Chemistry and Biochemistry

 

Majors and Minors in
Chemistry and Biochemistry

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Big News!  Please congratulate these folks when you see them!

Two graduates of DePauw University -- Loren (Faulkner) Smith '04 and Stephanie Yoder '06 alum -- have each been awarded predoctoral fellowships from American Heart Association. Yoder and Smith are both graduate students in the pathobiology and molecular medicine program at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Read the full story here.

Dan Lewallen '06, now a Ph.D. student at University of Cincinnati is researching detection and differentiation of influenza virus using synthetic glycans (a type of carbohydrate) as part of his doctoral studies. This work has immediate practical applications with the current world health concern about swine flu and recently gave him an opportunity to travel to Germany and participate in the 2009 Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Students. Read the full story here.

Richard Heys '69 received the 2009 Melvin Calvin Award from the International Isotope Society.  This award is given once every three years for outstanding contributions to the field of isotopes.  One of Dr. Heys' pivotal contributions began 1991 with his development of new catalysts for selectively labeling organic compounds with isotopes of hydrogen.  The new methodology has become widely used.  Although now retired from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Heys has remained active in the field, most recently as coauthor (with Rolf Voges and Thomas Moenius) of a major new text Preparation of Compounds Labeled with Tritium and Carbon-14, published by Wiley in March 2009. He also finds time for his long-time interest in artistic and utilitarian woodturning.

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry recently learned that William F. Carroll Jr. '73 has been elected as chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) for 2009. CSSP is an organization of presidents, presidents-elect, and recent past presidents of about sixty scientific federations and societies whose combined membership numbers well over 1.4 million scientists and science educators. More information about Dr. Carroll, his accomplishments and this honor can be found here.

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is proud to announce that Alexander Breitinger, Kathleen Mittendorf and Nicole Stone, all junior majors in the department, are among 321 students nationwide who have been awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for 2008.  A list of all 2008 Goldwater Scholars nationwide can be found here.  Please congratulate Alex, Kate and Niki the next time you see them.

Our innovative curriculum provides a solid foundation of chemical understanding while allowing students the flexibility to study in greater depth those areas of chemistry most interesting to them.  Our students gain not only chemical knowledge, but also develop excellent problem solving skills.  Their education in chemistry, together with DePauw’s emphasis on the liberal arts, prepares them well for a variety of opportunities including graduate school in chemistry, biochemistry, and related science disciplines such as environmental science, pharmacology, materials science, medicine, and law (corporate, patent, or environmental, for example). Students are also ready for careers in chemically-related industries, such as sales, drug development, instrumentation, biotechnology, cosmetics, and agrochemicals.

  • metabolomic studies of medicinal plants
  • trace metal geochemistry
  • using non-traditional solvents like ionic liquids to synthesize new metal-organic frameworks
  • developing methods for the stereoselective synthesis of epoxides for use in pharmaceuticals
  • modeling laser–molecule interactions
  • understanding structure/function relationships of proteins important in metal detoxification processes in archaea
  • building the tools to study interactions during the encapsidation of ebolavirus
  • designing and characterizing proteins to fascilitate prediction of tertiary structure
  • and spectroscopic investigations of reverse micelles using both time resolved and time averaged techniques.