WRGP is looking for students who want to dance (or sing or recite poetically or etc.) their dissertation or thesis March 3 at 7 p.m. at the Chintimini Community Center. If you’re interested in performing, email burchsa@onid.oregonstate.edu. Drinks provided and pot-luck snacks. $3 suggested donation at the door. All are welcome! Attendance RSVP with Jennifer.cohen@oregonstate.edu
Who Am I? Wednesday – Chong Fang
Name: Chong Fang
Area of Study / Position Title: Physical Chemistry, Assistant Professor
Why chemistry? (What about it initially interested you?): Understanding how everything works always fascinates me. Physical chemistry and chemical physics provide myriad powerful tools to reveal the mechanism during the transformation between molecular species.
Research focus (in non-science terms) or basic job duties? The main theme of my research group is to investigate the structural dynamics basis of functions performed by all kinds of molecules in biological systems and novel materials. Ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy enables us to capture vivid molecular “movies” of chemistry in action with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions.
One thing you truly love about your job? Our research is at the forefront of the field and the experimental protocol is still being developed. That gives us a sense of urgency and pride in bringing new ideas into our experiments, grasping unexpected discoveries and making sense of them. It is truly exciting to have the freedom to design, explore, execute, disseminate, revise, improve, and make an impact on the world surrounding us.
One interesting/strange factoid about yourself. I like seafood. I want to cook more and try different flavors in the future.
CHD ETIC
For the high-tech sector proposals:
As promised last week, we have completed the full proposal template for FY2016. Please visit the ETIC website Next Biennium page at http://www.eticnow.org/next/ for information on the high tech sector FY2016 RFP. Proposals are due March 13th.
For full proposals, here are the guidelines:
There was no requirement to submit a pre-proposal in order to submit a full proposal.
You may submit a full proposal, even if the feedback on your pre-proposal was not positive.
Feedback is not intended to indicate acceptance or rejection of a proposal, nor is there any guarantee that addressing feedback will result in an award.
For proposals that are targeting energy, manufacturing or healthcare:
Your full proposal process and due dates will differ. If you have a question as to whether your proposal falls into one of these other categories, please ask us. We continue to work with the industry representatives from these sectors to spin up their evaluation teams and prepare for a possible Oregon Talent Council. Information on the process will be forthcoming.
In all cases, please let Michele (michele_vitali@ous.edu) or me know if you have any questions, if you have not received feedback on your high-tech pre-proposal by February 20th, or if you have updates to our contact list. Thank you for your patience during this process!
Benton County High School Career Convention – Seeking Chemistry Presenter
February 24, 2015 – 12:50-2pm
This is a 5-7 minute presentation on who the person is that is presenting, what they do and what high school students need to do to get prepared for that career. There will be 2 other speakers. The sessions are back to back so it will be presented twice in that time period.
We’re hoping a staff person or a grad student can present for us. Anyone who is interested is welcome to call me or sign up directly on our webpage. www.bchscc.org under career speakers.
Thanks so much!
Donna Keim
541-740-1309
Focus on Ecampus – Justin Reed
Online student Justin Reed shares his story about how OSU Ecampus made a difference in his life:
At some point towards the end of my pursuit of my bachelor’s in electrical engineering I realized that I was not in love with what I was doing. I really liked the science and the problem solving side of it, however I just could not find the passion that I was hoping to find in a life long career. At the time, my wife and I had just decided to start a family in the near future so I did what any responsible husband/father would do and I finished my degree and I went to work as an Electrical Engineer at the Idaho National Lab.
After a couple years of working in the industry, I again was feeling unfulfilled with my work. I quickly realized that what I was missing was human interaction. From past experiences I knew that I loved working with people in all aspects of the human experience. I knew that I would never be happy working with inanimate objects. So, I started to think about which careers could allow me to use science, problem solve, AND work with people on a daily basis. What had never been obvious to me before, quickly became so, as I realized that a career in medicine would fulfill all these objectives.
By this time in my life I was 28 years old, had a third child on the way, and there was not a college or university in my town. I was painfully aware that as an older student from non-traditional background trying to get accepted to medical school I would face some obstacles; time being one of the biggest ones. I had a couple of pre-requisites that had to be completed in order to apply. At the time, in addition to my growing family, I was working 50-60 hours a week. I realized this would not be easy and the timeline would have to work out just right for me to have a chance. I laid out a plan that had me starting medical school exactly two years later. Everything would have to fall into place exactly right in order to accomplish this goal.
My work schedule forced me to take most of my classes online or at night. This was a problem for me because I was living in rural Idaho and there are not of options in that area. In fact the only university in the area was 45 minutes away and did not offer Organic Chemistry either online or at night. I started to panic! I absolutely needed to take Organic Chemistry that first semester for my plan to work. I jumped online and quickly found out that Oregon State University offered the class through their Ecampus! I applied and registered for the class. I knew my plan was going to work.
About three weeks before the start of my class I received a call from the Ecampus Coordinator, Kim Thackray. She explained to me that while I had taken one year of Chemistry (a pre-requisite for O-Chem), one of the semesters I had taken would not fulfill the requirement and I would not be allowed to start O-Chem that semester. I would have to take an additional semester of general chemistry and then I could take O-Chem. Due to the course schedules, this would set my plan back an entire year. I was devastated!
The very next day, Kim called me back. She said that she understood how important taking O-Chem that fall was and had taken it into her own hands to do some research for me. Kim found a 3-week long condensed Chemistry class that started in two days and would meet my pre-requisite requirement. She had already talked to the professor, showed them my undergrad transcript, explained my situation to them, and arranged for me to have a seat in the class if I wanted it! Amazing! My plan was back on track.
Today I have four children (yes, you read that right) and I am a first year medical student at the University of Washington School of Medicine. I absolutely love what I am doing. I feel like becoming a physician is my calling in life. It is all I dreamed it would be. As I think back through all the classes I had to take, studying for and taking the MCAT twice, all the applications and interviews and finally getting accepted to UWSOM, I realize that without the extra effort put forth by the Ecampus folks, specifically Kim, there is a very good chance that I would not be where I am today. From my experience, it is not very often that someone will go out of their way for someone that they don’t know, much less for someone that they have never met. Especially when it comes to helping an out of state student find unique ways to fulfill their dreams. OSU’s Ecampus made a difference for me.
Melissa M Schultz – In Memorium
(April 26, 1977 – February 7, 2015)
You will be missed.
A Tribute to Melissa M. Schultz
(April 26, 1977-February 7, 2015)
I met Melissa Schultz in the Fall of 1999 when she entered OSU’s PhD program in Analytical Chemistry. In the Spring of 2000, Melissa became a member of Professor Jennifer Field’s and my research groups. At the much too early age of 37, Melissa was killed Saturday evening, 7 February 2015, in a two-vehicle accident a little north of The College of Wooster in Ohio where she had reached the rank of Associate Professor of Chemistry. Behind this stark fact lies the story of a wonderful person who became an excellent scientist, an outstanding college teacher, and an ardent champion of science among elementary and middle school students, particularly young women.
At Oregon State, Melissa was an exemplary graduate student. She was solid academically and a dynamo in her research. During her time as a graduate student she received the American Chemical Society Environmental Chemistry Graduate Student Award, the David Shoemaker Award for Excellence in Graduate Research, and the Shirley R. Kuse Award for Outstanding Women in Science and Engineering. It was her personality and energy, however, that for me set her apart as a special student. Melissa energized everyone in the laboratory. She cultivated an esprit de corps, catalyzed a special chemistry if you will, between the students, post docs, and technical staff that were part of the mass spectrometry laboratory between 2000 and 2004. She organized social and athletic events. She was a leader and an inspiration to her fellow students. Melissa carried her passion for science and teaching with her after she graduated from OSU. Her post-doctoral work on antidepressants in environmental and biological matrices at the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Laboratory in Denver (2004-2006), where she was a National Research Council post-doctoral fellow, was highlighted in Nature News and Science News. By all accounts, she was an outstanding, motivating teacher as well as an innovative researcher at the College of Wooster, and her leadership carried over into the city of Wooster’s community where she worked to inspire young people, especially girls, to study science.
Melissa’s death is a profound loss to all at OSU who knew her. It is my hope that her story will inspire all students of science, present and future, as did the example she set while she lived.
Those wishing to learn more of Melissa’s life and family can do so by reading obituaries at http://www.mcintirebradhamsleek.com/obituaries/dr-melissa-m-schultz and http://www.wooster.edu/news/releases/2015/february/obituary-melissaschultz/. A memorial Mass was held for Melissa on Saturday, February 14, 2015 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Mary Catholic Church, 527 Beall Ave., Wooster, Ohio.
Doug Barofsky, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry
Nuclear Summer School Flyer 2015
Visiting Assistant Professor Positions in Chemistry at Hendrix College
![Visiting profs announcement[1]_Page_1](http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/erlenmeyer/files/2015/02/Visiting-profs-announcement1_Page_1.jpg)
![Visiting profs announcement[1]_Page_2](http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/erlenmeyer/files/2015/02/Visiting-profs-announcement1_Page_2.jpg)
Federal Postdoc Award Opportunity for Solar Energy Researchers
In order to spur innovation in solar energy, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is now accepting applications for postdoctoral researchers in solar energy to participate in the EERE Postdoctoral Research Awards. The EERE Postdoctoral Research Awards support research on energy efficiency and renewable energy to help solve our nation’s energy challenges. This year, this exciting program will offer up to five recent Ph.D. recipients the opportunity to conduct applied research projects to advance breakthrough solar energy technologies at universities, national laboratories and other research facilities. Former recipients of the EERE Postdoctoral Research Awards are now faculty and staff scientists at major research institutions and national laboratories.
This research will contribute to the SunShot Initiative goal to make solar energy technologies cost-competitive with traditional energy sources by 2020. Reducing the total installed cost for utility‐scale solar electricity by approximately 75%, from the 2010 baseline, to roughly $0.06 per kWh without subsidies will enable rapid, large‐scale adoption of solar electricity across the United States.
Potential research topics for these awards include behavioral and data science to lower solar electricity cost, systems integration, concentrating solar power, and photovoltaic cells, modules, and materials. The awards will provide a highly competitive two-year stipend with health insurance as well as allowance for travel, relocation, and research expenses. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, complete all requirements for their Ph.D. by May 31, 2015, and have a Ph.D. for no more than five years.
The application period for the EERE Postdoctoral Research Awards closes on May 7, 2015. The awards will be announced in July 2015 for the projects to start in September 2015. Apply today and learn more about former awardees.
Thank you,
Martha Payne, EERE Postdoctoral Research Awards
eerepostdocs@orise.orau.gov
Research Equipment Reserve Fund (RERF) Spring 2015
The Research Office Incentive Programs is accepting applications for the RERF Spring 2015 solicitation. The intent of the RERF program is to enable faculty to acquire, repair, renovate, or improve equipment directly used for research. Spring 2015 solicitation: preference to replacing obsolete or heavily worn equipment. Note: the program guidelines and application have been revised: http://research.oregonstate.edu/incentive/research-equipment-reserve-fund. Information: Debbie Delmore at debbie.delmore@oregonstate.edu. Deadline: Mar. 30.