Dear Alumni,
It is my privilege and pleasure to write to you as the newly appointed Chair of the Department of Chemistry. Since I am a relatively new Buckeye, I think I should briefly introduce myself. Born in India to Scottish parents at the end of World War II, I was educated in England and moved to North America as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Western Ontario. Subsequently, I taught at Princeton and Indiana University before joining the faculty at The Ohio State University in 2000. I am an inorganic chemist by training with interests in chemistry from renewable resources, catalysis and molecular electronics. You can find out more if you wish by visiting my web site.
The Ohio State University is a truly remarkable institution of research and higher learning and in our square niche we house the Colleges of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Veterinary Science to which chemistry is the central science, but I did not need to tell you that you are one of us.
Great departments like ours share common goals and needs. We aspire to be the best at what we do and this means having an internationally renowned research program and providing an unsurpassed education in chemistry to all who pass through our laboratories and class rooms. Hopefully you appreciated that and benefited from it since the reputation of an institution rests on the success of those who pass through the program more than those, hopefully that stay behind. It is, however, true that a stellar faculty will attract the best students and good students and good facilities help attract and retain the faculty. That is symbiosis, and it has been happening at distinguished old institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge and Harvard and Yale for centuries. We are building that tradition now for The Ohio State University and all who graduate will benefit from the success and reputation of those who have gone before.
Great departments such as ours share common needs and chemistry departments are expensive. It costs more to teach a chemistry class with a laboratory than it does to teach Spanish or History. It costs money to sustain modern teaching equipment and instrumentation and it is expensive to attract new faculty with all the attendant start up costs. Laboratories that were new in the 1950’s and 1960’s are seriously out-moded in the 2000’s, both in terms of performance and safety. World class faculty are currently recognized and often wooed by other institutions who envy their successes at OSU. Thus being great is a dynamic process, an equilibrium which continually needs to be pushed in the right direction. As the incoming Chair, I wish to engage you in the efforts to drive us
to the right side and to encourage you to meet with our faculty and students. Just remember what it was like when you were in their situation, how the future seemed so uncertain yet so full of potential. There is no doubt you can help these future Buckeyes know how “Chemistry’s Great at Ohio State.” Sharing experiences and networking is always valuable. Write to me, phone me, let me know how you can help us push the equilibrium in the right direction.
Now to a few of the highlights from this past year:
- The department welcomed Professor Karin Musier-Forsyth as an Ohio Eminent Scholar and her husband, Professor Craig Forsyth..
- Professor Sheldon Shore received the 2007 Award in Inorganic Chemistry and a symposium in his honor was held at the Spring Chicago American Chemical Society’s National Meeting. Also in April of 2007, the Inaugural Sheldon Shore Lecture was given by Professor Thomas Fehlner of Notre Dame. This was a great occasion and a reunion of many of Dr. Shore’s coworkers. In October, Dr. Shore completed his 50th year on the OSU faculty!
- In May the second of the Paquette Legacy Lectures were given, again affording a reunion of many alumni and friends of Dr. Paquette.
- Professor Susan Olesik was named the Dow Professor of Chemistry, and also in September it was announced that she would receive the ACS Award for the Promotion of Chemistry and Science to????
- Dr. Heather Allen received the OSU Diversity Award for the promotion of women and minority groups in Science.
- Professor Jimmy Cowan received the 2007 OSU Distinguished Research Award and he is the Symposium Chair of the ACS Regional meeting that will be held in Columbus next June.
- Two of our junior faculty, Assistant Professors Chris Jaroniec and John Herbert received NSF Career Grants.
- In June, an historic marker was placed in the McPherson Laboratory Building to commemorate 100 years of the association of ACS, Chemical Abstracts and the OSU Chemistry department, and an endowment was set up for undergraduate scholarships.
- Twenty six students graduated with a Ph.D. and ?? students with a B.S., and the faculty published over 200 publications, referred journals, and presented as many or more lectures at national and international meetings and at universities, government, and industrial laboratories. The grant income of the faculty was just under $10 million.
- The department under the leadership of Professors Dutta and Woodward headed a consortium of Ohio Universities and Colleges in a National Science Foundation funded project to introduce a research learning experience at every level of our undergraduate program. This Research Enhanced Education and Learning, the REEL program for short, will, when complete, have the involvement of 15,000 students and could become the model for future teaching of chemistry at the national level.
So we have much to be proud of as we look back to 2007 and we owe many thanks to our outgoing Chair, Dr. Prabir Dutta, for his energetic leadership and vision.
Our immediate challenges to the future are:
- to hire more faculty to keep up with retirements and the increased demand that increased student enrollments place on our faculty. We currently have around 4,000 students taking general chemistry and 1,200 taking sophomore organic!
- We desperately need a new synthetic or preparative chemistry building to house the synthetic chemists. Our 1960’s Evans Laboratory has served us well, but its performance is just not up to the standards required for doing 21st century synthetic chemistry. Temporary stop-gap and cosmetic makeovers are expensive and do not change the reality of the need for new synthetic laboratories.
- We need to build our chemistry endowment funds. These funds are needed for student fellowships, lectureships, faculty and student recruiting, and student fellowships amongst other things. Our most distinguished Evans and Mack Lectureships, which are great annual events – the Mack Lecture series being entirely run by graduate students – have no endowment funds and have to be financed from our limited general operating funds. Donations to the department for these or other causes are always welcome!
Looking to 2008, there are a number of upcoming events that will be of interest to many of you.
Wednesday and Thursday, April 8-9, 2008 - "Sugar Alley" Symposium, to
be held at the ACS 235th National Meeting in New Orleans, LA. This
symposium is intended to honor Professor Derek Horton on the occasion of
his 75th birthday. **Other former members of "Sugar Alley" will be in
attendance. We are currently gathering historical data and photographs
from that time period, and hope that some of our alumni and emeritus
faculty will remember the days of Sawtooth and Sugar Alley and will help
recall some of that information. Those who have materials can contact
Therese. We will be publishing details on the OSU Chemistry website.
Friday, April 11, 2008 – The 2nd Sheldon Shore Symposium, to be held in Columbus, on the Chemistry Campus at OSU. This should be a great occasion for reuniting alumni. Daryle Busch will be our named speaker. This will be the first time Dr. Busch has spoken at OSU since 1988.
Thursday, April 17, 2008 - Mack Award Lectures, to be held in Columbus, on the Chemistry Campus at OSU.
Thursday and Friday, May 1-2, 2008 - Devon Meek Lectures, to be held in Columbus, on the Chemistry Campus at OSU.
Friday and Saturday, May 9-10, 2008 - Leo Paquette Legacy Symposium, to be held in Columbus, on the Chemistry Campus at OSU. The speakers for this event are:
Dr. Ian Davies
Merck Research Laboratories
Professor Jeffrey N. Johnston
Vanderbilt University
Professor Marvin Miller
University of Notre Dame
Professor Scott Nelson
University of Pittsburgh
As time goes by, I will update information of these events on the Alumni web page, so keep watching!!!
We will also be publishing details for these events on the OSU Chemistry website as we have more information available. Those who wish to contribute support for this event or wish for further information can contact Therese O’Donnell-Leonard at tleonard@chemistry.ohio-state.edu.
June 10-14, CERMACS2008, to be hosted by OSU Chemistry, at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus. Their website is CERMACS2008.org. We will have a link on our website, and will update as we get information. Those who wish to provide donations, participate in the exhibitions, etc., can contact cermacs2008@chemistry.ohio-state.edu.
During the course of this year, I hope to be meeting with as many alumni as possible. At ACS meetings we will hold a Buckeye Cocktail Hour, and I shall be visiting several cities during the year, even in Alaska, and with the aid of our alumni office shall be trying to search you out.
With best wishes for 2008!
Malcolm Chisholm
Distinguished University Professor and Department Chair
