by Erin Holaday Ziegler
University of Kentucky Chemistry Department Chair Mark Meier is noticeably enthusiastic when discussing the arrival of two new faculty members this fall.
Energy will be a central focus for new assistant professors Susan Odom and Doo Kim Young, as both have experience in energy and materials research and both will find a second
by Jenny Wells
Burt Davis, longtime associate director for the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research's Clean Fuels and Chemicals Group, has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from NASA – and has been named to the 2011 American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Fellows Program.
“I didn’t want to rush into the next step after undergrad so I took some time off,” Payne said. “Then, I sort of came to the point where I wanted a plan for the rest of my life.”
Knowing that she wanted to continue to study chemistry but also wanting to foster her other life passions, Payne picked UK and started her graduate work in 2000.
“I was an avid rock climber and I knew I could be close to the Red River Gorge,” she said. “I also rode horses as a kid and had been to Lexington several times, so I had some familiarity with the area
Dr. William D. Ehmann, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, has been elected to the Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. Bill received a B.S. degree (1952) with honors and an M.S. degree (1954), both in chemistry, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He went on to receive a Ph.D. degree in radiochemistry in 1957 from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and carried out postdoctoral work (1957-58) at Argonne National Laboratory under a National Research Council/National Science Foundation Fellowship. He joined the Department of Chemistry at UK in 1958 and was a Fulbright Research Scholar (1964-65) at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. In addition, he has held visiting faculty appointments at Arizona State University and
Scout Diagnostics, a company targeting early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, recently received matching funds of $435,600 to support developing a laboratory test to detect and confirm Alzheimer’s disease in its earliest stages. Scout was formed in 2006 by University of Kentucky chemistry professors and
Four University of Kentucky students have been recognized by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program for 2011. Juniors Philip Houtz, of Winchester, Ky., and Taylor Lloyd, of Union, Ky., have been named Goldwater Scholars and will receive scholarships worth approximately $7,500 per year for up to two years of undergraduate study. Additionally, two other UK seniors, Andrea Ramsey, of Paducah, Ky., and Jason Rexroat, of Nicholasville, Ky., have received honorable
University of Kentucky chemistry professor Allan Butterfield's work in neurochemistry and Alzheimer's research is renowned.
But Butterfield's work goes beyond the lab; his support of undergraduate and graduate research at UK is celebrated throughout campus and the Commonwealth, with every research grant and doctoral diploma awarded.
Ph.D. Student
By Sarah Vos
photos by Mark Cornelison
On a recent Monday afternoon, Miranda Lange filled four small dishes, each containing a small rectangle of paper, with a buffer solution and set them on a rocking platform to gently wash an antibody away. The papers, really a membrane of mesh-like nitrocellulose, were covered with proteins extracted from the brains of transgenic mice, some of which have the mouse-equivalent of Alzheimer disease.
When the experiment is finished, Lange, using sophisticated proteomics methods, should be able to identify which of the brain proteins have suffered the most from oxidization. And in the case of the Alzheimer’s brain, oxidation is bad.
Lange, a fourth year graduate student at the University of Kentucky, has worked mainly on projects involving Alzheimer’s. In a previous project,
Ph.D. Student
By Brian Connors Manke
Don’t be fooled by her last name. The most important color to chemistry graduate student, Lisa Blue, is definitely green.
When Blue was starting college at Missouri State as a pre-med student, she stayed for a summer session to get a chemistry course out of the way. Get it done and over with – like ripping off a Band-Aid.
Simple enough – but then came the unexpected. For the first time in college she was thoroughly challenged. She had to truly work at chemistry, and for a student with the drive and inquisitiveness that Blue possesses that was enough to get her hooked.
A master’s at Missouri State followed, as did a stint working at the Blackmon Water Treatment Plant in Springfield, Mo. – a job that impressed upon her the issue of clean water. “I was fascinated with this
One-on-one teaching assistance is hard to come by in math and science courses, where many students struggle to understand balancing equations, solving for variables, and applying formulas. To address the problem, Benny G. Johnson, Sr., and Dale Holder joined forces, merging chemistry, computer programming and teaching philosophy to create Quantum Tutors, the first artificial intelligence tutoring program for the sciences.
“We thought it would be beneficial to explore developing
