News from Journal House

Journal of Chemical Education on CD-ROM, 2004

The 2004 edition of Journal of Chemical Education on CD-ROM has been released by JCE Software and shipped to those who have placed orders. The abstract appeared in the February 2005 issue of JCE.

• JCE CD 2004 contains a full year of JCE issues. It includes the full text, graphics, tables, and abstracts for every article published in 2004, as well as the supplemental materials and annual index, formatted to retain their original printed appearance. Articles are easy to find and view, so that with a few mouse clicks you can locate, read, and print an article from your computer. Full-text searching for any author, title, word, or phrase enables you to find what you are looking for, quickly.
• To purchase JCE CD for 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, or 2000, or for information about the use of these CDs by a library or Wide Area Network (WAN) including WWW, contact JCE Software or visit the JCE Online Store.

JCE Buyers Guide

The print edition of the JCE Buyers Guide has been mailed with this issue. The Buyers Guide, the most comprehensive listing of its kind, includes interfaced experiments, laboratory manuals, laboratory notebooks, models, reference books, and software, in addition to books.

Access to the information in the Buyers Guide is always available on JCE Online (accessed Feb 2005). The online version has the same information as print, plus more—and it is searchable, linked to textbook reviews and publisher’s sites, and current.

Awards Announced

2005 Hackerman Award, Welch Foundation

The Welch Foundation, a private foundation for basic research in chemistry, has selected biochemical researcher Zhijian “James” Chen of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas as the recipient of the 2005 Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research. The $100,000 award is presented annually to honor up-and-coming scientists at Texas institutions who are 40 years or younger. Recipients are recognized for expanding the frontiers of chemistry through their innovative research endeavors. Chen’s most notable research success is discovering an unanticipated second function of the small protein, ubiquitin: activating other proteins. Previously ubiquitin was thought to have only one molecular function, targeting other proteins for destruction. This opens up the possibility that other molecules that are thought to have a single purpose may, in fact, be polyfunctional.

University of Nebraska Teaching Award

Bill McLaughlin has been named the recipient of the 2004–2005 University of Nebraska Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award. The award, presented by the university’s board of regents, is “in honor and recognition of a meritorious and sustained record of excellence in teaching and creativity related to teaching”.

2005 Wolf Prize

The Israel-based Wolf Foundation has announced that Richard N. Zare, Stanford University, is the recipient of the 2005 Wolf Prize in Chemistry “for his ingenious applications of laser techniques for identifying complex mechanisms in molecules and their use in analytical chemistry”. The $100,000 prize will be presented by the President of the State of Israel, Moshe Katsav, at a special ceremony at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on May 22, 2005.

2005 Othmer Gold Medal

The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) has selected James D. Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, to receive the 2005 Othmer Gold Medal. The award ceremony and an accompanying luncheon will headline Heritage Day 2005, a day of honors and awards for achievement in chemistry and the molecular sciences that will take place at CHF in Philadelphia on June 9, 2005.

For the feat of successfully proposing the double-helical structure for DNA, Watson and his colleague Francis Crick, together with Maurice Wilkins, were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Watson was a driving force behind setting up the Human Genome Project. He has also achieved great success as a writer, having written the text Molecular Biology of the Gene, the best-selling autobiography The Double Helix, and more recently DNA: The Secret of Life, and Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix.

2005 Edelstein Award

The ACS Division of the History of Chemistry has announced that William B. Jensen, Department of Chemistry of the University of Cincinnati, has been selected as the winner of the 2005 Edelstein Award in the History of Chemistry. The award will be formally presented to Jensen at a symposium in his honor at the Fall 2005 ACS national meeting in Washington, DC. Originally named the Dexter Award, the Edelstein Award is the only international award for historians of chemistry. Past recipients include scholars from Great Britain, France, Holland, Hungary, Mexico, and Germany.

Among Jensen’s accomplishments cited in the award decision are his founding and editorship of the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry in 1988, and his development and management of the Oesper Collections in the History of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati. Materials in these collections include rare books and journals spanning the 16th through the 20th centuries, a print and photo collection, and a museum of historical chemical apparatus.

Courses, Seminars, Meetings, Opportunities

Flinn Summer Workshops

Flinn Scientific Foundation has organized six chemistry workshops for summer 2005. These workshops are for high school science teachers who teach chemistry concepts and want to practice and learn new chemical demonstrations and laboratory activities. New and experienced teachers will benefit from attending. The workshop presenters are teams of three nationally renowned high school chemistry teachers. Three teams are going to the following six sites:

• University of North Texas, Denton, TX: June 20–24,
• College of Wooster, Wooster, OH: July 11–15
• St. Xavier University, Chicago, IL: July 18–22
• Auburn University, Auburn, AL: July 18–22
• Massachusetts Academy, Worcester, MA: July 18–22
• University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO: July 25–29

The workshops will run Monday through Friday (8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. M–Th; 8 a.m.–1 p.m. F). The cost for the workshop is $290 per participant, which includes all workshop materials and a workshop manual, as well as breakfast (continental), lunch, and an afternoon beverage every day. On-campus housing and college credit are available for every workshop. Travel, housing, and education credit expenses are the responsibility of the participant.

Get more information on the workshops, be put on the mailing list, or download a form to sign up for a workshop here. (accessed Feb 2005). Other questions may be directed to Jan Foulkes by phone at 800/452-1261.

Gordon Research Conference on Chemistry Education Research and Practice

The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Chemistry Education Research and Practice (formerly titled Innovations in College Chemistry Teaching) will be held June 26–July 1, 2005 at Connecticut College.

The conference focus is the emerging vision of chemistry education research as it can inform practice in the classroom and laboratory. The themes include research on teaching, learning, and assessment; uses of and assessment with technology; challenges regarding faculty development, pedagogy, and evaluation; theoretical frameworks for learning chemistry; and issues of methodological design. Cutting edge curricula will be presented across a wide variety of student audiences (e.g., future teachers, minorities, majors, nonmajors, disabled students) and pedagogies (online, student-centered, embedded assessments, virtual laboratories). Successes and barriers to disseminating curricula and pedagogies will also be addressed.

Attendance is limited to 130 people, with two sessions per day—one in the morning and one in the evening, with the afternoons free to network, organize informal sessions, or sightsee. Presentations are often followed by 20–30 minutes of discussion and debate.

A complete program of speakers, discussion leaders, and sessions is available from the Gordon conference site. Registration applications are available from the GRC site (both sites accessed Feb 2005). Acceptance of applications to the conference begins March 4. Those who register at least 3 weeks prior to the meeting receive a $50 discount on the registration fee (which includes housing and meals). Other queries should be addressed to Stacey Lowery Bretz, Youngstown State University, (the conference chair) or Chris Bauer, University of New Hampshire (the co-chair).

Summer Workshops in Computational Chemistry

The Shodor Education Foundation announces these Computational Chemistry for Chemistry Educators workshops for summer 2005.

• NCSI/CCCE Introduction to Molecular Modeling. San Jose State University, San Jose, CA: July 10–16. This workshop will focus on the methods, applications, and educational uses of molecular modeling and related computational techniques suitable for the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Discussions of various computational chemistry topics will be followed by hands-on exercises. Participants are expected to develop and present a case study suitable for use in lecture, laboratory, Web study, or individual study.
• NCSI/CCCE Advanced Computational Chemistry Education. University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO: July 24–30. This workshop is an in-depth application of the concepts covered in an introductory workshop to prepare educational materials ready for use in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Participants are expected to develop and present one or more case studies suitable for use in lecture, laboratory, Web study, or individual study and to have previously attended one of the introductory NCSI/CCCE workshops, or to have experience in the educational applications of computational chemistry.

For further information or to register go to the National Computational Science Institute’s Web site (accessed Feb 2005). Other questions may be directed to Clyde Metz, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Charleston.

NSF Web Site

The Web site of the National Science Foundation has recently been changed and updated. Old URLs to NSF divisions and programs will no longer work. Here are new links:

• Main site
• Directorate for Education and Human Resources
• Division of Undergraduate Education
• Active funding opportunities in DUE

Element 111

A joint IUPAC–IUPAP Working Party has confirmed the discovery of element number 111. In accord with IUPAC procedures, the discoverers proposed a name and symbol for the element, which was adopted on November 1, 2004. The recommended name is roentgenium, with symbol Rg.

Materials Available

Experimental Challenges at 36th Olympiad

At the 36th International Chemistry Olympiad (ICO) held in Kiel, Germany in July 2004, one of the two experimental challenges for the 236 students from 61 countries who competed was to analyze the superconductor La_1.85Ba_0.15CuO₄. Students analyzed the superconductor quantitatively for total La + Cu and for Cu alone, and qualitatively for the alkaline earth metal. They were then asked to determine the formula of the superconductor.

Superconductivity was selected as a topic because it is very important technologically, because it involves Nobel Prize-winning science, and because it has been extensively investigated in Kiel. Each participant in the 36th ICO was given a brochure, a cobalt–samarium magnet, and a tablet of YBa₂Cu₃O_7—x, YBCO—123, as a keepsake.

Sabine Nick and Christian Näther developed a new procedure for complexometric titration to determine the total La and Cu content. They also developed an alternative procedure for qualitative separation of La and Cu that avoids H₂S and thioacetamide. The new procedures as well as lists of apparatus and chemicals can be downloaded as a PDF file from this Web site. The English version of the brochure given to the students is also available. (both sites accessed Feb 2005).

Proposal Deadlines National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) The following NSF deadlines have been established or are anticipated. Robert Noyce Scholarship Program Letters of Intent (optional) February 28, 2005 Formal Proposals March 31, 2005 Advanced Technology Education (ATE) Preliminary Proposals April 26, 2005 Formal Proposals October 18, 2005 National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Digital Library (NSDL) Letters of Intent (optional) March 9, 2005 Formal Proposals April 11, 2005 Official deadline dates for proposals will be specified in the new program solicitation for each program, to be published at least three months before the relevant deadline date. Consult the NSF Education and Human Resources (EHR), and it's Division of Undergraduate Education for the most up-to-date liatings and guidelines; phone: 703/292-8670; email. The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc. Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Awards Program: November 10, 2005 Start-Up Award Program: May 12, 2005 Henry Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Awards Program: June 30, 2005 New Faculty Awards Program: May 12, 2005 Postdoctoral Program in Environmental Chemistry: May 26, 2005 Senior Scientist Mentor Program: Completed Proposals: August 25, 2005 Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences: Preliminary Proposals: June 2, 2005 Completed Proposals: August 25, 2005 Further information and confirmation of the above deadlines may be obtained from The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc., 555 Madison Avenue, Suite 1305, New York, NY 10022-3301; phone: 212/753-1760; email. Research Corporation Cottrell College Science Awards: May 15 and November 15 Cottrell Scholar Awards: September 1 Research Innovation Awards: suspended 2004-2005 Research Opportunity Awards: May 1 and October 1 Further information may be obtained from Research Corporation, 101 North Wilmot Road, Suite 250, Tucson, AZ 85711; phone: 520/571-1111; fax: 520/571-1119; email.