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Four chemistry majors presented their research at the 233rd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) held March 24-29 in Chicago, Ill.
Chip Nataro, associate professor of chemistry, accompanied the students and also presented an invited talk as part of a symposium for his Ph.D. adviser Robert J. Angelici, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Iowa State University. Angelici was the 2007 recipient of the ACS award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry.
Nataro’s talk, entitled “Binding of bis(phosphino)metallocenes: Amazing, novel, grand, electrochemically lively inorganic complexes investigated” was one of six invited for the symposium. Angelici has mentored approximately 50 Ph. D. students and Nataro was one of the two chosen to present at this symposium.
“It was an incredible honor for Bob to win this award,” says Nataro. “The work of all the students that studied with Bob, including me, is recognized by this award. This is a wonderful compliment to the research I performed in the past. However, to be one of two Ph. D. students Bob mentored invited to speak and the only speaker from an undergraduate institution is a tremendous honor. That is recognition of the work I have been able to accomplish at Lafayette and the amazing research students I have had the opportunity to mentor.”
Three students Nataro has recently mentored presented posters detailing their work at the conference. Annalese Maddox ’07 (Carrollton, Ga.), who is also majoring in Spanish, presented her independent study research entitled “Oxidative electrochemistry of chiral bis(phosphino)ferrocenes.”
Maddox says having the opportunity to discuss her research with other chemists was, “very exciting. It made the past two years [of working in the lab] worth it. I enjoyed the opportunity to talk about my work and discuss additional experiments that I could perform.”
Posters were also presented by Marquis Scholar Daniel Jarem ’07 (Washington Township, N.J.) on “Preparation of ruthenium hydride hydrogenation catalysts” and James Berstler ’07 (Whitehouse, N.J.) on “Examining the redox properties of metal carbonyl complexes containing bidentate phosphines with metallocene backbones.”
Marquis Scholar Kate Buettner ’07 (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) presented a poster entitled “Electrokinetic properties and aggregation kinetics of cerium oxide nanoparticles: An intercomparison across particle size,” which detailed her work with Steven Mylon, assistant professor of chemistry.
ACS is the largest scientific organization in the world. An estimated 12,000 chemists from academic, industrial, and government laboratories attended the annual meeting.