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Chemistry


URL: http://news-info.wustl.edu/cat/page/normal/196.html

Media Assistance:

Tony Fitzpatrick
Senior Science Editor
tony_fitzpatrick@wustl.edu

(314) 935-5272

Chemistry is a multifaceted science that extends into biology, medicine, physics, mathematics, business and commerce. Researchers at Washington University explore the structure and constitution of the microworlds of atoms and molecules, the chemical and physical transformations that occur, and the principles that govern these changes.

Chemists delve into the core areas of chemistry: organic, physical, inorganic, nuclear and theoretical. Emerging interdisciplinary fields are organometallic, bioorganic, biophysical, macromolecular, polymer, environmental and materials chemistry. The department has close research ties with physics, earth and planetary sciences, biology, chemical engineering and mechanical enginering, as well as with departments at the School of Medicine.

Faculty Experts:

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Jonathan Chase

Assistant Professor of Biology (http://news-info.wustl.edu/sb/page/normal/585.html)

Chase
Chase

Jonathan M. Chase, assistant professor of biology, focuses his research on the rules (or lack thereof) underlying the diversity, distribution, and abundance of animal and plant species from the population/community/ecosystem perspective. His research combines observational, theoretical, and experimental ...


Expertise: biology, ecology, ecosystem, natural history, evolution, biodiversity, food webs, …

Direct contact: (314) 935-4105 / jchase@wustl.edu


Ralph Quatrano

Ralph S. Quatrano, Ph.D., is the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts and Sciences and chair of the Department of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is internationally known for his plant science work on patterns of embryo formation, and how the patterns lead cells to acquire traits or ...


Expertise: Plants, plant biology, botany, moss, genome, algae, genes, …

Direct contact: (314) 935-6850 / rsq@wustl.edu
Michael Welch

Professor of radiology (http://news-info.wustl.edu/sb/page/normal/713.html)

Welch, an expert in synthetic chemistry, has been a leader for more than 30 years in the development of synthetic imaging agents that have allowed doctors to use positron emission tomography (PET) to diagnose an increasingly wide variety of disorders. He is also head of the Radiochemistry Institute ...


Expertise: PET, nuclear medicine, synthetic chemistry, oncology, imaging agents, radioisotopes, radionuclides

Media assistance: (314) 286-0122 / purdym@wustl.edu


William Buhro

Professor of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences (http://news-info.wustl.edu/sb/page/normal/539.html)

William Buhro
William Buhro
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William H. Buhro, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and associate director of the Center for Materials Innovation, specializes in nanotechnology. He and his group are engaged in synthesis on the nanometer-scale. They design reactions and mechanisms for the growth of inorganic crystals having dimensions ...


Expertise: nanomaterials, materials, inorganic chemistry, nanotubes, nanowires

Direct contact: (314) 935-4269 / buhro@wustl.edu


Joseph Ackerman

William Greenleaf Eliot Professor of Physical Chemistry in Arts & Sciences (http://news-info.wustl.edu/sb/page/normal/496.html)

Joseph Ackerman
Joseph Ackerman
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Joseph J. H. Ackerman, Ph.D. is William Greenleaf Eliot Professor of Chemistry and chair of the chemistry department. His work is concerned primarily with the development and application of magnetic resonance spectroscopic and imaging techniques for the study of functional biophysical and physiologic ...


Expertise: magnetic resonance techniques, spectroscopic techniques, imaging techniques, functional biophysical, physiologic events, intact biological systems, isolated cell preparations, …

Direct contact: (314) 935-6593 / ackerman @wuchem.wustl.edu



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News Stories & Tip Sheets:

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Workaholic

Single-celled bacterium works 24-7, converting light to energy by day, moonlighting at night (http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/11659.html)

April 28, 2008 -- Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have gained the first detailed insight into the way circadian rhythms govern global gene expression in Cyanothece, a type of cyanobacterium (blue-green algae) known to cycle between photosynthesis during the day and nitrogen fixation at night.


In the mix

Research aims to produce energy on the farm (http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/11547.html)

April 15, 2008 --
David Kilper/WUSTL Photo
Muthanna Al-Dahhan (left) and graduate student Rajneesh Varma are researching effective ways to take agricultural waste and make biofuel out of it.
Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis, using an impressive array of imaging and tracking technologies, have determined the importance of mixing in anaerobic digesters for bioenergy production and animal and farm wastes treatment. They are studying ways to take "the smell of money," as farmers long have termed manure's odor, and produce biogas from it.


2008 McDonnell lecture

Space scientist Flanagan to speak on Webb Telescope (http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/11329.html)

March 20, 2008 --
Flanagan
Kathryn Flanagan, Ph.D., senior scientist and head of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mission Office at the Space Telescope Science Institute, will deliver the 2008 McDonnell Lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 27, in Room 214 Wilson Hall on the Danforth Campus at Washington University in St. Louis.



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Related News Clips:

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Show More Chemistry Clips
Finding Industry Funding
Science Magazine

March 14, 2008 -- WUSTL's Karen Wooley, professor of chemistry, comments on the difficulties and approaches academic researchers use to garner industry funding.


Eat less for a youthful heart
Hindustan Times (India) and 5 others

Jan. 11, 2008 -- WUSTL medical school scientists examined a group of healthy, overweight but not obese, middle-aged men and women and found that a yearlong regimen of either calorie restriction or exercise increase had positive effects on their heart function. WUSTL professor and study senior author Sandor Kovacs comments.


Mimicking plant evolution proves fruitful
MSNBC.com

Jan. 11, 2008 -- By mimicking plant evolution, a team of Illinois researchers has improved upon nature's design to build a leafy energy-producing powerhouse — or at least a virtual one on a supercomputer. In a study published within the journal Plant Physiology, WUSTL biology and chemistry professor Robert Blankenship comments on the Illinois study.


Wild weather: Iron rain on failed stars
USA Today and 1 others

July 5, 2006 -- Ever since their discovery 11 years ago, brown dwarfs have baffled scientists.
Sometimes called "failed stars," brown dwarfs are too small to trigger the fusion of hydrogen that keeps stars like our sun shining for billions of years. Instead, over tens of millions of years brown dwarfs slowly cool and fade.
Meanwhile, the weather on these strange objects is some of the wildest in the galaxy.
WUSTL planetary chemistry professor Katharina Lodders comments.


Marine science: Boiling points
Nature.com

Feb. 23, 2006 -- Article about the discovery of a particular kind of hydrothermal vent called black smokers at the Galapagos Islands.
Minerals and heated water spewed out of hydrothermal vents may support marine life that wouldn't otherwise survive.
But some vents spew out a toxic mixture that can contaminate local ground water. WUSTL microbial geochemist Jan Amend comments about research his team is doing on vents near Papua New Guinea.


Astronomers sweep space for the sources of cosmic dust
Science Magazine online

Nov. 1, 2005 -- Article on new observing tools scientists can use to study interstellar dust. Astronomers know that interstellar dust illuminates the erratic deaths of stars, and it traces a direct link from stars to the birth of our solar system — and ultimately, to Earth. WUSTL physicist and cosmochemist Ernst Zinner comments.


More Heat Aids Cancer Therapies
Associated Press and 44 others

Sept. 27, 2005 -- Scientists have long thought that simple heat could increase the effectiveness of some cancer therapies. But just how much to cook the tumor and which cancers are susceptible, have stymied the field. Now, backed by tantalizing new evidence, a growing number of studies are enrolling patients in hopes of finally settling whether it's time to turn up the heat. WUSTL physicist William Straube comments. Like Duke, WUSTL has a major research program on cancer hyperthermia.


Scientists Release Rover Panoramic Photo
Associated Press Online, Astrobiology Magazine and 58 others

Sept. 2, 2005 -- Scientists released the first full-color panoramic picture of the landscape taken by the rover from its lookout point, showing the rover's tracks in the dust, flat plains of the surrounding Gusev Crater region, rugged terrain dubbed "the geologic promised land" by one scientist, distant plateaus on the crater rim and more hills.
WUSTL earth and planetary sciences professor Ray Arvidson comments. He is deputy principal investigator of the rover mission.


Man, Chimp Separated by Dab of DNA
New York Times, Los Angeles Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and 55 others

Sept. 1, 2005 -- Article on the reports published in Nature and Science magazines that an international team of scientists, including WUSTL's Genome Sequencing Center director Richard Wilson and colleague LaDeana Hillier, have finished sequencing the genome of the chimp. The comparison of genetic blueprints shows that just a handful of mutations account for the vast differences between the species. Scientists say the results provide a roadmap for studying diseases and the mechanisms by which humans evolved into the dominant species of Earth.


Nobel Prize in chemistry goes to two Israeli researchers, American for discoveries of how cells give "kiss of death"
Associated Press State & Local Wire, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, New York Times and 3 others

Oct. 7, 2004 -- One of the three scientists to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry is Israeli Aaron Ciechanover, who is a visiting professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, where he has spent a portion of each year since 1987. He is the 23rd Nobel Laureate associated with WUSTL.


Depression: hidden cause of heart attack?
The Wall Street Journal and 2 others

April 26, 2004 -- You may have one of the biggest risk factors for heart attack, and your doctor doesn't even know it. While doctors screening for heart problems know to monitor smoking, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, few pay attention to a potentially more serious foe: depression. "In cardiology there have been dozens of studies done on hypertension," said Kenneth Freedland, professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, who has been studying the link between depression and heart disease since the 1980s. "We need to make sure the public and medical community understand that this is an important problem, too."




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