"Fundamental Heterogeneous Catalysis: From Reaction Mechanisms to New Materials" at 3:15pm on November 20, 2009 will feature Paul A. Elfers Professor Manos Mavrikakis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

His fields of interest include thermodynamics, kinetics and catalysis, and fuel cells applications.

Read more about him here.

Jason Kautz (l), associate professor of practice for Chemistry, shows how an acid and base interact with each other.  The event drew 65 people to learn more about chemistry and the department.

A student heated potassium chlorate and a gummy bear to show the amount of energy released by sugar through digestion.

Graduate student played Dr. T-Fresh, resident mad scientist who claimed to be the inventor of organic chemistry while interviewing people.

High school student Alex Wynn displayed his chromatography T-shirt made during Chemistry Day. He won one of six $500 scholarships to attend UNL as a chemistry major.

Participants were given 15-minute mini-tours of three labs, each led by a professor.  There were also experiments, discussion about chemistry as a career, an intro to the UNL program, T-shirt making, a "Chemistry in the Movies" lecture by professor Mark Griep, and a roundtable discussion for teachers only.

Go to Scarlet here to see more photos.

Jay Keasling, a Chemistry and Biology alum, was named Discover magazine's first Scientist of the Year in 2006 and was featured on The Colbert Report.

Working in the field of synthetic biology, Dr. Keasling wants to make many genes work together as a microbe that produces a cure for malaria.  The cure will be produced at a fraction of its current cost, making it much more accessible and possibly saving many lives.

He spoke at UNL on Friday September 25, 2009.

The Discover magazine article is here.

The news release for his talk is here.

Chemistry professor Gerard Harbison was referred to in a New York Times article called "Terror Suspect Is Charged With Plot to Use Bombs" by William Rashbaum.

The NYTimes article is here.

Professor Harbison's biographical information is here.

"Des" was a skilled synthetic organic chemist whose background included postdoctoral research with the Nobelist R. B. Woodward.

Des one time chaired the Academic Senate and also received the prestigious James A. Lake Academic Freedom Award (1982) for the furtherance of Academic Freedom.

In his younger days, Des could regularly be found playing squash at the "University Club" on the top of the old Stuart Building or golf on one of the local courses, all of which he knew well.

He and his spouse, Dr. Maureen Wheeler, worked together at UNL on research directed toward improving synthetic routes to powerful anticancer drugs. Des and Maureen had returned to Ireland in retirement; he is survived by his wife.

• Read the Chemistry Department Memorial
• Read the death notice via www.rip.ie

"When I was looking at schools, I wanted to find somewhere with a great department, but not a huge department. Students can't focus on research at a huge school. UNL had the perfect mix – a perfect size department in the perfect size town of Lincoln."

There are over 4400 graduate students at the University of Nebraska and a multitude of graduate fellowships given but Nan Shao, a PhD Student in Physical Chemistry with Dr. Xiao Cheng Zeng has been the student chosen to receive UNL's 2008 most prestigious fellowship, the Presidential Fellowship. It is awarded only to those graduate students who have demonstrated the highest levels of academic performance. The purpose of the fellowship is to allow a graduate student to immerse themselves in scholarly and research activities during the final year of a degree program. The award carries with it a stipend, tuition, fees and health insurance payment.

Nan Shao came to UNL from China and loves the research opportunities she has been given as a student.

"I am studying the theoretical simulations of clusters by using quantum and empirical methods to look for the lowest energetic isomers with good chemical properties.What makes me excited to study at UNL is the computational chemistry, which could help people to explore the unknown world by the most accurate ab initio calculations. It's something new and exciting, and something I really enjoy!"

"The lab I work in is very free. Of course research has to pertain to the research being covered in my professor's lab, but if I want to do a little of my own research, I can pursue that knowing that Dr. Zeng supports me. There is a great environment for research here at UNL."

Nan also has enjoyed learning from the other faculty in the chemistry department.

"The teaching here is very strong. I took three classes from Dr. Langell – she is a great teacher! Everyone loves her classes. I've had nothing but good experiences with the teachers I had here. All of the faculty is very trustworthy, helpful, and friendly. They are always willing to help if they can."

Nan's current work focuses around the theoretical simulation of chemistry. In the future, she hopes to continue to pursue this, and nanoscience simulations in particular. Throughout her tenure at UNL, Nan has published eight papers and was awarded the Chemistry Department Graduate Research award in 2008.