2013 News Archive
11 December 2013
Mirkin Named 2013 NAI Fellow
The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) elected Professor Chad A. Mirkin to Fellow status. The election is a professional distinction given to academic inventors who have demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation.
14 November 2013
Mirkin to Receive 2013 Vittorio deNora Award
The Electrochemical Society (ECS) will award Professor Chad A. Mirkin the 2013 Vittorio deNora Award. This award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of electrochemical engineering and technology.
14 November 2013
NU Chemistry Students Awarded for Scientific Art
Radha Boya and Keith Brown, students in the Mirkin Research group, both received awards from the Science in Society's 2013 Scientific Images Contest.
12 November 2013
Chemistry Lab Gets Renovation
The HG10 lab in the Technological Institute underwent a complete renovation this past summer. The new space includes a modern tutoring area, an enhanced undergraduate research area and improved overall safety features.News Center Story
8 November 2013
Mirkin Named Honorary Professor at ShanghaiTech University
Professor Chad A. Mirkin has recently been named an Honorary Professor by ShanghaiTech University in China for his service to the institution. This is one of the highest honors given by a Chinese University.
5 November 2013
Mirkin Receives Highest Honor by CCS
Professor Chad Mirkin has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society (CCS). This is the highest honor that the CCS can bestow on an individual.
4 November 2013
Chemistry Alum Receives 2013 R&D Innovator Award
Andrew J. Ouderkirk, a Northwestern Chemistry Alumnus and former member of the Weitz research group, was presented the 2013 R&D Magazine Innovator of the Year award. Ouderkirk received this honor for his leadership and creativity as one the top scientists at 3M.
18 October 2013
The Hupp Group is Being InNUvative
The Hupp Group has awarded one of its own, second year graduate student Timothy Wang, the inaugural H&F InNUvative award. As the winner of the inner group competition Timothy will be able to make use of $10K in group founds to investigate a creative project of his own design over the next year.
17 October 2013
Harel Awarded Prestigious Packard Fellowship
Professor Elad Harel has been awarded a 2013 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Harel was chosen among 16 of the nation’s most innovative young scientists and engineers to receive a research grant of $875,000 over five years. News Center Story
10 October 2013
Emeritus Professor Robert Letsinger Honored by Department
Robert L. Letsinger was recently honored at a reception co-hosted by the Chemistry department and the International Institute of Nanotechnology (IIN) that took place on September 30, 2013. The event was attended by NU president, Morty Schapiro.
9 October 2013
Van Duyne Honored by the SAS
The Society of Applied Spectroscopy (SAS) has awarded Professor Richard P. Van Duyne the 2013 Honorary Membership Award and elected him a 2013 Fellow. These awards were established to recognize individuals for their exceptional contributions to the field of spectroscopy and are the highest awards given by SAS.
27 September 2013
Odom Appointed Executive Editor for New ACS Journal
Professor Teri W. Odom has been named Executive Editor for ACS Photonics, a new journal launched by ACS Publications to address the growing need for an interdisciplinary journal dedicated to high-impact research in the field of photonics.
27 September 2013
Mirkin Named a ‘Nobel-Class’ Citation Laureate
Professor Chad Mirkin was named a 2013 Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate in the annual pre-Nobel Prize study. This study has accurately forecast 27 Nobel Prize winners since its inception in 2002. News Center Story
23 September 2013
Stoddart to Receive IChemE Award
The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) will award Sir Fraser Stoddart the IChemE 2013 North America Chemical Engineering Project of the Year Award for his work uncovering a new non-toxic method for mining gold.
20 September 2013
After serving over 20 years as Associate Editor for Inorganic Chemistry, an American Chemical Society Publication, Professor Kenneth Poeppelmeier will step down and pass his editorial responsibilities on to Northwestern Chemistry Alum, Dr. P. Shiv Halasyamani, Professor at Aalto University.
19 September 2013
Four Faculty Members Elected to ASG Faculty Honor Roll
Professors David Harris, Larry Trzupek, SonBinh Nguyen, and Owen Priest were elected to Northwestern’s Associated Student Government (ASG) 2012-2013 Faculty Honor Roll. Every year students vote to honor their favorite professors, then those who receive the most votes are named to the ASG Faculty Honor Roll. View complete list.
12 September 2013
Professor Van Duyne Receives 2014 ACS Wilson Award
The American Chemical Society (ACS) has awarded Professor Richard P. Van Duyne the 2014 E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy. The Wilson Award recognizes outstanding accomplishments in fundamental or applied spectroscopy in chemistry.
28 August 2013
Professor Harel Honored by the ARO
Professor Elad Harel has been selected to participate in the Army Research Office (ARO), Young Investigator Program (YIP). The objectives of the ARO’s YIP are “to attract to Army research outstanding young university faculty members, to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers.” This award will fund Harel’s research team for the next 3 years.
21 August 2013
Bright Future for Plastic Solar Cells
As shown in a study published by Nature Photonics, a group of researchers from Northwestern led by Professor Tobin Marks design polymer solar cells with unprecedented fill factors of 80 percent, which come close to that of silicon solar cells.
16 August 2013
A team of Northwestern chemists led by Professors Joseph Hupp, SonBinh Nguyen, and Omar Farha are featured in the latest edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) for creating a catalytic material used for degrading toxic compounds.
7 August 2013
An initiative led by Chemistry of Life Processes (CLP) Institute faculty Richard Silverman and Neil Kelleher, was recently awarded a $1.3 million five-year grant by the National Institute of General Medical Science (NIGMS) that will support Northwestern’s CLP Predoctoral Training Program.
7 August 2013
In late June, Northwestern and IMSERC hosted an intensive 10 day crash summer course in X-ray Crystallography. With the recent upgrade and expansion of IMSERC, Northwestern attracted students from all over the world for this new and interesting summer course.
6 August 2013
“Giant in the Realm of the Very, Very Small”
Professor Chad Mirkin is featured in the latest edition of the Chicago Tribune’s executive profile series. The article not only focuses on his prowess in his specific fields of research but also on his drive and ingenuity in the world of business.
6 August 2013
Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry Passes the Test of Time
The second edition of Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry has recently been published and released with Professor Kenneth Poeppelmeier as editor-in-chief. This was first published in 1973 and has been a staple in all areas of inorganic chemistry since.
31 July 2013
Desktop Printing at the Nano Level
Professor Chad Mirkin and a team of Northwestern Researchers are on the verge of revolutionizing how nanotechnology is produced by creating a state of the art desktop nanofabrication tool. News Center Story
30 July 2013
Former Van Duyne Group Postdoc Joins Chemistry Department at University of Minnesota
Dr. Renee R. Frontiera began her independent career as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota on July 1, 2013. Renee’s research program will focus on super-resolution microscopy, ultrafast reaction dynamics in proteins and photovoltaics, and single molecule plasmonics.
29 July 2013
O’Halloran Winner of the 2013 RSC Bioinorganic Chemistry Award
Professor Tom O’Halloran has been awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Bioinorganic Chemistry Award for his studies that determined the role of intracellular fluctuation of transition metal availability in the regulation of cellular physiology, and the discovery of proteins involved in this process.
24 July 2013
Northwestern Alum Joins Chemistry Faculty at Case Western Reserve
Dr. Emily Pentzer, a 2010 NU Ph.D. graduate of the Nguyen group, joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve University as an assistant professor in July where she will establish her independent research program in synthetic organic materials.
15 July 2013
Former Stoddart Group Postdocs Join Chemistry Departments
Congratulations to Dr. Jeremiah Gassensmith and Dr. Psaras McGrier on their new positions. Jeremiah will join the Department of Chemistry at the University of Texas, Dallas and Psaras will join the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Ohio State University. Both accepted positions as assistant professors and will begin this fall.
15 July 2013
Jonathan Barnes and Clare Rowland have been awarded a prize in the Competition for Students Who Attend Universities with Less than $600 Million in 2011 R&D Expenditures. The award is designed to honor students for innovative fuel-cycle-relevant research publications.
5 July 2013
Northwestern Chemistry Student Awarded 2013 Reaxys PhD Prize
Martin Donakowski, a fourth-year graduate student in the Poeppelmeier group, has been awarded the Reaxys PhD Prize this year. Donakowski was one of three winners selected out of 45 finalists.
17 June 2013
National Cleantech Competition Winner NuMat Announces Closing of $2M Seed Round
NuMat recently moved into a new research facility in Skokie and named a Board of Directors, which includes founders Ben Hernandez and Dr. Omar Farha along with Luka Erceg, former CEO of Simbol Materials, and Robert Winter, daVinci Capital Group managing director.
5 June 2013
Three Chemistry Students chosen as finalists of 2013 Reaxys PhD Prize
Daniel Cohen, Martin Donakowski, and Albert Fahrenbach have been chosen as finalists of the Reaxys PhD Prize this year. The Prize helps to promote innovative research and build a network of future leading chemists.
30 May 2013
Happy 60th Anniversary AFOSR
Professor Chad Mirkin is featured in the 60th anniversary edition of AFOSR: Turning Scientific Discover into Air Force Opportunity, for his work with Dip-Pen Nanolithography and his collaboration with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).
29 May 2013
Northwestern Chemistry Student Awarded NASA Earth and Space Fellowship
Mary Alice Upshur, a first-year graduate student joint between the Thomson and the Geiger groups, has been awarded a three-year Earth and Space Fellowship by NASA for her proposal titled, "Synthesis and Analysis of Putative Secondary Organic Aerosol Particle Constituents." Upshur’s chemistry proposal was one of the few funded out of 330 applications.
24 May 2013
Professor Kelleher featured in C&EN Cover Article
Professor Neil Kelleher and group are featured in a recent cover article of Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN) for their work on top-down proteomics and bringing its application closer to wide-spread use.
24 May 2013
Northwestern Alum Joins Chemistry Faculty at Kansas University
Dr. Michael Clift, a 2010 NU PhD graduate with Prof. Regan Thomson, will join the faculty at the University of Kansas as an assistant professor this fall where he will establish his independent research program in synthetic organic chemistry.
23 May 2013
Northwestern Alum Receives Shaw Award
Randall Goldsmith, a 2007 Northwestern University Chemistry graduate received the 2013 Shaw Scientist Award. This award is given to young scientists who are engaged in ground breaking research.
16 May 2013
Northwestern Chemistry Making Gold Green
Scientists in the Stoddart group have discovered an inexpensive and environmentally safe way to isolate gold from raw materials using cornstarch instead of the commonly used poisonous cyanides.
15 May 2013
Micromeritics Instrument Grant Awarded to Chemistry
Micromeritics’ Grant Committee has selected Northwestern Chemistry as the recipient of an HPVA-100 High-Pressure Volumetric Analyzer to support research on the design and synthesis of MOFs and porous organic polymers.
10 May 2013
Professor Mirkin to Receive 2013 Linus Pauling Medal
The ACS Puget Sound, Oregon, and Portland Sections of the American Chemical Society awarded Chad Mirkin the 2013 Linus Pauling Medal Award for his outstanding contributions to chemistry that have merited national and international recognition.
6 May 2013
Recent NU Chemistry Grad Awarded Prestigious Fellowship
Gokhan Barin, a recent graduate of the Stoddart group, and current postdoctoral fellow in the Hupp group, has been awarded the prestigious Miller Research Fellowship at UC Berkeley in the fall.
6 May 2013
Professor Seideman Receives the 2013 Mildred Dresselhaus Award
The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI) has awarded Tamar Seideman the 2013 Mildred Dresselhaus Award for her outstanding work in theoretical and numerical research.
3 May 2013
Professor Marks Ranked Among Top Local Inventors
Tobin J. Marks is currently ranked fifth among all Chicago-area inventors with 126 U.S. patents since 1980, according to recent results published in Crain's Chicago Business.
30 April 2013
Startup by Research Professor Farha Featured by Entrepreneur Magazine
Entrepreneur Magazine chose Research Associate Professor Omar Farha’s startup as one of the top three green startups.
23 April 2013
Professor Hupp to Receive JSCC International Award
The Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry (JSCC) will award Joseph Hupp the JSCC International Award. It is awarded for his advances in coordination chemistry.
23 April 2013
Professor Silverman to Receive 2013 BMS-Smissman Award
The American Chemical Society (ACS) will award Rick Silverman the 2013 Bristol-Myers Squibb Smissman Award. This is a lifetime achievement award given for his outstanding contributions to the study of enzyme inhibitors and design of medicinal agents.
23 April 2013
Professor Mirkin to Receive 2013 RSC Chemistry World Entrepreneur of the Year Award
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) will award Chad Mirkin the 2013 Chemistry World Entrepreneur of the Year Award. This award recognizes an individual's contribution to the commercialisation of research.
23 April 2013
Professor Hupp to Receive 2014 Reilley Award
The Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC) will award Joseph Hupp the 2014 Charles N. Reilley Award. It is awarded for his outstanding work in electrochemistry.
22 April 2013
Professor Silverman to Receive 2013 RSC Centenary Prize
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) will award Rick Silverman the 2013 Centenary Prize. It is awarded to outstanding chemists who are also exceptional communicators.
22 April 2013
Professor Schatz to Receive 2013 RSC S F Boys-A Rahman Award
The Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) Faraday Division will award George Schatz the 2013 RSC S F Boys-A Rahman Award. It is awarded for his seminal work on the quantum theory of chemical reactions, computational electrodynamics and molecular self-assembly.
19 April 2013
Professor Wasielewski to Receive 2013 RSC Environment Prize
Michael R. Wasielewski will be awarded the 2013 Royal Society of Chemistry Environment Prize. This biannual prize is awarded for his pioneering contributions to the field of artificial photosynthesis for solar energy conversion.
19 April 2013
Professor Van Duyne to Receive the 2013 RSC Sir George Stokes Award
The Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) Analytical Division will award Rick Van Duyne the 2013 RSC Sir George Stokes Award. It is awarded for identifying the origins of Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and for making pioneering contributions based on localized surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy.
10 April 2013
Materials Research Society Selects Professor Facchetti as a 2013 Fellow
Professor Antonio Facchetti has been recognized for his distinguished research accomplishments and named as a MRS Fellow. The maximum number of new Fellow appointments each year is limited to 0.2% of the current MRS membership.
1 April 2013
Ten Chemistry Students Awarded NSF Fellowships
Congratulations to the ten current Chemistry graduate students who have been awarded NSF Fellowships this year. Eight other students received Honorable Mentions for their applications.
1 April 2013
Michael R. Wasielewski Named Recipient of 2013 Humboldt Research Award
Professor Wasielewski received the award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany in recognition of fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights that have had a significant impact on their own discipline to date and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future.
14 March 2013
Professor Mirkin Elected as Honorary Member of the MRSI
The Materials Research Society of India (MRSI) has named Chad Mirkin as an honorary member.
15 March 2013
Materials Research Society Selects Professor Mirkin as a 2013 Fellow
Professor Chad Mirkin has been recognized for his distinguished research accomplishments and named as a MRS Fellow. The maximum number of new Fellow appointments each year is limited to 0.2% of the current MRS membership.
14 March 2013
New High-capacity MOF Featured in Chemistry World and ChemViews
NU team, led by Professor Farha, has designed and synthesized a new Metal-Organic Framework with the highest methane working capacity. Their work is featured in online publications Chemistry World and Chemistry Views.
14 March 2013
Northwestern Searches to Remove Toxic Chemicals with POPs
Professor SonBinh Nguyen and colleagues have joined forces with scientists at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center to investigate a series of porous organic polymers (POPs) in search of alternative filters for gas masks.
14 March 2013
Professor Hoffman Receives Chatt Medal
The Royal Society of Chemistry awarded Professor Brian Hoffman the 2012 Joseph Chatt Medal for his major contributions to the development and application of ENDOR spectroscopy.
11 March 2013
Chemistry offers our condolences to the family of Morrison Professor Emeritus and Former Department Chair Duward Shriver
Duward Shriver passed away on March 6, 2013. Shriver spent his entire academic career at Northwestern, which began in 1961. He was named Morrison Professor of Chemistry in 1987 and served as Department Chair from 1992 to 1995.
11 March 2013
L. Carroll King Lecture Series
Professor Brian P. Coppola, University of Michigan, will present the 2013 L. Carroll King Lectures today (3/11) and tomorrow (3/12). Today’s lecture, “Lessons from Three Decades of Subversion” will be held at the Pancoe/Abbott Auditorium at 4 pm. Tomorrow’s lecture, “Do Real Work, Not Homework” will be held in Tech L211 at 1 pm.
21 February 2013
Professor Kanatzidis Receives the Cheetham Lecture Award
Professor Mercouri Kanatzidis was awarded the Cheetham Lecture Award. The award was presented at the Annual Materials Research Outreach Program Symposium on February 5th, 2013.
20 February 2013
Professor Chad Mirkin discussed his development of nanoparticle and DNA-based building blocks at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting held in Boston.
19 February 2013
Professor Mirkin Discusses His Revolutionary SNAs Development at the AAAS Annual Meeting
Professor Chad Mirkin discussed spherical nucleic acids and their applications in therapeutics and diagnostics in one of two presentations given at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting.
14 February 2013
Former NU Chemists Receive 2013 Sloan Research Fellowships
Sloan Fellows include NU alumni Julianne Gibbs-Davis and Khalid Salaita, who both received their PhDs in 2006, and Dwight Seferos who completed his postdoctoral work for Prof. Mirkin. Juli completed her postdoctoral work with the advisory of Prof. Geiger, Nguyen, and Scheidt.
13 February 2013
Northwestern Alumnus to receive the 2013 Othmer Gold Medal at the Chemical Heritage Foundation
Dr. Harry Gray, class of 1961, is being recognized for his work in bioinorganic chemistry and contributions to public understanding. Dr. Gray will be given the award at CHF's Heritage Day celebration in Philadelphia.
25 January 2013
Northwestern Chemistry Student Creates New Compound
Jonathan Barnes, a graduate student in Professor Stoddart's group, had a hunch for creating an exotic new chemical compound, and his idea that the force of love is stronger than hate proved correct. News Center Story
22 January 2013
Poeppelmeier Student Received a Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship from the ICDD
The International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) has awarded Martin Donakowski with a 2013 scholarship. His work has been featured on the cover of the "Journal of the American Chemical Society."
18 January 2013
Northwestern Leadership to bring Global Consortium to Campus
The new Solar Fuels Institute (SOFI), led by Michael Wasielewski and Dick Co, will use artificial photosynthesis to sustainably fuel the planet with sunlight.
4 January 2013
The ACS Student Chapter at Northwestern to receive a Green Chapter Award
The American Chemical Society student chapter at NU is being recognized for its outreach activities conducted during the 2011-12 academic year. Only 56 student chapters out of 362 chapter report submissions received this award.
4 January 2013
“Like” Our Facebook Page
Happy New Year from the Department of Chemistry! The department recently launched a Facebook page to share news, events and announcements. Please take a moment to visit and “Like” the page!
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