The American Chemical Society returned to Philadelphia for its 236th National Meeting Aug. 17-21, providing an opportunity to highlight Temple chemistry faculty and students, as well as showcase the extensive chemical research being conducted at the university.

Throughout the five days of proceedings, Temple faculty and students were a major presence, organizing and moderating symposiums, sessions and meetings; presenting papers, posters and talks; attending sessions and meetings; and hosting an alumni reception.

“This year’s representation at ACS is a good indication of our progress in expanding and enhancing our chemistry research program at Temple, as well as our ongoing commitment to supporting innovative thought and hiring research-active faculty,” said Robert Levis, chair of Chemistry and Director of Center for Advanced Photonics Research. “In one year, we were able to basically double the number of scientific presentations given by our faculty and students.”

Fifty-six Temple papers and posters were presented at the ACS National Meeting. Among the highlights of participating faculty and students:

• Two members of College of Science and Technology Dean Hai-Lung Dai’s research group, Grazia Gonella and Jia Zeng, presented three papers, “Orientational order and hyperpolarizability of the nonlinear optical chromophore Ru-PZn incorporated into an amphiphilic 4-helix bundle peptide monolayer,” “Nonlinear optical probe of surfaces of spherical micro- and nano-particles” and “Time-resolved studies of adsorption and transport of a hydrophobic ion at Escherichia coli bacterial membranes by Second Harmonic Generation.”

• Professor Bradford Wayland, who joined Temple’s chemistry faculty from the University of Pennsylvania on July 1, presented an invited talk, “Organometallic Complexes in Mediating Living Radical Polymerization of Vinyl Monomers,” in a symposium on “Controlled Radical Polymerization.”

• Professor Eric Borguet organized a two-day symposium on “Biological and Biomimetic Interfacial Electron Transfer,” where his student, Yanjun Xing, presented a talk. Borguet also participated in a graduate student recruitment workshop, “Graduate School Reality Check.” Another of Borguet’s students, Dmitry V. Kazachkin, presented a poster, “Interaction of Simple Molecules with Carbon Nanotubes.”

• Professor Scott Sieburth, program chair for ACS’s Organic Division, co-organized the division’s events at the national meeting, including joint Organic and Medicinal Divisions poster session that featured a live concert. Three of Sieburth’s graduate students and one of his postdocs also presented posters.

• Professor David Dalton chaired a session on “Asymmetric Reactions and Syntheses,” as well as presented two posters with his collaborators.

• Professor Franklin Davis co-organized a symposium, “Division of Organic Chemistry Centennial Symposium” in celebration of the division’s 100-year anniversary. Three of his students, Paul M. Gaspari, Kerisha A. Bowen and Naresh Theddu presented papers.

• Two graduate students of Associate Professor Robert Stanley presented posters: Madhavan Narayanan, “Differential Quenching of Fluorescent Base Analogs by Nucleotide Monophosphates,” and Goutham Kodali, “Excited State Electronic Structure of FADH- in DNA Photolyase Studied by Stark Spectroscopy.”

• Kurt Kistler, a graduate student working under Assistant Professor Spiridoula Matsika, presented a poster on “Three-State Conical Intersections in Cytosine.”

• Assistant Professor Rodrigo Andrade gave three talks and presided over two sessions, while three of his students, Gopal Sirasani, Venkat Velvadapu, and Michael Fortin, and his postdoc Tapas Paul presented their research as posters.
  

The Philadelphia ACS meeting also provided an opportunity for Temple chemistry alumni to socialize and network, with 100 alumni, faculty and students attending a reception hosted by the Chemistry Department.