By Erwin Boschmann

Dr. John Feuer DiTusa was appointed as Dean of the School of Science as of August 1. Previously he served as chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Louisiana State University. He succeeds Simon Rhodes who left IUPUI in 2019.

I had the opportunity to pose some questions which he answered eagerly and completely.

What surprised you about IUPUI/SOS?

The warmth that I was greeted with by faculty and staff made the biggest impression on me as I joined IUPUI. I really did feel welcomed into the fold. It speaks well of the character of the School and the University. The second was the care and depth of the planning for the fall semester that was done by the administration. It certainly was unprecedented and the results speak for themselves.

Given that many top institutions are physically located in rural areas (towns) and IUPUI is in the midst of Indiana’s largest city, is that an advantage or disadvantage. Please explain.

Being in the middle of a thriving urban center, such as Indianapolis, is a definite advantage for this university. It makes IUPUI rather unique and attractive to many students who feel more at home in this atmosphere. The combination of the opportunities commonly found in a university with those found in urban settings is a powerful advantage. In particular, I believe that there are outstanding prospects for meaningful connections to the community and the nearby business community, through outreach, research and creative endeavors, and workforce development. We must challenge ourselves to take full advantage of these opportunities for the benefit or our students.

What do you think may be some of the toughest issues you will face?

I am sure there will be many tough issues to face. At the moment, trying to plan through the COVID-19 related issues such as the uncertainty that it adds to enrollment numbers and our budgets. We are in a healthy position, but the pandemic has certainly made planning more difficult.

What are your long/medium/short term plans for the school?

In the short term, I would like to see us adopt a more identifiable commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with clear actionable recommendations. I think this is important to our students and the future of the School of Science. In the longer term, I will be working to continue and accelerate our upward trajectories in the areas of student completion rates, student retention, and enrollments. We will be making targeted investments in research as well. The School has experienced enormous growth in these areas and I am confident that there are great opportunities to advance further. All of these require support from alumni and friends of the School in order to have the resources necessary to serve our students in this way.

Since this is a chemistry newsletter, specifically what are your wishes for our department?

The Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department is one of our strongest departments with a rich history. I will be working with the Chair, Professor Partha Basu, and the faculty to find ways to increase the number of majors and graduate students that we serve. Sounds easy, but it takes planning, outreach, and, and in the case of graduate students, advances in the research funding profile to support growth. The good news is that we have a very talented faculty capable of great things.

The Dean also offered some insights into his professional and personal life.

I appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself to the IUPUI Chemistry and Chemical Biology community via the Chemistry Connections newsletter. I am extraordinarily excited about joining the Purdue School of Science (SoS) as Dean and I have enjoyed my initial work with the faculty and staff. I chose to accept the challenge of leading the SoS because of the abundant positive momentum of this School and the University located within such a wonderful city. I am particularly excited by the opportunities that this School offers to students and I will be working with the faculty to advance these through our activities in the classroom and in our research programs. As a condensed matter physicist with interests in unconventional magnetism and superconductivity, I have enjoyed collaborating with solid state chemists and inorganic chemists throughout my entire career.

It has been many years since I was a student, but my training was accomplished through a BA from Oberlin College as a physics major and through a PhD from Cornell University. My PhD thesis research was performed in the Low Temperature Physics group at Cornell where I made use of both the nanofabrication center and the microkelvin facility to investigate heat transport, the electron-phonon interaction, and the interaction of electrons and impurity magnetic moments in confined geometries. I felt very fortunate to be offered a postdoc at AT&T Bell Laboratories beginning in April of 1992 where I built a low temperature laboratory starting with an empty room and an old dilution refrigerator, as well as learning the field of neutron scattering through visits to the NCNR (NIST Center for Neutron Research) in Gaithersburg MD. In 1994 I was offered an Assistant Professorship at Louisiana State University, with promotions to Associate Professor in 1999, and Full Professor in 2004. Highlights of my research activities include an NSF CAREER grant in 1997 and serving as the PI of the Louisiana Consortium for Neutron Scattering (LaCNS) a DOE and LA Board of Regents supported multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, research program from 2014 – 2020. Much of my research focused on the investigation of unconventional electronic and magnetic materials. I made the move toward university administration in 2016 when I was elected and appointed Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at LSU. I am humbled by the opportunity to lead the Purdue School of Science at IUPUI and I am confident that my experience in teaching, research, service, and administration will allow me to successful in this role.

In my personal life, my wife, Sandra and I have 3 adult children who all attended (or attend) LSU and all study physics. Sandra cannot understand the attraction to physics as she is a molecular biologist who has recently moved into human resource development. We are happy to be joining the IUPUI and Indianapolis communities and look forward to contributing to them.  In particular, we look forward to the time where we can meet the SoS alumni and friends in person without the constraints made necessary by the current pandemic. Please do not hesitate to join us in our outreach activities and keep us informed of your professional and personal achievements as we love to hear from our alumni.

By Rajesh Sardar

Yongming grew up in Hebei province of the P.R. China. While in school he always wanted to be an architect, designing buildings that are eco-friendly. His love for chemistry grew when he joined Shandong University for undergraduate study. He was very fascinated about different types of chemical bond formation. He found a new way to connect his dream to be an architect with organic chemistry through the discovery of the formation of new chemical bonds and new molecular architectures via a sustainable way, using cheap metals and visible-light photocatalysts. To fulfill his dream, he came to USA and started his Ph.D in Chemistry in Miami University, OH, and then moved to University of Maryland and then University of Texas San Antonio for post-doctoral work.

In 2017, Yongming started his independent Carrier as an Assistant Professor in Western Kentucky University where he has successfully secured prestigious American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Funds to discover new organic transformation for molecular complexity synthesis via photoredox catalysts. He is equally passionate about teaching and mentoring both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. In Fall 2020, he joined our department with outstanding publication records that include nearly 30 peer reviewed journal articles, 5 book chapters, and multiple review articles. Current unanticipated pandemic made things harder for a smooth transition, but he has overcome all the odds to setup a fully functional research laboratory working with undergraduate and graduate students, and also teaching a graduate level medicinal chemistry course.

Although he was an avid ping-pong and basketball player during his undergraduate and graduate school days, now a days when he gets time from his busy schedule, Yongming spends time with his 6 years old son, Mason and daughter, Amelia (3 yr) at their home in Bloomington, IN. His dream is to play ping-ping and basketball with them once they grow up. Yongming’s wife (Fengfeng) is a research scientist at Catalent.

By Erwin Boschmann

Dr. Partha Basu, the Chair of the Chemistry Department, this year has received two major grants, one from the NSF, the other from NIH.

His research seeks to understand the functional roles of molybdenum enzymes that are essential for all forms of life. These enzymes are critical in nitrogen, sulfur and arsenic metabolism. These enzymes have a common core called the molybdenum cofactor. The NSF grant targets to understand the mechanism of substrate transformation by Complex Iron Sulfur Molybdoenzyme (CISM) Family through biochemical and biophysical studies on periplasmic nitrate reductase as vehicle. The NIH grant targets to explore factors that are crucial in stabilizing the molybdenum cofactor in the enzyme and to develop methodology for chemical synthesis of this cofactor. Both grants are to support undergraduate and graduate students that are very important to his research program.

In addition, he is the co-author with fellow researchers from Duquesne University on the evolutionary history and relationships for the dimethyl sulfoxide reductase family. The researchers looked at more than 1,500 protein sequences of mononuclear molybdenum enzymes to determine which were the most ancient. Molybdenum is an important element, found in all forms of life.

“This could help inform those who work with arsenic issues especially in places such as Bangladesh, where arsenic-contaminated drinking water leads to increases in cancer and other diseases,” said Basu. He adds that with this research, people should be open to the idea of life on other planets. “These kinds of analyses may provide clues as to how to look for life that does require oxygen to survive.”

Their work is receiving recognition by Nature.com, Scientific Reports.

Congratulations to Dr. Partha Basu.

By Erwin Boschmann

She will graduate from IUPUI next spring with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health (Epidemiology) and a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry.

(more…)