News from Journal House

JCE Concept Connections: Exploring the Wealth of JCE Resources

The JCE Editorial Staff would like to help you find and connect with the many useful resources from JCE. In this issue, we introduced a new feature called “JCE Concept Connections” to focus on a concept discussed in our current issue and to highlight additional resources available through JCE.

JCE offers a wealth of materials for teaching and learning chemistry that you can explore at our Web site, JCE Online. These resources include:

• JCE Print: all articles from volume 1 through the current issue are available in full-text PDF
• JCE Classroom Activities: almost 100 ready-to-use, inquiry-based, hands-on activities using simple materials that can be adapted to a variety of settings
• JCE Software: high-quality teaching software, including JCE Web Software, Web-ready titles that are available at JCE Online
• JCE Digital Library: digital resources including JCE ChemInfo, JCE Data-Driven Exercises, JCE DigiDemos, JCE Featured Molecules, JCE LivTexts, JCE LrnCom, JCE QBank, JCE SymMath, and JCE WebWare
• Only@JCE Online: features that are only available at JCE Online, including Biographical Snapshots, ChemEd Resource Shelf, Discussion Forums, Project Chemlab database, and “Web-Ed” articles

Let’s Start with Calorimetry

Our first JCE Concept Connections focuses on calorimetry to connect with an article on an inexpensive improvement of the traditional coffee-cup calorimeter. The JCE resources highlighted include additional laboratory articles in which this solution calorimeter could be used; a recent JCE Classroom Activity on calorimetry and global warming; and material from JCE Web Software, ChemPages Laboratory, that includes a tutorial on calorimetry.

We hope this new feature guides you to the many helpful JCE resources. We would love to hear from you about suggestions and ideas for how to enhance your JCE use.

Awards Announced

2008 Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Awards

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation has announced the selection of 15 Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholars for 2008. The award provides a $75,000 unrestricted research grant to young faculty in the chemical sciences who are within the first five years of their academic careers and who have created an independent body of outstanding scholarship and demonstrate a commitment to education. The research accomplishments in 2008 represent new paradigms in quantum chemistry, bioengineering, ultrafast and single molecule spectroscopy, and novel materials synthesis.

“The Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Award is the Dreyfus Foundation’s flagship program,” states Mark Cardillo, the Foundation’s executive director. “The intent is to support exceptional young academic researchers at an early and crucial stage of their independent careers.” Since its inception in 1970, the Teacher–Scholar program has awarded nearly $30,000,000 in funding.

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation was established in 1946 by chemist, inventor, and businessman Camille Dreyfus, who directed that the foundation’s purpose be “to advance the science of chemistry, chemical engineering, and related sciences as a means of improving human relations and circumstances around the world”. For more information about the program and The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation (accessed Jun 2008).

2008 Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholars

• Christopher W. Bielawski, University of Texas at Austin: Reversible Polymers Based on Biscarbenes: Creating New Opportunities in Self-Healing Electronics, Catalysis, and Emissive Materials
• Garnet K. Chan, Cornell University: Building New Paradigms in Quantum Chemistry: from Quantum Renormalisation Groups to Quantum Tensor Networks
• Olafs Daugulis, University of Houston: New Synthetic Organic Chemistry Reactions Involving Transition-Metal Mediated Electrophilic C–H Bond-Activation
• Lincoln J. Lauhon, Northwestern University: Development of Quantitative Synthesis-Structure-Property Relationships for Nanostructured Materials
• Mohammad Movassaghi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Syntheses of Biologically Interesting Alkaloids and the Development of New and General Routes to Nitrogen-containing Heterocycles
• Thuc-Quyen T. Nguyen, University of California, Santa Barbara: Understanding Charge Transport and Electronic Properties of Small Conjugated Molecules and Conjugated Polyelectrolytes for Applications in Optoelectronic Devices
• Garegin Papoian, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Multi-Scale Modeling of Biophysical Processes in the Cell
• Theresa M. Reineke, Virginia Polytechnic and State University: Carbohydrate-Based Polymers for Cardiovascular Nucleic Acid Delivery and MRI
• Justine P. Roth, Johns Hopkins University: Fundamental Principles of Oxidation Chemistry Relevant to Biology and Medicine
• Yi Tang, University of California, Los Angeles: Natural Product Biosynthetic Pathways for Novel Enzymes and Useful Biocatalysts
• Victor M. Ugaz, Texas A&M University: Directed Assembly of Ultra-concentrated Mesophases: a New Way to Detect and Characterize Biomolecules
• Qian Wang, University of South Carolina: Hierarchical Micro-Nano Assemblies for Probing Cell-Matrix Interactions
• M. Christina White, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Aliphatic and Allylic C–H Oxidation Methods for Streamlining Complex Molecule Synthesis
• Haw Yang, University of California, Berkeley: Single-Molecule Approaches Towards Understanding Chemical Reactivity in Complex Systems
• Dongping Zhong, Ohio State University: Ultrafast Functional Dynamics of Biomolecules

Award Deadlines

ACS Division of Chemical EducationInternational Travel Award

The Division of Chemical Education funds a Travel Award each year in support of a division member who presents and fully participates in an international chemical education conference held outside the U. S. The awardee will have the responsibility to communicate information and insights gained at the conference to the membership through available CHED publications and by postings on the DivCHED Web site.

At the New Orleans meeting, the Executive Committee adopted guidelines developed by the International Activities Committee (IAC); these are described below. Questions as well as completed applications can be sent electronically on or before October 31, 2008, to Lucy Eubanks, the current chair of CHED IAC. The first award under these guidelines will be for a 2009 meeting outside the U. S.

Eligibility

The applicant must be a member of the Division of Chemical Education and be a full-time college, university, or high school faculty member. Preference will be given to junior and/or under-represented faculty members who have not had the opportunity to attend an international meeting in chemical education.

Selection Process

An announcement about the availability of this Award for the following year will be submitted for publication in the Fall CHED Newsletter, in appropriate issues of JCE, and to C&E News. The announcement will also be posted on the DivCHED Web site.

The application package is due is October 31 each year. It should be sent to the Chair of CHED-IAC. The award, at present $1000, is made for the following year.

Applications will be reviewed by CHED-IAC members serving on the Awards sub-committee, appointed by the CHED-IAC chair.

The selected applicant will be announced by December 1 each year. An alternate will be selected in case the original awardee is not able to attend.

Application Package

Electronic applications are much preferred. There is no formal application form. However, the application package must include: description of the conference—provide the pertinent URL; description of proposed participation in the conference; statement of how attendance at the conference relates to professional responsibilities; plan for dissemination of information from the conference to CHED members, including submission of a report to the CHED IAC Chair within three months of attendance at the conference. The report should be suitable for publication in the CHED Newsletter and for posting on the CHED Web site; applicant’s Curriculum Vitae (no more than three pages); one letter of endorsement from a supervisor (for example: department chair, dean, principal, headmaster); an itemized estimate of expenses giving the amount of aid requested and sources of all supplemental funds.

Courses, Seminars, Meetings, Opportunities

Institute for Systems Biology: Celebrating Science

The Institute for Systems Biology’s Center for Inquiry Science has published a guide, Celebrating Science: A guide for expanding inquiry-based science education into the community. Both The National Academies and the Smithsonian Institution have selected it to help parents and communities support students in a national effort to improve science education.

The guide provides teachers, parents, and community leaders with step-by-step instructions for building and maintaining family science programs and inquiry-based activities for students and families. Paper copies of the Celebrating Science guide can be obtained free via email. Online versions are also available (accessed Jun 2008).

Seeing in the Dark Web Site

Those interested in astronomy and exploring the skies will find resources of interest at the Web site (accessed Jun 2008). The Web site’s most popular features include customizable star charts for every visitor’s time and location; astronomy activities that can be downloaded for use in classrooms, in summer camps, and with families; and the Seeing in the Dark Internet Telescope; all are available without charge. Another popular resource is how to make a red-light flashlight to preserve your night vision using materials from around the house.

Teaching resources and family resources are available (both sites accessed Jun 2008). The educational outreach director for the project is Andrew Fraknoi. The Seeing in the Dark film and Web site are made possible by the National Science Foundation and PBS.