Center for Green Chemistry

at the University of Massachusetts Boston

News

2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

2013

  • Prof. Zhang was recently appointed as the coeditor-in-chief for a new journal, Current Green Chemistry. This journal will be launched by Bentham Science Publishers in 2014.
  • Prof. Wei Zhang and Berkeley Cue will serve as co-chairs for the session “Green Techniques for Organic and Medicinal Chemistry," Drug Discovery & Therapy World Congress, Boston (June 4-6).
  • Professor Nicholas Anastas leads the New England Green Chemistry Initiative directed out of EPA Region 1 New England.
  • Barbara Mello, a senior undergraduate student working with Prof. Jonathan Rochford, has been accepted into the Department of Energy-funded Science Undergraduate Summer Internship program at Brookhaven National Laboratory. She will investigate solar driven conversion of CO2 to reduced carbon feedstocks as part of a collaboration between Prof. Rochford and Dr. David C. Grills at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

2012

  • The Department of Chemistry and College of Science and Mathematics celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Green Chemistry Program at UMass Boston. Drs. John Warner and  Amy Cannon were the invited speakers at the event (Dec. 4, 2012).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to visit Tohoku University in Japan and gave a seminar “Integrated Fluorous and Green Organic Synthesis” (Nov. 29, 2012).
  • Zijuan Zhang defended her PhD (Green Chemistry Track) thesis, "Development of Fluorescence Probes for Cancer Cell Lines and Research on Catalytic Reactions" (Nov. 2, 2012).
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue spoke to the UMass Boston Chemistry Club (Nov. 19, 2012).
  • Prof. Nicholas Anastas organized and hosted the Green Chemistry Success Showcase held at EPA Region 1 (Oct. 24, 2012).
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue was an invited speaker in a green chemistry session at the American Association for Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) national meeting in Chicago (Oct. 15, 2012).
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue spoke at the 10th anniversary celebration of Pfizer’s green chemistry program and received one of their Green Chemistry awards for 2012 (Oct. 11, 2012).
  • In the 4th quarter of 2012, Prof. Berkeley Cue was presented with an award for his contributions to creating and leading the ACS Green Chemistry Institute’s Pharmaceutical Roundtable.
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue attended and chaired the fall 2012 meeting of the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute Governing Board on Oct. 8-9, 2012 where he was presented a recognition for his nine years of service to the ACS GCI.  His tenure as governing board member and chair ended at the end of 2012.
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue attended US EPA Region 1’s New England Green Chemistry Initiative Large Workgroup Meeting in Boston. He is a member of the business working group (Sept. 18, 2012).
  • Prof. Deyang Qu organized the 6th U.S.-China Electric Vehicles and Battery Technology Workshop. The event was hold at UMass Boston, co-hosted by Argonne National Laboratory, and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (Aug. 23-24, 2012).
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue was appointed to the international advisory committee for the 6th International Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry at Nottingham, England (August 2012).
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue was appointed to the editorial advisory board of the American Chemical Society’s new journal, ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering (August 2012).
  • A joint grant, “Green Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry Collaboration of University of Massachusetts Boston and Universidade de Sao Paulo,” submitted by Prof. Wei Zhang and Prof. Helio Stefani, was funded by Santander - Top USA Massachusetts Program. Prof. Zhang made the first visit to the collaborator at Sao Paulo after attending the fourth International IUPAC Conference on Green Chemistry in Foz do Iguacu (August 2012).
  • At the ACS national meeting in Philadelphia, Prof. Wei Zhang presented a talk titled “Green Chemistry Program at UMass Boston” in the Green Chemistry Commitment Session (August 2012).
  • Steven Cullipher (PhD student from Prof. Hannah Sevian’s group) received a travel award to attend the 2012 Green Chemistry Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) in Lucca, Italy. He also attended the Gordon Research Conference and presented a poster called “Initial Stage Development of a Learning Progression for Future Green Chemists: Evaluating Student Reasoning of Benefits, Costs and Risks in Chemical Design.” (July 2012).
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue is an invited speaker at the Academy of Management annual meeting in Boston on August 3, 2012.
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue is an invited speaker at the Biologics EH&S and Sustainability Roundtable at Biogen Idec headquarters in Cambridge on July 11, 2012.
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue participated in the 16th Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference in Washington, DC June 18-20 by chairing two sessions on pharmaceutical industry applications of green chemistry and engineering principles.
  • At the 16th Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference in Washington, DC June 18-20, Prof. Wei Zhang gave an invited talk, “Solvent Screening and Performance Evaluation of the Grignard Reaction." This project was sponsored by a grant from the ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable.
  • An article about the UMass Boston green chemistry program and the related research projects from Prof. Wei Zhang’s lab appeared In a recent issue of Green Process and Synthesis (June 2012).

  • Berkeley Cue and Wei Zhang with the book they edited

    A book titled Green Techniques for Organic Synthesis and Medicinal Chemistry has been published by Wiley. Profs. Wei Zhang and Berkeley Cue are the editors of this book. This 27-chapter book has 65 contributing authors, representing experts from academia, industry, and non-government organizations (June 2012).
  • UMass Boston chemistry department alumna Dr. Amy Cannon received EPA New England 2012 Environmental Merit Award (Apr. 2012).
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue participated in a green chemistry workshop co-sponsored by the University of Connecticut Innovation Connection and the Chemical Innovation Institute at the United Technology Center (Apr. 19, 2012).
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue chaired the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute's Spring 2012 Governing Board Meeting in Washington, DC (Apr. 10-11, 2012).
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue gave an invited seminar titled "Application of Green Chemistry Principles to the (Re)Design of Drug Manufacturing Processes Illustrated by Pfizer Examples" to the Chemistry Department at George Washington University (Apr. 9, 2012).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang was appointed to be an Advisory Board member of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute, Curriculum Committee (Feb. 2012).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave a presentation titled “Green Chemistry PhD Program at UMass Boston” at the Green Chemistry Commitment Summit in Boston (Jan. 10, 2012).

2011

  • Prof. Berkeley W. Cue published an article about ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtables in C&EN News (Volume 89, Issue 48, November 28, 2011, p. 42).
  • UMass Boston and Nanjing University of Science and Technology signed an agreement on collaboration of green chemistry research and education (Nov. 21, 2011).
  • During a recent trip in China and Hong Kong, Prof. Wei Zhang delivered green chemistry talks at Suzhou University, Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Nov. 28 to Dec. 2).
  • Prof. Jonathan Rochford and Helen Zhao were invited to attend an NSF-funded workshop organized by the International Materials Institute for Solar Energy and the Environment (IMI-SEE) on dye-sensitized solar cells co-sponsored and hosted by Xiamen University, China. (Oct. 24 to 28, 2011).
  • The Rochford Research Group ran a very successful solar cell workshop for high school teachers titled "Artificial Photosynthesis - A Workshop in Solar Cell Design" as part of the NESACS Connections In Chemistry 2011 event at Burlington High School, Burlington MA (Oct. 24, 2011).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang was recently appointed as an editor of a new journal "Green Processing and Synthesis." This journal will be launched in 2012 by De Gruyter (Germany).
  • UMass Boston chemistry department alumni Dr. Berkeley W. Cue and Dr. John Warner were recently named the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fellows for their distinguished contributions to green chemistry.
  • Prof. Wei Zhang joined the faculty advisory board of Green Chemistry Commitment, an organization to implement green chemistry throughout educational institutions.
  • Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to give a talk at the 2011 Fall ACS meeting titled "Green chemistry programs at the University of Massachusetts Boston."
  • Dr. Berkeley W. Cue, a UMass Boston chemistry department alumnus, received the 2011 GC3 Champions Award for his service to the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council. This award was established in 2011 to recognize outstanding contributions to advancing green chemistry through the GC3. Dr. Cue is a founding member of and advisor to this organization.
  • Profs. Rochford and Qu are invited to host a panel discussion "Towards a Sustainable Energy Future" at education night for the 915th meeting of the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (May 12, 2011).
  • Undergraduate students Hara Chowdhury, Cuiyun Zhao (Rochford group), Weihong Zhou, Ryan Gianatassio, Richard Madden (B. Torok group), Trinh Dinh, Stephanie Bellinger, Weiyi Li, Sargis Ohanyan, Yu Wang, Tao Xu, Hong Zeng (Zhang group) presented 11 posters at the 17th Annual Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference at UMass Amherst (Apr. 22, 2011).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang received the 2011 ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable grant on Grignard Reaction Research (Apr. 19, 2011).
  • Asha Kadam received a travel grant from the ACS Green Chemistry Institute to attend the 15th Annual Green Chemistry Conference in Washington, DC (Apr. 19, 2011).
  • Dr. Paul Anastas, a UMass Boston chemistry department alumnus and professor at Yale University, received the Rachel Carson Environmental Award.
  • Dr. Berkeley W. Cue, a UMass Boston chemistry department alumnus, has been appointed chair of the American Chemical Society's Green Chemistry Institute governing board. He also became an adjunct professor in our department.
  • The Chemistry Department has an open position for green chemistry-related senior faculty.
  • Dmitry Borkinhas defended his PhD thesis "Synthesis and Biological Applications of Heterocyclic and Organofluorine Compounds." He will continue his career as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan (Apr. 12, 2011).
  • Shan (Jackie) Ding defended her MS thesis "Microwave-Assisted and Fluorous Benzaldehyde-Based Synthesis of Heterocycles" (Apr. 8, 2011).
  • Justin Whitfield defended his PhD thesis “Non-covalent Manipulations of Cyclic Pi Systems for Green Chemistry Transformations” (Apr. 4, 2011).
  • Aditya Kulkarnihas defended his PhD thesis "Heterogeneous Catalytic Processes for the Synthesis and Functionalization of N-Heterocycles and Fine Chemicals." He will continue his career as a postdoctoral fellow at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California (Apr. 1, 2011).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave a seminar titled "Fluorous Technologies for Organic and Green Chemistry Applications" at The University of Rode Island (Feb. 28, 2011).
  • Prof. Bela Torok guest edited a Special Issue for Current Organic Synthesis on "Green and Sustainable Organic Synthesis."
  • Prof. Wei Zhang has been appointed Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Combinatorial Science (Jan. 1, 2011).

2010

  • Prof. Bela Torok was appointed as a Regional Editor for the Letters of Organic Chemistry, published by Bentham Science (Dec. 20, 2010).
  • Prof. Jonathan Rochford participated the New England Green Chemistry Networking Forum and presented a poster "Green Chemistry at UMass Boston" (Dec. 16, 2010).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave an invited talk "Fluorous-based green organic synthesis" at PacifiChem in Hawaii (Dec. 15-21, 2010).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to participate in a green chemistry tour Green Chemistry Tour in Germany. This event was sponsored by German Academic Exchange Service (DDAD) (Dec. 5-11, 2010).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang received a Visiting Lecture Award and presented three lectures at National Tsing Hua University, National Chiao Tung University, and National Taiwan University on fluorous chemistry and green chemistry (Nov. 24-26, 2010)
  • UMass Boston hosted the 3rd International Symposium on Green Processing in the Pharmaceutical & Fine Chemical Industries (Sept. 30 to Oct. 1, 2010).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang received a conference grant from NIH to support the Green Chemistry Symposium that will be held at UMass Boston (Sep. 2010).
  • Prof. Timothy Dransfield gave a seminar "The Chemistry of Air Pollution: The Fate of Volatile Organic Compounds" at Boston University (Sept. 15, 2010).
  • The Chemistry Department offered a green chemistry summer course to 40 undergraduate students from Kyung Hee University, South Korea (June 25 to July 19).
  • Ms. Sarah Ruthven, Editor of Green Chemistry (RSC) visited the chemistry department and Center for Green Chemistry (June 18, 2010).
  • In a C&EN article, Prof. Wei Zhang commented on a recent Science paper which reported a novel and green organocatalyst for asymmetric oxidation (June 14, 2010).
  • Professors Bela Torok and Wei Zhang presented green chemistry lectures at the 16th Annual Meeting and Short Course of the North Atlantic Chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (June 2, 2010).
  • Senior undergraduate student Ryan Fitzgerald presented a poster “Green techniques for regioselective synthesis of drug-like molecules” at Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference (April 23, 2010).
  • Prof. Oliver Kappe from University of Graz (Austria) was invited to present “Recent Advances in Microwave-Assisted Organic Synthesis” (April 12, 2010).
  • A paper titled “Enantioselective alpha-Chlorination of Aldehydes with Recyclable Fluorous (S)-Pyrrolidine-Thiourea Bifunctional Organocatalyst” was published in Synlett (2010, 433-436). This paper talks about metal-free and recyclable green catalysis. It is a joint work of Nanjing University of Science and Technologies, University of Pittsburgh and Prof. Wei Zhang’s group.
  • UMass Boston hosted the 16th Annual Northeastern Section Undergraduate Day. Dr. Berkeley Cue gave a keynote speech and Prof. Wei Zhang gave a talk “Research with Green Chemistry Tools” (Feb. 27, 2010).

2009

  • Starting in 2010, Prof. Zhang is serving on the Editorial Advisory Board of Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry published by ACS.
  • Prof. Bela Torok has recently been appointed to the editorial board of Current Organic Synthesis.
  • Prof. Bela Torok is currently organizing/guest editing a special issue for Current Organic Synthesis on "Contemporary Sustainable Methods in Organic Synthesis."
  • Prof. Sivappa Rasapalli from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth was invited to give a seminar titled “Synthesis and Methodology Inspired by Marine Natural Products” (Dec. 9, 2009).
  • Prof. Oliver Reiser from Universität Regensburg was invited to give a seminar titled "Crossing boundaries between Organic, Inorganic and Material Chemistry: Catalysis as the core technology towards the development of sustainable chemical processes” (Oct. 15, 2009).
  • Visiting PhD student Liang Wang from Nanjing University of Science and Technology finished his 6-month training in Prof. Zhang’s lab. A green chemistry paper based on his work has been accepted for publication in Synlett (Oct. 2009).
  • Prof. Roman Dembinski from Oakland University was invited to give a seminar titled “Electropilic cyclizations as a tool in the synthesis of heterocycles and modified nucleosides” (Oct. 8, 2009).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to speak about “Combinatorial Fluorous Technologies for Green Chemistry Applications” at the 2nd International Symposium on Combinatorial Sciences in Biology, Chemistry, Catalysts and Materials, Beijing, China (Sept. 19-22, 2009).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to speak about “Fluorous Green Chemistry” at the 3rd International Symposium on Fluorous Technologies, Jackson Hole, WY. (Aug. 23-28, 2009).
  • As of Aug. 16, 2009, Prof. Hannah Sevian is on a leave of absence from the University of Massachusetts Boston to serve a rotation as a Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA.
  • Prof. Wei Zhang’s critical review article "Green Chemistry Aspects of Fluorous Techniques – Opportunities and Challenges for Small-Scale Organic Synthesis" was featured on the cover of the journal Green Chemistry (2009, 11, 911-920).
  • Omar De Paolis from Prof. B. Torok's group defended his MS thesis titled "Synthesis of N-heterocycles via heterogeneous catalytic domino approaches" (July 8, 2009).
  • President Barack Obama nominated Paul Anastas, a UMass Boston alumnus and professor at Yale University, as an Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development at the EPA (June 2009).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to speak on “Green Chemistry Techniques for Small-Scale Organic Synthesis” at the 13th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, College Park, MD (June 23-25, 2009).
  • Mr. Wei Shi from Prof. Qu's group defended his green chemistry PhD thesis titled "Fitting Impedance Spectra and Calculations of Penetration Depth" (May 7, 2009).
  • Prof. Michael Pollastri from Boston University was invited to give a seminar titled “Technology-enabled medicinal chemistry for biological target validation: What can chemistry do for you?” (April 15, 2009).
  • UMass Boston alumni and former Pfizer VP Dr. Berkeley Cue visited UMass Boston and gave a seminar titled “Green Chemistry in the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Model for Sustainability” (Feb. 18, 2009).
  • Prof. Dransfield gave a seminar titled “Gas-Phase Chemistry: Still Hiding Some Surprises” at Colby College’s Chemistry Department (Feb. 13, 2009).

2008

  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave a seminar titled “Green Chemistry Aspects of Fluorous Technologies” at Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry (Dec. 3, 2008).
  • Ms. Shainaz Landge from Prof. B. Torok’s group defended her green chemistry PhD thesis titled “Synthesis of N-Heterocycles, Schiff’s-Bases and Organofluorine Compounds by Microwave-Assisted Approaches” (Nov. 21. 2008).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang participated in the 10th Green Chemistry Gordon Conference and presented a poster “Green Chemistry Aspects of Fluorous Technologies” (Aug. 3-8, 2008).
  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave a talk on “Fluorous Separation and Recycling Technologies for Green Organic Synthesis” at ACS 12th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, Washington, DC (June 24-26, 2008).