National science meeting features Radford students and faculty

RU students at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society
Radford chemistry faculty joined students at the gathering of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, in San Diego.

Eight Radford University chemistry majors presented their original research at a new level. 

The aspiring Radford chemists joined their professional colleagues as presenters at the 251st American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition in San Diego on March 13-17.

"It is amazing to see how well our undergraduates do when presenting with graduate and post-doctorate colleagues," said Associate Professor of Chemistry Kim Lane. "It is a chance for them to see our field at many levels and to connect with others, including a Nobel Prize winner. It can be life-changing."

Three chemistry faculty members and Professor Emeritus Robert Boggess joined the Radford students at the gathering of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society with more than 158,000 members. Themed "Computers in Chemistry," the meeting featured thousands of presentations on new discoveries in science, including food and nutrition, medicine, health, energy, the environment and other fields where chemistry plays a central role.

In the computers in chemistry division,

  • Junior Bismark Amofah, advised by Assistant Professor of Chemistry Timothy Fuhrer, presented “Supercomputing technology for chemistry at Radford University.”
  • Junior Hannah Bell and senior Angel Lambert, advised by Fuhrer, presented “Top-down vs. bottom-up formation mechanism for fullerenes and endohedral metallofullerenes.”

In the biological chemistry division,

  • Senior Hannah Gullickson, advised by Lane, presented “Molecular modeling of the Z-77 inhibitor binding to the bacterial loop of E. coli beta-glucuronidase.”
  • Seniors Lindsay Lesure and Charles Folsom, advised by Lane, presented “Role of F365 in inhibitor binding by Escherichia coli beta-glucuronidase.”

In the environmental chemistry division, senior Angela Gerard, advised by Professor of Chemistry Francis Webster, presented “Synthesis of novel functionalized carbon nanoparticles and their potential use for water purification."

In the analytical chemistry division, senior Matthew Potter, advised by Professor of Chemistry Cindy Burkhardt, presented "Recovery of malathion from soil."

In the chemical education division, Boggess and Burkhardt organized and presided over a session titled "Curricular innovations in undergraduate chemical education impacted by the National Science Foundation."

While in San Diego Lane was invited to present "Molecular modeling of β-glucuronidase: Oligomerization, ligand binding and drug design" at the ICM User Group Meeting at MolSoft's Sorrento Valley offices. MolSoft makes the software package that Lane and her students use in their molecular chemistry research and it provides tools, databases and consulting services in the areas of structure prediction, structural proteomics, bioinformatics, cheminformatics, molecular visualization and animation and rational drug design.

Mar 31, 2016