Research Archives - The Erlenmeyer Flask

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Fred Hutch) hosts a 9-week summer internship that is designed to provide research experience and mentorship for undergraduate students of rising senior status. We would appreciate your help promoting the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) among students at Oregon State University. I have attached an informational brochure that offers an overview of the program, including eligibility criteria, compensation, travel and housing, and how to apply.

Please encourage your students to visit the SURP website for more comprehensive information.

An online application for the 2017 SURP will be available via the SURP website in mid-November 2016.

The application deadline is midnight Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Friday, January 13, 2017. Letters of recommendation for up to two references are due by midnight Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Friday, January 20, 2017.
The 2017 SURP will run from Monday, June 12 ??? Friday, August 11.
Other Biomedical Research Internships
I also wanted to share with you a resource that my colleagues and I developed, which is a catalog of biomedical research internships offered nationwide for high school, undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, graduate, and first-year medical students. Feel free to share this resource with faculty and students.

Thanks for your help promoting the SURP at the Fred Hutch and other internship opportunities nationwide!

Best,

Marilyn Drennan
Program Assistant,
Thompson Studies & Summer Undergraduate Research Program
Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center
1100 Fairview Ave. N
Seattle, WA 98109-1024
Phone: 206-667-4226

2017_surp_recruitmentbrochure_lowres

The 2015 National Chemistry Week theme is “Chemistry Colors Our World”. The American Chemical Society is celebrating Chemistry Week to increase awareness for Chemistry. Dr. Mas Subramanian’s research focuses on colorful materials, so he made a graphic featuring his pigment to help the NSF promote Chemistry.

More information regarding the American Chemical Society, the National Science Foundation, National Chemistry Week and Dr. Subramanian’s research can be found on their websites.

Dr. Chong Fang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Oregon State University, has been awarded one of the prestigious 2015 NSF CAREER Awards.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide program that offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. A CAREER grant should build a firm foundation for the recipient for a lifetime of research excellence and creative leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from junior faculty members at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.

This NSF CAREER Award will fund Dr. Fang’s research for the next five years. His current research focuses on developing state-of-the-art spectroscopic techniques to reveal the fluorescence mechanisms of green fluorescent protein (GFP) derivatives and emerging fluorescent protein biosensors. These colorful biomolecules originally derived from jellyfish floating in the Pacific ocean and later from coral reefs near Australia have revolutionized bioimaging for almost two decades. However, these biosensors still suffer from drawbacks in photostability, brightness, detection depth, and color contrast, etc. The key to rationally design the next-generation biosensors with improved and targeted properties lies in the mechanistic understanding of molecular fluorescence, emitted from the chromophore that is an organic moiety embedded in the center of the protein pocket.

The femtosecond Raman methodology implemented in the Fang lab will resolve the choreography of chromophore motions, to the detail of transporting a single proton upon photoexcitation, with the time resolution of a billionth of a millionth of a second. These unique and powerful experiments will provide previously hidden governing factors for the structural evolution of chromophores and the emission outcomes in emerging GFP-related biosensors, and can be extended to other photosensitive systems. The vivid molecular “movie” that is captured during chemical reactions and biological functions opens new ways to study physical chemistry and quantum mechanics in action.

“Winning this NSF CAREER award not only provides the crucial resources we need to bring our current femtosecond Raman methodology to the next level, both in technical innovation and sample applications, but also assures us that the scientific problems we are tackling hold transformative and broad impact.” Fang says. “Our group will use the newly available resources to systematically elucidate fluorescence mechanisms in an emerging group of protein biosensors, and pinpoint strategic atomic sites that protein designers and engineers can target to rationally improve the properties of those biosensors. The fundamental understanding of how things work, at the same time, is always a fascinating journey that keeps us inspired and motivated.”

Dr. Fang grew up in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China. He earned dual B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Applied Computer Science at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He continued on to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania under the tutelage of Prof. Robin Hochstrasser (1931-2013) and obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry (2006). He performed postdoctoral research with Prof. Richard Mathies at the University of California, Berkeley, before joining the OSU Chemistry Faculty in September 2010. Dr. Fang’s research group currently boasts one postdoc and six graduate students. Some of Dr. Fang’s other noted awards are the GRF and RERF Fund Awards at OSU, Dean’s Scholar Award at UPenn and the Guo Moruo Scholarship at USTC.

Chemistry Department Chair, Dr. Rich Carter, stated, “I am thrilled to see Chong’s significant scientific and educational accomplishments acknowledged by the NSF through this award. He is one of the leading young chemists in his area internationally and this honor is well deserved.”

Originally published in Terra Magazine – January 30, 2015 – by Doug Keszler

I AM OFTEN ASKED ABOUT THE STEPS leading to establishment of the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry headquartered at Oregon State University.

The story starts with the glimmer of an idea that emerged in the mid-1980s. The idea took hold in the 1990s, and culminated in 2011 with the establishment of a multi-institutional research center dedicated to developing the next generation of electronic circuits — circuits that are cleaner, cheaper and faster to make for the ever-changing demands of industry and consumers. Driving the center’s formation was a critical mass of relationships, philanthropy, distinctive science, strategic planning, numerous institutional partnerships and opportunities for leveraging.

A PARTNERSHIP BLOSSOMS

In the beginning, there was the OSU Foresight! Campaign, a modest fundraising effort that provided startup packages for three faculty hires in the mid-1980s — a “cluster hire” focused on building the area of materials science. At the time, materials science was a barely emerging field, making OSU an early player. John Wager in electrical engineering and I were two of the hires. We rarely interacted, however, until the mid-1990s. Our collaboration, combining fundamental chemistry and electrical engineering, eventually blossomed and formed the basis for the unique research now done in the Center. Read more…

A NUCLEAR WEAPON IN THE HANDS OF TERRORISTS is the stuff of nightmares, especially for U.S. agencies charged with preventing a devastating attack. When security or law enforcement agents confiscate nuclear or radiological weapons or their ingredients being smuggled domestically or internationally, they must quickly trace them back to their source.

Enter, the science of nuclear forensics. Defined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as “the ability to trace the source of interdicted materials to their place of origin,” nuclear forensics ranks as a “keystone” of U.S. anti-terrorism policy.

Now, Oregon State University is about to become a player in that effort. A new graduate emphasis in nuclear forensics is being launched in OSU’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics with funding from Homeland Security. Courses in nuclear materials science, nuclear forensics analysis and detection of special nuclear material will be added to existing core courses such as radiophysics, radiochemistry and applied radiation safety. Faculty expertise in nuclear engineering, radiation health physics, radiation detection and radiochemistry will anchor the program, along with state-of-the-art lab and spectroscopy facilities in the Radiation Center, says OSU researcher Camille Palmer, who will lead the nuclear forensics emphasis. Read more…

WHAT IF WE COULD TURN EXCESS CO2 into a boon for electronics and other industries?

Chemists and engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a way to do just that. David Ji and his research team have captured atmospheric carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas — and used it to make an advanced, high-value material for energy-storage devices that power everything from defibrillators to hybrid electric cars.

This innovation in nanotechnology won’t soak up enough carbon to solve global warming, the researchers say. However, it will provide an environmentally friendly, low-cost way to make “nanoporous graphene,” a pure form of carbon that’s super-strong and ultra-efficient at conducting heat and electricity. All of these properties give nanoporous graphene a big edge over activated carbon, now used in making commercial supercapacitors — devices that can store energy for rapid release. Read more…

Inspiration dissemination is a radio show on 88.7FM every Sunday night at 7 p.m. that features graduate students sharing stories about their research and lives here at OSU. If you are a graduate student and would like to communicate your research to a broad audience, please sign up at the following link: http://goo.gl/forms/wDxnbfUkpj

Originally published by OSU News and Research Communications

December 2, 2014

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Chemists and engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a fascinating new way to take some of the atmospheric carbon dioxide that’s causing the greenhouse effect and use it to make an advanced, high-value material for use in energy storage products.

This innovation in nanotechnology won’t soak up enough carbon to solve global warming, researchers say. However, it will provide an environmentally friendly, low-cost way to make nanoporous graphene for use in “supercapacitors” – devices that can store energy and release it rapidly.

Such devices are used in everything from heavy industry to consumer electronics.

The findings were just published in Nano Energy by scientists from the OSU College of Science, OSU College of Engineering, Argonne National Laboratory, the University of South Florida and the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Albany, Ore. The work was supported by OSU.

In the chemical reaction that was developed, the end result is nanoporous graphene, a form of carbon that’s ordered in its atomic and crystalline structure. It has an enormous specific surface area of about 1,900 square meters per gram of material. Because of that, it has an electrical conductivity at least 10 times higher than the activated carbon now used to make commercial supercapacitors. Read more…

See also:

Controlled Environments Magazine

Two science faculty were elected 2014 Fellows to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Two faculty are in the College of Science: Professor of Chemistry Vincent T. Remcho and Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics P. Andrew Karplus. Professor of Botany and Plant PathologyValerian Dolja in the College of Agricultural Sciences was also named a Fellow.

The accomplishments of the new Fellows will be celebrated at the 2015 AAAS Annual Meeting on February 14, 2015, in San Jose. Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon members by their peers for scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

Remcho was recognized for his contributions to the field of analytical chemistry, particularly to furthering understanding and development of surface chemistry and transport processes in microscale separations. Karplus and Dolja, who are both researchers in OSU’s Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing, were honored for their work in the biological sciences. Read more…

Superstition says a bride needs four things on her wedding day. Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Milton Harris Professor of Materials Science, Mas Subramanian provided all four of those things recently to the Benton Country Historical Museum for their newest exhibit, Something Old, Something Blue. Something old came in the form of a piece of lapis lazuli shipped all the way from Afghanistan; something borrowed was a reproduction of a cover article written about Mas and his discovery for National Geographic Magazine. Something new and something blue both came in the form of samples of his blue pigment.

This extraordinary blue pigment, discovered by happy accident in 2009, has led to, at last count, two pa Blue Pigment Samples tents, three publications and thousands of Google hits for the OSU scientist and his research team. Created by heating manganese compounds to 2,000 degrees, this pigment is heat reflective, non-toxic (unlike other blue pigments) and much more durable and versatile than blues previously discovered. “One day, a graduate student working on a completely different project was taking samples out of a furnace while I was walking by and it was blue. I realized immediately that something amazing had happened,” states Subramanian when asked how this serendipity had occurred. “The more we discover about the pigment, the more interesting it gets,” Subramanian says. Maybe that’s why Subramanian and his research group have decided to continue their research; attempting to make other colors using the same basic chemistry.

The Something Old, Something Blue exhibition showcases artifacts from the combined Horner Museum and Benton Country Historical Society artifact collections, with an emphasis on the color blue. When asked where the idea came from for Something Old, Something Blue; Mark Tolonen stated, “Most of our exhibitions come from our own collections, of about 120,000 objects. We go through and look for themes and we decided we had enough blue objects for an exhibit.” Some of the additional highlights are, Blues Traveler (international theme), blue fashion, blue in nature, the Boys in Blue (uniforms and school colors) and art.

Something Old, Something Blue will be on display November 14, 2014-October 24, 2015, at the Benton County Historical Museum. 1101 Main St, Philomath, OR 97370. They are open Tuesday thru Saturday 10:00am-4:30pm.

11/26/14 – UPDATE: This exhibit was featured in the Corvallis Gazette Times

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Category Archives: Research

2017 Fred Hutch Summer Undergraduate Research Program

National Chemistry Week – Celebrating the Colors of Our World

Chong Fang awarded 2015 NSF CAREER

How OSU became the headquarters for re-imagining the computer chip

Graduate Student, Brittany Robertson featured in Terra Magazine

David Ji featured in Terra Magazine

Inspiration Dissemination on KBVR

Atmospheric carbon dioxide used for energy storage products

Three researchers elected to world’s largest scientific society

Benton County Historical Museum Showcases Blue Discoveries

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