Oswego.edu
SUNY Oswego Dept. of Chemistry
Letter from Chair-Dr. Fehmi Damkaci:
It has been three years since we have moved from Snygg Hall to Shineman
Center, the new home for the chemistry department. We are still dealing with the
small issues of a new building, however at the same time enjoying all the new
equipment that came with the building.
Since the opening of Shineman Center, we have seen a surge in the number of i
ncoming freshman chemistry majors, which has been around 50-60 on an
annual basis the last 2-3 years. This can be regarded as good news, it gives us
an opportunity to educate more future chemists, however also a challenge in
terms of space, faculty, and funding.
During the 2015-2016 academic year, we hired 4 new faculty members, which
all will start in the fall semester. Dr. Matthew Baker, organic chemist, and Dr.
Sue Haddadi, forensic analytical chemist, were both hired as retirement
replacements for Dr. Joe Lefevre and former chair Larry Fuller, respectively. Dr.
Thomas Brown, inorganic chemist, was hired for the new visiting assistant
professor line. Dr. Julia Koeppe, biochemist, was hired as a replacement of the
available biochemistry faculty line. In order to better serve our increasing
student body, we have added an 11th tenure track line, to be hired within the
next year to replace the new VAP inorganic line. This is very good news for the
We have seen an increase in the number of students participating in research
during both the academic year and summer sessions. The number of students
Augustine Silveira 2-3
Lecture Series
engaged in research projects before their senior year is on the rise as well as
t he number of students involved in summer research. With all the new faculty
Faculty/Staff Updates 4-8
members, we will be able to include even more students in early and summer
research, which is the best way of teaching chemistry. In this case, we are in
Quest 2016 9
need of your monetary support in order to serve more summer chemistry
Field Trips
research students. I will ask for y
ou to utilize your company's matching donation
policies to help these young minds. All your donations go directly to our
News from Alums 11
undergraduate and graduate students for their summer stipends or research
Academic Clubs 12- 13
related expenses.
Scholarships/Awards 14
If you have not been to Shineman Center, we will be happy to give you a tour of
Degree Candidates 15
the new facilities. Also we are always looking for our alumni to come to campus
Conferences 16
to serve as guest speakers, if you are interested, please drop us an email to set
Sept. Symposium 17
Alumni visit 18
There are several exciting news related to our faculty; such as a new promotion,
research fundings, publications, sabbatical, summer research, new
collaborations, and international trips. Enjoy reading our annual newsletter an 1
never stop supporting SUNY Oswego Chemistry.
Our 2016 Augustine Silveira Jr. Distinguished
Lecturer was Dr. Todd Maloney '96
After graduating with a B.S. in Chemistry from SUNY Oswego in 1996, Dr. Todd Maloney earned his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University
at Buffalo. He began his career at Pfizer Global Research and Development
in Ann Arbor, MI. While at Pfizer he was a member of the Chemical R&D
and Analytical Sciences R&D organizations, where he was involved in early
phase analytical development, automation technologies, and ultra-high
pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) for pharmaceutical analysis. In 2007 he joined Eli Lilly and Company as a member of the Analytical
Sciences Research and Development division, developing control strategies
for late stage drug substances and continuing to investigate UHPLC and automated method development
platforms for pharmaceutical analysis. Todd is currently a Principal Research Scientist in the Process Design
and Development group at Lilly in Indianapolis, Indiana where he leads a team responsible for developing
process analytical technologies supporting flow chemistry and continuous chemical processes.
Upon his arrival to campus he was first given a tour of Shineman Center by two of our graduate students in the MS Chemistry program, Geoffery Peterson ‘17 and Joe Starr ‘16. Todd was very impressed with the new
spaces and especially with our state of the art instrumental lab.
Todd was a student athlete at Oswego all four years. He was the soccer goalie under Coach Peterson. Todd
had the opportunity to visit with the current soccer coach Bob Friske and see the newly built Laker turf
stadium. Ironically enough, our current soccer goalie is also a chemistry major named Todd. Todd Lawson
will be graduating this May with his Chemistry BA degree. The two had a chance to meet up and talk shop.
His talk Thursday evening was held in the Marano Campus Center Auditorium. The title was "140 Years of
Innovation: Next Generation Development of New Medicines at Eli Lilly and Company". Prior to his talk Todd
was able to sit down with different chemistry faculty, students, and administrators and enjoy nice
conversations over dinner. During his presentation, Todd spoke about the history of his company from the first
commercial use of insulin in the 1920's to Lilly's current drugs such as Cialis, and Trulicity. He explained to
us how many factors influence how medicines are made from the chemistry, chemical engineering, and material science. He brought us through the drug development process and the types of work being done at
the various stages. Did you know that from discovery to patient, it takes on average 10-15 years and $2.6
billion dollars per drug? Todd's research group is involved in the Phase 3 Clinical Trial step working on
chemistry, manufacturing and control. Technology has brought about many changes in the pharmaceutical
industry. Todd introduced us to their automated synthesis lab (this runs 120 reactions per day using only
100mg of target), their continuous manufacturing process, and process analytical technology.
Dr. Maloney with Todd Lawson '16 talking
Left to Right: Fehmi Damkaci, Larry Fuller,
soccer and chemistry
Todd Maloney, Ken Hyde, Casey Raymond
On Friday morning Todd was invited to interact with students in two of our classes, sophomores taking the organic 2 lecture and freshmen in the general chem 2 lecture course. He spoke to them about his
experience in graduate school, his career path, and his current position at Lilly. Todd shared with them
some wonderful words of wisdom about keys to happiness and success.
Talking to sophomore chemistry majors Walter
Paz-Orozco'18 and Ilaya Kelley'18 fol owing his
appearance in CHE 332 lecture.
The Chemistry Club arranged a special meet and greet Oswego Sub Shop luncheon (one of Todd's favorite spots back in the day) where they were able to talk to him in a more informal setting about the different aspects of his job and career opportunities at Lilly. He wrapped up his visit on Friday afternoon with one more talk to the chemistry department's faculty and students in Room 122 Shineman entitled "The Role of Process Analytical Technology in Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing". Todd supervises a team of scientists at Lilly responsible for the development and integration of process analytical technologies supporting continuous processes. His team includes organic chemists, chemical engineers and analytical chemists. He explained that continuous manufacturing and process analytical technologies are the new area and future in pharmaceuticals. Where once it took an entire manufacturing site to produce a drug, now the work can be done in research hoods, with the same Kg/day output. He described the current analytical methods they employ to get information from the reactors without disturbing anything (real time data). He showed the group examples such as flow NMR, online LC, and a portable headspace GC which is made locally at Inficon in Syracuse, NY.
Todd talking to senior Tim Jones'16 and
Todd talking to student Aaron Brody'17
chemistry faculty member Dr. Niri about their
about careers at Lilly.
research project.
Faculty and Staff
Kestutis Bendinskas, Associate Professor, Biochemistry
Post-doctoral fellow, John Hopkins University, 1997 P
h.D., Bowling Green State University, 1996
.S., Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, 1991
Research Interests: Proteins and metabolites involved in cardiovascular problems in children and adults exposed to
heavy metals and the expression of such proteins and their metal-binding properties. Other research interests involve the detection methods for biomolecules in novel matrixes and the development of novel biochemistry and ‘omic teaching
laboratory experiments.
Update: Kestas is most proud this year of his students Sasha Padilla, who was accepted to the Biochemistry Ph.D.
program at University of Notre Dame, and Ethan Walker, who was accepted to the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology P h.D. program at the University of Rochester. Kestas Bendinskas and his new collaborators from the University of
Michigan have published an article about metabolomics in Bioinformatics in early 2016. He ran four active external grants this year. Thus, he and his students were busy every Saturday processing and storing human body samples to
assess effects of heavy metals on children health and explore effects of time-off on the health of adults. A significant
amount of his time this year was spent on writing five grants as a PI and three as a co-PI. He presented at three venues
this year: the national ACS meeting in San Diego, CA, the NIH Common Fund Metabolomics Annual Meeting, Lexington, K Y, and presented a talk at "Science Today" to Oswego community and SUNY Oswego faculty and students. Dr. B endinskas continues to spend a quarter of his productive time serving the scientific community as the Editor-in-Chief of
A merican Journal of Undergraduate Research (AJUR). This journal is now indexed by EBSCO and supported financially
by Wiley Publishing.
Sasha Padilla ‘16, Kestas Bendinskas, and Ethan Walker
Iain Thompson'16 and Tatiana Gregory'17 perform the PBMC
‘16 at the senior graduation party
purification procedure (photo from Jim Russell)
Martha Bruch, Professor, Physical Chemistry
h.D., University of Delaware, 1984
B .S., University of Delaware, 1978
Research Interests: Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, high performance liquid chromatography
(HPLC) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).
Fehmi Damkaci, Associate Professor, Organic Chemistry
Post-doctoral fellow, Boston College, 2004-2006
Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park, 2004
M.S., University of Maryland, College Park, 2000
Research Interests: Synthesis of designer polymers to capture heavy metals
from water, total synthesis of heterocyclic natural products with medicinal and/or
structural importance, and copper and iron catalyzed arylhalides using NPPA derivatives as ligands
Updates: Fehmi Damkaci's research groups were successful in securing funding for a post-doctoral researcher
from Turkey: Dr. Hasan Sarikahya has been working on synthesis of polymers and analyzing their heavy metal
capture capabilities from water. Dr. Damkaci had ten undergraduate and graduate research students working under
his guidance. In addition he started a new collaboration with the Cancer Research Center of SUNY Albany in
development of nanomaterials for slow release of drug molecules. In spring 2016, Damkaci and his research group published one paper: "N-Picolinamides as ligands for C-N bond formations" Tetrahedron letters 2016, 57,2197-2200. Dr. Damkaci continues to manage institutional NSF-STEP grant (around $860,000), and its 3rd year showed great retention rates by using peer-mentorship program within
freshman labs. Juniors and Seniors are placed in freshman labs as peer mentors (in addition to TA) to help them
with their work as well as questions regarding major, courses etc. Kristin Gublo coordinates the peer-mentorship
program for all science departments. Dr. Damkaci and Kristin Gublo are working on publishing the results of Peer- mentorship program. In addition, Dr. Damkaci had $22,500 external grant for high school summer research program. It served 16 students and three teachers by five faculty in STEM fields. Dr. Damkaci also served as co-PI in drafting the proposal for DoE FIPSE grant, which is a collaborative grant for increasing transfer student success.
The project was granted for $2.8 million to implement collaboration among five organizations for transfer student
Shokouh Haddadi, Assistant Professor, Forensics & Analytical Chemistry
Education:
PhD in Analytical Chemistry University of Waterloo, 2008
MS Tabriz University, 1999
BS Azad University, 1995
Research Interests: Chemical Analysis of Latent Fingerprints, Forensic Drug Analysis, Arson Detection
Updates: I worked at the chemistry department as a visiting assistant professor during the 2015-2016 academic year. I
taught criminalistic chemistry and forensic science courses in addition to analytical chemistry course and lab during the fall
and spring semester. I also conducted research in the area of forensic chemistry, working with four capstone students. I also accepted to be the capstone/assessment coordinator as of Spring 2016, which I will continue in the coming year as well. I applied for two challenge grants this summer, which were both approved. I also got the tenure track position in
analytical forensic chemistry and I am happy that I can continue my research and teaching in the area of forensic science
here at SUNY Oswego. I applied for the early start program, which was also accepted. What I cherish the most here, besides the new building and the instruments and of course the lake, is working with my wonderful students and colleagues in a joyful and productive environment!
Webe Kadima, Associate Professor, Analytical & Biochemistry
Post-doctoral fellow, University of California, Riverside, 1987–1989 Ph.D., University of Alberta, 1986 M.Sc., University of Montreal, 1982
B.S., University of Montreal, 1980
Research Interests: The investigation of plants used to treat diabetes in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) involving clinical studies in the DRC and biochemical studies at SUNY Oswego.
Updates: We have continued to investigate the mechanisms of plants used to treat type 2 diabetes in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This year, we are pleased to share that the work of three capstone
students – Deborah Ajayi , Tia Bullard , and Bianca Camillaci- has confirmed that an aqueous extract of the
stem bark of the Musanga cecropioides inhibits three enzymes involved in three different pathways that lead to
hyperglycemia in people with type 2 diabetes –digestion, gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis. Our next step is
to isolate the specific compound(s) that inhibit the enzymes and to determine their structures. So, I am looking forward to the next crop of capstone students to move forward this work! This summer, I am going back to the DRC. I will collect fresh extract of Musanga cecropioides and Paropsia brazeanna. I will also administer hemoglobin A1C test to the small group of diabetic patients at the Medical Center Mwinda --I have been
involved with the center and the patients since 2009.
Biolchemistry Major Earns 2016 Chancellor's Award
Congratulations to Iain Thompson'16, one of three SUNY Oswego students that received the 2016 SUNY
Chancel or's Award for Student Excellence. The Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence honors State
University of New York students who have best demonstrated and been recognized for their integration of academic excellence with other aspects of their lives, which may include leadership, campus involvement, athletics, career achievement, community service or creative and performing arts. Iain did research under Dr. Bendsinkas and Dr. Contento, he also studied at the National Brain Research Center
in New Delhi. He was President and co-founder of the Pre-Health Care Club, he also is a member of C-STEP
Club. He worked as a personal trainer as well as interned and volunteered at Oswego Hospital. In the fall he earned the college's Dr. Walter Freund Memorial Scholarship in pre-health. He plans to attend medical school in the fall of 2017 This award is the highest honor for a SUNY student. Way to go Iain! We are so proud of your accomplishments!
At the award ceremony on April 5th
in Alban, Iain with Chancellor Nancy
Zimpher and Jerri Drummond,the
Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students (photo
from SUNY facebook page)
Vadoud Niri, Assistant Professor, Analytical Chemistry
Post-doctoral fellow, University of North Dakota, 2009-2010
Post-doctoral fellow, University of Waterloo, 2004-2008 Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry, University of Tabriz
Research Interests: Dr. Niri's research group has been focusing on developing new sampling/sample preparation
and analytical methods for monitoring chemical pollutants, which negatively affect public health and the environment
(air, water, soil and sediment media) and investigating the efficiency of possible removal/remediation techniques for
these compounds.
Update:
During the last year, Dr. Niri has been active in research by supervising 5 graduate students and 13 undergraduate
students in their research projects in the area of analytical chemistry. He received 5 internal grants to support his
research activities and has applied for an external grant. His research group worked on different projects including
chemical analysis of electronic cigarettes, analysis of microbial volatile compounds from mold samples, and analysis
of local, store, and organic fruits and vegetables for their metal and pesticide contents. He has been collaborating with
Dr. Damkaci, and Dr. Haddadi. He has submitted two papers for publication. In addition to presentations in on-campus
conferences such as QUEST and Summer Scholars Symposium, Dr. Niri and his students have presented the results of their works in regional and national meetings. Presentations (presenters are underlined):
V. Niri, G. Peterson, A. Donahoe, Chemical Analysis of Electronic Cigarettes Using Solid Phase Microextraction
and Needle Trap Device Coupled to Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry, 250th American Chemical Society
National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 16-20, 2015. (Oral presentation)
2. H. Posada, J. Calvert, V. Niri, Analyzing Toxic Heavy Metals in Local Fruits and Vegetables, 61st Annual ACS
Undergraduate Research Symposium, St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY, April 16, 2016. (Oral presentation)
3. T. Jones, G. Peterson, V. Niri, So You Think Electronic Cigarettes are Safe?, 61st Annual ACS Undergraduate
Research Symposium, St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY, April 16, 2016. (Oral presentation)
Casey Raymond, Assistant Professor, Inorganic Chemistry
Post-doctoral fellow, Northwestern University, 1996–1998 Ph.D., Colorado State University, 1996 B.S., Michigan State University, 1991
Research Interests: Solid-state inorganic chemistry, metal oxide, boron chemistry, crystallography, brewing science,
fermentation science, and food science.
Updates:
I was happy to get back to teaching this year and getting a new research project off the ground with an undergradaute
geochemistry student. The new project involves the exploratory hydrothermal synthesis of metal polychalcogenides
(Qn , Q=S, Se & n=2–6). The first goal was to get the laboratory set up for this new project and duplicate previous
results with different reaction vessels. As we completed this task and moved to new reactions, we observed some
interesting features on our crystals by SEM. We are currently attempting to understand the source/cause of these
features. On a different note, Mike Knopp and I published a structural paper that clarified the bonding present in the pyrazolones that he and Prof. Silveira worked on. In March, I presented a talk on apps that help teach inorganic chemistry at the National ACS meeting in San Diego. My first year as the Associate Director of the College Honors Program was quite interesting. The biggest challenges
were creating schedules for the incoming class of honors students, because they are from every major on campus,
and working with a dozen different departments to create the schedule of honors classes for each semester. I attended the national and Northeast region of the National Collegiate Honors Council. We had two student presenters
at the regional meeting. Fall semester will bring four new faculty to the department, including a VAP inorganic chemist. It'll be nice to have another inorganic person around to talk with and share the teaching duties. It's been nearly eight years since Ken Hyde retired—unless my math is wrong.
Jeffery Schneider, Associate Professor, Analytical and Environmental Chemistry
Ph.D., Dartmouth College, 1992
M.S., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1985
B.S., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1981
Research Interests: The determination of arsenic and lead in soils of Rice Creek Field Station, kinetic and equilibrium
studies of novel water-soluble porphyrins and the student of carbohydrate composition of beer.
Updates:
Kristin Gublo, Instructional Support Specialist
M.S., SUNY Oswego, 1999
B.S., SUNY Oswego, 1996
Updates:
Kristin is responsible for providing all reagents and equipment for our laboratory courses and the training of the
teaching assistants. She provides lab safety training workshops each semester to the chemistry faculty, graduate
students and undergraduate research students. Kristin serves as the department's Advisement
Coordinator, Coordinator of the General Chemistry Peer Mentor Program, and last year became a First Year Advisor. She is teaching a new course for the department CHE 110 which is a "Freshmen Chemistry Seminar" course. This course provides incoming First Year Students a Gateway to Chemistry course to help smooth their transition and provide opportunities to build a strong cohort of support. She works closely with our Career Services office to provide
our majors with career exploration field trips and alumni visits. This year she planned a trip to Cooper Vision in
Scottvil e, Anheuser Busch in Baldwinsville, and helped arrange Dr. Todd Maloney's '96 visit. She helps advise both
the Chemistry Club and the Pre-optometry club. Kristin is active in various committees on campus including fundraising, advisement practices, and the Chemical Hygiene Plan committee. She continues to supervise 5 work study students per year. Her family is her "spare time", Ryan is going into 6th grade and Emily will be starting 3nd grade this fall. Her husband Ed (Oswego alumn ꞌ95/97) has been with Thermopatch Inc. in Syracuse for 12 years as their
Operations Manager.
Fred Scoles, Instructional Support Technician
B.S.,Ohio State University
M.S., Ohio State University
Updates:
Deborah Ajayi '16, Tia Bul ard '16, Dr. Kadima, and
Bianca Camil aci ‘16
Dr. Pagano with Hannah Valentino '16, Andrew
Garner '09 & ‘11, and Jesse Mazur ‘17
Nathaniel Stemmler '16, Kate Bailie '16, and Dr.
Dr. Bendinskas with Ethan Walker '16 and his
Tim Jones '16, Douglas Carey '16, Todd Lawson '16,
Alex Corrao '16, Dr. Kadima, and Amanda
Dr. Niri, and Hilda Posada ‘16
Gunarathna ‘16
Danielle Chasworth '16, Dr. Haddadi, and Naa
Ashleley ‘16
Congratulations to Hilda Posada ‘16- the 2016 Sigma Xi Best Quest Presentation award (shown here with
her research advisor Dr. Niri)
Twelve SUNY Oswego chemistry majors spent
Career Exploration Field Trips
the afternoon of March 30, 2016 learning about
career opportunities at the Anheuser Busch
facility in Baldwinsville, NY. Their tour guide was
On September 23, 2015 several STEM majors went on a career
Brew master Matt Morgenthaler who earned his
exploration field trip to CooperVision's made to order
chemistry degree from ESF and has been with
manufacturing site in Scottsville, NY. CooperVision is a leading
the company for 25+ years. He started the
global manufacturer of soft contact lenses. They have 8,000
afternoon with a presentation to the students on the history of beer, different ingredients they use,
employees worldwide and 1,200 in th
e Rochester area. The
students were able to interact with their chemists and
various brewery terminology, and the science
engineers. The students enjoyed seeing how the same
behind the entire process. The students enjoyed
instrumentation they are learning about in their chemistry
hearing about the different techniques that they
courses are being used at the facility. Their Lab Manager
are learning in their lab courses and how they
Connie Musante showed them instruments such as UV-Vis, IR,
apply in a large scale manufacturing setting. The trip was funded by the Experiential Learning
HPLC, GC, TOC, autoclave, conductivity and pH meters. The students toured both the manual and automated lines of the
Office. Chaperones included Sheila Cooley (Co-
entire contact lens manufacturing process lead by Process
op office) and Kristin Gublo from Chemistry.
Engineer Mike DiRoma. The students saw first hand all of the
intricate steps involved from casting the mold, to lathing, to the
packaging and distribution. They were privileged to meet up
with an Oswego chemistry alumni Jerry Koehler (MS class of
1983) who is their Senior Quality Manager. He talked about his
position at the company and gave them valuable career advice
as well as sharing fond memories of his days back in Snygg
Kim Lagatta '17 and Diana Rispoli '17 taking in the
hop's aroma
Front Row: Dana Mitchell, Bianca Fernandez, Jenna Kasza,
Marianna Butera Back Row: Silvia Roman, Kyler Anderson,
Students learning about the various control systems
Kyle Pollicove and Jerry Koehler ('83)
for operating the plant
Kyle Pol icove'18
and Kyler
Anderson '19
(Chemistry
Co-op students
all suited up to
tour the facility)
The trip was organized by Mallory Bower (Career Services) and
Kristin Gublo (Chemistry) and the Pre-Optometry Club. Funding was provided by Career Services and the Department of Chemistry.
News from Alumni
Andrew Preischel '12 is working at Niagara
Lubricant Co. Inc. NLC is a contract packager and manufacturer of industrial, commercial, and
Danielle Gilbert –Perper '06,'03 is celebrating
automotive lubricants/greases. He started out as a
her 10th anniversary at Johnson & Johnson. She
quality control chemist, was promoted to R&D
is the IT Lead in the Janssen Supply Chain group,
Chemist, and then last year he was promoted to
working on Lab Systems, responsible for the
their Lab Manager. He is also the company's
standard archiving software laboratory data for
Management Representative for their quality
supply chain labs throughout the network
management system, authoring, administering, and
(worldwide). She will be celebrating her seven
overseeing the procedures and quality objectives of
year wedding anniversary! Her and Adam just
bought their "dream house" in Lebanon Township, New Jersey and continue to be blessed everyday
Adam Szymaniak ‘13 is a third year PhD
with their son, Max, who is turning 4 in August.
Candidate in Organic Chemistry at Boston College,
Morken group. De veloping methodologies for
Craig Johnson ‘07 was married to Catherine
asymmetric transition-metal catalyzed synthesis of
Knight on July 18th, 2015. They live in
organoboronates, and their application towards the
Massachusetts where Craig just finished his 5th
synthesis of biologically relevant natural products.
year of teaching chemistry and biology at Bristol
County Agricultural High School. He presented for
Shirley Peng '13 graduated from the University of
the first time with a colleague at the National
Cincinnati last year with her M.S. degree in
Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference
materials science. She is working in Pittsburgh,
in Nashville in April of 2016 on Standards-based
where she currently works on formulating coatings
for military/other governmental applications.
Ben Weber ‘13 is working at Albany Molecular
Kevin Watkins'10 is planning on defending his
PhD this fall at the University of Wyoming. His
work is in semiconductor photoelectrochemistry
Carolyn Joyce ‘13 is starting a new job this
as it applies to solar energy.
summer in the chemistry department at R.E. Ginna
nuclear plant with Exelon just outside Rochester.
Rachel Koenigstein '10, '08 received her MSEd
in 2010 from Oswego. She lives in Long Island
Vyncent Nguyen ‘14 received his M.S. in
and teaches Chemistry and Science Research at
Chemical and Biological Engineering. He is
Yorktown High School. Some of her students
participated in Genius Olympiad 2016. She
enjoyed bringing them the campus.
Fengrong Wang ‘11 is a fifth-year PhD student
Justin Sbarra '15 was accepted to Dental School.
at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of
He will be attending UB Dental School in the fall of
Public Health in the Department of Biochemistry &
Molecular Biology. She is in the laboratory of Dr.
Pierre A. Coulombe and studying how keratin
Chad Smith '15, ‘13 is a Waste Water Treatment
influences keratinocyte migration.
Operator at GDI Integrated Facility Services. GDI is
the temp agency for Novelis.
Kristin Leach ‘12 is now working in the
purification department at the Vaccine Research
Katie Tylock ‘15 is employed at Albany Molecular
Center at the NIH in Gaithersburg. She is very
Research as a Research Scientist I.
thankful for the summer internship experience at
WR Grace while a student here. From her
connections there, she was recommended for the
job at the NIH.
Chemistry Club News
2015-2106 Chemistry Club Officers
The club started out the school year in September with their Annual
Liquid Nitrogen ice cream social to introduce the new students to the
President: Gabriel Odugbesi Vice President: Alyssa Aldrich
faculty and upperclassmen. In October they sponsored an ACS
Webinar Pizza Party. They also participated in the col ege's Green
Secretary: Thomas Sobiech
and Au Day, sponsored a ice cream making challenge, and
Treasurer: Laura Smith
volunteered by giving tours of Shineman to prospective students during open houses. They ended the fall semester with their annual
Advisor: Casey Raymond
holiday party saying farewell to our December graduates. In the
spring semester they continued the annual chemistry valentine
fundraiser to raise money for a local food pantry. They sponsored
breakfast and lunch for our Quest day presenters, sponsored our
Faculty mini presentations for our juniors, and a meet and greet
uncheon with Dr. Todd Maloney. The officers were honored at a
Leadership reception by the administration on April 11th. They all
celebrated the end of the semester with a party for our May
graduates. The same group of officers were reelected for 2016-
2017, they are looking forward to another great year ahead!
Pre-Optometry Club Officers 2015-2016
President: Dana Mitchell
Pre-Optometry Club News
Vice President: Jenna Kasza
Secretary: Marianna Butera
Treasurer: Matthew Waszkiewicz
The club was so excited for their career exploration field trip
in September to Copper Vision which is located just outside
Advisor: Kristin Gublo
of Rochester. See more on this experience on page 10.
hroughout the spring semester they organized a
used prescription eyewear drive on campus for
OneSight, a charitable program dedicated to
helping the world to see. They were able to collect
over 75 pairs of glasses from faculty and students
on campus. Congratulations to their gift card
winners: Patricia Meleski (Dean's office), Mary Craw (Res Life), Andrew Salvagni (Facilities), and
Sofia Windstam (Biological Sciences).
In February, they worked alongside the chemistry
club to make and sell chemistry valentines to raise
money for Human Concerns, a local food pantry.
Officers: Marianna Butera '17, Jenna Kasza ‘17, and Dana
Mitchel '17 outside the building
The pre-optometry officers were honored at a
They sponsored an OAT/ MCAT information session on
Leadership reception by the administration in
campus on October for all pre-health majors. They brought a
Sheldon Hall on April 11th.
speaker in from Kaplan.
Good news! Our club President Dana Mitchel was accepted into the Optometry Learning Experience
at Salus University over the winter break. She
enjoyed learning more about the profession and
their program. Both Dana and Marianna will be on
applying to Optometry schools for fall 2017.
Marianna Butera '17, Jenna Kasza ‘17, and Dana Mitchell
'17. And Bianca Fernandez ‘19
Class of 2016 that graduated with
department honors:
Amanda D M Gunarathna
Hannah Valentino
Willy G. Schuh Outstanding Senior Award &
raduate Student Award in Environmental Pearle Monroe Scholarship:
Hannah Valentino
ACS Senior Organic Award: Cory Ludwig
POLYED Organic Award: Kyle Pollicove
Anthony VanGeet Scholarship: Gabe Odugbesi
ACS Analytical Award: Marianna Butera
Outstanding TA Award: Katie Piazza
Outstanding Peer Mentor Award-Alison Taylor
2015- 2016 Chemistry Degree Candidates
August 2015
John Gleason
Chemical Field Technician at Chemcept, Inc
Dec 2015
Christina Buckingham
Associate Plant Operator at Exelon Nuclear at Nine Mile Point
QC Analyst at Regeneron
Christopher McMullen
Biochemistry BS Sample Inventory Operations Associate at Bristol Myers Squibb
Christopher Winn
HPLC Analyst at Galson Labs
May 2016
Deborah Ajayi
SUNY Oswego, Chemistry MS
Wegmans School of Pharmacy/ Pharm.D
Bianca Camillaci
Danielle Chasworth
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Forensic Science MS
Alexandria Connelly
SUNY Oswego-Adol Ed Chemistry MST 7-12
Alexandra Corrao
Amanda D M Gunarathna
SUNY Oswego, Chemistry MS
QC Analyst at Regeneron
SUNY Oswego, Chemistry MS
SUNY Oswego, MSED
Post college appointee, Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California Sasha Padilla
University of Notre Dame, Biochemistry PhD, TA
SUNY Oswego, Chemistry MS
Hannah Valentino
Virginia Tech, PhD, ICTAS doctorial fellowship
University of Rochester, Biochemistry and Mol Biology PhD, TA
Syracuse University, Chemistry PhD, TA
Master Candidates:
Abdul Alawaed
Chemical Lab Technician at Yincae Advanced Materials LLC in Albany
Biotech Production Specialist in the clinical manufacturing department at Regeneron
Lyndon Flynn-Roach
Quality Control Laboratory Technician at VanDeMark Chemical Inc. in Lockport, NY.
GC-MS lab analyst at Galson Labs, Syracuse NY
Thank you! We would like to thank our generous alumni that made donations
Some of our students presented at the Rochester
Academy of Science's 42nd annual fall scientific paper
to our department last year. We used this money to support extra programs and to purchase equipment for our laboratories. Thank
session, held Nov. 7 at Finger Lakes Community
"Method Development for Analyzing Pharmaceuticals in Drinking Water Using High Performance Liquid
Chromatography" by Christopher McMul en ‘15 and Dr. Niri, and "Analyzing Heavy Metal Content of Local
Fruits and Vegetables" by Hilda Posada ‘16, James Calvert MS ‘17
Also some presented at the 61st Annual Undergraduate
If you are interested in making a gift to the college to support the
Research Symposium sponsored by the Rochester
partment, you can go to alumni's secure on-line website
Section of the American Chemical Society at St. John
(www.oswego.edu/givenow). To allocate the donation to our
de partment, simply specify "Other Designation". You have threee options available: Chemistry Department, a Chemistry
Sc holarship, or the Chemistry Summer Research Fund. If you
would like to make a donation via check, checks can be made out
to "Oswego College Foundation, Inc." and can be mailed to:
Shown here
University Development, 219 Sheldon Hall, Oswego, NY 13126.
with his poster:
Please write your designation in the memo line.
Thomas Sobiech
Others that
presented at St. John Fisher include
Gary Ellis '17 and
Walter Paz-orozco ‘18
Real World Experiences:
Biochemistry major Alison Taylor '16 worked at the Oswego Port this spring semester in a paid co-op
position. She works with SUNY Oswego's Agricultural Testing and Analysis Laboratory. They test grains,
corn, soybeans and wheat at the port prior to the exchange between farmer and buyer. Her faculty
advisor is Dr. Contento of the biological sciences department. They lab is located on the ground level in
Shineman. Alison will begin her graduate work at
Oswego in fall 2016.
ck row: Nathan Stemmler (´16), Naa Asheley (´16), Cydney Ward (´16)
Front Row: Rachel Scalzo (´16), Gabriel Odughesi (´17), Marianna Butera (´17)
William Ernest (Geology major) and Alison Taylor speak with
Port of Oswego Executive Director Zelko Kirincich and President Deborah F. Stanley.(Photo from Jim Russell)
The 2015 Summer Scholarly and
Creative Activities Symposium:
This took place September 4th in the Sheldon Hall Ballroom. It was a great opportunity for the community to
check out student research and creative projects completed over the summer by Challenge Grant Recipients, Global
Lab Students and other summer scholars at SUNY Oswego. Over 50 student projects were featured.
Geoffrey Peterson '17 and Tim Jones '16 from Niri's group
Ilaya Kel y '18 from Niri's group.
Christopher McMullen '15 from Niri's group
Walter PazOrozco '18 and Zack Kuvent '16 from Damkaci's
Hilda Posada '16 and James Calvert '17 from
Emily Yerdon '16 from Raymond's group
Jason Biasini '16 from Damkaci's group
On December 9th, Tanya Rutter '97 MS '00 brought 15
Innovation Tech High School BOCES students up from Liverpool to utilize equipment in the organic teaching lab.
Kristin Gublo along with four chemistry students volunteered
to help the high students successfully synthesize aspirin from
Shown here are teachers Benjamin Feinberg '06 MS'12 and
Tanya Rutter '97 M'00 working with Innovation Tech HS students Layloni Vinson and Mikael Michlovitch during their
recrystallization step. (Photo from Jim Russell)
Dr. Damkaci spent some time talking to the high school
students during their visit about Medicinal Chemistry. After the
lab work they had lunch and learned about the different
careers they can pursue as a chemistry major. They had a fun filled day.
Jim Parise '00 Teaching Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of Notre Dame
recently published a textbook, "Organic Chemistry, Sixth Edition" with Marc Loudon at Purdue University.
Fengrong Wang ‘11
F Wang, A Zieman, PA Coulombe Methods in enzymology 568, 303-350
Adam Szymaniak ‘13:
B. Potter, A. A. Szymaniak, E. K. Edelstein, and J. P. Morken. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 17918.
L. Zhang, G. J. Lovinger, E. K. Edelstein, A. A. Szymaniak, M. P. Chierchia and J. P. Morken, Science, 2016, 351, 70
Genius Olympiad:
During the summers, Dr. Fehmi Damkaci keeps busy with the GENIUS Olympiad, an international high school project competition about environmental issues (www.geniusolympiad). This year it hosted 950 students and teachers from 64
countries in five disciplines with environmental focus. The disciplines include science, art, creative writing, design and
music. Summer 2016 was the fifth annual GENIUS Olympiad and received more than 1400 projects from 69 countries. The
program accepted only 38% of the submitted projects. It became the 2nd biggest international high school project competition in the world. Below are pictures from the 2016 science competition, with chemistry faculty judges Dr. Vadoud
Niri and Dr. Sue Haddadi.
Frank J. Pierce '11 passed away suddenly on Saturday, April 16, 2016, as a result of a motorcycle accident. Surviving are
his son, Wolfgang Pierce; parents, Bruce and Rebecca Pierce; siblings, Bruce Pierce Jr., Joshua (Shelley) Pierce and Rhonda
Pierce; nieces, Vharie and Kitty; nephews, Maximus and
Roman; and many aunts, uncles and cousins.
Alumni- If your company has any internship or co-op opportunities for our current students, please reach out to us. Same with any job postings for BS or MS chemists. We would be more than happy to advertise the positions to our students. Please keep in touch and send us updates for next year's newsletter. Our address is: SUNY Oswego Department of Chemistry 296 Shineman Center 30 Centennial Drive Oswego, NY 13126
Department Secretary: Christine Finnegan ([email protected]) Phone: 315-312-3048 Email: [email protected] Would you like to join our Oswego Chemistry Alumni Group on
Linked In? Simply send a message to Kristin Gublo through her Linked in account. What a fabulous way to reconnect with old classmates and help our recent grads network in the field. Currently we have 75 members.
Source: https://www.oswego.edu/chemistry/sites/www.oswego.edu.chemistry/files/2015_2016_newsletter.pdf
Doklady Biological Sciences. Vol. 375, 2000. pp. 590-591. Translated from Doklady Akademii Nauk. Vol. 375. No. 5, 2000. pp. 703-704.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2000 by Chermva, Lapshin. Opioid Modulation of Pain Threshold in Fish L. S. Chervova and D. N. Lapshin Presented by Academician P.V. Simonov February 23, 2000 Received March 14. 2000
Volume 2 Spring 2007 REAP THE BENEFITS OF LOWERING LDL CHOLESTEROL BELOW 70 Over 50 percent of the U.S. population have cholesterol levels that are considered New patient enrollment to be too high. High blood cholesterol, also called hypercholesterolemia, is known tosignificantly lead to heart disease and stroke. Sometimes, no matter how much a person controls their diet, weight, exercise and medical conditions, it just isn'tenough.