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Author Archives: Luanne Johnson
ChUME Opportunity
Dear grad students,
Join the ChUME (Chemistry Undergraduate Mentorship and Empowerment) Initiative.
ChUME was founded by six chemistry grad students and one post-doc in Fall 2013. Our mission is to foster professional long-lasting relationships between undergraduate and graduate chemistry students. In addition, we host seminars, socials, and professional development workshops every Term to assist undergraduate chemistry students in their success here at OSU and beyond.
ChUME Grad Student Responsibilities:
- One hour weekly meeting with all ChUME mentors.
- Participation in ChUME events.
- Actively working with a minimum of one undergraduate mentee.
- Documenting your mentoring activities (meetings, research advising, etc) with ChUME.
Benefits for you:
- You can add an outreach activity to your grant proposals, CVs, resumés, etc.
- You hone communication skills from one-on-one/group mentoring, and public speaking skills from ChUME events.
Looking for an opportunity to mentor undergraduate chemistry students? ChUME is ready to expand! A brief, rolling application for graduate students mentors can now be found here.
Poster Session
Please, encourage your research faculty to support their Postdocs and Research Associates in attending this important showcasing event. We are grateful to have this community of highly productive researchers on campus and this National Postdoc Appreciation Week event is meant to demonstrate this.
We need these people to leave their busy schedules for an afternoon to present their research results, but we also need their faculty mentors to show their support by attending the event, so please help us get the word out and encourage your Postdocs and Research Associates to submit an abstract, and your faculty mentors to show their support by attending the event.
Thanks to the many units and colleges who are supporting the event, there will be refreshments!
Who Am I? Wednesday – Michael Burand
Name: Michael W. Burand
Area of Study / Position Title: General Chemistry Laboratory Coordinator
Why chemistry? (What about it initially interested you?): I liked science when I was young since it was a way to understand how the world works. I had an excellent chemistry teacher in high school and was very fortunate to receive a scholarship to study chemistry in college.
Research focus (in non-science terms) or basic job duties? I’m the instructor for general chemistry laboratory sections taught in LPSC. I develop course materials and manage the TAs who teach the laboratories. Occasionally I teach general chemistry lecture sections as well.
One thing you truly love about your job? It’s great to be able to work with colleagues and TAs to come up with new laboratory teaching pedagogies, and I love it when it’s clear something we’ve created is helping students gain a better understanding.
One interesting/strange factoid about yourself. I received my pilot’s license while in high school.
Portland ACS Poster Symposium
The first annual Portland American Chemical Society Undergraduate Poster Symposium will be held on Sunday, October 5, at the SRTC Building (formerly Science II) at Portland State University, from 4-7 PM. We hope to have 50 or more undergraduates presenting posters about their summer research; there will be free pizza and beer (and other food and drink).
I am writing to invite you to send grad students, postdocs, and faculty to display materials and/or pamphlets about your school at a table we will provide, and to interact with students who are interested in your graduate school.
We also need judges to determine who should receive $150 first prizes and possibly $75 second prizes in each of seven divisions. To the extent you can identify specific people who would attend, it would be most helpful to know their names, email addresses, and the divisions they are willing to judge (Organic, Inorganic, Analytical, Physical, Biochemistry, Polymers, Materials); or ask them to contact me directly, reingold@juniata.edu. This is all free of charge. Thank you!
Cheers,
Dave Reingold
Focus on ECampus – Alexandra Carlton
Alexandra Carlton is a student at the University of Southern California who recently completed the CH 331/332/337 online Organic chemistry series with OSU. She has been accepted to Bastyr Naturopathic Medical School this fall to study Naturopathic Medicine, a field she is passionate about. Alexandra says—
My vision as a naturopathic doctor is to help people live a positive balanced healthy lifestyle, educate people about their own health, cure ailments, and possibly save a life.
Alexandra has worked very hard to reach her goal; she took the Organic chemistry series online because she was not able to work it into her schedule at USC. But she points out that online Organic chemistry is not easy. Her advice to other students:
Make sure to stay on top of your work and have good time management skills. Also, get a tutor if you need it because it is one of the hardest undergraduate courses out there. If you are taking the hybrid CH 337 organic chemistry lab class, make sure you complete and do everything the first two weeks that the online class asks you to do, because when you get to the on campus 2 week portion, it is very fast paced, so you definitely have to be prepared!
When we asked Alexandra how she found OSU’s online chemistry, she mentioned that she found it online, and that OSU’s Organic Chemistry was the only online organic class her medical school would accept. That fact says a lot about our great instructors here at Oregon State! Her school also likes our series because the final class, CH 337, is a hybrid class with 2 weeks of online study, then 2 weeks of on-campus lab work in Corvallis.
Best wishes to Alexandra for her continued success in medical school, and thanks to her for sharing her story.
Who Am I? Wednesday – Paul Weatherford
1. Name: Paul Weatherford
2. Area of study / position title: Biological lab sciences / Science Storekeeper
3. Why chemistry? (What about it initially interested you, etc.)? Uh, Chemistry is the wave of the future. Creating new, exciting ways to blow up the lab was always main goal of mine!
4. Research focus (in non-science terms) or basic job duties? My basic job duties are customer service, purchasing/procurement, inventory management, receiving, problem solving and minion herding.
5. One thing that you truly love about your job? I get to see the cutting edge of new technologies being created and help facilitate their progress into reality.
6. One interesting/strange factoid about yourself. I am a fully certified PADI Divemaster and research diver with the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, OR.
NSF – GRFP Application Workshop
The Graduate School is offering an intensive workshop to help OSU students prepare competitive applications for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award. The workshop will be conducted in two sessions – Session 1 on Thursday, October 2, and Session 2 on Thursday, October 9. Both sessions will be from 5:00 to 7:00 pm – both sessions will be held in Kearney 212.
Session 1 will include a brief overview of the GRFP Program, a panel discussion with current OSU GRFP Fellows and faculty reviewers, and exercises to help students draft their Personal, Relevant Background and Future Goals Statements. Session 2 will include exercises to help students draft their Graduate Research Plan Statement.
The final NSF GRFP application deadlines for 2015-16 awards are from October 29, 2014 through November 4, 2014, depending upon the area of study.
For applicant eligibility, please see the complete eligibility requirements in Solicitation NSF-14-590 at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14590/nsf14590.htm.
Please forward this announcement to eligible students, and encourage them to attend – seating is limited, and registration is required: Click here to register. Faculty and advisors may attend, although students will have priority. Deadline for registration is Tuesday, September 30, 2014.
If you have any questions, please send an email to the Graduate School at Graduate.Scholarships@oregonstate.edu.
NSF EAPSI Program for US Graduate Students in Science and Engineering
The National Science Foundation (NSF) East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) Fellowship Program provides U.S. graduate students in science and engineering with an opportunity to spend 8 weeks (10 weeks for Japan) during the summer conducting research at one of the seven host locations in East Asia and Pacific: Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan. The program is a collaboration between NSF and counterpart agencies in each host location.
EAPSI is open to graduate students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and are enrolled in a research-oriented Masters or Ph.D. program in science or engineering. Applicants must propose a research project in a field of science, engineering or STEM education supported by NSF, including Engineering; Computer and Information Science and Engineering; Mathematical and Physical Sciences (Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Materials Science); Biological Sciences; Geosciences; Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences; Education (STEM); and Multidisciplinary Research in these fields. Applicants identify and contact host researchers on their own, prior to submitting their EAPSI proposal; lists of prospective host institutions are available at the end of each Handbook.
NSF provides EAPSI Fellows with a $5,000 stipend and roundtrip airplane ticket to the host location. Our foreign counterparts provide in-country living expenses and accommodations (arrangements vary by host location). Please see www.nsf.gov/eapsi for additional information for the Program Solicitation (NSF 13-593); host location-specific Handbooks; How to Apply Guide; and Helpful Tips Applicants.
In 2015, approximately 215 EAPSI Fellows travel to seven locations in the East Asia and Pacific:
Australia – 30
China – 40
Japan – 65
Korea – 25
New Zealand – 15
Singapore – 15
Taiwan – 25
The application submission deadline for the Summer 2015 is November 13, 2014.
EAPSI Informational Webinars will be conducted on Tue, September 9 and Fri, October 17, 2014, at 2:00 pm ET. Log-in instructions will be available at www.nsf.gov/eapsi
We look forward to receiving applications from your graduate students!
Who Am I? Wednesday – Paul Blakemore
1. Name: Paul Blakemore
2. Area of study / position title: Associate Professor Synthetic organic chemistry
3. Why chemistry? (What about it initially interested you, etc.)? It requires creativity and you are only limited by your imagination.
4. Research focus (in non-science terms) or basic job duties? New methods and concepts for making molecules with carbon skeletons.
5. One thing that you truly love about your job? Writing and teaching.
6. One interesting/strange factoid about yourself. I play guitar.