Please welcome the following staff members to the Department of Chemistry: Leon Barrick, personnel technician, started on January 23 and Jean Barnette, personnel office manager, started on February 1. Also welcome Sonya Vanarsdale to the full-time staff in chemistry. She had been with the department as receptionist and office associate for several months, working through a temporary agency.

The late Bert Thomas was the only person to serve as president of Battelle and on the Board of Trustees of The Ohio State University. Now that connection is going to benefit aspiring young scientists at Ohio State, thanks to a $1 million gift from Battelle to establish the Battelle/Bertram D. Thomas Scholarship Fund. The new fund will support five scholarships each year, and is aimed at outstanding junior or senior undergraduate chemistry majors, with particular attention to, but not limited to, minority students. The complete Ohio State news story. This story was also featured by Business First.

For an hour last week, a class of elementary students in the Hilltop area was getting excited about something some American kids don’t seem to care about — science. It was all thanks to an idea that struck Ohio State University chemistry professor Susan Olesik in 1999: Take real scientists with real experiments into elementary classrooms. That idea has grown into a program that serves about 3,000 students a year in 10 Columbus-area elementary schools. Some 300 volunteers — including undergraduate students from Ohio State, as well as scientists from Battelle, Chemical Abstracts, Ashland Chemical, American Electric Power and other area businesses — help with Wonders of Our World. The complete story (login required).

Arthur Epstein, Distinguished University Professor in the Departments of Physics and Chemistry, is known for his work with polymers – especially those with unusual properties, such as magnetism. Last week, representatives from Modern Marvels, which airs on the History Channel, were here to interview Epstein in his lab for a program about cutting edge technology in the world of magnets. “They were here for nearly five hours and were very professional about it,” he said. “My understanding is that the half hour episodes will likely have five segments portraying the world of modern magnets (including takes at three companies in Ohio). Our work will be in the last segment and have the perspective of "the future of magnetism." How much of Ohio State will be featured is up to the series editor, so the final version won’t be known until closer to the air date, probably later in the spring.