and science, encompassing the scientific impact of models of invertebrates, glassblowing and photography. Featured artists include Laura Halverson Monahan, curator of collections at the University of Wisconsin Zoological Museum; Tracy Drier, scientific glassblower in the Chemistry Department; and Ilia Guzei, [...]
Members of an American Chemical Society commission will discuss the need for radical changes to graduate education in the chemical sciences at a colloquium in Madison Feb. 7. “For more than half a century, steady financial support for research and education in the chemical sciences has given the United States high-quality graduate programs that attract talent from [...]
Technologically valuable ultrastable glasses can be produced in days or hours with properties corresponding to those that have been aged for thousands of years, computational and laboratory studies have confirmed. Aging makes for higher quality glassy materials because they have slowly evolved toward a more stable molecular condition. This evolution can take thousands or millions [...]
Despite the extensive research and commercial development of solar cells, the world still has a critical need for new, high-efficiency photovoltaic (PV) technologies based on low-cost and abundant materials. The long-term goal of PV technology, which converts sunlight directly into electricity, is to compete against conventional fossil fuels to fulfill the already massive and ever-growing [...]
Trisha Andrew, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been named to Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 in Energy. The list recognizes talented young innovators whose work holds potential for the energy landscape of the future. Andrew, who joined the faculty at the start of the semester, was previously a postdoctoral fellow [...]
A new company making a high-speed, accurate and user-friendly instrument that reveals the molecular structure of proteins, drugs, and other important materials is the latest spinoff from the University of Wisconsin-Madison chemistry department. Spectrometers analyze the interaction between a sample and beams of light, and are widely used to identify atoms and molecular structure. The [...]
Chemistry Professor Bassam Shakhashiri will give his 43rd Christmas “Science is Fun” presentation Dec. 1 and 2 on the UW–Madison campus. The event will be shown on Wisconsin Public Television later in December. As always, the show will focus on astounding demonstrations from the world of chemistry and beyond. “Chemistry is the science of how atoms bond [...]
As he received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Wisconsin Alumni Association in Madison last week, Carl Djerassi took time to talk about his many passions. Born in Vienna in 1923, Djerassi emigrated to the United States in 1939, and received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1945. In 1951, he and two [...]
A new playground that opened Oct. 25 at the Discovery Center Museum in Rockford, Ill. is the first in the world built around unique structures formed by the element carbon. Carbon has been called the element of life because it combines with other elements to make up living organisms, but all by itself it also forms structures [...]
Our understanding of the creation and use of nanomaterials is growing, but so much about our long-term relationship with their tiny component particles remains little understood. “We know that nanoparticles can be toxic. We know that they can get into living things,” says Robert Hamers, a University of Wisconsin-Madison chemistry professor and director of the new Center [...]
Scientists conduct research in all sorts of interesting settings – even high above the earth. That’s what Associate Professor of Chemistry Frank Keutsch and his team did over the summer. Keutsch’s team of third-year graduate students Jen Kaiser, Kate Skog and former postdoctoral fellow Glenn Wolfe was the only U.S.-based group invited to participate in [...]
Trisha Andrew joins the Department of Chemistry as an assistant professor after a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She completed her Ph.D. in organic chemistry at MIT in 2011. Andrew, who earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington in 2005, was one of five recipients of the 2011 L’Oreal USA [...]
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected F. Fleming Crim, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of chemistry, to serve as assistant director for the Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS). MPS supports core research in astronomy, chemistry, physics, material science and mathematics. Crim will lead a staff of 160 and administer an annual budget [...]
After a rousing debut last fall, the Wisconsin Science Festival returns for its second year this Sept. 27-30 with an even bigger and bolder schedule of people, music, art and explosions bringing the wonders of science to life for all ages. In addition to returning crowd favorites such as dancing scientists, the physics of football [...]
The College of Letters & Science has more than 800 faculty, a group that includes brilliant researchers, noteworthy authors, and inspiring teachers. This year, the College welcomes more than 50 new faculty members. From Classics to Chemistry and from English to Economics, departments across L&S recruited emerging experts who bring impressive breadth and depth of [...]
While Assistant Professor of Chemistry Etienne Garand is new to Wisconsin, he already has an appreciation for our state’s core industry, having grown up on a dairy farm in Québec. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Québec’s Université de Sherbrooke, he opted for a warmer climate and completed his Ph.D. at the University of [...]
Acinetobacter baumanni, a pathogenic bacterium that is a poster child of deadly hospital acquired infections, is one tough customer. It resists most antibiotics, is seemingly immune to disinfectants, and can survive desiccation with ease. Indeed, the prevalence with which it infects soldiers wounded in Iraq earned it the nickname “Iraqibacter.” In the United States, it [...]
Eons ago, nature solved the problem of converting solar energy to fuels by inventing the process of photosynthesis. Plants convert sunlight to chemical energy in the form of biomass, while releasing oxygen as an environmentally benign byproduct. Devising a similar process by which solar energy could be captured and stored for use in vehicles or [...]
There is a stack of notecards on Ieva Reich’s desk in the Daniels Chemistry Building off University Avenue at UW-Madison. The cards do not contain equations or formulas. There are no diagrams or talking points on the cards either. Reich, the soon-to-be retired instructor in the Department of Chemistry, uses the notecards to learn the names [...]
UW writes its own history with 24-hour social media project With only 24 hours to complete the task, University of Wisconsin-Madison students, faculty, staff and alumni participated in a project to document what makes UW a great place to live, learn and build friendships. The project asked participants to submit e-mails, photos and tweets with [...]
Each year, the College of Letters & Science recognizes outstanding faculty and staff in the college with various awards. We are proud to announce the 2012 recipients, listed below. Academic Advising Awards: L&S Academic Advising Award: Anna Tumarkin, Undergraduate Advisor in Slavic Languages L&S Faculty Advising Award: Professor Patricia Rosenmeyer, Undergrad and Graduate Advisor in [...]
Four of the most significant awards in chemistry were awarded to University of Wisconsin-Madison professors in a ceremony at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego. The awards were made after a thorough selection procedure, says Bassam Shakhashiri, professor of chemistry at UW-Madison and president of the ACS. “These awards are [...]
As founder of the Guatemala-based Range of Motion Project (ROMP), Eric Neufeld ’98 has worked to provide more than 1,500 custom-made prosthetic limbs to people in developing countries since 2005—people who, without Neufeld’s help, might have never regained mobility. With B.A. in Biological Aspects of Conservation, Neufeld represents one of the 13 outstanding alumni of [...]
Two members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty are among 126 scientists from around the country who have been awarded prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships. Benjamin Recht, assistant professor of computer sciences, and Jordan Schmidt, assistant professor of chemistry, will receive two-year, $50,000 grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The fellowships are awarded [...]
Howard Zimmerman, a professor of chemistry from 1960 until his retirement in 2010, died on Saturday, Feb. 11 as a result of a fall. Zimmerman helped establish the field of organic photochemistry — the study of how light affects and initiates chemical reactions. By applying the theory of quantum mechanics to these reactions, he was [...]
Spoiler alert. If you haven’t seen the film “Inglorious Basterds,” you may not want to keep reading.
News via the American Chemical Society Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, Ph.D., a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will become president of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, on January 1, 2012. He was elected in 2010 to serve a three-year term on the board of directors as president-elect in [...]
Story by Vicki Tobias, UW-Madison Archives This fall, the UW-Madison Archives collaborated with College of Letters & Science departments and programs to help honor distinguished and beloved faculty. The faculty members included Howard Zimmerman and Joe Elder at two very special events commemorating their careers at UW– “Zimmerman Celebration” and “50 Years of Joe Elder [...]
The weather outside may soon be frightful. But inside, Chemistry professor Bassam Z. Shakhashiri will soon be spreading science cheer.
Four University of Wisconsin–Madison professors have won awards from the American Chemical Society (ACS) in recognition of research excellence. They will be honored at a ceremony next March at the society’s 243rd national meeting in San Diego.
Congratulations to the following College of Letters & Science staff members who all received a 2011-2012 College of Letters & Science Professional Development Grant.
Various departments and programs in the College of Letters & Science are gearing up for the first-ever Wisconsin Science Festival as a way to usher in the Year of Science …
In chemistry, so-called aromatic molecules compose a large and versatile family of chemical compounds that are the stuff of pharmaceuticals, electronic materials and consumer products ranging from sunscreen to plastic soda bottles.
Two L&S undergraduates – Patrick Kirk and David Osmalov — were part of the winning team for the Grand Prize in the Climate Leadership Challenge at Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies’ Earth Day Conference.
Thirteen talented, up-and-coming faculty from across campus were honored with Romnes Faculty Fellowships. Of the thirteen, seven were members of the College of Letters & Science,
Madison’s success in turning technology into business lures conference (Wisconsin State Journal) A chemical compound being developed by Silatronix, a young Madison company, could make big batteries used for backup power systems last longer and keep them stable in the desert heat.
The Wisconsin Alumni Association and the Office of the Secretary of the Faculty are honoring University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty with the 2011 Distinguished Teaching Awards. This year eight L&S faculty took home top teaching awards.
Martin Zanni, the Meloche-Bascom Professor of Chemistry, is the co-recipient of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences from Tel Aviv University.
Science Pub organizer taps scientists for informal gatherings mixed with beers (March 6, 2011) – It’s not exactly a scientific formula but Skip Evans has discovered that if you combine a scientist, good beer, and a crowd of curious people, you come up with a very interesting Sunday afternoon … (Wisconsin State Journal). For more information visit: http://madsciencepub.org/
The L&S Honors Program is proud to announce this year’s winner of the Mark Mensink Award and winners of undergraduate Trewartha Senior Thesis Grants. The L&S Faculty Honors Committee has awarded college’s largest research grant, the Mark Mensink Award, to Alexandra Demet, a double major in Comparative Literature and Art History to fund her archival [...]
Faculty and staff in the Department of Chemistry are rallying to support Partners in Giving, the state employee’s combined giving campaign of Dane County.
The College of Letters & Science is pleased to announce the following individuals received a 2010-2011 College of Letters & Science Classified Staff Excellence Award. David Harring, Center for Limnology Kristi Heming, Department of Chemistry Christy Horstmeyer, Department of Philosophy Angela Powell, Languages and Cultures of Asia Vicki Sekel, Social Science Research Services Congratulations to [...]
UW-Madison researchers report stem cell breakthrough (Wisconsin State Journal) A team of UW-Madison researchers has added another stem cell breakthrough to the university’s leadership in the field, figuring out a way to grow the cells on a large scale so they can be used for studies and potential therapies.
Surprise call gives professor link to father he never knew (Wisconsin State Journal) Featuring Chemistry Professor John C. Wright.
Martin Zanni, the Meloche-Bascom Professor of Chemistry, is the recipient of 2009 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. Government to young scientists. Zanni is not the only UW-Madison professor to win the award — Dr. Ana P. Martinez in the School of Medicine and Public [...]
We are pleased to announce that the following 13 individuals received a 2010-2011 College of Letters & Science Professional Development Grant …
UW Chemistry Professor Eric Strieter is one of two UW-Madison scientists to received a 2010 Shaw Scientist Award from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. Strieter, assistant professor of chemistry, and Anjon (Jon) Audhya, assistant professor of biomolecular chemistry, will each receive $200,000 unrestricted prize for each.
Professor Sam Gellman (Chemistry) has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Two staff members in the College of Letters & Science have been named winners of the 2010 Classified Employee Recognition Awards (CERA).
Several University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate programs — many in the College of Letters & Science — are ranked among the nation’s best in the 2011 edition of U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools.”
Each year, the Committee on Distinguished Teaching Awards honors faculty for teaching excellence.
On March 23, four University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty members and one former student were recognized by the American Chemical Societyat its annual meeting in San Francisco.
Six of UW–Madison’s most promising rising faculty have been named recipients of this year’s Romnes Faculty Fellowships.
Here’s a round-up of all of the recent awards and honors to faculty, staff and students in L&S…
The College of Letters & Science is pleased to announce that the following individuals received a 2009-2010 College of Letters & Science Classified Staff Excellence Award.
Chemistry Professor Lloyd Smith, together with other faculty at UW, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and Marquette University, have received an $8 Million, 3-year NIH grant…
Bassam Shakhashiri, William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea and Director of the Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy, appeared in the Wisconsin Academy Quarterly.
