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ACS Award in Chemical Education ******American Chemical Society
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This award allows the Department to invite a distinguished speaker to present a special lecture in the physical chemistry seminar series. It was initiated by Joseph M. Jazinski, of IBM Research Center.
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In 2002, the College of Chemistry established the George C. Pimentel Award, to encourage undergraduate research. It is given to a graduating senior in chemistry who is a first-generation college student and who plans to go on to graduate study in science-related fields. Started modestly with discretionary funds from the Dean of the College of Chemistry, it will grow as donations increase the endowment.
The first award was given at Commencement, 2002, to Victor Tam, a student from a small town in California's Central Valley-as George was. He went on to do graduate work at UC San Diego.
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The 2003 award went to Cesar Napoleon Mejia. His family is originally from Nicaragua; he graduated from Bell High School in Southern California, where he was valedictorian. His research was on excited states of bromine-containing molecules of atmospheric significance, with Professor Martin Head-Gordon as his advisor. After graduation he was accepted as an intern at NASA-Ames Research Center.
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The 2004 recipient of the award was Irena Dragojevic. An immigrant from Serbia, she had to master English before being accepted at UC Berkeley, where she did undergraduate research with Professors Herb Strauss, Luciano Moretto, and Heino Nitsche. She went on to do graduate work at UCLA in nuclear chemistry.
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The 2005 award winner is Zaihleen Shariff Keller. who is from Canada; her Indian parents emigrated there from Kenya. She did undergraduate work with Ahamindra Jain on synthesis of a compound for possible use in cancer treatment, and she also mentored other students. She is considering medical school as one of several graduate options.
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The winner of the 2006 award is Lok Him Yu, who also worked with Ahamindra Jain. He did two research projects, one on inhibitors of flu virus infection, and another on developing agents for imaging and treatment of prostate cancer; he also trained other students. He plans to work for a pharmaceutical company before going to grad school in chemical biology. Born in Hong Kong, he came to California at the age of seventeen with his family.
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The 2007 award goes to Dylan Arias, who did research with Professor Ron Cohen on atmospheric chemistry. He also participated in the College of Chemistry Scholar's Program and became an articulate and invaluable student tutor. He graduated from Edison High School in Fresno, and will pursue graduate studies at Massachusetts institute of Technology in Fall 2007.
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Huiyang Winnie Liang is the winner of the 2008 award. She came to San Francisco from China with her family in 1996, and graduated from Galileo High School. Her undergraduate research was in Professor Paul Alivisatos's group, working with graduate student Shelley Claridge, on isolation of discrete nanoparticle-conjugates using anion exchange HPLC. She will spend the next year at the National Institutes of Health, as an intern, working on malaria-related projects, and applying to graduate school in chemical biology.
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Raja Ravinel Narayan is the winner of the 2009 award. His father came from Fiji and settled in Union City, California. Raja did undergraduate research with Professor Richmond Sarpong, on synthesizing analogs of the molecule lyconadin A, which potentially could be used in treating disease; he is currently applying to medical schools.
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The winner of the 2010 award is Jingwei Zhang, who comes from Shanghai, China, and majored in Chemical Biology at UC Berkeley. His undergraduate research, supervised by Professor Judith Klinman, lies in the field of enzymology, studying the role of protein dynamics in enzyme catalysis. He will be returning to UC Berkeley to pursue graduate studies in Bioengineering.
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Bao Tran Ngoe Truong is the winner of the 2011 award. Born in Vietnam, she went to high school in Singapore, where she won a scholarship to UC Berkeley. She worked in Professor Jean Fréchet’s group on self-healing hydrogels with dendritic molecular binders, and then on SiRNA delivery systems. For the next year she is working as a research engineer at the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences in Singapore, before going to graduate school at Stanford University.
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This was awarded for the first time in 2005, at the international meeting of the Matrix Conference, in
Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, marking the 50th anniversary of Pimentel's invention of the matrix isolation technique. Awarded by the
Organizing Committee of MATRIX 2005 and the Association of the Matrix-Isolation World
Community, the main prize recognizes outstanding contributions to matrix isolation spectroscopy. It was first proposed by Werner
Klotzbuecher, editor of the MIDE newsletter. The award is in the form of a certificate together with a cash prize 1500 Euros, and a unique figure from the Lichtenberg collection.
There is also an award for the Best Poster presented at the meeting, sponsored in 2005 by the Portuguese Chemical Society. This award is in the form of a certificate together with a cash prize of 250 Euros, and a medal. The major criteria for selecting the winner are the scientific content and originality of the work, the potential impact, and the clarity of the poster. While not restricted to students, this award obviously encourages student participation, in the Pimentel tradition.
The winner of the main 2005 award was:
Marilyn Jacox, Senior Scientist (retired) of INISTE, who at one time worked closely with Professor Pimentel and his graduate student, the late Dolphus Milligan. Dr. Jacox was not at the conference, but she sent a slide that she used in lectures, of George Pimentel's portrait with a definition of the matrix isolation technique
(click here for slide).
The second finalist was:
Lester Andrews, Professor, University of Virginia, who was a graduate student with George Pimentel.
The third finalist was:
Markuu Räsänen, Professor, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.|
The winner of the Best Poster award was:
Antii Lignell, of Markuu Räsänen's research group.
The 2007 prize was awarded to Dr. Lester Andrews, of the University of Virginia, at the Gordon Research Conference on Matrix-Isolated Species, at Bates College, Maine, USA
The award is given biennially.
Copyright © 2003 - 2010 Jeanne Pimentel