SACNAS National Conference Features CENTC Symposium This Friday

The 2012 National Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native American Scientists (SACNAS) runs October 11-14 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. CENTC has sponsored and organized a symposium on "Advances in Research in Sustainable Energy Technologies" that is scheduled for the morning of Friday, October 12. If you will be at the conference be sure to come to this symposium and hear presentations by CENTC investigators Karen Goldberg (University of Washington) and Levi Thompson (University of Michigan), and CENTC Advisory Board member Emilio Bunel (Argonne National Lab).

Visit the SACNAS National Conference website for the symposium schedule.

New Process to Make Para-Xylene from Ethylene

CENTC investigator Maurice Brookhart and co-workers at the University of North Carolina have reported a method to selectively prepare para-xylene from only ethylene. Para-xylene, which is currently mainly manufactured by catalytic reforming of petroleum, is used in the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) that is used as polyester fibers, resins and films for numerous applications. This new method could be used to manufacture para-xylene from natural gas or biomass sources and thus reduce reliance on oil.

Read the paper from Journal of the American Chemical Society, and the C&E News Science Concentrate.

Copper-based Water Oxidation Catalyst Reported in Nature Chemistry, Highlighted in C&E News

Copper-based electrocatalyst.

CENTC investigators James Mayer, Karen Goldberg, and graduate student Shoshanna Barnett have prepared a homogeneous, water oxidation catalyst containing the earth abundant metal copper. In work reported in Nature Chemistry, copper salts and bipyridine mixed at high pH form a bipyridine hydroxo complex that promotes dioxygen production. This work is of interest because electrolytic water oxidation to give dioxygen is a key challenge in the conversion of electricity to chemical fuels.

Read the paper from Nature Chemistry, and the C&E News Science Concentrate.

John Hartwig Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Prof. John Hartwig

CENTC investigator John Hartwig has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Established in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furthering science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Academy membership is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States.

John Hartwig is the Henry Rapoport Chair in Organic Chemistry and Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

To learn more and see the entire list of new members read the Academy press release.

Travel Scholarships Available for 2012 Green Chemistry Gordon Research Seminar

There are travel scholarships available to support US-based graduate students and postdocs attending the 2012 Green Chemistry Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and Gordon Research Conference (GRC). The GRS takes places July 21-22 in Lucca (Barga), Italy and the GRC follows on July 22-27.

All applicants from US institutions who are accepted to both meetings will be automatically considered for travel support. Please note that individuals who receive this funding must arrange their travel in accordance with the Fly America Act.

GRS applicants who are interested in giving a talk or serving as a discussion leader should apply as soon as possible since those roles will be filled in late April. Space permitting, applications for poster presentations at the GRS and GRC will be accepted until June 23.

Meeting details and applications:

GRS: http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2012&program=grs_green

GRC: http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2012&program=greenchem 

For more information, contact GRS Associate Chair Margaret Scheuermann.

Huimin Zhao Awarded 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship

Huimin Zhao
Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

CENTC investigator Huimin Zhao has received a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship. These fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, with 181 fellowships awarded in 2012 to a diverse group of scholars, artists and scientists. Appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the successful candidates were chosen from a group of almost 3,000 applicants.

Dr. Huimin Zhao is the Centennial Endowed Chair Professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and professor of chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, and bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Read the full list of 2012 Guggenheim Fellows here.

CENTC Undergraduate Skye Rios Receives NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Skye Rios

Skye Rios, an alumnus of the 2010 CENTC Undergraduate Summer Research Program, has been awarded a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. Skye is a student at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina, and will be starting graduate school at the University of Colorado, Boulder this fall with plans to focus on alternative fuels research. Skye spent his summer in CENTC working with Prof. Mike Heinkey and graduate student Joe Meredith. "My experience at CENTC jumpstarted my career in a meaningful and clearly lasting way," he wrote.

The NSF Fellowship will provide Skye with three years of support including a $30,000 annual stipend, a $12,000 annual education allowance for tuition and fees, international research and professional development opportunities, and TeraGrid Supercomputer access. He is the third CENTC undergraduate to receive a Graduate Research Fellowship, joining 2011 Fellows Michele Sarazen and Ricardo Alamillo.

To learn more about the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, visit the program website.