News from the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

• Dr. Mohan has published a comprehensive review in honor of well known green chemistry pioneer, Dr. Raj Varma in the journal ARKIVOC. The issue was brought out in honor of Dr. Raj Varma of EPA.  Rem Q David (current senior) and Sophie Thorp (Class of 2023, currently PhD student at University of Missouri) were co-authors. Congratulations to Rem and Sophie. Read it here.
• Avery Powell (Class of 2025) received the Collegiate Scholar Award from the Illinois Heartland section of the American Chemical Society. Avery will be pursuing her PhD in Chemistry at The University of Notre Dame starting Fall 2025. Avery did research in the laboratory of Dr. Waduge.

 

• Alumni of The Year 2025 was Dr. Laura Brown (Class of 2002). Laura came back home and addressed students at the Awards Night. We are proud of Laura and rightfully so.

 

• Dr. Susanna Widicus-Weaver (2000) was the recipient of the IWU CHEMISTRY Alumni of the year. 

 

• https://www.iwu.edu/news/2022/widicus-weaver-00-named-iwu-chemistry-alumni-of-the-year.html

 

• Dr. Mohan and HIS STUDENTS (ERICK LOPEZ, 2023 and SOPHIE THORP, 2023) published a review article titles "Applications of Bismuth Compounds in Organic Synthesis" in the journal POLYHEDRON.  

 

• Dr. Mohan and his students published a manuscript titled "Bismuth(III) chloride catalyzed multicomponent synthesis of substituted hexahydroimidazo[1, 2-a]pyridines" in Green & Sustainable Chemistry. Congratulations to Matthew Crosse (Senior Bio Major), Richie Guingrich (Class '21), Noah Haskin (Class '20). and Allison Schrader (Senior Chemistry Major). 

 

• Departmental Award Night was held on April 16. We are pleased to announce the 2021 Alumni of The Year: Dr. Dave Aggen (Class of 2005).  Dave is currently an Assistant attending at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Department of Medicine. Dave got his MD-PhD degree from University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. We are extremely proud of Dave.  Go Titans! 

 

• Two Alumni gave talks in the Natural Science Colloquium Series. It is great to hear from our alums and it is a matter of pride for us to see such successful alumni.  Dr. Mike Pulia (Class of 2002) is now an Assistant Professor and Director, Emergency Care for Infectious Diseases (EC-ID) Research Program at The University of Wisconsin. Mike gave a talk titled Antimicrobial Resistance, COVID-19 and Me:A Winding Road to a Research Career. Dr. Joe Binder (Class of 2004) is now a senior team leader at Dow Adhesives in PA. His talk was titled New Technologies for Waterborne Pressure Sensitive Adhesives
• Researchers Find Lead Contamination in Shotgun-Harvested Deer
  
  
• Dr. Pilar Mejia and Dr. Ram Mohan published a review article in the Journal of Chemical Education on environmentally friendly organic chemistry laboratory experiments for the undergraduate curriculum.
  
  
• Rettich Named 2020 Kemp Award Winner
  
  
• Roesner Honored for Advancing Diversity in the Chemical Sciences
  
  
• $4.6 Million NSF Grant to Fund NexSTEM Program
  
  
• Mohan Receives Second Fulbright Award