Our Faculty Continue to be Prolific Textbook Authors

Drs. Spence Seager and Mike Slabaugh recently published a new edition of their general, organic, and biochemistry textbook (Thomson/Brooks-Cole) in hardback form and two softback versions. The lab manual was published in a softback form. They also visited the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay from Oct. 19-21, 2007. They were invited to attend the annual meeting of the Chemistry Department Faculties of the Wisconsin University System to discuss how the online Chemistry 1050, 1110 and 1120 courses taught through Weber State University are conducted. Special interest was focused of how the lab portion of the courses was done. The meeting was attended by over fifty faculty members from the various Wisconsin University campuses. A 45 to 50 minute presentation was given followed by a question and answer session. A number of the attendees congratulated them on the development of a clever way to teach the labs to health occupation students.

"Expanding Your Horizons" Encourages Girls to Consider Math and Science Careers

Dr. Michelle More of the WSU Chemistry department with help from Dr. Anita Orendt (Salt Lake City Local ACS Section Chair), four female WSU undergraduates, and four female University of Utah graduate students, led six one-hour workshops entitled, "Cosmetic Chemistry: Makes Me Feel and Look Good," at the Expanding Your Horizons of Northern Utah conference on November 3, 2007 at Mt. Ogden Middle School serving a total of 120 students. In these workshops middle school girls made lip gloss, tooth paste, bath salts, and performed beautifully colored precipitation reactions. These workshops were sponsored by the WSU Chemistry Department and the Salt Lake City Local American Chemical Society Section. EYH is a program that started in California in 1976, http://www.expandingyourhorizons.org ( http://www.expandingyourhorizons.org/ ). When girls begin Jr. High School they tend to lose interest in and drop out of science and math. Percentage-wise, compared to boys, each year as they get older girls take fewer math and science courses and score lower in tests. This conference is an effort to help girls maintain or become more interested in science and math. The conference provides opportunities for young women to meet and learn about careers from women working in science and math related fields and how these subjects relate to possible careers. Expanding Your Horizons of Northern Utah is sponsored by ATK Launch Systems Group.

A Chemistry Paper Presented at a Geology Meeting

Dr. Charles Davidson is a co-author on a paper titled "Linear Anionic Polyacrylamide (PAM) as an Effective Post-Fire BAER Treatment - Understanding the Chemistry and Physical Science" to be presented at the Association for Fire Ecology, Geological Society of America, University of Arizona, "Fire in the Southwest: Integrating fire Into Management of Changing EcoSystems." Tucson Arizona, Jan. 28, 2008. This paper deals with a new treatment to help control soil erosion, reestablishing vegetation, and overcoming the effects of hydrophobic soil after catastrophic wildfires on forested lands and rangelands.

Important New Instrumentation Being Acquired and Older Instrumentation Being Refurbished

Thanks in part to a connection established years ago by retired faculty member Dr. Robert Beishline, the Chemistry Department recently received a wonderful donation of $75,000 from David N. Weidman. Originally from Tremonton and a chemical engineering graduate from BYU, David Weidman is currently the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Celanese Corporation, a multi-billion dollar chemical corporation based in Dallas, Texas. The donation is designated to help fund the replacement of our aging and inoperable, continuous wave 60 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. We are now in the process of ordering a new more powerful 90 MHz, 2.1 Tesla, permanent magnet, pulse Fourier Transform NMR spectrometer, which should arrive by about June, 2008. This instrument is required for the Chemistry Department's accreditation by the American Chemical Society. The instrument will produce spectra for most of the common nuclei, including H-1, C-13, F-19, P-31, Si-29, and many metals. The instrument uses the same software package as some high field research instruments, and its resolution will be at least 2.25 times better than the old instrument. The instrument also includes many modern one- and two-dimensional NMR experiments, such as DEPT, COSY, and HETCOR. Although this instrument would be considered entry level for research purposes, it has low associated maintenance costs and will greatly expand our ability to teach NMR methods using this important and ubiquitous technology. Dr. Laine Berghout and Dr. Ed Walker also played significant roles in making this important donation possible. We are greatly indebted to Mr. Weidman and all of our friends of the College of Science for continuing support for our outstanding undergraduate programs.

One of our outstanding students and a Beishline Fellow for 2006-2007, Craig Bishop, worked with Dr. Andy Lippert and Dr. Todd Johnson to restore a donated, used, high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC), which is used to separate and quantify small mixture samples. The HPLC instrument is computer interfaced and working well. Senior student David Jensen is now developing student projects and experiments. This instrument is capable of solvent gradient separations, which greatly improves its resolving power. Student Jonathan Duay also has a donated ion chromatograph working, and is in the process of standardizing the instrument preliminary to designing student experiments. The HPLC and hopefully the ion chromatograph should be available and in use this semester (2008) for Instrumental Analysis (Chem 3050), Biochemical Techniques Lab (Chem 3090), Spectroscopy and Separations (Chem 4540) and Independent Research (Chem 4800) courses.

Dr. Ed Walker submitted a proposal and obtained Perkins grant money for a hand-held X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer, used for analyzing trace metals such as lead in various objects and mixtures. This will be used in the Chemical Technology Program.

An Upcoming Retirement

Dr. Park Guymon will be retiring from the Chemistry Department after 43 years of service. Dr. Guymon joined the department in 1965 after receiving his Ph.D. in Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry from Utah State University. During his time at Weber State, Dr. Guymon has made a significant impact on the lives and educations of countless students. Dr. Guymon's research included developing novel methods for separating heavy oils from tar sands. He also served for a time as Chair of the Chemistry Department. As with all retirements, it is bittersweet; Dr. Guymon will be greatly missed, but we wish him well as he enjoys much-deserved time working on his ranch and spending time with his family.

The Chemistry Department is currently conducting a national search to fill Dr. Guymon's position beginning Fall 2008.