Chemistry and Biochemistry Students Celebrated at Honors Night

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Bob Gawley, Distinguished Professor and chair of the chemistry and biochemistry department, presents Timothy Burnside and Liselle Trim with the Amis Chemistry Scholarship.

The chemistry and biochemistry department hosted its annual Honors Night April 26 at the UARK Ballroom on Dickson Street.

The evening began with Honors College chemistry majors making poster presentations of their research. Senior Honors College students in the department must make a poster presentation in addition to defending and writing a thesis.

Following the poster session, the department awarded more than $45,000 to scholarship and award recipients during a ceremony and dinner.

Chemistry and biochemistry awards and scholarships:

• American Chemical Society Awards
  Awarded to chemistry and biochemistry majors for remarkable academic achievement.
  Recipients are Arshan Dehbozorgi, Hunter Dunn, Sarah Mayfield, Craig McLean, Patrick Naeger, Matthew Sharum, Corrine Songer.
• Amis Chemistry Scholarship
  Awarded to undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry majors for remarkable academic achievement. Professor Ed Amis was physical chemist who taught in the department of chemistry and biochemistry for the 1950s through the 1970s.
  Recipients are Timothy Burnside and Liselle Trim.
• Arthur and Lois Fry Scholarship
  The Arthur and Lois Fry Scholarships are awarded to chemistry majors with a 3.0 GPA or above, who plan to work in professional chemistry. This scholarship was established by Arthur Fry, University Professor Emeritus, and his late wife Lois.
  Recipients are Anna Fielder, Ettore Rastelli and Kelsey Sparks.
• A.W. Cordes Teaching Awards
  Awarded to outstanding graduate teaching assistants within the department determined by faculty review and student evaluations.
  Recipients are Ashley Howard, Ben Jones, Christena Nash and Latisha Puckett.
• Barbara Wertheim Campbell Award
  Established in memory of Barbara Wertheim Campbell and awarded to graduating bachelor of science chemistry or biochemistry majors who intend to pursue a professional career in chemistry and have completed all of their work at the University of Arkansas.
  Recipient is Devin O’Dea.
• DuPont Scholarships
  The DuPont Chemistry Scholarship was established through industrial gifts from DuPont-Conoco.
  Recipients are Sara Schneider and Galen Tobey.
• Ethyl Corporation Scholarship
  The Ethyl Corporation Scholarship is awarded to outstanding, full-time, chemistry or biochemistry majors.
  Recipient is Mark Bush.
• Chemistry and Biochemistry Scholarship
  This scholarship is for outstanding, full-time chemistry or biochemistry majors.
  Recipients are Kanesha Day, Taylor Ghahremani, Samuel McLelland and Joseph Plugge.
• Coulter Jones Award
  Established during the 1950s by 1905 alumnus Coulter W. Jones. Jones wanted to help students whose path mirrored his own and is awarded exclusively to Arkansas natives. He was more interested in the recipient’s “drive toward getting a chemistry degree” than the GPA.
  Recipients are Shaun Adams, Courtney Cagle, Stephen Dalby, Emily Jackson, Taylor Needham, Parth Patel, Sunshine Robertson, Ryan Shinabery, Colby Smith and Megan Wary.
• Frederick A. Kekulé Award
  Established in honor of the founder of the structural theory of organic chemistry and awarded to sophomore chemistry majors with professional promise with particular emphasis placed on academic performance in organic chemistry.
  Recipient is Bailey Barnes.
• Honorary Scholars
  This award recognizes exemplary performance by chemistry majors based on academic achievement and research effort.
  Recipients are Mathias Bellaiche, Caroline Chen, Alex Jones, Brandon Kelly, Kelsey Knewston, Colton Kordsmeier, Sushanth Kumar, Ethan Latimer, Padmavathy Mnavazhahan, Sarah Mayfield, Rachel McConnell, Rachael Pellegrino, Kaila Pianalto, Derek Pyland, Jes Sanders, Karina Sanders, Christopher Sonntag, Vasupradha Suresh-kumar and Megan Wary.
• Named for the late Professor Jacob Sacks and his wife Wilma. Professor Sacks was a faculty member for more than 20 years and was largely responsible for establishing the biochemistry program. Wilma Sacks was a physician with the Arkansas Department of Health and was responsible for establishing many projects in the areas of maternal and child health.
  Recipients are Ross Harmon, Casey Henderson, Alta Johnson, Gayatri Kumar, Sushanth Kumar, Keaton Piper, Ashley Rosenberg, Chase Ross, Colby Smith and Liselle Trim.
• Octa N. High Scholar
  Octa N. High a 1933 alumna remained grateful throughout her life to the University of Arkansas who assisted with her degree in zoology during the Great Depression when her family had no funds to continue her education. The Octa N. High Endowed Scholarship Fund, established in 2009, provides tuition to students in anthropology, biological sciences, and chemistry and biochemistry. Recipients are referred to as Octa N. High Scholars.
  Recipients are Shumon Hasan, Ann Johnson and Ethan McBride.
• Samuel and Betty Siegel Scholarship
  The Siegel Chemistry Scholarship fund was established by University Professor Samuel Siegel and his wife, Betty. He was a faculty member for over 30 years, before retiring in 1985. This scholarship is initially given to entering freshman on a competitive basis.
  Recipients are Stephen Dalby and Arshan Dehbozorgi.
• William K. Noyce Scholarship
  William K. Noyce Scholarship was established in 1966 to honor the contributions made to the department by Professor William Noyce, who died that same year at the young age of 54.
  Recipients are Ethan Latimer, Matthew McMahon and Devin O’Dea.

Honors College chemistry major poster presentations:

• Jessica Morales “Triple Mutant (K126E/K132E/R146E) of the Human Acidic Fibroblast Growth Factor-1”; Research mentor – Suresh Kumar
• Amir Mortazavi “Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment of Melanocyte-Specific Autoantibodies Prior to and throughout Development of Autoimmune Vitiligo in Smyth Line Chickens”; Research mentor – Gisela Erf (Poultry Science)
• Christopher Moutos “Membrane Permeability Induced by Antimicrobial Peptides”; Research mentor – David McNabb (Biological Sciences)
• Devin O’Dea “A Search for Deep Tissue Brain Cells that Contain a Rhodopsin-like Pigment for Photoreception”; Research mentor – Wayne Kuenzel (Poultry Science)
• Parth Patel “Cleaning Glass Surfaces and Modifying with PEG Biotin”; Research mentor – Colin Heyes
• Kaila Pianalto “Investigation of Electron Transfer between Cytochrome b₅ and Cytochrome c Wild Type and Mutants”; Research mentor – Frank Millett
• Leah Ramey “Proliferation and Metabolism of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Grown on Different Membrane Substrates”; Research mentor – Sha Jin (Engineering)
• Ettore Rastelli “Ruthenium (II) Photocatalyzed [3+2] Annulation of Spirocyclic Cyclopropylamines with Olefins”; Research mentor – Nan Zheng
• Kimberly Reynolds “Synthesis and the Use of Gold Nanocages for Controlled Release”; Research mentor – Jingyi Chen
• Richard Rieske “Functionality of Disulfide Bond in D2 Domain of Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptors”; Research mentor – Suresh Kumar
• Sunshine Robertson “ Quantitative Proteomic Analysis of Radiation Resistant Pancreatic Cancer Cells”; Research mentor – Yuchun Du (Biological Sciences)
• Jeffrey Roeser “Collagen Binding Domain of Col G S 3a 3b”; Research mentor – Joshua Sakon
• Ashley Rosenberg “Towards the Synthesis of Antascomicin B”; Research mentor – Matthias McIntosh
• Preston Scrape “Redox-Magnetohydrodynamic Flow between Distant Active Electrodes”; Research mentor – Ingrid Fritsch
• Matthew Sharum “Metal Doped Alginate Hydrogels”; Research mentor – Nan Zheng
• Spencer Shinabery “Intermolecular [3+2] Cycloaddition of Cyclopropylamines with Olefins by Visible Light Photocatalysis”; Research mentor – Nan Zheng
• Rebecca Simpson “Investigation of the Structural Stability of cpSRP43 Chromodomain 2 by Hydrogen-deuterium Exchange”; Research mentor- Suresh Kumar
• Colby Smith “Membrane Interactions of Antimicrobial Tryptophan-Methylated Lactoferricin Peptides”; Research mentor – Denise Greathouse
• Kelsey Sparks “Effects of Aromatic Anchor Identity on Dynamics and Orientation of Transmembrane Peptides”; Research mentor – Roger Koeppe
• Galen Tobey “Methionine Sulfoxide as a Biomarker of Oxidative Stress”; Research mentor – Wesley Stites
• Jake Usery “Understanding the Binding Interactions of the 43kDa Subunit of cpSRP”; Research mentor – Suresh Kumar
• Fang Weng “Study of the Effect of Microdialysis Membrane Hydrophobicity on the Collection of Cytokines”; Research mentor – Julie Stenken
• Jahon Zehtaban “Identifying the Structure and Resonance of CpSRP43”; Research mentor – Suresh Kumar
• Shaun Adams “Identification and Characterization of Juxtamembrane Domains”; Research mentor – Suresh Kumar
• Ashlee Bell-Cohn “Characterization of Antimicrobial Peptides Relating to Shortened RWALP Model Peptides”; Research mentor – Roger Koeppe
• Kaitlyn Bryant “Characterization and Optimization of Growth of Rheb F31L”; Research mentor – Paul Adams
• Timothy Burnside “Reaction of Cytochrome c and Cytochrome b₅”; Research mentor – Frank Millett
• Courtney Cagle “The Biodiversity and Prevalence of Entamoeba in Periplaneta americana, the American Cockroach”; Research mentor – Jeff Silberman (BISC)
• Emily Crossfield “Purification and Characterization of Novel Affinity Tag”; Research mentor – Suresh Kumar
• Stephen Dalby “Partial Synthesis of Pd-cycloheptatrenylidene Complexes via N-heterocyclic Carbenes to be Tested for Catalytic Activity”; Research mentor – Neil Allison
• “Characterization of a Thermostable Quadruple Mutant of Human Fibroblast Growth Factor-1”; Research mentor – Suresh Kumar
• Hunter Dunn “Optimization and Characterization of a Mutant of Cdc42”; Research mentor – Paul Adams
• Alta Johnson “New Methods for Green Pharmaceutical Synthesis”; Research mentor – Matthias McIntosh
• Alex Jones “Analysis of the H35F and L58F Mutation on the Human Acidic Fibroblast Growth Factor”; Research mentor – Suresh Kumar
• Mizuho Kaneko “Effect of the Ratio of Cd and Te Surface Atoms on the Blinking Statistics of Quantum Dots: A Single-particle Fluorescence Study”; Research mentor – Colin Heyes
• Brandon Kelly “Water Soluble Nanoparticles for Biological Imaging”; Research mentor – Bob Gawley
• Devin Kennedy “Analysis of Low and Intermediate Molecular Weight Polyaniline by MALDI Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry”; Research mentor – Charles Wilkins
• Kelsey Knewtson “From Hydrogels to Chiral Ligands: A Compilation of Research Done Both at Home and Abroad”; Research mentor – Bob Gawley
• Iris Kon Njewel “Optmization and Characterization of Cdc42 (F28LDeltaL8)”; Research mentor – Paul Adams
• Colton Kordsmeier “Characterization of Methylated Lactoferricin B Antimicrobial Peptides”; Research mentor – Denise Greathouse
• Ethan Latimer “Structure Determination of Clostridium histolyticum S2a Collagen Binding Domain and Staphylococcal Nuclease Improving the Specificity of Cyanogen Bromide Cleavage in Proteins”; Research mentor – Joshua Sakon
• Joanna Libby “Improving the Specificity of Cyanogen Bromide Cleavage in Proteins”; Research mentor – Wesley Stites
• Nabih Masri “Enantioselective Cyclopropanation of Enamides”; Research mentor – Nan Zheng
• Matthew McMahon “Analysis of Platinum Squares by MALDI-FTMS”; Research mentor – Charles Wilkins
• Morgan Merriman <“Design of Novel Heparin Binding Peptides”; Research mentor – Suresh Kumar
• Ashley Miller “Characterization of a Stabilizing Mutant of the Human Fibroblast Growth Factor”; Research mentor – Suresh Kumar