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2015 News Archive

16 December 2015

Mirkin Elected to the American Institute for Medical Biological Engineering College of Fellows

Professor Chad Mirkin has been been elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows. The AIMBE College of Fellows represents the most accomplished and distinguished medical and biological engineers responsible for innovation and discovery. AIMBE is a non-profit, honorific society that serves as the leading voice and advocate for the benefit of medical and biological engineering to the public.

4 December 2015

Moores Receives 2015 Staff Mentor of the Year Award

Chris Moores, Assistant Director of Research, receives the 2015 Staff Mentor of the Year Award. This award is in recognition of a staff member who has shown outstanding leadership in coaching and mentoring other staff members.

1 December 2015

Poeppelmeier Featured in Cover Story of Recent C&EN
Professor Kenneth Poeppelmeier is featured in a recent Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) cover story titled "How Computers are Helping Chemists Discover Materials that Don't Yet Exist." In the article Poeppelmeier explains the importance of "theoretical prediction" to "the experimental discovery process."

25 November 2015

Matthew Du Selected to Receive the Fletcher URG Prize

Matthew Du, an undergraduate student in the Nguyen research group, has been selected to receive the Fletcher URG Prize. This award is given to a student for the most outstanding Summer URG project. Du was selected as one of the top two students in the science and engineering division. The Summer URG program seeks to fund the top students across the University, to be selected from among these ranks is a significant accomplishment, highlighting intelligence, creativity, and dedication.

13 October 2015

Xisen Hou Becomes a 2015 Collegiate Inventors Competition Finalist

Xisen Hou, a graduate student in the Stoddart research group, has become a finalist in the 2015 Collegiate Inventors Competition. This is the nation’s foremost competition encouraging innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity in students who are working on cutting-edge inventions at their colleges and universities nationwide. Hou has been selected for her work on Molecularly Encrypted Fluorescent Security Links. 

6 October 2015

Kanatzidis Receives 2016 APS James C. McGroddy Prize

Professor Mercouri Kanatzidis received the American Physical Society (APS) 2016 James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials. This prize is in recognition of outstanding achievement in the science and application of new materials. 

1 October 2015

Kanatzidis Receives Prestigious 2015 Eni Award: Renewable Energy Prize

The Eni Award for the "Renewable Energy Prize" category was awarded to Mercouri Kanatzidis for his research focusing on the development of new solid state semiconductors able to recover waste heat and convert it directly into electricity. The prize ceremony will take place in Rome on October 8, 2015.

23 September 2015

Wasielewski to Receive the 2016 Chemical Pioneer Award

Professor Michael Wasielewski has been selected to receive the 2016 Chemical Pioneer Award of the American Institute of Chemists for “his pioneering contributions to understanding the fundamental relationship between molecular structure and the dynamics of electron transfer between organic molecules.”

18 September 2015

NU Tops the List in 2015 with the Most Highly Cited Researchers in Chemistry

Professors Antonio Facchetti, Omar Farha, Jiaxing Huang, Joseph Hupp, Tobin Marks, Chad Mirkin, SonBinh Nguyen, George Schatz, Karl A Scheidt, Randall Q Snurr, Fraser Stoddart, and Richard Van Duyne are among the 205 chemists listed in Thomson Reuters 2015 Highly Cited Researcher list. With 12 faculty members on list Northwestern Chemistry holds the distinction of having the most individual Highly Cited Researchers in the field of chemistry in 2015, according to Thomson Reuters.

To create this list, Thomson Reuters collected data on articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection designated by Essential Science Indicators as Highly Cited Papers. Researchers ranking among the top 1% most cited for their subject field and year of publication earned the mark of exceptional impact.

10 September 2015

Mirkin Receives First Ever Sackler Prize in Convergence Research  

Professor Chad A. Mirkin has been awarded the inaugural $400,000 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Convergence Research from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). This year’s prize is being awarded for convergence research that benefits human health. The prize will be presented in a ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C.

8 September 2015

Kelleher Awarded $7.5M Grant to Advance Top-Down Proteomics  

Professor Neil Kelleher has received a five-year, $7.5 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to fund the development, application, and dissemination of top-down proteomics as a tool for translational research.

3 September 2015

Geiger Research Team Joins $20 Million NSF Sponsored Nano Center  

Professor Franz M. Geiger is leading a team of Northwestern University scientists involved in a multi-institutional research center that just received a five-year, nearly $20 million renewable grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study nanoparticles in emerging technologies and their effects on the environment. 

25 August 2015

Samantha Clarke Receives 2016 Eli Lilly/WCC Travel Award

Samantha Clarke, a graduate student in the Freedman research group, has received the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) of the American Chemical Society Eli Lilly/WCC Travel Award. This award provides funding for female undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral fellows to travel to a national meeting and present their research. This is a highly-competitive award and is a testament to Clarke's achievements.

20 August 2015

Five NU Chemistry Professors Receive 2016 ACS National Awards

Five members of the Northwestern University Chemistry Department faculty are recipients of the 2016 American Chemical Society National Awards. The ACS National Awards program is designed to encourage the advancement of chemistry in all its branches, to support research in chemical science and industry, and to promote the careers of chemists. This is the largest number of NU chemists to receive ACS Awards in a single year.

29 July 2015

Nguyen Group Article Featured in the Recent JACS Spotlight

A recent article, Directed Assembly of Nucleic Acid-Based Polymeric Nanoparticles from Molecular Tetravalent Cores, written by the Nguyen research group has been featured in the Journal of American Chemical Society (JACS) Spotlight.

9 July 2015

Three NU Researchers Receive 2015 ACS Postdoctoral Research Awards

Dr. Alona Furmanchuk, a postdoc in the Schatz research group, Dr. Idan Hod, a postdoc in the Hupp research group, and Dr. Brett Savoie, a former graduate student in the Ratner and Marks research groups, have won the 2015 ACS Physical Chemistry Division Postdoctoral Research Awards. The winners have been invited to speak about their research at the upcoming Fall 2015 ACS meeting.

25 June 2015

Spotlight on Nicholas Jackson, 2015 Northwestern Presidential Fellow

Nicholas Jackson, a joint student in the Ratner and Chen research group, has been awarded the 2015 Presidential Fellowship. The Presidential Fellowship is the university's most prestigious award and is given to students for their outstanding intellectual and creative ability. Jackson becomes the tenth Chemistry Department graduate student to win the award in the past thirteen years.

16 June 2015

Poeppelmeier Group Featured in DOE Science Highlights

The Poeppelmeier research group showcases recent nanocrystal research with a recent article featured in the Department of Energy (DOE) Basic Energy Sciences Science Highlights. 

4 June 2015

Marks Group Article to be Featured on the Cover of the June Issue of JACS and in the Current JACS Spotlight

A recent article by the Marks research group will be featured on the cover of the June issue of the Journal of American Chemical Society (JACS). The article, Benzene Selectivity in Competitive Arene Hydrogenation: Effects of Single-Site Catalyst···Acidic Oxide Surface Binding Geometry will also be featured in the current JACS Spotlight.

3 June 2015

Duyen Cao Receives 2016 Link Foundation Energy Fellowship

Duyen (Dana) Cao, a PhD Student in the Hupp and Kanatzidis research groups, has been selected to receive the 2016 Link Foundation Energy Fellowship. This fellowship is designed to foster education and innovation in the area of societal production and utilization of energy. 

29 May 2015

 

Poeppelmeier Group Alumnus Develops Chemistry Comic to Educate Nonscientists and Children

Veronica Berns, a Poeppelmeier Group alumnus, has developed a comic book for nonscientists and children to convey the ideas and purpose and motivation of her Chemistry without using technical jargon.

20 May 2015

Stoddart Research Group Develops First Artificial Molecular Pump

The Stoddart Research group used nature for inspiration and developed an entirely artificial molecular pump, in which molecules pump other molecules. This pump could one day be used to power other molecular machines, such as artificial muscles. The full article can be found in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

18 May 2015

Scheidt Argues Against Validity of New Controversial "Miracle Treatment" for Autism

In a new article by the NBC News 5 Chicago Investigative team, Professor Karl Scheidt points out the possible dangers of a new controversial "Miracle Treatment" that has surfaced for the cure of Autism in young children.

12 May 2015

Scheidt Research Group Creates New Natural Compounds for Psychiatric Drugs

Inspired by treatments used by traditional healers in Nigeria, the Scheidt Research Group, in collaboration with other NU researchers, have synthesized four new chemical compounds that could one day lead to better therapies for people with psychiatric disorders. The study is published online in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

11 May 2015

Marks Awarded 2015 Luigi Sacconi Medal of the Italian Chemical Society

Tobin Marks has won the 2015 Luigi Sacconi Medal of the Italian Chemical Society. The award recognizes outstanding research in the field of inorganic chemistry. Marks will be presented the award at the annual national meeting of the Italian Chemical Society in Camerino, Italy this September.

8 May 2015

Odom Writes Chronicle of Higher Education Blog about Peer Review Bias

Professor Teri W. Odom has authored a blog post in The Conversation, the blog section of the Chronicle of Higher Education. In the piece, Odom discusses ways to remove bias from the peer-review process.  

7 May 2015

Five NU Chemistry Professors Receive 2015 RSC Prizes/Awards

Professors Chad Mirkin, Mercouri Kanatzidis, Omar Farha, Rick Van Duyne and Tobin Marks have been selected to receive 2015 Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Awards in recognition of their excellence and achievements in chemistry.

Each faculty member and their respective award have been listed below:

5 May 2015

Mirkin Receives the 2015 PLU-Rho Chapter Award

Professor Chad Mirkin received the 2015 Phi Lambda Upsilon-Rho Chapter Award from the University of Nebraska on May 1, 2015. This award is given for the promotion of high scholarship and original investigation in all branches of pure and applied Chemistry.

28 April 2015

NU Researchers Led by Professor Odom Develop First Liquid Nanolaser

A group of Northwestern University researchers led by Professor Teri Odom have developed the first liquid nanoscale laser. The laser technology could lead to practical applications, such as a new form of a “lab on a chip” for medical diagnostics. The findings were published this week by the journal Nature Communications.

20 April 2015

Vince Rinaolo Has Been Named a 2015 Goldwater Scholar

Vince Rinaolo, an undergraduate student in the Department of Chemistry, has been named a 2015 Goldwater Scholar.  The purpose of the Foundation and this award is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue research careers in these fields.

20 April 2015

Ryan Reynolds Receives 2015-2016 Blue Waters Graduate Fellowship

Ryan Reynolds, a PhD student in the Shiozaki Group, has been selected to receive a 2015-2016 Blue Waters Graduate Fellowship. The fellowship is designed to support PhD students who are engaged in a program of study and research that is directly relevant to the use of the Blue Waters supercomputer. Reynolds will receive a year of support to advance their research, including a tuition allowance and stipend, an allocation on Blue Waters, and funds to support travel to the annual Blue Waters Symposium.

14 April 2015

Co Discusses Solar Fuels Institute (SOFI) with the Chicago Tribune

Prof. Dick Co discusses the Solar Fuels Institute (SOFI) during a question and answer session with the Chicago Tribune. SOFI is a global consortium of 15 universities, national and government labs, and industry united behind commercializing a solar fuel and leveraging the liquid fuel infrastructure in the world. Its mission is to go beyond what any single institution can do to leverage this technology.

14 April 2015

Jonathan Barnes Receives the 2015 IUPAC-Solvay International Award for Young Chemists

Jonathan Barnes, a former graduate student of the Stoddart research group, has received the 2015 IUPAC-Solvay Award for Young Chemists. Stoddart group members have claimed one of these awards two years running, with three in the past five years. Barnes will receive his award at the 45th International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) World Chemistry Congress to be held in Busan, Korea, August 9-14, 2015. 

9 April 2015

Nine Chemistry Students Awarded NSF Fellowships

Congratulations to the nine current and incoming Chemistry graduate students who have been awarded NSF Fellowships this year.

9 April 2015

Kristen Brown Receives the 2015 Anna Louise Hoffman Award

Kristen Brown, a PhD student in the Wasielewski group received the 2015 Anna Lousie Hoffman Award for Outstanding Graduate Research. This award given by the IOTA Sigma PI National Honor Society recognizes outstanding achievement in chemical research by a woman graduate student.

8 April 2015

Remembering Robert Rosenberg: "Why is Ice Slippery?" Publications

Robert Rosenberg's article on ice was published in Physics Today in 2005.  A New York Times piece followed in 2006.

7 April 2015

Chemistry offers our condolences to the family of Alumnus and Former Visiting Professor Robert Rosenberg

Robert Rosenberg passed away on April 3, 2015. He was 89. Rosenberg earned his Ph.D. from the department in 1951 with Irving M. Klotz. After his retirement from Lawrence University in 1991, Rosenberg returned to the Northwestern chemistry department as a visiting professor. 

2 April 2015

Odom Writes Huffington Post Blog on Nanotechnology

Professor Teri W. Odom has authored a Huffington Post blog piece discussing Dunkin’ Donuts’ recent decision to remove “nano” titanium dioxide from its powdered sugar donuts. See News Center Story

1 April 2015

Stacey Barnaby Receives National P.E.O. Scholar Award

Stacey Barnaby, a PhD student in the Mirkin Group, is one of 85 doctoral students nationwide selected to receive a $15,000 Scholar Award from the Philanthropic Educational Organization (P.E.O.). The P.E.O. Scholar Awards (PSA) was established in 1991 to provide substantial merit-based awards for women of the United States and Canada who are pursuing a doctoral level degree at an accredited college or university.

18 March 2015

Geiger Research Group Opens Door to Better Fuel Cells

Professor Franz Geiger and a group of researchers at Northwestern have discovered a membrane that could lead to faster charging batteries. “Imagine an electric car that charges in the same time it takes to fill a car with gas,” says Professor Geiger. The study was published in a recent article by the journal Nature Communications. See News Center Story

13 March 2015

Farha to Present 2015 UCLA M. Frederick Hawthorne Lecture

Research Professor Omar Farha will present the 2015 M. Frederick Hawthorne Lecture at UCLA on April 1st, 2015. The title of the Lecture is "Bioinspired Sponges: Functional Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs)."

26 February 2015

Stoddart Group Alum Receives 2015 Award for Excellence in Graduate Research

Dr. Jonathan Barnes (2010-2014), currently a postdoctoral fellow at MIT, has won the Department's 2015 Award for Excellence in Graduate Research. This award, which recognizes outstanding achievements in research, comes with a monetary prize and an honorary plaque that will be presented to him in the Fall.

23 February 2015

Professors Freedman and Shiozaki Each Receive Prestigious 2015 Sloan Research Fellowships

Chemistry Professors, Danna Freedman and Toru Shiozaki, each has received a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship for 2015 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The $50,000 fellowships are awarded in eight scientific and technical fields: chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences and physics. Freedman and Shiozaki are among 126 outstanding early-career scientists and scholars being recognized for their achievements and potential to contribute substantially to their fields. 

19 February 2015

NU Postdoctoral Fellow John Anderson to Join Chemistry Department at University of Chicago

Dr. John Anderson will begin his independent career as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Chicago on July 1, 2015. There, he will continue his research on developing novel transition metal systems with broad relevance in areas such as catalysis, biology, and materials science.

13 February 2015

Nicholas Jackson Wins the Prestigious 2015 Northwestern Presidential Fellowship

Nicholas Jackson, a joint student in the Ratner and Chen research group, has been awarded the 2015 Presidential Fellowship. The Presidential Fellowship is the university's most prestigious award and is given to students for their outstanding intellectual and creative ability. Jackson becomes the tenth Chemistry Department graduate student to win the award in the past thirteen years.

9 February 2015

Wasielewski Named Honda-Fujishima Award Winner by JPA

Professor Michael Wasielewski has received the 2015 Honda-Fujishima Award of the Japanese Photochemistry Association (JPA) for his work in photochemical systems for solar energy conversion.

5 February 2015

Team Led by Kanatzidis and Wasielewski Discover New Method for a More Environmentally Friendly Fertilizer

A team of researchers led by Professors Mercouri Kanatzidis and Michael Wasielewski developed a catalyst that can take nitrogen and turn it into ammonia under natural conditions. This new method offers promise for a more environmentally friendly fertilizer. See News Center Story

29 January 2015

Scheidt Group Featured in Recent C&EN Article

A research team led by Professor Karl Scheidt and Christopher Check are featured in a recent article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN). The article focuses on the creation of a versatile new class of Imidazolium-based N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs). 

9 January 2015

Thomson Group Featured in the Journal of the American Chemical Society

As shown in an article published by the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), scientists in the Thomson group have successfully completed the concise, enantioselective total synthesis of maoecrystal V – an extremely challenging molecule that possesses potent cytotoxic activity. According to the JACS website, this article has been one of the top 5 most-read articles over the past month.

8 January 2015

Farha to Give Keynote Lecture at Chicago ACS Meeting

Professor Omar Farha will give the keynote lecture titled "Bioinspired Sponges: Functional Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs)" Friday, January 23rd at the upcoming Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) meeting. Poster session will begin at 5:00 p.m.

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