Mentors

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  Summer 2013 Mentor, Darren Johnson

  Dr. Johnson is an associate professor at the University of Oregon. Professor Johnson received his B.S. degree in 1996 from the University of Texas, Austin. He earned his Ph.D. under the tutelage of Prof. Ken Raymond and the University of California, Berkeley in 2000. Thereafter, he was an Postdoctoral Fellow at The Scripps Research Institure with Prof. Julius Rebek until he joined the faculty at the University of Oregon in 2003. Prof. Jonson has received numberous awards, including a NSF Career Award and Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar Award. The goal of Dr. Johnson's research is to solve provlems in both organic and inorganic synthesis using the fundamentals of supramolecular chemistry.
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  Future 2014 Mentor, Eric V. Anslyn

  Dr. Anslyn is a professor of chemistry at the University Of Texas At Austin. Dr. Anslyn tells us about his reasearch " My research group is interested in the physical and bioorganic chemistry of synthetic and natural receptors and molecular recognition. Using a combination of synthesis, combinatorial techniques, NMR, kinetics, computer modeling, and optical signaling, we design and implement studies oriented at the development of receptors for numerous real world applications. In specific, we focus upon receptors for diols, catechols, carbohydrates, enolates, and enantiomeric excess using single and multi-analyte sensing ensembles."
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  2012 Mentor, Cassandra Fraser

  Dr. Fraser is a professor of biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia, Department of Chemistry. Her research in the Frazer lab deals in the synthesis, properties and applications of metal complexes with polymeric ligands. Like metalloproteins, polymeric metal complexes feature site-isolated metal centers in well-defined macromolecular environments. Here are some words about her research " These multifunctional targets are prepared via combination of coordination chemistry with living polymerization methodologies and offer many opportunities for further modification. The development of new synthetic methodologies involving main group, transition metal and lanthanide complexes with bipyridine and diketonate macroligands has paved the way for the discovery of some fascinating and unexpected properties and reactivity. The resulting hybrid materials can function as soluble agents, films, nanoparticles, or bulk materials, and block copolymers can form higher order nanoscale assemblies." Dr. Fraser's Home Page.
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  2008 Mentor, Timoth M. Swager

  Dr. Swager is a professor of chemistry at MIT. Here are some of his words about his research " My group's research is broadly focused on supramolecular and materials chemistry. We are interested in a spectrum of topics with an emphasis on the synthesis and construction of functional assemblies. Molecular recognition pervades a great deal of our research. Chemosensors require recognition elements to discriminate chemical signals. Electronic polymers are one of the areas that our group is well know for having made many innovations. We are constantly developing new electronic structures, properties, and uses for these materials. In the area of liquid crystals we make use of molecular complementary and receptor-ligand interactions to provide novel organizations. "
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  2007 Mentor, Rik TyKwinski

  Rik Twinsky is a professor of chemistry at Fredrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg.
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  2006 Mentor, John Baldwin

  Dr. Baldwin is a professor of physical and organic chemistry at Syracuse University. His research involves " Creditable mechanistic descriptions to account for simple organic chemical reactions remain elusive in spite of serious efforts to gain them. Detailed experimental characterizations of reactions exhibiting more than one reaction path from reactant to product can contribute to attaining fresh mechanistic insights on just how specific transformations take place. Examples of published work representative of our efforts along these lines include studies of thermal stereomutations of cyclopropanes, structural isomerizations of vinylcyclopropanes to cyclopentenes and vinylcyclobutanes to cyclohexenes, and degenerate isomerizations of cycloalka-1,3-dienes. Current reactions under study include the thermal stereomutations and [1,3] carbon sigmatropic shifts of deuterium-labeled vinylcyclobutanes and the fragmentation of ethylcyclopropane to form, among other products, butadiene and methane."

• 2004 Mentor, Jay Seigel

• Jay S. Siegel (b. 1959) earned a BSc in Chemistry from California State University - Northridge (1980), followed by an MA (1982) and PhD (1986) from Princeton working with Professor Kurt Mislow in the area of Structural Chemistry and Stereochemistry. Dr Siegel's research consists of molecular design, chemical synthesis, and structural analysis that constitute the three principle components of modern stereochemistry. Robust transmission of structural and stereo-chemical information is fundamental to selective chemical processes like (bio)molecular recognition, enantioselective reactions, and the assembly of designed materials. 
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  2003 Mentor, Lawrence T. Scott

  Dr. Scott is a professor of chemistry at Boston college. His research organization focuses on the directed laboratory synthesis of carbon nanotubes, from the ground up, by chemical methods, stands as one of the great unmet challenges in chemistry today. Far more than just an academic exercise, the successful development of versatile chemical methods for building single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) will someday deliver useful supplies of uniform diameter nanotubes of preselected structural type for advanced applications in nanoscale electronics and other fields that require homogeneous samples of these remarkable materials.
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  2002 Mentor, Michael M. Haley

  Dr. Haley is a professor organic, organometallic, and materials chemistry at the University of Oregon, and is also his department's chair. His says a few words about his research "The research interests of my group are deeply rooted in the exploration of important non-natural aromatic systems. The group utilizes current synthetic methodology for the preparation of novel organic materials and compounds of theoretical interest. We investigate these compounds by modern physical organic methods in order to determine the important physical and chemical properties of these systems, such as conductivity, non-linear optical activity, through-bond and through-space electronic interactions. Graduate and undergraduate students are actively involved in all aspects of the research, thus acquiring a strong synthetic and theoretical background."