Departmental News

* Cooling the Earth by Enhancing the Natural Sulfur Cycle. Prof. Oliver Wingenter and his colleagues propose a limited iron fertilization of the Southern Ocean as a means to stimulate the natural sulfur cycle associated with marine phytoplankton which could result in increased cloud reflectivity that would slow down global warming and possibly decrease sea level rise. Wingenter and his research colleagues Dr. Scott M. Elliot at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Prof. Donald R. Blake at University of California, Irvine, report their research findings in an article published July 18 in the journal, Atmospheric Environment, titled "New Directions: Enhancing the natural sulfur cycle to slow global warming".

Wingenter and his colleagues propose a limited fertilization of only about 2 percent of Southern Ocean---which would result in an estimated two degrees (Celsius) cooling of the region. "A program of limited-scale iron fertilization in the Southern Ocean and perhaps a portion of the equatorial Pacific may have the potential to set back the tipping point of leading to a runaway greenhouse effect from about 10 years to 20 or more years." Wingenter estimates.

* Assistant Professor Peng Zhang and students, have published a paper in the Chemistry of Materials, Nanoparticle-based Photosensitizers Under CW Infrared Excitation.

* Assistant Professors Peng Zhang and Wim Steelant, and students, have published a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Versatile Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy at Infrared Excitation.

* Prof. Oliver Wingenter and his research group have discovered that increased levels of ocean acidity and carbon dioxide concentrations have resulted in unexpected changes in oceanic chemical processes. This research sheds light on how these processes regulate climate. The article 'Unexpected consequences of increasing CO2 and ocean acidity on marine production of DMS and CH2ClI: Potential climate impacts' appears in the on March 7 edition of Geophysical Research Letters. An National Science Foundation press release can be found at NSF press release.

* Dr. Ingo Janser joined the department, starting in Fall 2007. Dr. Janser earned his Ph.D. at the University of Aachen in Germany and is currently working as a post-doc in the Vollhardt Group at the University of California, Berkeley.

* Assistant Professor Peng Zhang has published a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Design of a Highly Sensitive and Specific Nucleotide Sensor Based on Photon Upconverting Particles.

* Associate Professor Alex Kornienko and a group of students and collaborators from Chemistry and Biology recently published a paper in the Journal of Organic Chemistry, Synthesis and biological evaluation of aromatic analogues of conduritol F, L-chiro-inositol, and dihydroconduritol F structurally related to the amaryllidaceae anticancer constituents.

* Assistant Professor Wim Steelant, M.S. student Amber Daniels, and collborators have published a paper in the journal Oncology Reports on their work on identifying anticancer activity in southwestern plants. The paper is titled Effects of extracts from two Native American plants on proliferation of human breast and colon cancer cell lines in vitro.

Our current seminar, tutoring, and recitation schedules are now posted.

Department of Chemistry Brochure

Questions or comments
chem@nmt.edu
575.835.5263

May 28, 2008