Department of Chemistry
The Only American Chemical Society Approved Department Within 90 Miles of Pittsburg.
Chemistry Colloquium
Fridays at 3:00 p.m.
102 Yates Hall
Public Welcome!
Admission is free
2009 NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Chemistry Department was saddened to learn of the death of Dr. Elbert W. "Al" Crandell on November 5, 2009. Dr. Crandall taught organic chemistry here from 1952 until his retirement in 1985.
The Chemistry Department has purchased a new Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer from Shimadzu. The $50,000 instrument replaces the GC/MS purchased in 1995. The instrument is now operational and available for use in undergraduate laboratory courses and in departmental research. About 25% of the purchase price was provided by the Kansas Polymer Research Center.
This summer, Dr. Chuck Blatchley stepped down as the chair of both the Chemistry and Physics Departments. He has returned to full-time teaching as a member of the Physics Faculty. Math Professor and Assistant Dean Dr. Bobby Winters has taken the additional title of Interim Chair of the Chemistry Department.
Dr. Kris Mijares has joined the Chemistry Department to teach introductory and organic chemistry courses and will have the title of Instructor starting this fall. He is a recent graduate of Kansas State University.
2008 NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Chemistry Department was well represented at the 43rd ACS Midwest Regional Meeting at Kearney, Nebraska on October 8-11, 2008. There were six presentations from PSU with five undergraduates attending as coauthors.
Five PSU chemistry undergraduate students attended the American Chemical Society 236th National Meeting in Philadelphia from August 17 to 22. They presented an invited poster at the 10th Annual ChemLuminary Awards portion of the national meeting. The local MoKanOk section of the ACS was one of three national finalists in the category of “Greatest Community Involvement in Chemists Celebrate Earth Day” due to the hard work of the PSU Chemistry Club in presenting magic shows and other community outreach efforts. Congratulations to all the members of the Chemistry Club.
Eight students from PSU attended the 53rd Pentasectional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Duncan, Oklahoma on March 8. Of the five presentations given by students from Dr. Paul's group, four were given by undergraduates.
Senior chemistry major, Semonti Sinharoy, attended the Society of Plastics Engineers' Global Plastics Environmental Conference in Orlando, Florida on March 11. Her poster took first place honors among undergraduate student poster presentations.
Dr. Jame McAfee of the Department of Chemistry is one of PSU's "Outstanding Faculty Award" winners. He was presented the award at the March 6 Apple Day convocation. Three PSU faculty are given the award each year. The winners are nominated and selected by students. Congratulations to Dr. McAfee.
2007 NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Chemistry Department is offering a new Polymer Chemistry course for the Spring semester as part of our renewed emphasis on polymers. This course "Advanced Polymers" is open to undergraduates as CHEM 705 and to graduate students as CHEM 815. This does not take the place of CHEM 620/621 Polymer Chemistry which is also offered in the Spring semester.
The Department was well represented with 7 presentations at the 42nd Midwest Regional ACS Meeting in Kansas City held Nov. 7-10. Five of our undergraduate students were authors or coauthors. Faculty, graduate students, and 7 undergraduates attended.
For the second year in a row, the department participated in the Arkansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) conference on November, 9-10. Six chemistry students from Dr. Paul and Dr. McAfee’s laboratories presented posters on their undergraduate research. Yury Kuzmichev won second place in the chemistry and biochemistry category.
Several changes in faculty positions have occurred recently. Dr. Bipin Shah is a new assistant professor. Dr. George Weeks is a new instructor in the department. Dr. Irene Zegar has recently become an assistant professor after holding an instructor position for several years. Both Dr. Robert Pavlis and Dr. Peter Hamlet retired before the Fall semester.
The library now subscribes to the online search engine "SciFinder". Searching the chemical literature online is now a seamless experience with full text access to all American Chemical Society Journals.
Observe the liquid crystalline decyloxybenzoic acid form nematic, smectic and two solid phases.