San Diego State University Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Join us this Friday for our weekly Zoom departmental seminar. This week our guest speaker is Prof. Blanca Lapizco-Encinas from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Prof. Lapizco-Encinas' talk will be titled "Nonlinear Electrokinetics in Devices with Insulating Structures." The seminar will take place on Friday at 4:00 pm, via this Zoom link: https://sdsu.zoom.us/j/97577325069 http://microbioseplab.org/

Join us on Friday for our weekly departmental seminar. The speaker this week will be Prof. Allyson Fry-Petit from CSU Fullerton's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The title for Dr. Fry-Petit's presentation is "How do we make a more useful rock if we cannot see how it is made or what makes it useful? One solid state chemistry lab’s answer to making useful oxide materials." As is typical this semester the seminar will take place over Zoom on Friday from 4:00-5:00 pm. The link for the seminar will be: https://SDSU.zoom.us/j/97577325069 http://www.fry-petitlab.com/

Join us this afternoon at 4:00 pm for our weekly departmental seminar. The guest speaker this week is Prof. Anthony Bell from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of San Diego. Prof. Bell's seminar title is "The Development of Novel Nucleic Acid Inhibitors Against the DNA-binding Cytokine, HMGB1." More information about Prof. Bell can be found on his web page: https://www.sandiego.edu//chemistry/faculty/biography.php The Zoom link for the seminar will be: https://SDSU.zoom.us/j/97577325069

Join us this Friday at 4:00 pm for another Departmental Seminar (via Zoom). The seminar will speaker will be Dr. Venkatesan S. Thimmakondu, adjunct professor in our department. Dr. Thimmakondu will be speaking about "Finding Molecules Many Light Years Away, Planar Tetracoordinate Carbon, and Flat Crown Ethers." All are welcome to join the seminar via Zoom at https://sdsu.zoom.us/j/97577325069 the seminar will begin at 4:00 pm on Friday Oct. 2nd.

The San Diego chapter of the ACS is holding a VIRTUAL CHEESE SCIENCE PRESENTATION The event will be hosted by Dr. Rachel Dutton, Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, UCSD and Robert Graff of Venissimo's Academy of Cheese DATE: Thursday, October 8, 2020 ... TIME: 6 PM PRICE: The cheese plate cost is $25. The Local Section will cover the first 50 registrations. Members will only pay for optional expenses of delivery and wine. One 5-cheese plate per household please (enough cheese for two people per plate). Adult must be present to receive wine in person if delivered. Wine: Sparkling Cava Rose from Spain - $20. Pickup or Delivery: Cheese plate and wine can be picked up on the Wednesday before or Thursday of the event at the Mission Hills Venissimo store or on Thursday of the event at the Del Mar store. Delivery can be arranged for $10 per address in SD County. We will deliver on Wednesday the day before or Thursday of the event. Further instruction on pickup/delivery and Zoom links will be provided upon registration. RSVP: Registration will be open between September 15 - October 1 -- Registration limit 100 https://virtual_cheese_science_presentation.eventbrite.com Ticket holders will be emailed a link for the online zoom meeting on October 5th. http://www.sandiegoacs.org//2020/09/October-Newsletter-202

Join us this Friday at 4:00 pm for our weekly departmental seminar. Our seminar speaker this week will be Dr. Solomon Ssenyange, Commercial and Medical Advisor for CAIRE Diagnostics, Ball Ground, GA. Dr. Ssenyange's seminar is titled "The Entrepreneurial Journey: The Analytical Chemist’s Perspective." and will cover his development of a novel device and company focused on the measure allergic inflammation in asthmatic patients, as well as the recent acquisition of his compan...y by CAIRE Diagnostics. As with almost all things these days, the seminar will take place via Zoom at 4:00 pm on Friday Sept. 25th: https://SDSU.zoom.us/j/97577325069 Bring you own snacks. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sssenyange/

It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing of a recent graduate from our JDP program. Dr. Joi LaGrace Weeks passed away Monday, September 14 from complications related to breast cancer. Below is a remembrance of Dr. Weeks written by her Ph.D. mentor Dr. Christal Sohl. Dr. Joi LaGrace Weeks passed away Monday, September 14 from complications related to breast cancer. After her diagnosis this summer, one month after successfully defending her PhD, she faced cancer as ...Continue reading

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is now accepting applications for the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program 2020 Solicitation 2. Applications are due 5:00pm Eastern Time on November 12, 2020. There are 4 new transdisciplinary research areas for encouraging graduate training activities at the convergence of multiple disciplines and communities, including Microelectronics, Data Science, Conservation Laws and Symmetries, and Accelerator Science. We strongly encourage applications in these areas. The SCGSR program provides doctoral dissertation/thesis research opportunities for graduate students at DOE national laboratories. Details about the program, research areas, and online application can be found at https://science.osti.gov/wdts/scgsr/.

Pfizer in La Jolla is again offering the opportunity for Academic Industrial Relations (AIR) Diversity Research Fellowship in Chemistry for undergraduate students during the 2020-21 academic year. Details on the fellowship and the application form can be found here: https://bit.ly/32DbYXS The submission deadline for applications is Oct. 9th, 2020.

A recent opinion piece from a leader in our was briefly published, promoting views that we as a department absolutely condemn. Our statement to that effect is attached.

#BlackLivesMatter

If you're looking to test you chemistry knowledge in a different way (since you might be locked out of your lab) here's an interesting take on a crossword puzzle from Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. They have an "Analytical Challenge" in every issue. https://link.springer.com/con//10.1007/s00216-020-02459-1

Hopefully everyone out there is staying safe and healthy. SDSU has moved to limit personnel on campus to those who are essential to the safety of the campus. As such, many of the labs are shut down, or operating at a very limited capacity. Similarly all courses have been moved to an online format for the remainder of the semester. It's not the best option for a lab science, but our resourceful faculty are finding all kinds of tools to help students get the best education p...ossible given the circumstances. And like most things in life, chemistry plays a crucial role in dealing with COVID-19 from developing tests to PPE and disinfectants. Below is an explanation of how we can know that the disinfectants will be effective against even a novel virus like COVID-19. https://cen.acs.org//How-we-know-disinfect/98/web/2020/03

Join us this Friday for our regular departmental seminar. The guest speaker this week is Prof. Linlin Zhao from the Dept. of Chemistry & Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program at UC Riverside. Dr. Zhao's seminar is titled "Mitochondrial DNA degradation: a moonlighting function of mitochondrial transcription factor. As always the seminar will take place from 4:00-5:00 pm in GMCS-301. All are welcome to attend and light refreshments will be served. https://zhaolab.ucr.edu/Zhaolab/Home.html