News

‘Take Our Kids to Work Day’ in Chemistry!

The Chemistry Department welcomed some young visitors today for 'Take Our Kids to Work' Day. This nationally recognized program provides secondary school students with the opportunity to spend a day in the workplace job shadowing their parents. Students are able to explore future career options and develop an understanding and appreciation for what their parents do at work.

Blades new Editor-in-Chief of Applied Spectroscopy

Chemistry Professor Michael Blades was recently selected as Editor-in-Chief of Applied Spectroscopy. His term will begin in the summer of 2012.

The Society for Applied Spectroscopy published the following article on Dr. Blades' appointment:

Department celebrates chemistry with Open House

Despite the chilly weather, kids of all ages turned out to the Department of Chemistry inaugural open house, “Chemistry: Beyond the Magic.” Families arrived from across Greater Vancouver to participate in the fun and celebrate chemistry.

Held on Saturday October 22, the event featured a number of hands-on activities, giveaways and chemistry shows, and was timed to coincide with the United Nations sanctioned International Year of Chemistry and Canada’s National Chemistry...

MacLachlan group discovers new type of chiral carbon

Kevin Shopsowitz, a PhD student working in Professor MacLachlan’s group, has discovered a new type of highly porous and chiral carbon, with a number of potential important applications.

The Muonic Helium Atom (The New Scientist, 2011)

Unique studies of isotopic mass effects in reaction rates: from Muonium (Mu=μ+e-), with a mass of 0.113 amu to muonic He (4Heμ), with a mass of 4.11 amu, a remarkable ratio of 36.4. The Mu atom has the same size and characteristics as the H atom, but with a positive muon as its "nucleus", instead of a proton. The muonic He atom is formed by negative muon (μ-) capture, the net effect of which is to replace one electron in He with a μ-.

UBC's Sustainability Research Fellowship

Dr. Laurel Schafer was awarded UBC's Sustainability Research Fellowship in recognition of catalyst development which focuses on atom-economic transformations that avoid the formation of wasteful byproducts

Our Graduate in Top 100

Congratulations to Prof Hua Chun Zeng (National University of Singapore, PhD 1989 with Keith Mitchell) who was 49th in the Thomson Reuters list of the world's top chemists for 2000-10 according to research impact.

Our Graduate in Top 40 Under 40

David Vocadlo, a former grad student of Dr. Withers, was recognized for his research in the area of chemical glycobiology for developing chemical tools to manipulate glycan processing enzymes in cells and in vivo

Grad Student's work featured in MedChemComm

Congratulations to Ying Li (Perrin Lab) whose work on one-step F18-labeling of a Cancer Drug, Marimastat, was featured on the inside cover of MedChemComm.

Perrin Lab research makes OBC Cover

The work of UBC Chemistry Professor David M. Perrin and his research group has made the cover of this month’s Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry. Curtis H. Lam, Christopher J. Hipolito, Marcel Hollenstein and David M. Perrin authored “A divalent metal-dependent self-cleaving DNAzyme with a tyrosine side chain.”

Bob McDonald kicks off this year's LMC with "Science As I've Seen It"

Bob McDonald, award-winning and beloved Canadian science personality, gave a fantastic lecture yesterday, “Science as I’ve Seen It” to kick off the 2011/2012 Lectures in Modern Chemistry series. Bob kept the 300+ audience entertained as he recounted experiences spanning his 35-year career as a science journalist; transporting the audience all the way from Mars – millions of kilometers away – to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory 6,800 feet below the Earth’s surface.

UBC Earthquake ShakeOut!

It's the largest earthquake drill in Canadian history! This October 20, prepare to "drop, cover and hold" for the Great British Columbia ShakeOut.

Set to begin at 10:20am, the drill will require participants across BC to take cover for up to two minutes in response to a simulated earthquake event.

Postdoc Fellowship Opportunities!

DEADLINES are looming! The UBC Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellowships and Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships are excellent opportunities for qualified individuals to advance their careers at UBC Chemistry.

STUDENT AWARDS

Congratulations to two students in the Chemistry Department:
Chang Liu, a fourth-year PhD student in Dr. Chen's research group, was recently awarded the Agnes and Gilbert Hooley Scholarship in Chemistry.

Undergraduate student Hart Plommer recieved the Muenster Memorial Merit Award for the 2010 Winter Term.

New approach to XAS near-edge data analysis

To address several issues relating to the analysis of near-edge XAS data, Mario Delgado spearheaded an intense effort over the last three years to develop an approach to data analysis that would remove user bias in the fitting of near-edge and background features. The Monte Carlo-based approach minimizes user bias and provides a statistical analysis of obtained fit parameters. With the help of Craig Mewis, he has implemented this approach in a Matlab program entitled BlueprintXAS,...

Beyond First Year - Why Chemistry is a cool major...

The annual Faculty of Science "Beyond First Year" event was held on Monday, February 28th in the Life Sciences Centre, attracting several hundred first year students seeking information about possible career and degree choices. Many changes are afoot in Chemistry - and interest was very high amongst the army of frosh seeking information.

Abnormal carbene reactivity uncovered

Prof Derek Gates and his student Josh Bates, in collaboration with Prof Pierre Kennepohl, have investigated the electronic structure of an abnormal carbene generated from the reaction of NHCs with phosphaalkenes to form 4-phosphino-2-carbenes. Josh discovered this surprising reactivity and probed possible reaction pathways using computational methods; the details of this study were published as a communication in Angew. Chem. and was subsequently highlighted by Chemical &...

Imagine 2011

Welcome to all of our new Chemistry students and thank you to everyone who attended another successful Chemistry Imagine Orientation. The weather was beautiful and the burgers were delicious!

This year the Undergraduate Chemistry Society performed a magic show, there was a new Amazing Race challenge with prizes for the winning team including custom lab coats and the coveted Amazing Race trophy, our Chemistry Graduate Society put on the BBQ, and the breakout session cupcakes were a hit...

Chemistry Welcomes New Shared Instrument Facility

August 17, 2011

The Department of Chemistry unveiled a ground-breaking new learning space this week, the Shared Instrument Facility (SIF). This innovative space combines a laboratory and student resource centre, and will transform the learning environment for students at UBC. Undergraduates now have unprecedented access to highly specialized equipment that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Chemistry Grad Student awarded Best Oral Presentation

This past June at the 94th annual Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, UBC chemistry graduate student Lauren Keyes was awarded Best Oral Presentation in the Organometallics Reagents in Organic Synthesis Symposium. Lauren Keyes, from the Love group, is entering the fourth year of her PhD at UBC. In recognition of her outstanding presentation - "Pt(II) catalyzed C-F activation...

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