News

The American Chemical Society (ACS) meeting is fast approaching, and many Center members will be presenting throughout the week. Want to organize your conference schedule around the CSN? See the table below for a chronological list of our presentations; you can also download the list here, or browse the full program by day, author, topic, etc. here.   Presenter Title Date/Time Location Session detail link Christy Haynes Lipopolysaccharide density and structure governs the interaction between the bacterial outer membrane and engineered nanoparticles Sun, Aug 21 9:30-10:05am Room 104B, Convention Center View Session Detail Chi-Ta Yang Ab initio approach for the study of incongruent NMC metal dissolution in aqueous environment Sun, Aug 21 6:00-8:00pm poster session Halls A/B Convention Center View… Read More »Upcoming CSN Talks at ACS

CSN students have recently completed their programs and graduated! Julianne Troiano defended her doctoral dissertation, “Surface Specific Investigation of the Nano-Bio Interface by Second Harmonic Generation” at Northwestern University, and Md Shariful Islam completed his Master’s program at Tuskegee University with a thesis titled “Interconversion of Cellulose I to Cellulose II: A study of time and temperature effects on its microstructure and comparative analysis of its conversion to CNFs and CNCs by chemical methods.” Congratulations, Juli and Md!

Congratulations to CSN Director Bob Hamers, who will be among the 57 American Chemical Society members honored as 2016 ACS Fellows. According to the announcement in C&E News, “The fellows program began in 2009 as a way to recognize and honor ACS members for outstanding achievements in and contributions to science, the profession, and ACS.”

Congratulations to Cathy Murphy, Sam Lohse, and Jonathan Eller, whose patent for their millifluidic reactor for making gold nanoparticles was issued today! You can read more about the benchtop reactor in Dr. Lohse’s blog post, “Designing a Simple, Easy-to-Build Reactor for Making Nanoparticles.”

The University of Minnesota Department of Chemistry held their annual Graduate Student Research Symposium yesterday, where third-year doctoral students presented 20-minute talks about their research to an audience of peers, faculty, alumni, and guests. Panels of judges including faculty and distinguished guests granted one first place and one honorable mention for each of the four presentation tracks. CSN student Sunipa Pramanik (Haynes lab) received the honorable mention award for her track. Congratulations, Sunipa! You can read more about the symposium here.  

The CSN is featured in the cover article of the current issue of Badger Chemist, the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Chemistry alumni magazine. The article (starting on page 9) particularly highlights the work of graduate student Mimi Hang and the Center’s lab exchange program. CSN Director Bob Hamers is also discussed in the “faculty news” section on page 5, and Dr. Hamers and fellow faculty member Qiang Cui are also mentioned among the department’s award recipients, along with recent graduate Marco Torelli on pages 15/17. Update June 14: You can now read the story without downloading a PDF by going to the university’s Chemistry Department website here.

Dr. Mike Curry had the honor of presenting the keynote speech at the recent 6th grade graduation ceremony for Tuskegee Public School in Tuskegee, AL. “I had the chance to interact with a very driven bunch of 6th grade kids,” he said.  “This was the best outreach experience that I have had in my career so far…..simply awesome!” Congratulations to the graduates!

CSN Professor Joel Pedersen has been featured in an article for CALS News, the website of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The article highlights Dr. Pedersen’s research as part of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. He says, “Our intent is to get down to the molecular level… What are the rules that govern how these materials interact with biological systems? In particular, how do these particles interact with a cell membrane?” Update August 10, 2016: The article was reprinted in the summer 2016 issue of grow: Wisconsin’s Magazine for the Life Sciences, with the title “Safer Nanotech.”

CSN Director Bob Hamers was featured on WISC-TV Channel 3 news in Madison last night in a story about the startup company he co-founded, Silatronix. The story discussed the safety hazards of some Lithium-ion batteries, and how Silatronix has developed a compound with the potential to make the batteries much safer. As Bob says in the video, “We’ve generated a material that is safer, and by virtue of that we believe we can make Lithium-ion batteries safer as well.”

CSN Faculty member Erin Carlson got a shout-out in yesterday’s White House blog post. Dr. Carlson was visiting the White House as one of this year’s recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). As the blog entry about the event says, “…awardee Erin Carlson is working to slow the progress of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics. On top of that, she shares her love of chemistry with students by creating hands-on laboratory activities to engage them in chemistry.” Congratulations, Erin!