A Message From The Chair

Welcome to Towson Chemistry students, faculty,

staff, alumni and other visitors!

We welcome all visitors to the Department. It

would be great to see or hear from our alums!

The gigantic ($150 million) project to expand and

renovate Smith Hall is back on track! The Gover-

nor’s capital budget for Fiscal Year 2013 includes

$5.7 million for project design. In July the Univer-

sity will select a team of architects to execute the

design. Our facilities are old (many of our alums

would have no trouble recognizing the class-

rooms, labs, and offices that they frequented as

students), cramped and ill-suited for 21st century

education and research. Therefore, we look for-

ward eagerly to this critical project.

We are looking forward to partying with you at our

Homecoming tailgate celebration in September.

See the Newsletter for details.

The faculty conduct periodic reviews of our Chem-

istry major, Forensic Chemistry major and Mas-

ters in Forensic Science curricula to keep them

relevant and effective for our students. You, our

alumni, can help us in this effort by providing the

following feedback:

1. How useful has our curriculum been to your

career?

2. If you employ our recent graduates, how do

they shape up?

Another question: If you are in a position to do

so, are you interested in offering internship oppor-

tunities for our current students?

DEPARTMENT NEWS Towson University

Department of Chemistry

Newsletter 1

We look forward to receiving your input. Please

reply directly to Dr. Richard Preisler, Department of

Chemistry, Chairperson at rpreisler@towson.edu.

Wishing all of you and your families a fun-filled

summer!

Richard Preisler, Chair

A Facebook site is here.

Let us hear from you! Please send your in-

formation to : chemalums@towson.edu

We welcome all visitors to the Department.

It would be great to see or hear from our al-

ums!

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

1. Message from the Chair

2. Visit from Art Yarbrough

3. Grants/Publications/Presentations

4. Tailgating at Homecoming

Volume 3, Issue 1 Spring 2012

Newsletter 2

Art Yarbrough visited the Chemistry Department on May 11, 2012. where he

provided a seminar highlighting his long and productive career including his

time as a Chemistry faculty at Towson which began in 1957. Initially, he

taught both General and Organic Chemistry in old Stephens Hall. Laboratories

consisted of a series of demos, since there were no hoods. After others were

hired, Art taught General Chemistry exclusively and did so until he retired. Art

served as Gen Chem coordinator several times and for many years was the

sole individual responsible for safety. He wrote the Department’s first compre-

hensive safety guide. The current faculty remember Art as quiet, mild-

mannered, and a true southern gentleman. There are PhD's today who credit

their experience with Art in Gen Chem for their decision to major in Chemistry.

From left to right; Henry Chen, Elmer Kreisel, Liina Ladon, Richard Preisler (Chair, Chemistry), Art Yarbrough, Ned

Larkin, Joe Topping

Newsletter 3

Publications

Tim Brunker is first author on a paper accepted for publication in Dalton Transactions:

Tim J. Brunker, Branka Kovač, Konrad Kowalski, Walther Polit, Rainer F. Winter, Arnold L. Rheingold and Igor Novak. “Electronic Structures of Methylated Azaferrocenes and their Borane-Adducts: Photoelec-tron Spectroscopy and Electronic Structure Calcula-tions.”

David Ownby coauthored two articles with Joel Snodgrass and their Summer 2011 REU students:

Brown, M.*, E. Dobbs*, J.W. Snodgrass, D.R. Own-by. “Ameliorative interactive effects of sodium chlo-ride and copper on toxicity to Cope’s Gray Tree Frog (Hyla chrysoscelis) and Green Frog (Rana clamitans) embryos.” Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. In Press. Doi:10.1002/etc.1751.

Dobbs, E.*, M. Brown*, J.W. Snodgrass, D.R. Own-by. 2012. “Dependence of salt toxicity to Cope‟s Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) on water depth.” Herpetologica. 68(1):22-30.

Sonali Raje is first author on a paper, with Drs. Gail Kaplan and Mike Krach, accepted for publication in Mathematics Teacher: “Connecting spatial reasoning ideas in mathematics and chemistry.” The research was funded through Sonali’s MHEC grant.

Grants

Ryan Casey and David Ownby are co-PI’s on a grant from the International Copper Association/Copper Development Association.

Casey, RE, SM Lev, DR Ownby. “Attenuation of the Potential Impacts of Copper Roof Runoff by Storm-water Best Management Practices.” $200,403.

Richard Preisler and Sonali Raje were awarded a $37,000 USM Carnegie Course Redesign grant for the redesign of CHEM 121 (Allied Health Chemistry Lecture I).

Sonali Raje (PI) partnered with Dr. Gail Kaplan and Dr. Mike Krach (co-PIs) from the Department of Mathematics and Mr. Jeff Beeson (co-PI) from the Center for Professional Studies and received an award of $110,995 from the Maryland Higher Educa-tion Commission CPIP Program for “Enhancement of College Preparation Skills and Application Process Awareness for WEB Du Bois High School.”

Grants cont.

Ryan Sours submitted a proposal to NSF-DMR, “Chromatographic investigation of molecular interac-tions with calcite.” $265,635.

Research Presentations

Three M.S. in Forensic Science students from Ellen Hondrogiannis’ research group presented research posters at the 26th International Forum on Process Analytical Technology (January 25; Baltimore, MD ).

Andrew Schmidt** and Ellen Hondrogiannis. “Attribution of sulfamide, precursor to the neurotoxin tetramethylenedisulfotetramine, using elemental rati-os measured by ICP/MS.”

Katherine Rotta** and Ellen Hondrogiannis. “The use of WDXRF and discriminant analysis in the identifi-cation of the elemental composition of vanilla sam-ples and the determination of the country of origin.”

Ryan Davis** and Quick Silver Analytics, Inc. “Evaluation of forensic tools and techniques for weapons of mass destruction sampling.”

Sonali Raje gave a platform presentation entitled, “Curriculum changes for enhanced conceptual un-derstanding in Biochemistry.” Sonali also was the co-organizer, with Dr. Santiago Sandi-Urena, Universi-ty of South Florida, of a symposium at the ACS Na-tional Meeting on Chemistry Education: International and Multicultural Perspectives.

Shuhua Ma, Huanqiu Li, Jing Yang, Chunhua Qiao, ‘Probing the interactions between the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein and a new class of rhodanine-based acylsulfonamide derivative inhibitors’, American Chemical Society 43rd Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting, May 31st-June 2nd, 2012, UMBC, Baltimore, MD Natalie Petrillo, Shuhua Ma, ‘Substrate binding and structure equilibration for the peptide hydrolysis cata-lyzed by Human T-cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 (HTLV-1) protease’ American Chemical Society 43rd Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting, May 31st-June 2nd, 2012, UMBC, Baltimore, MD.

Xiaochen Zhang, Shuhua Ma, ‘Computational simu-lation of Laminaripentaose-producing b-1,3-glucanase (LPHase) catalytic reaction’ American Chemical Society 43rd Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting, May 31st-June 2nd, 2012, UMBC, Baltimore, MD.

Newsletter 4

Research Presentations cont.

Ana Maria Soto and Gordon Crews, "The Effect of Helix Length on the Conformation of RNA Bulges" Poster presented at the Gordon Research Confer-ence on Biopolymers, Newport, Rhode Island, June 3-8, 2012. Tim Brunker gave a Chemistry department seminar at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA on March 16 entitled “Chiral Molecular Switches and Sandwiches: Design, Synthesis and Reactivity.”

Three Chemistry faculty and three undergraduates gave presentations at the 243rd ACS National Meet-ing in San Diego CA, March 25-28.

Tim’s undergraduate research student Samantha Wood gave a poster presentation:

Wood, S.*, Taylor, K.*, Brunker T. “Synthesis and characterization of single enantiomer tetradentate aminosulfoxide ligands.”

Tim Brunker gave two platform presentations (* = un-dergrad authors):

Atolagbe, P.*, Taylor, K.*, Wood. S.*, Rheingold, A. and Brunker, T. “Redox-induced linkage isomerism and geometric isomerism in Ru(II) dichloride complex-es of chiral tetradentate aminosulfoxide ligands.”

Bentivegna, B.*, Gumabon, C.*, Rheingold, A. and Brunker T. “Formation and reactivity of highly electro-philic boron-containing cations derived from azaferro-cene-boranes.”

Two of Clare Muhoro’s undergraduate research stu-dents, Anthony Jiang and Abdulafeez Oluyadi gave poster presentations:

Jiang, A.* and Muhoro, C. M. “Synthesis of phospha-nyl(organyl)boranes and their uses as ligands in tran-sition metal complexes.”

Oluyadi, A.* and Muhoro, C.M. “Titanium (II)-catalyzed hydroborations of unsaturated heteroatomic substrates.”

Two of Clare Muhoro.s undergraduate research stu-

dents, Anthony Jiang and Abdulafeez Oluyadi gave

poster presentations:

Jiang, A.* and Muhoro, C. M. “Synthesis of phospha-

nyl(organyl)boranes and their uses as ligands in tran-

sition metal complexes.”

Oluyadi, A.* and Muhoro, C.M. “Titanium (II)-

catalyzed hydroborations of unsaturated heteroatomic

substrates.”

Research Presentations cont.

The effect of road salt on the metal binding ability of adsorptive media. A. Whiting, D.R. Ownby, R.E. Ca-sey, and S.M. Lev. Poster. Chesapeake-Potomac re-gional SETAC Meeting April 2012. (2nd place Gradu-ate Poster Award)

David Ownby chaired a session at the SETAC World Congress in (May 21; Berlin, Germany) titled “Novel approaches to addressing metal and metal nano-material bioavailability in soils” that included two presentations from Towson:

“Stable isotopes for micronutrient metal bioavailability to earthworms.” D.R. Ownby, S.M. Lev, R.E. Casey, J.W. Snodgrass.

“Evaluating the impact of soil ageing on the toxicity of Ag nanoparticles to Eisenia fetida.” S.M. Lev. M. Doo-dy*, D.R. Ownby, R.E. Casey.

David Ownby, Ryan Casey, Steven Lev (PAGS), two ENVS graduate students, and one CHEM and one PAGS undergraduate student attended the 32nd An-nual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicolo-gy and Chemistry in Boston, MA in mid-November. They presented six research posters:

Mazzei, MC*, SM Lev, DR Ownby. “Developing a cop-per isotope ratio method for estimating copper availa-bility to Eisenia fetida.”

Linford, KE**, RE Casey. “68Zn:66Zn ratio of L. ter-restris fed on a diet of 68Zn spiked oat bran.”

Whiting, A**, RE Casey, SM Lev, DR Ownby. “The effect of road salt on the metal binding ability of ad-sorptive media.”

Zeigler, G, A Pinkney, DR Ownby, DJ Fisher, RE Ca-sey. “Effects of Salinity Derived from Road Salt and Total Suspended Solids on Yellow Perch Eggs and Larvae from Two Chesapeake Bay Tributaries.”

Casey, RE, M Gallagher, JJ New*, K Linford**, JW Snodgrass, SM Lev. “Effects of Road Salt on Hydrau-lic Conductivity in Stormwater Retention Ponds, Ow-ings Mills, MD.”

New JJ*, JW Snodgrass, DR Ownby, RE Casey, SM Lev. “A stable isotope approach to investigating zinc toxicity and internal transport in barley (Hordeum vul-gare L.).”

Newsletter 5

Honors Thesis Defense

Samantha Wood (faculty mentor: Tim Brunker) de-fended her Department Honors Thesis on March 1. Her seminar was entitled “Synthesis of Chiral Tetra-dentate Amino Sulfoxide Ligands and their Ruthenium (II) Complexes.”

Carlo Mercado (faculty mentor: Cindy Zeller) defended his Department Honors Thesis on May 15. His semi-nar was entitled “Investigation of ADAD1 for use in a Multiplex Real-time PCR Assay for the Detection of Semen in Forensic Samples.”

Department Seminars

Bok-Eum Choi, the Summer 2011 Ron and Linda Raspet Summer Research Fellow (mentor: Ana-Maria Soto), gave a research seminar on November 17: “Effect of Mutations on the Conformation of M. tuber-culosis rRNA.”

Dr. Jeffrey Winkler, University of Pennsylvania, pre-sented a seminar entitled “Synthesis of Natural and Unnatural Products” on February 23.

Dr. Nicholas Deifel, Washington College, “Applying Supramolecular Chemistry to Uranium: Materials, Methods, and Motivations.” February 6.

Dr. Kelly Elkins, Metropolitan State College of Denver, “Recovering Evidence from Crime Scenes,” February 9.

Mr. Jack Hietpas, Syracuse University, “Detrital Miner-al Microchemistry applied to Forensic Analysis,” Feb-ruary 15.

Faculty Professional Service

Ryan Casey reviewed a manuscript for the journal Sci-ence of the Total Environment.

David Ownby reviewed a manuscript for the journal Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicolo-gy.

Ryan Sours was a materials science evaluator for the Intel Science Talent Search.

Ryan Casey reviewed a manuscript for the journal Sci-ence of the Total Environment.

Forensic Programs

Ellen Hondrogiannis presented a forensics lab to stu-dents from W.E.B. Dubois H.S. titled, “Using Science to Catch Criminals” on March 9. The experience was fund-ed through Sonali Raje’s MHEC-CPIP grant.

Katie Rotta presented her research at the ACS MARM conference held at UMBC, May 30.

Ellen Hondrogiannis presented a forensics lecture to over 20 students from Perry Hall H.S. Nov 29.

Mark Profili and four undergraduate members of the Fo-rensic Science Student Organization attended the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Annual Meet-ing in Atlanta, GA in February. Mark manned a table for our Masters in Forensic Science program and distribut-ed information packets to a large number of potential applicants.

Cindy Zeller gave a presentation on forensic biology to about 80 Towson High School forensic science students in March.

Mark Profili gave a presentation at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore as part of their Career Day.

NIST research scientist Dr. Becky Hill gave a seminar to Forensic Science graduate and undergraduate students on Forensic DNA Research at NIST on May 3.

Mark Profili and Forensic Science students Carlo Mer-cado, Courtney Ahorrio and Elizabeth Kudirka present-ed their research at the Mid Atlantic Association of Fo-rensic Scientists (MAAFS) Annual Meeting held in El-licott City, May 16-18.

Elizabeth Kudirka was awarded the annual $1,000 scholarship from MAAFS.

The Forensics Academic Advisory Board held its annual meeting on June 14.

SAACS Corner

The Towson University SAACS Club is an official branch of the Student Affiliates of the American Chemi-cal Society. Student members come from a variety of departments - you don't have to be a chemistry major to join. For more information, please see the club homep-age at:

http://www.towson.edu/saacs/

Newsletter 6

Community Outreach

Dan Macks judged the Howard High science fair on Feb 2. Liina Ladon, David Larkin and Dan Macks served as judges at the Baltimore Science Fair at Towson on March 24.

Liina Ladon, Dan Macks and several students from the SAACS Chemistry Club served as judges at the STEM Science Fair held at Lutherville Elementary school on May 2.

Faculty and Staff News

Rodney Dixon’s youngest daughter, Samantha, gradu-ated from Yale with a major in literature and a minor in international studies.

Save The Date: TU Chemistry

Alumni Tailgate Reunion!

Saturday, September 22, 2012 Set up at 3:00 pm Tailgate begins at 4:00 pm Lot 21 and the Auburn Pavilion Games - Giveaways - Activities for Children - Food

Towson Tigers vs. St. Francis Red Flash Kick off at 7 pm

Johnny Unitas Stadium

The Department of Chemistry would like to invite you and your family to our inaugural Chemistry Alumni Tailgate Reunion. Meet your fellow alumni for this net-working event. We are interested in having you recon-nect with our department and enjoy reminiscing with alumni and faculty. The department has reserved a space in Lot 21, and will supply hot dogs, hamburgers, salads and sodas. We will have free game tickets for the first 20 people who RSVP for the tailgate. Come watch our 2011 CAA championship Tigers play St. Francis for the homecoming game.

Visit www.towson.edu/homecoming for more infor-mation about rules and regulations for the tailgate.

Look for further information in the next newsletter.

Please RSVP to chemalums@towson.edu , and tell us how many people will attend with your group and how many game tickets you will need.

Additional game tickets can be purchased in the Auburn Pavilion at a reduced price.

Editor: Dr. Ellen Hondrogiannis, Assistant Profes-

sor, Forensic Analytical Chemistry

Assoc. Editor: Ms. Liina Ladon

Production Managers: Dr. Hondrogiannis and Ms.

Liina Ladon