Dear Friends,
We are excited to bring to you the Spring 2019 edition of ChemConnections! I am delighted to tell you that in this year’s commencement, we had another strong class of chemistry students (24 BA, 27 BS, 2 MS- and 5 PhD). Some of these students are going to higher studies including professional schools while others are entering the workforce. We wish them much success.
I am pleased to inform you that Dr. Nicholas Manicke has been promoted to associate professor rank and received his tenure, and Ms. Marie Nguyen has been promoted to the rank of Senior Lecturer. These promotions will be effective next year. This year also saw a change in personnel. Our instrument engineer, Ms. Patricia Beddow, has left the university and we wish her well. We are excited to welcome Dr. Anne Shanahan to the department filling that position. Anne has years of experience in maintaining instruments in a chemistry department.
The quality of our students remains impressive. This year 10 chemistry students were recognized among the IUPUI’s top 100 undergraduate students and among the top100 students 20 of them are either current or former Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL) leaders. One of our students, Courtney Cruse was recognized as one of the top 50 graduate students at IUPUI, last year Christine Skaggs received this honor. Courtney is also a recipient of a pre-doctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Justice. Graduate student, Brandon Bills was recognized as a Chancellor’s award, first to our department.
IUPUI’s 50th year celebration started with a bang and is continuing. This Spring the university broke grounds for the new collaborative science building, called Innovation Hall. Much of the year went in planning and now construction is underway. The organic chemistry laboratories will be relocated to Innovation Hall on Michigan St.
In this year’s science convocation, the several new awards were given, thanks to generous support from the friends of the department. This includes a new award to a graduate student for his/her research accomplishment through an endowment established by an anonymous donor. The inaugural awardee is Mr. Jacob Lee from Prof. Rajesh Sardar’s laboratory. The department also established a new service award for graduate students, recognizing our graduate students often go above and beyond to serve the community. The inaugural awardee is Ms. Christine Skaggs. I am also pleased to inform you that we now have a named ‘lectureship’, thanks to one of the donors who established a new endowment. If you are interested in establishing an endowment supporting your passion, please let us know.
This is your department and because of your success, IUPUI and the department are successful. Please feel free to reach out with updates at czinski@iupui.edu or connect with us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or follow me @ParthaBasu_Chem. We are always interested in learning about your whereabouts, please keep us informed and visit us when you can.
Best regards,
Partha Basu
Chair & Professor
IUPUI Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology