Chemistry
Faculty/Staff News
2012-2013
- Dr. Charla Miertschin is the new Interim Dean of Science and Engineering!
- Dr. Sara Hein is the new Chemistry Department Chairperson!
- Dr. Jennifer Zemke has joined the Department as an Assistant Professor specializing in Chemical Education.
- Dr. Scott Thorgaard is also a new Assistant Professor in the Department. Dr Thorgaard is taking over much of Dr. Miertschin's teaching load as she takes on her new assignment as Interim Dean.
- Matt Peterson is also new to our Department. Matt is teaching some of our Chem 212 and Organic labs.
2011-2012
- Dr. Sara Hein received an NSF Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science (TUES) grant. The grant will support a collaboration with chemistry professors at UW River Falls on a research project entitled, "Collaborative Research: Immediate Feedback Assessment in Chemistry Courses".
- Professors Bob Kopitzke and Tom Nalli attended the National ACS Meeting in San Diego in March.
- Dr. Frannie Mann joined the
Chemistry Department as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Mann
is a Biochemist who received her Ph.D. from Iowa State
University.
- WSU Chemistry alum Jen Zemke is joining us this semester
as an adjunct professor. Jen recently received her Ph.D.
from the University of Oregon and is also teaching some
courses up at SMU.
- Professor Mark Engen is on sabbatical leave this
fall semester.
2010-2011
- Dr. Tyler Morin joined the department as an adjunct professor during the fall semester. Dr. Morin is a WSU chemistry alumnus, class of 2005.
- Barb Keller replaced Dr. Doug Emanuel as the Chemistry Department Lab Specialist. Dr. Emanuel retired this summer after many years of faithful service to the department.
- Dr. Katie Hailer left us to take a position at Montana Tech. We wish Katie well in her new position.
- Drs. Nalli, Kopitzke, and Lee attended the National ACS Meeting in Anaheim in March. Also attending and presenting research posters were chemistry students, Laura Senefeld, Tanner McDaniel, Khoi Van, Celia Frieler, Pat Homyak, Colby Skar, and Thanh Nguyen.
2009-2010
- Dr. Bob Kopitzke was granted a research sabbatical during the Spring 2010 semester. He worked with his students in the lab in SLC on his polymer chemistry research.
- Dr. Nalli is coauthor with Ted Wilson and Fran Ragsdale of the Biology Department and Gary Kastello of HER and Tisha Hooks of Math/Stats of a new paper published in Amino Acids. The research carried out at WSU was on the cardiovascular effects of Red Bull energy drink. Eight student researchers are also coauthors on the paper.
- Drs. Kopitzke and Nalli attended the National ACS Meeting in San Francisco in March. Also attending and presenting research posters were chemistry students, Steve Klankowski, Jackie O'Donnell, Matt West, and Laura Senefeld.
2008-2009
- Drs. Nalli and Kopitzke attended the National ACS Meeting in Salt Lake City in April. Also attending and presenting research posters were chemistry students, Abdalla Abdalla, Samantha Klein, Saluja Mahabamunugge, and Davyion Crossland.
- Dr. Bruce Svingen was elected President of the WSU Faculty Association!
2007-2008
- Drs. Nalli and Franz were on sabbatical leave. Nalli spent the Fall 2007 semester on campus working on his
radical chemistry research with students. Franz spent the entire year as a visiting scientist at the
Upper Mississippi River Research Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
- Brad Seurer finished up his Ph.D. in Polymer Science and
Engineering from U. Mass.
- Dr. Nalli presented a paper at the National ACS Meeting in New Orleans in April. Also attending was chemistry student, Steve Klankowski, who presented a poster entitled "Creation of a Web Accessible NMR Spectral Database".
2006-2007
- Drs. Kopitzke and Engen took a contingent of WSU Chemistry
Majors to the March 2007 National ACS Meeting in Chicago. Four of Dr.
Kopitzke's students presented posters on their research, Grace Mbogo, Ross
Haroldson, Sunzida Ferdous, and Eric Anderson. Dr. Engen's student, Matt
Karpinsky, also presented his research at the meeting. Also attending the
meeting from WSU were Dr. Lee and Kerry Butters.
- Drs. Nalli and Kopitzke attended the Council on Undergraduate Research's
"CUR Dialogues - The Art of Grantsmanship" meeting in Washington,
DC in March 2007.
- Dr. Nalli served on the review panel for the National Science Foundation's
Major Research Instrumentation Grants program May 4-5 at NSF headquarters in
Arlington, Va.
2005-2006
- Tom Nalli presented a poster at the National Organic Symposium held in
June 2005 at the University of Utah. Nalli received an ACS Division of
Organic Chemistry Faculty Travel Award, which paid for some of his travel
expenses to this meeting.
2004-2005
- Drs. Engen, Nalli, and Kopitzke attended the National ACS Meeting in San
Diego held during March 2005. Dr. Kopitzke and his research student, Jen
Zemke, both gave poster presentations within the Division of Polymer
Chemistry. Dr. Nalli presented a poster on the WSU NMR grant project and
another talk on the use of NMR in his organic courses at the "Hot
Topics in Organic Chemistry" symposium. Dr. Nalli's research students,
Desiree Bonsack, Amanda K. Meier, Tyler Morin, and Missy Jo Studler all gave
posters on their research at the Undergraduate Research Poster Session. Dr.
Engen's research student, Danielle Swaney presented a poster on her research
to the Division of Environmental Chemistry. Here is a page with photos from the
meeting.
- Mark Engen received a grant from Shimadzu which allowed the purchase of
numerous new spectrometers including an FT-IR, 4 GCs, a GC-MS, and a UV-Vis.
- Sara Hein attended the the 10th Council on Undergraduate Research National
Conference at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, June 23-26, 2004.
- Sara Hein attended the 18th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education at
Iowa State University, July 18 - 22, 2004
- Tom Nalli received an Inter Faculty Organization Professional Improvement
Grant for research on the Synthesis of New Tetraphenylphosphonium
Polymers.
- Rill Reuter coauthored the new Test Item File to Accompany
"Chemistry for Changing Times", 10th ed. by John W. Hill
and Doris K. Kolb.
- Jamie Schneider taught in the WSU College for Kids Program in Summer 2004.
2003-2004
- Tom Nalli was the speaker at the November 2003 meeting of the La
Crosse/Winona ACS Local Section. His talk was entitled "Using Visible
Light to Start Cationic Polymerizations".
- Sara Hein taught a new course, "NMR Applications", during the
fall semester.
- Jamie Schneider taught a new investigative science course for elementary teaching
majors that is sponsored in part through a NOVA (NASA Opportunities for Visionary
Academics) grant.
- Bob Kopitzke did research during the summer with chemistry major Jennifer Zemke. This
research is being supported through the NSF-Funded "Research Site for Educators in
Chemistry" program of the University of Minnesota.
- Sara Hein worked during summer 2003 on developing new NMR experiments in conjunction
with our National Science Foundation Grant project.
- Jamie Schneider taught in the WSU College for Kids Program in July 2003.
- Charla Miertschin participated in the NSF Workshop on "NMR: Theory and
Applications" which was held at the Center for NMR Spectroscopy, Washington State
University, Pullman, WA in May, 2003
- Sara Hein attended the national meeting of the American Society of Pharmacognosy in
Chapel Hill, NC, in July 2003.
- Tom Nalli attended the 2003 National Organic Symposium at Indiana University in June.
Nalli received a Faculty Travel Award from the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry to attend
this meeting.
2002-2003
- Jamie Schneider attended the 225th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society
held March 23-28, 2003 in New Orleans. She presented a paper as part of the Division of
Chemical Education's symposium on Chemistry for Nonmajors: Teaching in Never Never
Land Technology and Laboratory-Based Approaches. The paper was entitled,
"Building Community and Excitement through Chemistry Labs".
- Tom Nalli attended the 225th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society held
March 23-28, 2003 in New Orleans. Nalli accompanied his research student, Jay Wackerly,
who presented a paper on his research entitled, "Verification of the Mechanism for a
Visible-Light-Initiated System for Cationic Polymerization".
- Tom Nalli attended the National Conference on Undergraduate Research held March12-16,
2003 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
- Rill Reuter and Jamie Schneider served as Co-Directors of Research Paper Judging for the
Regional Science Fair in March 2003.
- Sara Hein is the 2003 Chair of the La Crosse/Winona Local Section of the American
Chemical Society.
- Jamie Schneider presented a talk entitled "Building Community and Excitement in the
General Chemistry Lab" at the MnSCU Teaching and Learning Conference in St. Cloud,
MN, in October 2002
- Charla Miertschin attended the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education in Bellingham,
Washington in August 2002.
- Jamie Schneider taught in the WSU College for Kids Program in July 2002.
- Jeanne Franz and her research students, Perry Loken and Nick Taylor, attended the 34th
Great Lakes regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in June 2002. Dr. Franz
presented her and her students environmental chemistry research in a paper entitled,
"The Efect of Different Water Quality Parameters on the Degradation Rate of
Atrazine."
- Tom Nalli attended the Pittsburg Conference (PITTCON 2002) in New Orleans in March 2002.
- Bob Kopitzke attended the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society held in
March 2002 in Orlando. Attending with Dr. Bob were his two senior undergraduate research
students, Tim Steckler and Brad Seurer. Both students presented posters on their research
at the meeting.
