May 11 was a great day, as we celebrated the completion of several degrees by many group members–all of whom were in town for the festivities. Undergrads Beth Neilson and John Overcash graduated “With Distinction” with B.S. degrees in Chemistry, and David Loveless, Farrell Kersey, and Raj Juwarker celebrated the successful end of their Ph.D. studies.  

Raj Juwarker takes center stage to defend his Ph.D. dissertation on Friday, April 11, at 8:30 a.m.  The defense will take place in FFSC 5316. 

Several group members, past and present, have made their graduate school decisions. Current seniors Beth Neilson and John Overcash will join the Chemistry Ph.D. programs at Texas and Illinois, respectively, and alum Ki-Hyun Kim (’07) will start Pharm school at Wisconsin. Yvonne Yamanaka, a former group member who will graduate in B.M.E. this spring, will attend MIT. Yvonne has also been awarded an NSF predoctoral fellowship for her graduate studies. Congratulations to all, as well as to the programs that were able to land them!

Mike Serpe’s paper, “Time and Distance Dependence of Reversible Polymer Bridging Followed by Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy” has been accepted for publication in Langmuir. The paper is the first to report work done on our new AFM, built in collaboration with Monica Rivera and Rob Clark in Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. Using the new AFM, Mike is able to observe, in real time, reversibly assembled polymer chains extend from one surface and “grab” another.

Raj and Jeremy’s paper, “1,2,3-Triazole CH-Chloride Contacts Guide Anion Binding and Concomitant Folding in 1,4-Diaryl Triazole Oligomers”, has been accepted for publication in Angew. Chem. Congratulations to Raj and Jeremy on their excellent work.

Steve and Joanne welcomed their third child, Landon Henry Promislow, on Monday, February 4. Everyone is doing well, and Landon is being doted on already by his big brothers Cobi and Caleb.