PROVIDENCE COLLEGE
Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry
Alumni Lecture Delivered by David Tschaen ‘80
On Friday, February 20, 2009, Dr. David Tschaen ‘80, Senior Director of the Process Research Department at Merck Research Labs, delivered the department’s first Alumni Lecture. In his talk Life After PC: A Career in Science: Reflections on One Path Chosen, Dr. Tschaen described some key events in his path from a PC undergraduate interested in chemistry to a successful professional chemist. He also identified a wide range of important problems currently facing society and the need for chemists to find the solutions to these problems. Prior to his talk Dr. Tscahen led a roundtable discussion with a group of chemistry and biochemistry majors.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, 1 Cunningham Sq., Providence College, 02918
Sowa Hall 238, 401-865-2379, FAX 401-865-1438
Dave Tschaen talks with Isaac Chacon ’11 about careers in the pharmaceutical industry
High Field NMR Up & Yielding Spectra
This past February the department took delivery of a refurbished 400 MHZ Bruker Avance NMR that is located in a newly created laboratory within the Organic Chemistry teaching laboratory. The instrument was capably installed by A. Itkin and R. Marsh of NMR Associates (Fitchburg, MA) and was quickly put to use by students in the Organic Chemistry and Advanced Analytical II Chemistry laboratory courses. The capabilities and sensitivity of this “new” NMR will be a great improvement over the 60 MHz Anasazi FT-NMR previously used in the instructional labs and in research. This significant investment by the College brings us even with many of our peer and aspirant institutions in terms of NMR instrumentation and in a better position to compete for talented students and faculty.
Event to Honor Professor Emeritus Mark Rerick
On Saturday, October 24, 2009 the College will be holding a half day Science Alumni event. While planning for the event is still underway, it will include alumni/student career roundtable discussions, a science poster session, and a faculty research presentation. The event will also include a special reception to honor the achievements and service of Professor Mark Rerick. Professor Rerick served his entire academic career at Providence College and was the Chair of the department for 18 years. He spearheaded and managed the extensive renovations to the science complex in the 1980’s and was instrumental in the professionalization of the College Faculty through the development of the Faculty Handbook. The goal of the event is to engage alumni in helping to advance PC science programs and to raise $50k to name the new NMR laboratory in honor of Professor Rerick. For more details about the event or to make a donation, please contact Lisa Bousquet in the Office of Institutional Advancement (401.865.2760 lbousque@providence.edu)
Junior Summering in Europe
Catie Vincent ‘10 has been awarded a position in the summer NSF - international REU program sponsored by the Department of Chemistry at Syracuse University. Catie will be working at the University of Technology in Graz, Austria.
ECSC Poster Award
Emily Mohn’s ’10 poster Testing the Extended Lipid Hypothesis with N-Acylated Lipids with Jungmin Lee ’10 and J. J. Breen was recognized with an Excellence Award at the 63rd annual Eastern Colleges Science Conference at Wagner College (Saturday, April 25, 2009).
Chemistry/Biochemistry Summer ‘09 Crew
