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The Graduate Office recently introduced a series of lunchtime career seminars which feature speakers discussing informally their experiences post graduate school. The lead-off speaker on October 14 was our own Dr. Andy Dicks! The feedback has been positive, helpful and informative. Andy briefly discussed his duties as a Senior Lecturer, as well as the circumstances that led him into that position. Those who attended found him to be very enthusiastic about his role within the Department. Andy really enjoyed sharing his experiences and is delighted to see that there is great interest in learning more about the role of a lecturer. |
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BROWN BAG SEMINAR: Career Talk with Dr. Andy Dicks |
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On May 9 and 10, 2011, the American Chemical Society brought a two-day workshop called “Preparing for Life After Graduate School” (PfLAGS) to the Department of Chemistry. Led by Dr. Lisa Balbes, an expert on career development for scientists and author of Nontraditional Careers for Chemists: New Formulas for Chemistry Careers, Chemistry graduate students and post-doctoral researchers learned about job search strategies, and career pathways in academia and industry. |
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Bernie Kraatz obtained his PhD from the University of Calgary in 1993. After a short stay at the University of Maryland, he spent two years at the Weizmann Institute of Science as a Minerva Postdoctoral Fellow (1994-1995). In 1995, he returned to Canada to take up a position at the National Research Council of Canada. He started out his academic career in at the University of Saskatchewan, moved to the University of Western Ontario and recently accepted a position at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, where he is a Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences with a cross-appointment to the Department of Chemistry. Bernie is a key player in the area of bioorganometallic chemistry. Together with his research team, he focuses on the design of new surface-supported functional bioconjugates and bio(nano)materials and their application as electrochemical biosensors. He has significant expertise in the fabrication of electrochemical microarrays for nucleotide mismatch detection in DNA, protein detection, and monitoring enzymatic activities. |
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Prof. Bernie Kraatz |
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Questions or comments? Contact us at gradasst@chem.utoronto.ca Graduate Office, Department of Chemistry, LM 151, 80 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H6 |
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Chemistry |
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graduate newsletter |
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Non-traditional Career Workshop December 12 |
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Career Expansion Abroad: the benefits of the Special Opportunity Travel Grant |
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Graduate Student Spotlight: Ashlee Jahnke |
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welcome to the first issue |
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FALL |
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2011 |
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ISSUE 1 |
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Student Supporting Students |
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Senior students welcome any questions from new students about graduate student life. |
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Our 76 students were admitted from across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Egypt, and China. |
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The purpose of the Special Opportunity Travel Grant is to provide PhD students opportunities to undertake research at a different institution (university, government or industrial), to attend a summer school or specialized training course, or to attend a conference in the general area of their research or in pedagogy. To date, we have had two competitions, which have awarded 18 exchange and workshop grants, and 21 conference grants. Three of the recipients share their stories and how the grant has fostered their professional development. The full list of awardees and the titles of their projects is available here. The next deadline to apply for this grant is Monday, November 14. Please see competition details. |
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Our Graduate Studies Committee members are also available to answer questions in your field of study. Graduate Studies Committee field representatives are listed here |
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Graduate Studies Committee Membership |
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PhD Graduands Trevor Brown Wania Automated Methods in Chemical Risk Assessment David Chai Lautens Synthesis of Heterocycles and Carbocycles through Tandem and Domino Palladium-catalyzed Reactions Rachel Chang Abbatt Cloud Condensation Nuclei Closure at a Semi-Rural Site Stanislav Dubinsky Kumacheva Microfluidic Synthesis of Macroporous Polymer Particles and Development of Multifunctional Porous Polymer Hybrids Lindsey Fiddes Kumacheva/ Studying the Flow of Microgels in Patterned Microchannels Wheeler Mais Jebrail Wheeler Digital Microfluidics: A Versatile Platform for Chemical, Biological, and Medicine Shun Shang Lo Scholes Charge Transfer Processes in the Excited Dynamics of II-VI Semiconductor Nanocrystals Ali Nassimi Kapral A Study of Quantum-classical Dynamics in the Mapping Basis Hesam Shahravan Shin In vitro and in vivo High-throughput Analysis of Protein:DNA Interactions Wendong Wang Ozin/Perovic Periodic Mesoporous Organosilica and Silica Cathy Wong Scholes Spectroscopic Studies of CdSe Nanocrystal Fine Structure and Electronic Coherences in Cryptophyte Algae |
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Congratulations to our June Graduands ! |
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Back row (L-R): Adam Kafal, Wendong Wang, Trevor Brown, Hesam Shahravan, Siyon Chung, Shawna Gao, Jenny Wong
Middle Row (L-R): Shun Shang Lo, Alice Wei, Sandeep Sagoo
Front Row (L-R): Tiffiny Chan, Rachel Chang, Lindsey Fiddes, Mais Jebrail |
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MSc Graduands Eric Arsenault Ozin Three-dimensional Transparent Conducting Oxide Based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells Tiffiny Chan Kerman Electroanalysis of alpha-synuclein Aggregation Related to Parkinson’s Disease Siyon Chung Kumacheva Microfluidic Modeling of Cell Flow & Self-assembly of Gold Nanorods with Different Lengths Elvin De Araujo Kanelis Biophysical Studies of the First Nucleotide Binding Domain of SUR2A Shawna Gao Abbatt Oxidation of Organic Species in Ice Adam Kafal Batey Synthesis of Cyclic alpha, beta-Unsaturated Ketones via a Divergent Aldehyde Allylation and Ring-closing Metathesis Method Erin Mann Wania Developing Methods for Studying the Fate and Transport of Contaminants in Snow and Ice Riyad Raghu Schofield The Theoretical Modeling of Large Aggregate Telechelic Gels with Site-Bond Percolation Theory Sandeep Sagoo Jockusch Intrinsic Properties of Rhodamine B and Fluorescein Gas-phase Ions Studied using Laser- induced Fluorescence and Photodissociation in a Quadrupole Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer Cheryl Tanur Stephan Exploring New Synthetic Routes to Frustrated Lewis Pairs Chu Jun Alice Wei Taylor Squaramides: Investigation of their Hydrogen Bonding Abilities and Anion Interactions Jenny Wong Abbatt New Portable Flow Tube Technique to Investigate the Formation and Aging of Secondary Organic Aerosol |
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Recent Scholarship Recipients |
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I grew up in College Station, TX, a town of about 80,000 centered around Texas A&M I began my PhD in September 2009 with Professor Dwight Seferos. My current research Outside of the lab I am a co-coordinator for the Toronto chapter of the Canadian |
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Ashlee Jahnke |
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professional development initiatives |
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graduate student spotlight |
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welcome new students |
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our recent graduands |
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ChemClub 2011-12 Executive
Top row (L-R): Ashlee Jahnke (Union Representative), Mike Jones (Executive at Large), Calvin Cheng (Executive at Large), Chris Caputo (External Events Coordinator), Andrea Kirby (Store Manager)
Bottom row (L-R): Lisa Kozycz (Internal Events Coordinator), Melanie Mastronardi (Secretary), Jessica Sonnenberg (Treasurer), Rob Di Lorenzo (President) |
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Graduate awards |
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Every fall the University informs each department how many applications may put into the University competition. Then in mid-October, the Chemistry Graduate Studies Committee meets to put together a list of applications which will go forward to this competition. As you can imagine, this is a very difficult meeting because there are usually over 100 excellent applications for about 35 positions! |
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The Department would like to congratulate the winners of the Trillium, Connaught, and Beatty awards. Trillium Award winner: Anna Klinkova Anna Klinkova graduated from the Center for Photochemical Sciences, Bowling Green State University (Ohio) with MSc degree in Chemistry, and completed her undergraduate studies at Saint Petersburg State University (Russia). Now, Anna is very excited to start research in the Kumacheva group. Anna’s primary reason for pursuing a PhD is to have a career in academia. She wants to conduct strong research and be well published in order to do her part in pushing science forward, to decipher nature’s laws and stimulate technological progress. Anna’s major research interest is synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials, a relatively new field in chemistry with a lot of challenging questions that need answering. Anna is also interested in photochemistry related to nanochemistry because of the possibilities for useful application in solar energy conversion, biolabeling, and photocatalysis. Connaught Award winner: Wei Sun During his undergraduate studies at Jilin University, Wei Sun majored in Chemistry, and led a group of students to conduct an undergraduate research project funded by the National Innovation Experiment Program for University Students. In 2011, Wei’s work on colloidal crystal was published in Langmuir (Langmuir, 2011, 27 (13), pp 8018–8026). He has another co-authored publication currently under review. Wei Sun recently joined Prof. Geoffrey Ozin's group. He is excited about starting his new life in Toronto, and looks forward to research in the Nanochemistry field. Beatty Award winner: Alyson Baergen Alyson Baergen graduated from the University of Alberta with an Honours BSc in Chemistry. As an undergrad, Alyson worked in a very wide range of labs from analytical to materials to physical chemistry. At U of T, Alyson hopes to combine her entire research background into the work that she will be doing in environmental chemistry under the supervision of Prof. James Donaldson. Alyson is interested in looking into reactive processes that occur on films that form on exterior surfaces. Beatty Award winner: Lauren Longobardi Lauren Longobardi was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She completed her Honours BSc degree at Dalhousie University under the supervision of Prof. Mark Stradiotto. The focus of her honours project included the synthesis of new DalPhos ligands, with applications in Buchwald-Hartwig Amination. While at Dalhousie University Lauren also had the privilege of working in the labs of Prof. Neil Burford and Prof. Alison Thompson, conducting research in synthetic inorganic and organic chemistry. |
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welcome new faculty |
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About two years ago, the University embarked on a program to increase enrolment of PhD students. To encourage departments in this, an incentive was established, by which an increase in PhD numbers over the existing baseline was rewarded financially. The monies could be used by each department in any manner consistent with the rules governing University fellowships. The Graduate Office, with the Chair’s enthusiastic agreement, decided to put this money into a series of programs designed to enhance the experience and professional development of our PhD students. Here are some of our initiatives thus far. |
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Funding Opportunity |
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Seminars & Workshops |
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Another new initiative is a series of workshops and seminars to prepare students for life after graduation. We have had one workshop and a brown bag lunchtime seminar to date; more are planned for this fall. |
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Upcoming Events |
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BROWN BAG SEMINAR: Career Talk with Dr. Dan Cziczo |
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Don’t miss our next speaker on Monday, November 7 with Dr. Dan Cziczo, an atmospheric chemist. Before taking up a faculty position at Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Cziczo had been a Senior Scientist in the Atmospheric Science and Global Change Division and Director of the Atmospheric Measurement Lab in the Fundamental Science Directorate. As always, interaction is encouraged! Monday, November 7 @ 12 pm Davenport East Seminar Room, 3rd Floor Lash Miller Building |
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We are excited to announce that Dr. Lisa Balbes will be back on December 12 to give another workshop. The full day workshop will explore various resources to pursue nontraditional careers. It will include informational interviewing and networking as well as a group discussion with invited speakers. It will be held in the Lash Miller Building, Room 158. Seats are limited. Register today! |
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Nontraditional Careers for Chemists Workshop |
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student life |
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I would like to launch the first ever Chemistry Graduate newsletter by welcoming all the new members of our “family” to the Department. It seems like a cliché to say it, but you have arrived at a very exciting time, with the recent arrival of several new faculty members, the acquisition and construction of several new facilities, and the ongoing expansion of our academic and professional development programs. |
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This newsletter is a result of many conversations I have had with students and faculty members, answering the question “What’s new in the graduate office?” I hope to make it a thrice-yearly publication in which, as well as information about our programs, funding opportunities, we also feature highlights of students’ research, professional travels and special recognitions. For example, this Fall 2011 issue contains details about the scholarship selection process at Departmental and University levels, a description and report on the Special Opportunities Travel Fellowship program with some stories from Trevor VandenBoer, Francine Lui, and Claudia Grozea, students who have benefitted from the Fellowship program. As well, we introduce the incoming students and a new graduate faculty member, and profile some student achievements. Finally, the Chem Club has ambitious plans for the 2011/12 social calendar. We welcome any and all feedback on this first issue! I wish everyone a fun and productive fall semester! Prof. James Donaldson, Associate Chair, Graduate Studies |
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I am pleased to smash a 2L bottle of spectral grade ethanol over the bow of this new Newsletter to launch it into cyberspace toward all corners of the UofT graduate chemical community.* I congratulate Associate Chair Jamie Donaldson and the staff of the Chair's Office on this initiative to keep you up to date with the rich details of grad life. Enjoy. *The Safety Committee requires me to point out that this should only be done virtually. |