M AC A L E S T E R AC A D E M I C U P DAT E2 0 1 8 FA L L

ChemistryCatalysts for learning, faculty members in Macalester’s Chemistry Department are committed to teach-ing and research in collaboration with students. Aided by the latest scientific equipment, students and faculty work together to unlock secrets of matter. Students may major or minor in chem-istry. The department also offers a chemistry major with an emphasis in biochemistry.

FacultyKeith T. Kuwata, professor and chair, has a background in spectroscopy, atmospheric chemistry, and computation. He teaches courses in analytical, general, physical, and computational chemistry. His main research interests include simulations of oxidation reactions in the troposphere and modeling organic and inorganic systems in collaboration with experimentalists. His research students use quantum chemistry and statistical rate theory for these studies, which currently receive support from the National Science Foundation.

Ronald G. Brisbois, professor, is a synthetic chemist. His research interests include synthetic methodology development, ligand and catalyst design, cyclophane construction, and transition metal-mediated supramolecular self-assembly. On a sabbatical in the Biomaterials Technology Center at 3M, he initiated and continues investigations regarding highly fluorescent hexaazaanthracene derivatives. In 1993, President Clinton designated him a Presidential Faculty Fellow.

Dennis D. Cao, assistant professor, was trained in organic, supramolecular, and materials chemistry at the University of California–Berkeley and Northwestern University. He teaches organic chemistry. His research gives students the opportunity to create novel carbon architectures, investigate radical electron behavior in sterically frustrated compounds, and explore strategies for producing efficient MRI contrast agents. This research is supported by the American Chemical Society.

Paul J. Fischer, professor, is an inorganic and organometallic chemist. The National Science Foundation and the Dreyfus Foundation currently fund his research program that targets new transition metal complexes to permit the synthesis of highly reactive molecules as stabilized ligands, and facilitate novel transformations of organic substrates. He is co-author of the textbook Inorganic Chemistry. He teaches courses in introductory and inorganic chemistry.

Susan M. E. Green, assistant professor, teaches introductory general chemistry and serves as an instrumentation specialist. She is co-author of the textbook Introduction to Molecular Thermodynamics.

Kathryn E. Splan, associate professor, is a bioinorganic chemist, whose research studies the effects of copper on biological molecules. She also studies porphyrins, a class of synthetic compounds that mimic the structure and function of the natural pigments heme and chlorophyll. Grants from the American Chemical Society, Research Corporation, and the National Science Foundation have supported these projects. Splan teaches courses in both introductory chemistry and biochemistry.

Thomas D. Varberg, DeWitt Wallace Professor of Chemistry, is a physical chemist. Trained at MIT, he was a NATO Fellow at Oxford University before coming to Macalester in 1993. He teaches introductory and physical chemistry. His collaborative research with students is focused on the spectroscopy of gas-phase free radicals that contain transition metals. This work is currently supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Leah S. Witus, assistant professor, has a background in chemical biology, protein bioconjugation reactions, and supramolecular chemistry. She teaches introductory general chemistry and chemical biology. Her research interests include novel applications of peptidomimetics and peptide libraries.

Honors ProjectsPeter Pedersen ’18 (Far Hills, N.J.), “Application of Bis(trimethysilyl)butadiyne in 1,2,3-Triazole Synthesis: Synthesis of (Z)-11,12-dihydro-6H-[1,2,3]triazolo[1’,5’:1,8]azocino[5,4-b]indole and Related Scaffolds”

Hoang Anh Phan ’18 (Hanoi, Vietnam), “The Impact of Copper(I) on Zinc-finger Structure and Function: A Focus on Transcription Factor Sp1”

Special OpportunitiesChemistry majors work side by side with faculty, undertaking chemical research as early as the summer before their sophomore year. Funding from a variety of internal and external sources provides numerous opportunities for chemistry students at Macalester.

Instrumentation Used in Teaching and ResearchBruker Biospin Avance III 400 MHz NMR spectrometer (multinuclear capability)

Snowy Range IM-52 Raman spectrometer

Vacuum Atmospheres 103991 Solvent Purification System (capacity for seven solvents)

ChemistryBiotage Initiator+ Microwave-Assisted Reactor

Nicolet Magna iS10 FT-IR spectrometer

Beckman Coulter DU-7400 thermostatted scanning multicell UV/visible spectrophotometer

Continuum Nd:YAG-pumped dye laser system

Coherent DPSS-pumped 899-29 Ti:dye ring laser

Buck Scientific Accusys 211 atomic absorption spectrophotometer

Buck Scientific 410 cold vapor mercury analyzer

Agilent 5973/6890N gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer system with autosampler

Hewlett-Packard 5890 capillary gas chromatograph with flame ionization detector

Waters AQUITY Arc System liquid chromatograph with mass spectrometric detector

Waters HPLC apparatus

Two Vacuum Atmospheres glove boxes

Five inert atmosphere/vacuum double manifold Schlenk lines with gas purification systems

Access (via the Midwest Undergraduate Computational Chemistry Consortium) to a 56-node computer cluster with dual AMD Opteron-252 processors and a 40-node computer cluster with dual Intel X5650 processors

GE Healthcare AKTA Protein Purification System

Teledyne Isco Combiflash Rf+

Student-Faculty Joint PublicationsProfessor Dennis Cao, Andrew Greenlee ’18 (Studio City, Calif.), Charles Ofosu ’19 (Accra, Ghana), Qifan Xiao ’18 (Chengdu, China), Mohammed Modan ’18 (San Rafael, Calif.), and an experimental collaborator at St. Catherine University co-authored “Pyridinium-Functionalized Pyromellitic Diimides with Stabilized Radical Anion States,” which appeared in ACS Omega in 2018.

Professor Keith Kuwata, Lina Luu ’16 (Waukegan, Ill.), Alexander Weberg ’15 (Duluth, Minn.), Ke Huang ’16 (Beijing, China), Austin J. Parsons ’17 (North Liberty, Iowa), Liam A. Peebles ’18 (Appleton, Wis.), Nathan B. Rackstraw ’17 (Bethesda, Md.), and Min Ji Kim ’19 (Anyang-si, South Korea) co-authored “Quantum Chemical and Statistical Rate Theory Studies of the Vinyl Hydroperoxides Formed in Trans-2-Butene and 2,3-Dimethyl-2-Butene Ozonolysis,” which appeared in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A in 2018.

Professor Keith Kuwata, Michelle Fung ’09 (Hong Kong), Marla DeVault ’17 (Morgantown, W.V.), and a collaborator at the University of Minnesota co-authored “Drug-Excipient Interactions: Effect on Molecular Mobility and Physical Stability of Ketoconazole-Organic Acid Coamorphous System,” which appeared in Molecular Pharmaceutics in 2018.

Professor Kathryn Splan and Kaarin Evens ’15 (Duluth, Minn.) co-authored “Spectroscopic Characterization of Free-base Hydroxy(Arylethynyl)porphyrins in Acidic and Basic Media,” which appeared in Journal of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines in 2017.

Professor Thomas Varberg, Bradley Pearlman ’16 (Denver, Colo.), Ian Wyse ’16 (Portland, Ore.), Samuel Gleason ’19 (Bloomington, Minn.), Dalir Kellett ’20 (Washington, D.C.), and Kenneth Moffett co-authored “Determining the Speed of Sound and Heat Capacity Ratios of Gases by Acoustic Interferometry,” which appeared in Journal of Chemical Education in 2017.

Professor Leah Witus, Anneliese Gest ’17 (Morgantown, W.V.), Erika Aguiluz ’19 (Maywood, Calif.), Malik Mays ’19 (Willoughby, Ohio), Xinyu Liu ’17 (Chengdu, China), and Eliza Neidhart ’18 (Fitchburg, Wis.) co-authored “A Colorimetric Competitive Displacement Assay for the Evaluation of Catalytic Peptides,” which appeared in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry in 2017.

InternshipsSamuel Gleason ’19 (Bloomington, Minn.), Paul Reischmann ’19 (St. Petersburg, Fla.), Samuel Erickson ’17 (Anchorage, Alaska), Joseph Sengeh ’16 (Freetown, Sierra Leone), all technical aides at 3M

After MacalesterEman Ahmed ’18 (Karachi, Pakistan) is pursuing a PhD in organic chemistry at New York University.

Andrew Greenlee ’18 (Studio City, Calif.) is pursuing a PhD in chemistry at the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign.

Peter Pedersen ’18 (Far Hills, N.J.) is working at Novartis.

Hoang Anh Phan ’18 (Hanoi, Vietnam) is pursuing a PhD in chemical biology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Qifan Xiao ’18 (Chengdu, China) is pursuing a PhD in chemistry at the University of Texas–Austin.

Marla DeVault ’17 (Morgantown, W.V.) is pursuing a PhD in atmospheric chemistry at the University of Colorado–Boulder.

Anneliese Gest ’17 (Morgantown, W.V.) is pursuing a PhD in chemical biology at the University of California–Berkeley.

Brandon Hinrichs ’17 (Hayward, Wis.) is attending medical school at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Xinyu Liu ’17 (Chengdu, China) is pursuing a PhD in chemical biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Austin Parsons ’17 (North Liberty, Iowa) is pursuing a PhD in chemistry at the University of California–San Diego.

David Soro ’17 (Oak Park, Ill.) is pursuing a PhD in chemistry at the University of California–Berkeley.

Madeline Stevens ’17 (Minneapolis, Minn.) is pursuing a PhD in chemistry at the University of Minnesota.

Tristan Truttmann ’17 (Clayton, Wis.) is pursuing a PhD in material science at the University of Minnesota.

Nicole Mandel ’16 (Portland, Ore.) is pursuing a PhD in physical chemistry at Columbia University.

Brad Pearlman ’16 (Denver, Colo.) is studying atomic molecular optical physics at the University of Colorado–Boulder.

Updated August 2018

macalester.edu/chemistry