A Message from the Department Head Dear All, Welcome to a new semester! The campus and building have come alive once again. We are welcoming new faculty and graduate students to the Department, we have awards and a retirement to celebrate, and we have a large group of students eagerly lining up for general or […]
Faculty News
A Tale of Two Lab Courses
A recent article in ACS Publications, from Prof. Kiet Tran, Prof. Anwar Beshir, and Prof. Abhay Vaze, demonstrates a comparison of the experiences of both organic and analytical lab faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic distance learning initiative is described here. Faculty of both lab courses experienced four shared challenges in the transition to the online […]
Mercury Remains a Persistent Poison in Connecticut’s Still River
Western Connecticut is known for rolling hills, rich history, and industry, such as hat making. Once called the “Hat City of the World,” Danbury thrived. Anyone familiar with Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter may also be aware of the dangers of hat making, due to the industry’s use of the potent toxin mercury. Starting in the late […]
Passing of Jane Knox, Emerita Faculty
Jane received a BA degree in chemistry from Bryn Mawr College in 1961 and a Masters in Teaching (MAT) degree from Harvard University in 1962. After teaching high school chemistry in Pearl River, NY, she attended Boston University where she obtained an MA in chemistry in 1968. Accompanying her husband to Oxford University for two […]
Bird Eggshells Just Became More Colorful
For well over 100 years, only two pigments have been identified in avian eggshells: rusty-brown protoporphyrin (e.g., brown chicken eggs) and blue-green biliverdin (e.g., turquois eggs of robins). However, tinamou (chicken-like forest dwellers of South America) eggshells display unusually colored eggshells, suggesting the presence of other pigments. The Brückner Group, in collaboration with the ornithologists […]
Years of Service 2020
We would like to thank the following faculty for their years of service to the Department. Thank you to all who have enriched the Department over so many years and for having made this place what it is! James Rusling – 40 years Nina Stein – 40 years Amy Howell – 25 years Fotios Papadimitrakopoulos […]
Atomwise Partnership Enables UConn Researcher to Investigate COVID-19 Drug Target
University of Connecticut professor of molecular and cell biology James Cole* is working on identifying new therapeutics for COVID-19. Through a collaboration with Atomwise, a California-based company which uses artificial intelligence to advance small molecule drug discovery, Cole is one of the 15 researchers looking at different coronavirus protein targets for COVID-19 treatment. Cole is […]
IMS Researchers Make Cover of Advanced Materials
A molecular engineering principle in which repeat units of fairly rigid fused bicyclic structure and alkenes, separated by freely rotating single bonds, is proposed by Gregory A. Sotzing, Yang Cao, and published as a cover highlight of the May 26th Issue of Advanced Materials in article number 2000499, led by Dr. Chao Wu, a PDF at EIRC, […]
UConn Researcher Invents Nanoparticle for Overcoming Leukemia Treatment Resistance
UConn associate professor of pharmaceutics Xiuling Lu, along with professor of chemistry Rajeswari M. Kasi, was part of a team that recently published a paper in Nature Cell Biology finding a commonly used chemotherapy drug may be repurposed as a treatment for resurgent or chemotherapy-resistant leukemia. One of the largest problems with cancer treatment is the development […]
The Journey to International Environmental Policy Starts with a Single Step
In the 1980s and 90s, concern about the destruction of the ozone layer was a topic on everyone’s mind. The international community rallied around the issue and the Montreal Protocol of 1987 was created to tackle the problem. As a result, the compounds causing ozone destruction, chlorofluorocarbons (called CFCs for short), were phased out. Since then, other international […]