 |
|
Contents |
Faculty Highlights Professor Emeritus Richard F.W. Bader won the 1997 John C. Polanyi Award for excellence in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Research. His central work is the founding of fundamental chemical concepts such as "atom" and "bond", directly, in the formalism of quantum mechanics. This work has led to a vivid means of visualizing molecules and their chemical properties in terms of a topological analysis of the charge density. For example, contour plots of the Laplacian of the charge density exhibit electron concentration and depletion holes in accord with the Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion model and generalized Lewis acid-base reactivity.
Richard Bader accepted the award at the 80th Canadian Society of Chemistry Conference in Windsor, Ontario. His acceptance address was entitled, "Why are there Atoms in Chemistry?". He was also honoured by a "Symposium on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday", held here in 1996.
In 1997, Gary Schrobilgen won a Canada Council Killam Research Fellowship enabling him to focus solely on his research for 1998 and 1999. The research project, titled, "Noble-Gas Chemistry at the Limits of Coordination and Oxidation Number: New Fluorides and Oxofluorides in the +8 Oxidation State" is a continuation of his ground- breaking contributions to main-group and transition metal fluorine chemistry, including the chemistry of the noble gases. His work has focused on the stabilization and characterization of some of the most powerful oxidizing/fluorinating agents known - for example, KrF+ and AuF5, the reaction of naked fluoride with weakly basic centers to give novel high coordination number fluoro- and oxofluoro- anions such as XeF5- , XeOF5-, and IOF6-.
Professor Schrobilgen's group has produced more than half of the known noble-gas species, including the first krypton-nitrogen and krypton-oxygen compounds with some of the weakest covalent bonds, and numerous organic nitrogen bases coordinated to xenon centers. His group also characterized the first xenon-nitrogen bonded compound, FXeN(SO2F)2, by low temperature X-ray crystallography, multinuclear NMR and Raman spectroscopy. Professor Schrobilgen is also concerned with syntheses of 18F-labelled radiopharmaceuticals used in positron emission tomography of the human brain. Gary Schrobilgen has also been honoured with the American Chemical Society's 1998 Award for Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry, sponsored by PCR Inc., and the 1997 McMaster University President's Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision. Professor Schrobilgen notes that the ACS Award is also a special recognition of the work of his graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, of whom he is especially proud. The Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry Award will be presented at the American Chemical Society Conference in Boston in August 26, 1998. His acceptance address is titled, "Recent Advances in the Oxide Fluoride Chemistry of Technetium(VII), Rhenium(VII), Osmium(VIII), and Xenon(VIII)".
Dr. Harald Stöver, together with colleagues at the University of Toronto and Concordia University, has been awarded an NSERC Strategic Grant for the preparation of ceramic/polymer core-shell nanoparticles. These new materials are expected to show unique optical and magnetic properties, and be useful for ultra high frequency transformer cores.
In addition, with funding from the Materials and Manufacturing Ontario (MMO) Dr. Stöver's group is developing a series of polymer microspheres (see picture) based on Polymerization-Induced-Phase-Separation (PIPS), that are currently being tested for commercial use as separation resins and size standards.
Professor Emeritus Richard Tomlinson received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree at McMaster Spring Convocation in 1997. This honour recognizes his distinguished career in physical chemistry. He has made contributions in many areas, including molecular diffusion, polymerization, nuclear fission, mass spectrometry and isotope production. The McMaster production of iodine-125, for use in medical radio-diagnosis, is a lasting legacy of his contributions. More recently, Richard Tomlinson has developed a production process for phosphorus-33. At the same convocation, Jules Carbotte of the McMaster Department of Physics and Astronomy was named the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Richard Tomlinson Fellow.
Together with Harald Stöver and John Brash, Adam Hitchcock was awarded a 1998 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Strategic grant for "Optimization of Polymer Microstructures Aided by Analytical X-ray Microscopy". Over the next 3 years, this will be used to build a new X-ray microscope at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, California, and apply it to a variety of polymeric structural problems. Professor Hitchcock is also a principal investigator for an application for $71 million recently made to the national/regional component of the Canadian Foundation for Innovation for partial support of the Canadian Light Source, CLS. The proposed 2.9 GeV synchrotron light facility, which has a total capital budget of $178 M, is scheduled to be built in Saskatoon, beginning in the spring of 1999 - to be completed in 2002. This first-ever Canadian synchrotron light source is a "3rd generation" machine with excellent performance from the IR to the hard X-ray region. It will be equipped for many types of synchrotron light experiments. Adam's research in high resolution soft X-ray microscopy uses inner shell electronic excitation to study radiation-sensitive materials such as polymers. The equipment needed for these studies is currently available only in other countries. Applications of synchrotron light impact all areas of science and technology. It is being used to study all types of materials, from proteins and viruses to metals and semiconductors. In his role as Chair of the Board of the Canadian Institute for Synchroton Radiation, Adam is involved in developing the scientific program for the CLS.
Professor Emeritus Ian D. Spenser was awarded a research grant from The Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health, US Public Health Service, Bethesda, Maryland. This three year grant, totalling $345,000 US, is in continuing support of his investigations into B Vitamin biosynthesis, in collaboration with Professor Robert E. Hill of the McMaster Department of Pathology. This work includes the recent elucidation of the biosynthesis of thiamin in E. coli and S. cerevisiae, through the use of bond-labeled substrates, a highly sensitive isolation procedure and high-field NMR spectroscopy.
Françoise Winnik was elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Society for Chemistry from 1997 to 2000 as representative of the Macromolecular Section of the Society. In collaboration with StemCell Technologies of Vancouver B.C., she was awarded a three year Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) University-Industry Collaborative Grant to develop novel ferrofluids for immunomagnetic separation of human cells. In addition, she has obtained an NSERC University-Industry Collaborative Grant to develop new contrast agents for breast tumor detection via Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). This grant is a collaboration with Hyal Pharmaceutical Corporation of Mississauga, Ontario, Dr E. Turley (the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto) and Dr. D. Mikulis (The Toronto Hospital, Western Division, Toronto). Professor Winnik was awarded a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Invitation Fellowship. The award entailed residency at Osaka University in the spring of 1998. She also presented invited lectures to several Japanese universities and spoke at two scientific meetings held in Nagoya and Osaka.
Professor Emeritus Russell Bell was honored in 1996 by the McMaster Student Union when he received a lifetime teaching award. He has been an inspiration to a generation of students. Continuing the chemistry tradition of teaching excellence, Mike Brook received the McMaster Student Union teaching award for 1996-97.
On the provincial and national scene, Joe Laposa served as Ontario coordinator of the Chemical Institute of Canada's National High School Chemistry Exam in 1997.
Brian McCarry was named Chair of the Board of the Society of Chemical Industry Canadian Section in 1997.
Mike McGlinchey will serve as the Chair of the Inorganic Chemistry Division of the Canadian Society for Chemistry until 2000. |
