News and Events

welcome professor rochford!

The Department is pleased to welcome our new assistant professor of Inorganic Chemistry, Jonathan Rochford. Professor Rochford comes to us from Brookhaven National Labs, where he was a Research Associate in the Chemistry Department.

Congratulations, Scholarship recipients

The Berkeley Cue Chemistry Scholarship is given by the UMB Chemistry Department to a promising student early in their career. This year, the award is shared by Mylinh Nguyen and Adam Olejnik.

Alena Carlson has been awarded the Edward Shapiro Fund for a continuing chemistry major.

The winner of the Ethel and Herman Rosansky Award is Jing Wang.

Dong Zheng and Aleksandra Rudnitskaya have been chosen to share the Vincent I.Mastricola Graduate Fellowship.

Spring 2009 student awards

The Chemistry Department participates in the annual CRC Press LLC Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award. Winning students receive a complimentary hardcover copy of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, and a commemorative scroll to be mounted on the inside front cover of the book. The winners of this year's awards were chosen on the basis of their outstanding academic achievement in the Freshman Chemistry (CH 115/116) sequence. They are Claude Fortune, Rebecca Rais and Chao Zheng.

For the fifteenth year, the Polymer Education Committee of the American Chemical Society, with the support of the Industrial Sponsors of the Divisions of Polymer Chemistry and Polymeric Materials, offered an award for the outstanding student in the two-semester organic chemistry sequence (CH 253/254) for chemistry majors. The aims of the award program are to honor undergraduate students at the sophomore/junior level for achievement in a basic chemistry course, and to call students' attention to the field of polymer chemistry. The award consists of a certificate suitable for framing that honors the student for outstanding performance in the first two semesters of organic chemistry. The student selected must be a chemistry or chemical engineering major with a GPA of at least 3.4, and must show outstanding performance in organic chemistry. This year's award was presented to Mylinh Nguyen.

For the thirty-eighth consecutive year the Divison of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society is pleased to sponsor their Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry. This award is intended to encourage student interest in analytical chemistry and to recognize students who display an aptitude for a career in the field. The award consists of an 8-month subscription to the journal, Analytical Chemistry, and an honorary membership in the Division of Analytical Chemistry for a like period. This year's award goes to Thao Xuan Do.

Hypercube, Inc., a major commercial developer of scientific software, offers the Hypercube Scholar Program. The award consists of a full copy of the HyperChem Molecular Modeling Program and a commemorative plaque. The Chemistry Department awards this to the graduating chemistry major with the highest GPA in the major who plans to attend graduate school in chemistry. This year's Hypercube Scholars is Qun Kuang.

This year, the Department is offering a new prize. The Walter E. Weibrecht Scholar, named for a beloved retired professor, recognizes a graduating senior for his or her "enthusiasm for science and pure joy of chemistry." The inaugural winner of this award is Minh-Thu Huynh.

In addition, the Department offers awards to the graduating students with the highest GPA. The undergraduate Departmental Book Prize goes to Omar DePaolis. The Book Prize for the M.S. program goes to Chris Koutros. The Book Prize for the Ph.D. program goes to Shainaz Landge.

Finally, Departmental Honors are given to any graduating seniors who have maintained an overall GPA of 3.3 and a Chemistry GPA of 3.5 or better. This year we have four Honors graduates - Omar De Paolis, Minh-Thu Huynh, Qun Kuang, Melissa Liriano and Phu Vo.

Congratulations to all of the awardees!