C H E M I S T RYA L U M N I N E W S L E T T E R

AT U N C - C H A P E L H I L L

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Science Complex Phase II Physical Sciences BuildingThe demolition of old Venable Hall is now complete. For a short while, only a very large and muddy footprint and generations of Car-olina Chemistry memories remained. Then, on March 21st of this year, the “Notice to Pro-ceed” with Phase II of the Science Complex was given, and construction of the structure properly known as the Physical Science Building is now well under way. An official and permanent name for what most now call “New Venable,” will be decided upon later.

On the north part of the construction site, where bedrock lay close to the surface, site preparation and early construction proceed-ed quickly. Shortly after the foundation was laid, the large auditorium with its stadium-style seating began taking shape. Soon, oth-er features such as elevator shafts, corridors and stairwells could be seen, and the core of the new building could be easily envisioned. As you read this, most parts of the second floor have been completed and already parts of the third floor are in place. The boom of the giant construction crane, soaring over the roof of Kenan Laboratories, is in constant motion.

The south side of the construction site pre-sented a bit of a challenge. Soil conditions here were poorer than first estimated, and as a result, more than 500 deep holes had to be drilled in order to facilitate a re-designed foundation support structure. The installation of the new foundation footings added cost to the project and delayed construction on that part of the building approximately three months. However, the final completion date has not changed.

“New Venable” is still scheduled to be ready for new generations of scientists by Septem-ber 17, 2010, when we hope to use the large lecture hall, two thirty-person and two forty-person classrooms for the fall semester. As of this writing, more than ten percent of the construction is completed.

Carolina Chemistry Professor Robert G. Parr won the 2009 American Chemi-cal Society’s award in Theoretical Chemistry. The award recognizes innova-tive research that either advances theoretical methodology or contributes to new discoveries about chemical systems.

Parr has been a pioneer in the field of ab initio quantum chemistry since the 1950s. His book entitled Quantum Theory of Molecular Electronic Structure was one of the first to apply quantum theory to a broad range of chemical sys-tems. Parr constructed the zero-differential overlap approximation and later, with Pariser and Pople, developed the influential Pariser-Parr-Pople (PPP) method. The PPP method was a landmark in the development of quantum chemistry and is still widely used because it provides so much physical insight.

Thirty years ago, Parr had the vision to realize that Density-Functional Theory (DFT) might very well turn out to be the method of choice for quantitative calculations on systems of chemical and biological interest, especially for those with large numbers of electrons. “After all,” as he stated on numerous occasions to students, postdoctorals, and colleagues, “the electron density is the simplest entity that can be computationally utilized, since it is three-dimensional regardless of the size of the system.” Parr knew that the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem legitimizes the use of the density in variational calculations. Consequently, He had the foresight to begin his research in DFT long before it was as popular or as fashionable as it is today in the chemistry community.

Parr Wins ACS Theoretical Chemistry Award

Joseph DeSimone, Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry at the Uni-versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was awarded this year’s $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. “DeSimone has established a stellar record of achieve-ment and innovation,” said Dr. Robert S. Langer, Institute Professor at the Mas-sachusetts Institute of Technology, who nominated DeSimone for the award. “Joe is clearly one of the most inventive researchers in all of science.”

DeSimone accepted his award at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the second-annual EurekaFest, a multi-day celebration of the inventive spirit, June 25-28, presented by the Lemelson-MIT Program.

DeSimone Wins Lemelson-MIT Prize

From the ChairGreetings from the Chair’s office in Kenan Labs. Yes, Kenan. The landscape in and around our depart-ment continues to evolve quickly. During the past year, the renovation of the first three floors of Kenan Labs was com-

pleted and this new space now houses our electronics and instrument facilities, our glass shop, as well as our stockroom, all our admin-istrative offices and two new classrooms.

Adjacent to the Chair’s office, which used to be Mark Wightman’s lab, is a large confer-ence room that contains three large, solid oak tables that were once in the Venable Library. It took six movers to place each of those table tops on their frames, and they now sit as solid reminders of Venable Hall and the legacy of Francis P. Venable.

It was bittersweet to view the demolition of Venable Hall, which stood for 83 years and witnessed a remarkable growth and transition of our department during that time. Unless you actually saw it, it is difficult to imagine the size of the hole in the ground left by the old building. Venable Hall was the largest footprint building on campus!

The new state-of-the-art facility now under construction and scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2010, will provide much needed modern classrooms, offices and labo-ratories for chemistry and marine sciences faculty, staff and students. We can only hope that the new facility will witness an equally significant transformation of the Chemistry Department over its next eighty years.

With our outstanding students, wonderful staff and dedicated faculty, as well as our own Holden Thorp assuming the role of Chan-cellor this past summer, Carolina Chemistry is clearly positioned to play a key role in the University for years to come.

As always, we would love to hear from you. Please write or come visit us in Kenan, More-head, and Caudill, and soon in New Venable, when you have a chance.

Warmest regards,

Michael T. Crimmins Mary Ann Smith Professor and Chair

Carolina chemist Maurice Brookhart has been awarded this year’s North Carolina Award in Science. He was selected for his advances in organometallic chemistry and polymerization and for “his rare gift for developing fundamental chemical insights and then transporting them into the realm of commercially viable industrial technologies.” Admired as a teacher and mentor, “Brook,” as his friends know him, has brought distinction to both the Department of Chemistry and to the state of North Carolina. His stellar research has moved forward entire fields of inquiry and opened new doors to important industrial processes. Colleagues commend his clear critical thinking and rank him as an experimentalist of the highest order.

The North Carolina Award is the highest civilian award bestowed by the state of North Carolina, and is sometimes referred to as the “Nobel Prize of North Carolina.” The awardees are chosen by the North Carolina Awards Committee, appointed by the gov-ernor of North Carolina and supervised by the state’s Secretary of Cultural Resources. Maurice Brookhart is the fifth Carolina chemist to be honored with this award. Previous Carolina recipients are Oscar Rice, 1966, Ernest Eliel, 1986, Robert Parr, 1999, and Royce Murray, 2001.

Brookhart Receives North Carolina Award

Kenan Professor of Chemistry Royce W. Murray, has been selected to receive the 2008 Southern Chemist Award. The award, sponsored by the Memphis, TN, local section of the American Chemical Society, acknowledges outstanding achievement in chemistry and contribu-tions to the field that have brought recognition to the South. Murray is recognized internationally for his contributions to electrochemistry. He introduced the concept of chemically modified electrodes, tools that are important as chemical sensors, fuel cells and in solar energy conversion. His con-tributions have had a major impact in fields ranging from renewable energy to medical sensing technology.

Murray Selected for Southern Chemist Award

Assistant Professor Garegin Papoian was named a 2008 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, a national recognition for research and teaching given to outstanding young faculty in the chemical sciences. The $75,000 award was created to promote the chemical sciences. Papoian, who has been with our department since 2004, is the win-ner of numerous awards, including a Beckman Foundation Young In-vestigators Award, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award and an R.J. Reynolds Excellence Junior Faculty Development Award.

Papoian Named Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar

Wei You, assistant professor at the Department of Chemistry, is the recipient of a $75,000 DuPont Young Professor grant. He is one of only 17 researchers from the United States, China, Spain and India to be chosen for the award this year. You’s research includes work in the field of organic photovoltaics, solar cells that are thinner and more flexible than traditional silicon-based solar cells. He will use the three-year grant to explore new materials and ways of fabricating photo-voltaic cells, with the aim of creating high efficiency, low-cost cells that use sunlight to generate energy.

You Awarded DuPont Grant

Carolina Chemistry Professor Malcolm Forbes was awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to do research at the International Tomogra-phy Center in Novosibirsk, Russia, during this academic year. Forbes will carry out research on free radical reactions involved in the de-gradation of pharmaceutical compounds in the environment, lecture on reaction mechanisms at Novosibirsk State University, and write a textbook with his Russian colleagues on the field of “Spin Chemistry.”

Malcolm Forbes Wins Fulbright Scholarship

Why I Give to Chemistry at CarolinaWhen I was first asked why I regularly con-tribute to the Department of Chemistry, the answer seemed rather straightforward, but as I began to think about it my reasons became more complex and textured.

The simple answer is that Carolina Chemis-try gave so much to me. I was given the op-portunity to participate in the honors program, mentored by P. E. Rakita, my research advi-sor whom I still value as a friend to this day. I was given the support of my research family of graduate students and other undergraduate students who encouraged me when the chips

were down. I was given the gift of professors who taught me what I needed to know and who were available when I needed their help. I was given the financial support of the department and the University to purchase supplies, equipment and

other things necessary for my projects. I was given the use of departmental facilities in a university built by generations of scholars, fac-ulty members, students, friends, benefactors, alumni and taxpayers of North Carolina. In short, I was given the chance to be intellectu-ally curious and to satisfy my curiosities in the laboratory, to make mistakes and learn from them, and to do so in the presence of devoted teachers and accomplished scientists who took a personal interest in me and my career. To this day, I consider the UNC Department of Chemistry my first academic home.

It takes time to see the path your life has taken. From the vantage point of two or three decades it is much easier to recognize those

people who influenced you and your deci-sions and how important those people were in your development. In fact, it becomes hard to imagine how things might have been with-out having them in your life. Parents, spouses, children, family and friends are the most im-portant. But at some point in your academic career, you need the help of others to achieve the next goal and take the next step with confi-dence. I found them at Carolina Chemistry at a time when I needed them the most. I want oth-er students with similar interests to have the same or more opportunities to become all that they can be. I see it as part of the extended Hippocratic Oath I took to respect and honor those who taught and nurtured me and also to help prepare a new generation of physicians, scientists and research professionals.

There are those who can contribute signifi-cant amounts of money and resources to the department and the University. You see their benevolence in named buildings on campus, wings of hospitals, endowed professorships and scholarship programs. As a proud alum-nus I am always pleased when substantial gifts are made to the causes I love. However, most of us can only contribute in smaller, but no less important ways. I am inspired by Mother Te-resa who went to India to help the sick and poor, but was overwhelmed when she found so many. She asked what one person could do to help so many and concluded that there was nothing one person alone could do for so many. But she also concluded that there was something that one person could do for an-other person, so she found man in need and attended to him, and when she was able, she found another, and so it went. There is always need, and we can find a way to make a differ-ence in the lives of others if we only want to.

Said another way, we all know that mighty rivers begin as raindrops, and we can all be raindrops.

I spent a lot of time in old Venable Hall. Even when I was an undergraduate student 35 years ago, it was an old and decrepit building - flaking paint everywhere, floors marred by de-cades of spills, graffiti carved into woodwork and scratched into desktops. There were the smells, which never completely went away, just changed as you walked down the halls. You could hear the sound of rushing water used for vacuum aspirators in hundreds of sinks. There were the occasional sparrows that got trapped in the building through an open factory style window and could not find a way out. On warm days it was hot. On hot days it was really hot – no air conditioning except in the library and an occasional office or classroom, which had a window unit. Now it’s gone. Students have modern and comfortable teaching laborato-ries, and I am pleased with that.

To help raise money for the new physical sci-ences complex, a few of the bricks from the old Venable Hall were sold as mementos. I bought one, not thinking much about it at the time. The last thing I needed was another of-fice trinket. In the end, however, it is a good analogy for why I give to the Department of Chemistry. I view my contributions as a small but essential part of something much larger than myself just as that brick was a small but essential part of a building, department and university which touched my life and will con-tinue to touch the lives of many in the future.

Your support is essential - Thank You!

Only 25 of these handpicked Venable Hall Bricks, selected from the southeast façade, are available for a donation of $5,000.

Your name will be listed as a Chancellor’s Donor on a plaque prominently displayed in New Venable Hall. You will be invited to attend a reception with chemistry faculty and Chancellor Holden Thorp, and receive a framed picture of Venable Hall.

James P. Srebro, MD, Class of 1976

Additional Venable Brick donation opportunities, and a donation link, can be found at at www.chem.unc.edu/alumni

Chancellor’s Edition Venable Hall Brick

Thinking Big While Thinking Small

Joseph M. DeSimone, Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry works on the cutting edge of nanomedicine, a young but burgeoning field blending science and medicine using extremely small, nanoscale particles and devices to find, diagnose and treat diseases. For de-cades, treating cancer mostly involved systemically injecting patients with toxic agents, a practice in which only a fraction of the drugs reach the intended target, killing healthy cells in the process and causing harmful side effects. DeSimone and his research group focus on how to get nanoparticles loaded with cancer-killing drugs and other thera-peutics directly inside cancer cells.

Previous studies have shown that nanoparticles can hone in on and attack tumors, in part because of their extremely small size which helps them to pass from circulation into the tumor. But getting particles to the site of a cancer, wherever it might be, and inside its cells remains a challenge. Researchers have established how to attach “targeting” agents to the surface of the nanocarriers so they can find and bind to the cancerous cells. However, existing nanoparticle fabrication tech-

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are an in-teresting class of hybrid materials that are built from metal ion connectors and polydentate bridging ligands and have shown potential in a number of applications such as nonlinear optics, gas adsorption and catalysis. MOFs on the nanometer scale offer an interesting ap-proach to designing functional nanomaterials for biological and biomedical applications. Un-like conventional inorganic nanostructures, the properties of nanoscale MOFs can be system-

atically tuned via judicious choice of the build-ing blocks. Nanoparticles have been exten-sively explored as vehicles for the delivery of anticancer drugs and imaging contrast agents because of their enhanced accumulation in tu-mors and reductions in systemic toxicity, and the ability to functionalize their surfaces with passivating and targeting molecules.

UNC Chemistry Professor Wenbin Lin has re-cently developed nanoscale MOFs that con-tain biologically important cargoes. In a recent report published in the Journal of the Ameri-can Chemical Society, Lin’s group showed that nanoscale MOFs could be synthesized to contain a precursor to cisplatin, one of the most important anticancer drugs. The particles were formed from terbium ion connectors and a c,c,t-(diamminedichlorodisuccinato)Pt(IV) bridging ligand. The release of the Pt(IV)

prodrug was controlled by coating the particles with a silica shell of varying thickness. By attaching a cyclic RGD targeting peptide to the particles surface, the Lin group was able to efficiently deliver the

particles to cancer cells. Once inside the cells the Pt(IV) complex is reduced to the active cis-platin. In-vitro assays using the human colon carcinoma cell line (HT-29) showed that the targeted NCP particles were superior to the cisplatin standard, as a result of enhanced up-take by the cancer cells. This work was high-lighted in the August 18, 2008 issue of C&EN.

Professor Lin’s group has also synthesized nanoscale MOFs that contain highly paramag-netic metal centers for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In a recent article in Angew. Chem. In. Ed., the Lin group reported the synthesis of Gd-containing nanoscale MOFs using a surfactant assisted hydrothermal method. The incorporation of the paramag-netic Gd3+ ions makes the nanoparticles effi-cient contrast agents for MRI. This work was highlighted in the August 25, 2008 issue of Chemical and Engineering News in the Metal-Organic Frameworks cover story. In order to eliminate the toxicity from Gd3+ ions, the Lin group has extended this technique to synthe-size Mn-containing nanoscale MOFs which were shown to be capable of delivering large doses of Mn2+ ions inside cancer cells. Upon coordination to intracellular proteins, the Mn species become very powerful contrast en-hancement agents for MRI. This latest work from the Lin group points to a new strategy for designing biodegradable and biocompatible nanoparticles for MRI imaging, and will soon appear in Journal of the American Chemical Society.

niques have limited sizes and shapes available. DeSimone and his group invented a system that allows them to design and produce cus-tom-made nanoparticles named PRINT®, Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates. PRINT® technology allows the making of particles with specific and unique shapes, sizes and surface characteristics. “The aim is to optimize particle attributes for specific therapeutic objec-tives,” says DeSimone. “This would mean that we could deliver lower dosages of drugs to specific cells and tissues in the body and actually be more effective in treating the cancer.”

In a recent study published in the journal PNAS, the UNC researchers created polymer hydrogel particles of different dimensions, changing one variable at a time and experimenting with different surface chemis-tries. They then incubated them with cancer cells, monitoring each type to see which ones the cells internalized most effectively. The scientists discovered that long, rod-shaped particles burrowed into cells approxi-mately four times faster than shorter cylindrical ones. What’s more, these particles traveled significantly further into the cells as well. The same phenomenon is found in natural organisms; in fact the long rod-shaped structure of bacteria may help explain why PRINT® particles of higher aspect ratios are internalized more rapidly and effectively than lower aspect ratio particles.

And cancer is not the team’s only target – Desimone says the tech-nique could also be used to combat other diseases, from diabetes and multiple sclerosis to arthritis and obesity.

Liquidia Technologies, a UNC spin-off company, has an exclusive li-cense to the PRINT® technology and is developing nanoparticles for delivery of nucleic acids and small molecule therapeutics. Pre-clinical trials are already underway and DeSimone hopes to start phase one clinical trials next year.

The DeSimone Group

The Lin Group

I must admit that the view from the Chancellor’s office is a distinct improvement over the view many generations of chemistry faculty had from deep inside the bowels of Ven-able Hall. But I must also say that it’s a lot harder to hide here in South Building than it was in Venable.

For years, the labyrinthine Venable, which served as a poster-child for facility decrepitude on campus, boasted a room numbering system that did not so much defy logic as it rendered it useless. It was possible to occupy space in the building without ever fearing that someone from outside the department would be able to find you.

By contrast, no one seems to have had any trouble locating me since I moved into South Building. Not that I’d have it any other way.

I am delighted that the new Venable Hall will be a fitting memorial to Francis Preston Venable, who served as Presi-dent of the University from 1900-1914 and presciently observed that “the small college with its over-worked professors and poor equipment can offer little to compare with the fine equipment, high-priced teachers, and small classes of the greater university.”

Indeed, Venable Hall will now more closely reflect Presi-dent Venable’s wishes for a “greater university” that is well-equipped to serve students, faculty and the state of North Carolina.

Our memories of the old Venable - for better or worse - are an important part of who we are as a University and as a department. I hope you will join me in wishing that memories of the new Venable - even when it has reached its own obsolescence - will someday occupy as prominent a place in the hearts of future generations of Carolina’s faculty, staff and students.

- Chancellor Holden Thorp

Our Energy Future Starts at Carolina

From Venable to South Building

The past two decades have witnessed a dra-matic increase in global energy consump-tion. While this need has been largely met by fossil fuels, heightened global competition for this limited resource has generated grow-ing concern over future availability. Couple this with the mounting evidence that CO2 emissions are adversely affecting global cli-mate, and it becomes increasingly clear that developing renewable carbon-neutral energy sources constitutes a grand challenge for the scientific community.

By creating the UNC Solar Energy Research Center, UNC-SERC, the Department of Chemistry is playing a key role in position-ing Carolina to be a leader in formulating a sustainable energy future. This fall, the center led proposal writing activities on the physical side of energy sciences, including a $25 million Department of Energy Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) propos-al, and a closely related pre-proposal for an NSF Science and Technology Center. Both proposals focused on solar fuels by artificial

photosynthesis - hydrogen by water split-ting and methanol or hydrocarbons by CO2 reduction - and next-generation organic and hybrid photovoltaics. Both are high-risk, high-reward targets requiring significant research if they are to enter a future energy portfolio as viable technologies.

There is more on the horizon. A proposal in collaboration with the UNC Institute for the Environment (IfE) has been submitted to the UNC System for support of a new Energy Research Center (ERC). The ERC will pro-vide oversight, leadership and management in creating and leading a major initiative at Carolina that will span science, technology, new product commercialization, environ-mental impacts and community planning for a new energy future. One of the first outreach

activities of UNC-SERC and the IfE will be to host a symposium, Securing Our Energy Future - Next Generation Photovoltaics and Solar Fuels, on January 15-17, 2009.

Thomas Meyer, director, John Papanikolas, Cindy Schauer, and Bob Pinschmidt, deputy director of the Institute of Advanced Materi-als, lead the executive committee overseeing UNC-SERC. The center is taking full advan-tage of Thomas Meyer and his experience as associate director at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he led national initiatives in nuclear energy and CO2 sequestration, and dealt directly with the Department of En-ergy and key congressional appropriations subcommittees.

“The UNC Solar Energy Research Center is off to a good start with a lot of momen-tum,” says Thomas Meyer. Please contact the center if you are interested in learning more, have suggestions or are interested in supporting our energy programs. Our email address is solar_energy@unc.edu.

The UNC-Chapel Hill Solar Energy Research Center

Developing renewable carbon-neutral energy sources constitutes a grand

challenge for the scientific community

Stephanie Jones is the re-cipient of a Churchill Schol-arship, valued at $46,000 to $52,000, for graduate work at Cambridge Uni-versity in England. Stepha-nie graduated from the NC School of Science and Mathematics in 2004 and has been conducting research at Carolina since she was a high school junior. She credits chemistry professors Holden Thorp, now Chancellor, and Muhammad Yousaf for accepting her into their labs and mentoring her.

Stephanie Jones

Erik Alexanian joined the department in July of this year as an assistant pro-fessor. Erik obtained his AB in chemistry from Har-vard, his PhD in synthetic chemistry from Princeton, and was a postdoctoral investigator at the Uni-versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His cur-rent research interests include the development of new transition metal catalyzed synthetic meth-ods for strategic bond construction, and the to-tal synthesis of architecturally unique bioactive natural products.

Erik Alexanian

Christine Hebling, a 4th year grad student working in the Jorgenson research group, was recently se-lected as the recipient of the Merck Research Labo-ratories Fellowship in Ana-lytical/Physical Chemistry. This fellowship stipend was awarded to support her research involving the study of protein inter-actions in the vitamin K cycle using capillary liq-uid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

Christine Hebling

Carolina Chemistry’s Kath-ryn Taylor, a 5th year grad student in the Lin group, was recently selected as one of three Lineberger Fellows for this year. Kath-ryn will receive a $5,000 award from the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC. Her re-search is focused on the development of hybrid nanoparticles that can be used for biomedical ap-plications. The specific applications that are be-ing targeted include the development of contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging, and the development of nanoparticles that can be used for the delivery of anticancer drugs.

Kathryn Taylor

Ernest L. Eliel, one of Carolina Chemistry’s most notable and loved fac-ulty members passed away on September 18th. Ernest Eliel had a far-reaching impact on chemistry, science, science policy and people. He was one of those rare individuals who cared deeply about all aspects of what he did and was able to quietly influence all those things in a positive way.

Ernest Eliel was born in Cologne, Germany, in 1921. During WWII he fled to Scotland, Canada and eventually Cuba, where he began graduate

studies at the University of Havana. He came to the United States after the war and obtained his PhD degree from the University of Illinois. Eliel joined the faculty of Notre Dame in 1948, where he was the head of the chemistry department from 1964 through 1966. He came to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor in 1972.

His interest in stereochemistry and conformational analysis led to several well-known text-books. In 1962 he wrote Stereochemistry of Carbon Compounds, the first treatise to organize and focus attention on the emerging field of stereochemistry. In 2000 he was the primary au-thor of Stereochemistry of Organic Compounds, arguably the most complete treatise of what has by now, and much thanks to his effort, become a well-established, highly important field.

Some of Professor Eliel’s many awards, accomplishments and recognitions include being a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Guggenheim Fellow and receiving the Lavoisier Medal of the Chemical Society of France. He served as president of the American Chemical Society, and received its highest recognition, the Priestley Medal, in 1995.

Ernest Eliel was a giant in his field who was always gracious and generous with his time. His science and his personality have had an immeasurable impact on the UNC Department of Chemistry. He espoused and contributed to the highly collegial nature of the department, and though we will certainly miss him, his spirit will always be with us because of the great influ-ence that he had on so many people here.

In Memoriam - Ernest Eliel

Our department lost a wonderful scientist, friend and colleague when Professor Emeritus Henry Dearman,a member of the chemistry faculty at Carolina from 1962 until his retirement in 1994, passed away late last year. Henry was born on August 28, 1934, in Statesville, NC. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree at Carolina in 1956 and his PhD under the direction of Harden McConnell at the California Institute of Technol-ogy in 1960. He was appointed to the Carolina chemistry faculty after two years of postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago. Henry spent the academic year of 1967-1968 at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Labora-

tory in order to develop his expertise in biological problems. In 1973, he was a visiting profes-sor of the Japan Society for Promotion of Sciences at Ehime and Kyoto Universities. At Caro-lina, his research interests were in electron paramagnetic resonance, excited state processes, photochemistry, and the application of spectroscopy, especially EPR, to biological problems.

Henry Dearman was director of graduate studies in the Chemistry Department from 1970 to 1975. He was appointed as associate dean of the Graduate School from 1981 to 1989 and dean of the Graduate school from 1989-1994. Henry was a champion of academic excel-lence, and as Dean of the Graduate School he tirelessly sought funds for fellowships to bring outstanding students to UNC. He also promoted exchange programs, and in 1992 he was awarded an honorary degree by Ehime University in Japan for his contributions to education and research.

Henry was also instrumental in helping us obtain the Department of Education GAANN fel-lowship program at UNC when this program was first established in 1988. Additionally, during his tenure in the Graduate School, he devoted much of his energy to increasing the number of graduate student fellowships, and was instrumental in establishing the Society of Fellows Program. One of his priorities was increasing funding for minority graduate students, and he established the Partnership for Minority Access to Doctoral Programs. Upon his retirement, the staff of the Graduate School honored Henry for his many years of service by establishing The Henry Dearman Graduate Fellowship Fund.

Our sincerest sympathies go out to Henry’s family and all those who were lucky enough to know him. He is greatly missed.

In Memoriam - Henry Dearman

The track record that chemistry has built over the past century and a half here at Carolina is impres-sive. And the hits just keep on coming.

First, a quick quiz. What internationally known UNC chemist was asked to take over the reins of the University at the tender age of 43? He celebrated his 44th birthday later that year after stepping forward from our faculty to assume lead-ership of the University. Well, if you answered Holden Thorp you get full credit. But if you an-swered Francis Venable, well, then you still get

full credit. As is so often true in life, there is more than one correct answer.

Both the story and the history (hi-story) of chemistry at Carolina are illus-trious indeed, and although chemistry was a part of the curriculum in the early 19th century - certainly it was taught in Chapel Hill before 1820 - it is nonetheless true that F. P. Venable can legitimately be viewed as the found-ing father of Carolina chemists. (No disrespect intended if you are reading this, Bill Little.) For those of you who enjoy history I commend the wonderful book written by Maurice Bursey, Carolina Chemists, with a picture of Pro-fessor Venable adorning the book jacket. From Francis Preston Venable to John Motley Morehead and William Rand Kenan, Jr. and on down through Nash Collier and Lee Pedersen, you will find all of the major players de-scribed in detail in Bursey’s tome.

But what of more recent events in the life of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill? How is it that the baton, the really big banana that is, has been passed to a young chemist who learned his classroom chemistry in the bowels of Venable Hall during the 1980s? How is it that the Chancellor’s medallion has been passed to someone who wrote a poem cementing Don Jicha, or rather “Jicha Don, Jicha Don” into chemical lore for the ages with passages such as:

“You may talk of gin and beer / When you’re quartered safe out ‘ere / And the science is your goal if you can reach it / But getting your degree / You

Chancellor Thorp Carolina Chemistmust learn your chemistry / And you’ll lick their bloomin’ boots if they can teach it. / Now in Morehead’s concrete slab / where I came to take my lab / a-learnin’ silica from silicon / of all them chemist crew / the finest man I knew / was our inorganic colleague, Jicha Don.”

What does this stanza say about other inorganic chemists of note? What does it say about Tom Meyer, mentor to the undergraduate researcher Holden Thorp? What about Harry Gray, graduate mentor to Holden Thorp? Or Gary Brudvig, postdoctoral advisor to Holden Thorp? Draw your own conclusions.

The administrative train with Holden as engineer has long since left the station, but it is fun to look back on who laid the track. Perhaps Bill Little, who was in his mid-30s when in 1965 he agreed to serve as chair of the Department of Chemistry -- not an old guy like Holden, who was at the ripe old age of 40 when in 2005 he assumed the same position. Or maybe it was Dick Hiskey, the chair whose “Take it Out of Trust Funds” motto for the fiscal guideline for chemistry chairs is now cross-stitched, framed and displayed for posterity in the accounting offices in Kenan. Perhaps it was Murray, or Meyer, or Samulski or Jorgenson, former chairs Holden could look to for guidance during his two years leading the Department of Chemistry, who first made the crooked places straight and then laid the track.

After enjoying two years in the best job on campus, chair of chemistry, Hold-en leapfrogged other administrators and landed in South Building, where he led the College as Dean of Arts and Sciences for one year. That’s right, after leaving chemistry, a single year of on-the-job training at the College level was sufficient to prepare Holden to lead the entire university community. And then with yet another Calaveras county leapfrog jump he is now on top of the academic administrator heap. First our friend, then our student, next our colleague, and now our Chancellor - and still our friend. This story will make a fine chapter in the next volume of Carolina Chemists.

“Whooee! Can that chemist jump! Look, Jane. See Holden jump. Look, Dick, see Holden jump. Jump, Holden, jump.”

W. Lowry Caudill Distinguished Alumnus AwardDr. W. Lowry Caudill, Carolina Chemistry alumnus, adjunct professor, and bene-factor, received a Dis-tinguished Alumnus Award at this year’s University Day cele-brations, held at Polk Place on October 12th. An analytical chemist, mentored

by Professor Royce Murray, Caudill earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Carolina in 1979. He went on to earn his PhD from Indiana University, where he studied with professor Mark Wightman, a UNC gradu-ate who is now back teaching at Carolina.

Caudill was one of two scientists who in 1991 founded Magellan Laboratories, a pharma-ceutical development company based in the Research Triangle Park, close to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He brought impeccably high standards from his analytical chemistry

experience at Glaxo to the company, which rapidly grew to become a major regional em-ployer. After a decade of setting standards for pharmaceutical research now widely imi-tated throughout the industry, Magellan Lab-oratories was acquired by Cardinal Health in 2002. Caudill served as the company’s worldwide president of pharmaceutical de-velopment and led more than 1400 employ-ees at nine sites until he retired in 2003.

Since his retirement, Lowry Caudill has been busier than ever. Recognizing that the Resarch Triangle region in North Carolina needs to remain a global leader in science and technology, Caudill is doing his part to make sure that happens. He likens the state’s future to a garden that must be tended and tilled, saying “we can have a bumper crop every year, but it will require innovation.” Caudill firmly believes that “science and tech-nology will be the drivers,” and that the Uni-versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill plays a major role in creating a successful future. Caudill and his wife Susan, also a Carolina

alum, honored Carolina Chemistry Professor Royce Murray with a gift to the Carolina Physi-cal Science Complex at UNC-Chapel Hill. The heart of the new complex will be named after Murray. The University recognized Lowry and Susan Caudill’s many contributions to Caro-lina by naming the new Chemistry building the “W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories.”

When Caudill Laboratories was dedicated, then Chair of the Chemistry Department, now Chancellor Holden Thorp said, “Sometimes you get lucky when naming a new building.” He continued, “I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could name this building for a chemist who got his degree from our department? How about someone from North Carolina? Maybe, possibly, we could even name it for someone who got a Ph.D. in chemistry? With someone on our faculty? Could we be lucky enough to find a scientist who redefined a major part of the chemical industry? And, while we’re at it, why not find the nicest guy in the world?” Thorp concluded, “We got all that and more.”

- Joe Templeton

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRYThe University of North Carolina at Chapel HillCB 3290 - Caudill and Kenan LaboratoriesChapel Hill, NC 27599-3290

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PAIDPERMIT NO. 177

CHAPEL HILL, NC

Photos: Steve Exum , Dan Sears, Gary Goldsmith

How can you adequately sum up David Harris’ sup-port of research in the Chemistry Department for over 36 years? After decades in the NMR facility, raising the lab from the start with one CW and one FT NMR and seeing thousands of students come through the facilities and fields, David is entertaining retirement. Perhaps one more year? Marc ter Horst, David’s col-league and co-director of the NMR facility and “the new kid on the block,” feels that an attempt to summarize David’s influence on Carolina Chemistry is a daunting task. “After all,” says Marc, “he has spent more than four times my time in an NMR facility.”

A young Dr. David Harris worked as a postdoc for an equally young Dr. Brookhart in the early 70s. Brook first met David when he was a grad stu-dent and David joined Saul Winstein’s lab at UCLA in 1968 as a postdoc. Brookhart notes that “David came from the University of Buffalo with NMR experience and made himself immediately invaluable. He was a maestro at running the CW (continuous wave!!) HA 100 NMR spectrometer, a fussy, far-from-automated machine with probably 100 knobs and dials and a large crank on the magnet that looked straight out of a plumber’s kit. David could coax this instrument to perform NMR magic and so became invaluable to everyone in the Winstein group.” David won the UCLA Herbert Newby Mc-Coy award in 1969 for the postdoc or graduate student who contributed most to research in the department that year. Professor Brookhart smiles when he recalls how ecstatic he was when David agreed to join him at UNC as a postdoc in 1970. At that time the department had a CW HA-100. Brookhart knew David would make it sing; and he did.

Following his postdoc, David became UNC’s first staff NMR spectroscopist. “We were lucky to convince David to head up the NMR facility starting with the HA-100 and a newly acquired Bruker 250 with disc drives as big as trashcan lids,” says Brookhart. Since those early days, the lab has steadily grown, moving from a single FT-NMR, the 250 Bruker spectrometer, to a lab containing seven high field spectrometers which now include a 600MHz Varian spectrometer and a 360MHz spectrometer equipped for analysis of solids. David’s workload and responsibilities grew with the years but he was always up to the task. Training students - certainly close to 1,000 by now - efficiently repairing the machines (downtime is not acceptable to David), implementing new experiments, and keeping an eagle eye on his babies, were all in a week’s work.

The facility has moved around the department over the years, magnetizing various segments of Venable Hall. The latest move to Caudill Laboratories was probably the most enjoyable for David, as he directly contributed to the design of the new facility. Arranging the systems into adjacent rooms re-sulted in a huge improvement in providing support. Many times, even today, you can catch David looking over the facility with a smile, pleased with how it has evolved. Marc ter Horst hopes that David also realizes the critical role he plays in its day-to-day operation.

A brief column like this is inadequate for summarizing the many years, the many students, staff members, and faculty, the variety of samples and ex-periments that have benefited from David’s calm presence. However, ev-eryone is grateful for all of David’s many accomplishments and quiet profes-sionalism as he contemplates transitioning from guiding the NMR lab with a strong, steady hand to focusing on family and a more relaxed lifestyle.

David Harris 36 years with Chemistry

CHEMISTRYFALL 2008 ALUMNI NEWSLETTER

AT UNC-CHAPEL HILL

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