California State University, Long Beach Department of ...chemistry.csulb.edu/thebeaker/Vol4_Issue2.pdf · California State University, Long Beach Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

California State University, Long Beach ▪ Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

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Volume IV Issue II October 2012

Bonding Students to Chemistry & Biochemistry

Editor-in-Chief: Jacqueline Dominguez ▪ Co-Editor-in-Chief: Brandon Graham

Staff: Cindy Pham, Dagoberto B. Ramos Website: http://chemistry.csulb.edu/thebeaker.html ▪ Facebook: facebook.com/thebeakercsulb

▪ E-Mail: [email protected]

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The Beaker Volume IV Issue II

Event Announcements By: Dagoberto B. Ramos

University Deadlines:

•10/31: Deadline to drop or withdraw from all

classes and receive pro-rated refund.

Seminar Series:

•10/3: Gregory Weiss, UC Irvine “Exploring Biology

and Chemistry with Nanometer-Scale Electronics”

Host: Dr. Slowinska

•10/10: Michael Schramm, CSULB “Molecular

Recognition as a Design Principle: Peptidomimetics,

Switches, and Membrane Transporters”

•10/17: Jonas Peters, Caltech “Synthetic Modeling a

Spring-like Hypothesis for the Central C-atom of the

Nitrogen Cofactor” Host: Dr. Li

•10/24: Irene Munk Pedersen, UC Irvine “The miR

Iceberg: Novel microRNA Functions” Host: Dr.

McAbee

- 10/31: Michael Carey, UCLA “Biochemical

Mechanisms of Transcription on Chromatin” Host: Dr.

Acey

[All Events are held at 4pm in HSCI-100 unless noted

otherwise.]

Career Development Center:

•10/1 @ 12:00pm: Job Search Success

•10/2 @ 1:00pm: Interviewing Skills for STEM Jobs

•10/3 @ 2:00pm: Prepare for the Job Fair

•10/4 @ 12:00pm: Resume Writing Techniques

•10/9 @ 1:00pm: Prepare for the Job Fair

•10/11 @ 12:00pm: 2012 Fall Job Fair (USU)

•10/15 @ 2:00pm: Resume Writing for International

Students

•10/16 @ 1:00pm: Letters of Recommendation

•10/17 @ 12:00pm: Interviewing Techniques

•10/18 @ 2:00pm: Assessing and Building Your

Transferrable Skills

•10/22 @ 12:00pm: Resume Writing Techniques

•10/23 @ 1:00pm: Search and Secure an Internship

•10/24 @ 3:00pm: Job Search Success

•10/25 @ 1:00pm: Writing the Personal Statement

•10/29 @ 1:00pm: Interviewing Techniques

[All events are held in BH-250 unless otherwise

noted]

CNSM Department:

10/13- 9am-2:30pm Career Day registers to attend at

https://urd.csulb.edu/cnsm/cart/index.cfm?eventID=14

Speakers will include individuals from: Mediatech,

Beckman-Coulter, Phenomenex, the Orange County

water district, and Cerritos College, discussing their

Careers and how chemistry is utilized in their fields.

There will also be a presentation on careers in the health

sciences and on how to “Dress for Success”.

SAACS: •10/11 @ 5:00pm: 2nd Meeting (HSCI Rm TBA)

•10/20 @ 9:45-10:45am: Beach Clean-Up at

Belmont Shore

For more information, email

[email protected]

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The Beaker Volume IV Issue II

Faculty Spotlight: Thomas Gredig By: Cindy Pham Editors: Brandon Graham, Jacqueline Dominguez

Dr. Thomas Gredig grew up in Switzerland

and fulfilled his undergraduate in Physics at University of Basel in Switzerland. As a graduate student he attended University of Minnesota and focused his research on magnetism. His research focused on understanding the mechanism to build more sensitive read-heads used for producing a hard disk drive that would store more data on a smaller surface area. Ferromagnetic cobalt and antiferromagnetic cobalt oxide were used to stabilize the thin film. For his postdoctoral studies Dr. Gredig worked at the University of California, San Diego. The focus of his studies was on organic semiconductors, including small molecules, such as phthalocyanine. The phthalocyanine molecule has ametal ion in the center that adsorbs chemicals and creates a change in resistance so that it can be used as a gas sensor to detect explosive material, for example. Dr. Gredig’s decision to stay in California and work at Cal. State Long Beach was for his wife to be closer with her family. His love for research as well as teaching developed, when he said he learned to ask “why” and “how does this work”. When asked his reason for wanting to teach he explained that he likes talking to different students each year. Besides teaching, Dr. Gredig likes all aspects of academia such as the community atmosphere and competitions. A community allows students to develop new ideas and competition fosters such development more quickly. The CSU wide Student Research Competition is one of many that Dr. Gredig is a judge for. Currently Dr. Gredig teaches introductory physics (PHYS 151,152,100B), thermal physics (PHYS 320), statistical mechanics (PHYS 522), and experimental physics (PHYS 445/545). For students who are in his

class he says that trying to relate what’s learned with real life situations will help with the material being taught.

At Cal. State Long Beach, Dr. Gredig has three main projects. One of which is the degradation of organic solar cells, which are made of copper or zinc phthalocyanine and Bucky balls Bucky balls along with a planar molecule, like phthalocyanine, are used to create electron hole pairs that define solar cells. There is a great industrial interest in organic solar cells due to their flexibility in material and cost efficiency. However, due to weak Van-der Walls forces that are important to organic materials the electron transfer between molecules is weakened. The lifespan limitation of the organic solar cells is what Dr. Gredig’s group is currently trying to understand better. The second project that is currently being worked on in Dr. Gredig’s lab is focused on making different morphologies in thin films and understanding how light affects the charge transport. Thirdly their group studies the magnetic properties of these thin films and how they differ from bulk properties.

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The Beaker Volume IV Issue II

Fun Facts: Ø Favorite Law of physics is the Second law of

thermodynamics Ø Likes reading language grammar books on

French, Chinese, German, Italian and Vietnamese

Ø Spent 8 months with his wife traveling from Europe all the way to Indonesia

Ø The Road Home is his favorite movie Ø Dire Straits and Les Cowboys Fringants are

his favorite artists Ø Has Red Wiggler worms as pets Ø Has two kids, oldest can speak three

languages Ø Lived in Vietnam for half a year Ø Grew up and worked on a farm before

College

Selected Publications: • Thomas Gredig, Corneliu N. Colesniuc, Scott A. Crooker, Ivan Schuller, Substrate-controlled ferromagnetism

in iron phthalocyanine films due to one-dimensional iron chains, Physical Review B, 86, 014409 (2012). • Maria Elena Gomez, Axel Hoffmann, Thomas Gredig, Andreas Bill, Cali Conference “1st Centennial of

Superconductivity: Trends in Nanoscale Superconductivity and Magnetism”, Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism, 25 (7), p. 2117 (2012).

• Thomas Gredig, Mathew Werber, Jorge L. Guerra, Evan A. Silverstein, Matthew P. Byrne and Brian G. Cacha, Coercivity Control of Variable-Length Iron Chains in Phthalocyanine Thin Films, Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism,25 (7), p. 2199 (2012).

• Young-Seok Shon, Michael Aquino, ThienLoc V. Pham, David Rave, Michael Ramirez, Kristopher Lin, Paul Vaccarello, Gregory Lopez, Thomas Gredig, and Chuhee Kwon, Stability and Morphology of Gold Nanoisland Arrays Generated from Layer-by-Layer Assembled Nanoparticle Multilayer Films: Effects of Heating Temperature and Particle Size, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 115(21), 10597 (2011).

• D. Bergman, K.P. Gentry, T. Gredig, Volume Grain Analysis in Organic Thin Film Semiconductors, NSTI-NanoTech 2010, 1, 119 (2010).

• J. Bartolomé, F. Bartolomé, L. M. Garcia, G. Filoti, T. Gredig, C. N. Colesniuc, I. K. Schuller, and J. C. Cezar, "Highly unquenched orbital moment in textured Fe-phthalocyanine thin films", Phys. Rev. B81, 195405 (2010).

• Royer James E.; Park Jeongwon; Colesniuc Corneliu; Lee Joon Sung; Gredig Thomas; Lee Sangyeob; Jin Sungho; Schuller Ivan K.; Trogler William C.; Kummel Andrew C., "Mobility saturation in tapered edge bottom contact copper phthalocyanine thin film transistors", J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, C5F22 (2010).

• Thomas Gredig, K. Paul Gentry, Corneliu N. Colesniuc, Ivan K. Schuller, "Control of Magnetic Properties in Metallo-Organic Thin Films", J. Mater. Sci.45 5032 (2010).

• K. Paul Gentry, Thomas Gredig, Ivan K. Schuller, "Asymmetric grain distribution in phthalocyanine thin films", Phys. Rev. B.80 174118 (2009).

Dr. Gredig also is also interested in collaborations, such as with Dr. Lopez from the chemistry department on producing and examining porphyrin for development of new thin films.

The goals he has for his lab is to provide graduate and undergraduate students with a work environment where they can learn and become independent thinkers. He usually pairs his research students, so that they can work together and learn from each other. Currently there are five graduate students and three undergraduate students in his lab. Dr. Gredig welcomes all students who have an interest in research, regardless of what their major is. If a student is interested in his research, he welcomes them and will be willing to show them his lab. For students who want to pursue a career in research, he advises that the path is a

A Word From His Students By: Cindy Pham

Matt Byrne Time in Dr Gredig’s Lab: 2 years Matt is an undergraduate student that has been working for Dr. Gredig since 2010. He works on all three projects in Dr. Gredig's lab. Being in research has taught him how to use many instruments and develop skills such as running a thermo evaporator, sputter coater, and physical measurement system. His favorite part of working is being able to successfully run an experiment and look back at his accomplishments. Working in lab has benefited him in his physics classes, because it allows him to have a preview of the subject that he is learning. It also has prepared him for graduate school. For those students who want to pursue research, Matt advises to ask the professor if they are accepting students for research and get involved as soon as possible.

The Beaker Volume IV Issue II

Internship and Scholarship Opportunities By: Brandon Graham

Name: NSF summer REU internship program Prize: Paid summer internships (vary) Description: NSF funds a large number of research opportunities for undergraduate students through its REU Sites program. An REU Site consists of a group of ten or so undergraduates who work in the research programs of the host institution. Each student is associated with a specific research project, where he/she works closely with the faculty and other researchers. Students are granted stipends and, in many cases, assistance with housing and travel. Dates: Vary by Host location Website: http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.cfm Name: The National Institutes of Health Undergraduate Scholarship Program Prize: up to $20,000 per year Description: For each full or partial scholarship year, you are committed to two NIH service obligations. The obligations are actually benefits of the UGSP, providing you with invaluable research training and experience at the NIH. After each year of scholarship support, you will train for 10 weeks as a paid summer research employee in an NIH research laboratory. This employment occurs after the receipt of the scholarship award. Each scholar will be assigned to an NIH researcher and an NIH postdoctoral fellow, who will serve as mentors. You will also attend formal seminars and participate in a variety of programs. After graduation, you will continue your training as a full-time employee in an NIH research laboratory. You must serve 1 year of full-time employment for each year of scholarship. Requirements: Be an U.S.A. citizen or U.S.A. permanent resident. Be Enrolled or accepted for enrollment as a full-time student at an accredited 4-year undergraduate institution located in the United States of America. Have an undergraduate University Grade Point Average of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0-point scale or within the top 5 percent of your class. Have 'Exceptional Financial Need' as certified by your undergraduate institution financial aid Dates: October 17, 2011 - Online Application Opens February 1, 2012 - Application Deadline / Application Closes Website: https://www.training.nih.gov/programs/ugsp Name: The Physical Sciences and Mathematics Scholarship program Prize: TBA Description: provides need-based scholarships to declared BS-track undergraduate students from the departments of Physics & Astronomy, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Mathematics and Statistics, and Geological Sciences. The purpose of the PSM-Scholarship program is to improve the retention and graduation rates and to prepare students to enter STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce or graduate study. Requirements: Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, have a 2.5 GPA, be a fulltime BS degree student, be in your first year at CSULB, and obtain 1 letter of recommendation. Dates: November 16, 2012 @ 5pm –deadline for applications Website: http://www.csulb.edu/~jchang9/psms/and then contact Dr. Buonora at [email protected].

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The Beaker Volume IV Issue II

The Fume Hood By: Jacqueline Dominguez

“A place where your noxious thoughts can be carefully filtered and fed back to the public!”

Answer to last months question: What’s the most expensive piece of lab equipment that you have broken? UV-vis quartz cuvette This month’s question: The Great Debate: We just have to ask, which one do you prefer: 'Star Wars' or 'Star Trek'?

Let us know on our Facebook page.

Chemistry for Today’s World By: Cindy Pham

“Your chemical connection to today’s world”

Nanoscale detectors A small nanoprobe was developed for the detection of a variety of antibodies. The protocol was used to detect

CEA, a cancer antibody in order to prove that the probe can be used to diagnose illnesses such as cancer. For more

information on the probe click on the link below: http://www.nature.com/protocolexchange/protocols/2463#/

introduction

Synthetic Estrogen effects on Fish Synthetic estrogen used in birth control pills that are

released into the ocean and rivers, has caused an increase in the amounts of feminized fish. Some male fish have developed ooctyes and are considered intersex fish. For

further information on this development please read below: http://earthfix.opb.org/water/article/clean-water-the-next-

act-emerging-contaminants-fem/

Chem-tertainment By: Jacqueline Dominguez

Join The Beaker!

We are the only student science publication on-campus, ran by students for students, which provide

information on: scholarships; research and job opportunities; club and department events;

interviews with professors and their research groups, and more! It is a great way to network, build your

resume, and practice writing skills for graduate apps. Most of the work is done during summer and winter

break. We currently have two openings. If you are

interested to join, email us at [email protected] or send us a message

on our Facebook page. Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you would

like to join.

We would also like to welcome Dagoberto B. Ramos to our staff!

Like us on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/thebeakercsulb