We officially received word from NSF that the MRI proposal for the acquisition of a MALDI/TOF-TOF mass spectrometer has been awarded! Dr. Bonizzoni serves as one of the co-PIs on this proposal, together with Dr. Carolyn Cassady (PI), Dr. Paul Rupar (coPI), and Dr. Yuping Bao (coPI, Dept. of Chemical Engineering). The new instrument will replace our aging MALDI/TOF to provide extremely high resolution and novel MS imaging capabilities that were previously not available. Our group will use the instrument to study the non-covalent complexation of organics to polyelectrolytes (e.g. PAMAM dendrimers). We are extremely excited to acquire this new capability, which is projected to come online in mid-2018.
Michael Ihde, a graduate student in our group, was selected to receive a fellowship from the US Department of Education's Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) for the 2017-18 academic year. The fellowship will provide tuition and stipend coverage for the year, in addition to access to professional development courses and funding for research supplies. Congratulations Michael!
Flor, our Puerto Rican guest from the REU program, cooked a meal for us for a special group meeting!
Thanks to our collaboration with groups in MS and AL on an NSF-funded grant for detection of pollutants in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi river basin, students in our group had the opportunity to participate in a sample collection cruise of the research vessel Point Sur today, operated by the University of Mississippi at their Gulfport, MS campus. Dr. Bonizzoni hosted a professional development workshop for UA students interested in becoming high school teachers. The workshop, titled Playing with our food, and sponsored by NSF through the Noyce program, focused on using concepts and experiments from modernist and avant-garde cuisine to integrate intermolecular interactions in the high school chemistry curriculum in a way that is fun and relevant to the students' everyday lives.
Xiaoli and Michael, two graduate students in our group, were recognized with the first and second prize for their oral presentation at the Lester Andrews Graduate Research Symposium organized by Mississippi State University. Congratulation Michael and Xiaoli!
Flor Lozada Santiago, an REU student from the Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, joined the group today. She will be working with us for ten intense weeks on the detection of carboxylate anions in water using polyelectrolyte receptors and pattern-based recognition methods.
Dr. Bonizzoni was invited to present at the 2017 CASE (Catalysis and Sensing for our Environment) conference, organized in Shanghai, China by Prof. Yujun Yang (ECUST). Cara Frances Pridmore, an undergraduate researcher in our group working on pattern-based sensing of divalent metal cations, presented a poster at the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities conference today on the UA campus. Good job Cara!
Dr. Bonizzoni is part of a UA delegation that will visit multiple institutions and graduate recruiting fairs in Bangalore and Mumbai to increase the institution's visibility in the growing Indian basin.
Xiaoli presented a poster today on the detection of sugars using boronated polymers at the 5th WiSE (Women in STEM Experience) Symposium organized by the University of Alabama. Her poster was selected to win the First Prize Poster Award! Congratulations Xiaoli!
Xiaoli successfully defended her original research proposal today and is officially a Ph.D. candidate. Congratulations Xiaoli!
Dr. Bonizzoni's invited contribution on fluorescent sensors based on indicator displacement assays for Comprehensive Supramolecular Chemistry II (ed. Jeffrey Atwood) has been accepted and published on the web (ScienceDirect link).
All members of the group will present their research at the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the ACS in Columbia, SC. Dr. Bonizzoni presented an invited paper in a supramolecular symposium organized by Ken and Linda Shimizu of USC.
Dr. Bonizzoni was one of the 14 junior academics selected nationwide as emerging young investigators by the Division of Organic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society and invited to present at the Academic Young Investigator Symposium held at the Fall ACS National meeting in Philadelphia, PA.
The Bonizzoni group received funding from the National Science Foundation to participate in the development of polymer-based sensing technologies relevant to Gulf Coast water monitoring (NSF Award #1632825). The award, consisting of a total of $4,000,000, will bring together eleven research groups from five campuses in Alabama and Mississippi, under the aegis of the NSF EPSCoR program.
Michele Invernici, a graduate student from the University of Pavia coming to UA on an exchange fellowship, just started work in our group. Welcome Michele!
Michael Ihde, a first-year graduate student in our group, was awarded the third prize at the 6th Annual Lester Andrews Graduate Research Symposium held at Mississippi State University, for his talk titled "A minimal sensor array for metal ion detection in water". Congratulations Michael!
Ashley and Xiaoli were both recognized today during our departmental Chemistry Honors ceremony. Ashley won the Outstanding Dissertation award, and Xiaoli the Outstanding Second Year Graduate Student award. Congratulations to both!
Dr. Bonizzoni and Dr. Eugenia Kharlampieva (UAB) were awarded seed funding from the UA System to work on a collaborative research project to develop polymer-based sensing technologies for pollutant analysis.
Xiaoli's full paper on the surface modification of PAMAM dendrimers with boronic acid moieties for the detection of carbohydrates in neat water was accepted in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B. The manuscript, available at this link, was included in the journal's "Emerging Investigators 2016" themed issue.
Xiaoli was selected to be a Graduate Council Fellow for the 2016-17 academic year, in recognition of her outstanding work in our graduate program. Congratulations Xiaoli!
Alie defended her dissertation today! Congratulations Dr. Mallet, and best wishes for your future career!
Alie's communication on the development of a sensor array to detect divalent metal ions using fluorescent coumarin enamine ligands was accepted in Chemical Communications. Congratulations Alie! The work was done in collaboration with Dr. Karl Wallace's group at the University of Southern Mississippi. The manuscript is available at this link.
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