ACS - La Tech Chapter

On September 6, 2019, Louisiana Tech's American Chemical Society was represented by its officers at a banquet for the new Integrated Engineering and Sciences Education Building. The officers who attended were Andrew Brown (President), Sadie Villarrubia (Vice President), Carsyn Travis (Secretary), and Morgan Roque (Public Relations). This event was to commemorate the sponsors and everyone who made the installation of this building possible. ACS was one of the school organizations represented to show what we do and how excited we are to be able to utilize the new resources this building will provide to us. At our table, we presented the iodine clock reaction that was simple to execute but also extremely informative of what is taught in chemistry. Also, Andrew explained and showed parts of his senior research project that he has been working extremely hard on. We are so thankful to all of those who have donated and helped make this building, and we can't wait to finally put it to use!!

The image of the Integrated Engineering and Sciences Education Building is from the Louisiana Tech website. The link below shows a virtual tour of the building that can also be found on Tech's website: https://youtu.be/OKbav2rXenY

From the American Chemical Society web page:

Molecule of the Week Archive:
My infamous twin is a well-known poison. What molecule am I?

(–)-Strychnine, the natural form of the notorious toxin, was the Molecule of the Week for December 2, 2013. Robert B. Woodward’s 1954 classical total synthesis of the alkaloid helped him win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1965.

(+)-Strychnine, the molecule’s non-natural enantiomer, presents, if anything, a more difficult synthesis. The feat was first accomplished in 1995 by Larry E. Overman’s research group at the University of California, Irvine. They claimed the first asymmetric total synthesis of (–)-strychnine and used a similar reaction sequence to produce the (+)-enantiomer.

(+)-Strychnine’s properties appear to have been studied very little, if at all. Of course, its fundamental physical and chemical properties should be the same as those of its enantiomer (see fast facts box). But whether its toxicology is similar to that of its mirror twin remains to be seen.

www.acs.org

This is one of our Chemistry faculty members and we couldn't be more proud.

How four winning mentors help to build skills and dispel doubt Nature’s 2018 mentoring awards focus on supportive senior researchers in the US South.

If you're a student having trouble with Organic Chemistry or a professor who would like a place to refer your students for help, we offer Organic Tutoring every Monday at 5PM in Carson-Taylor 237!

For this week's science seminar Dr. Francois Mauger will be presenting "Observing Electron Dynamics in Molecules Using Ultrafast Laser Pulses". It will be held tomorrow (October 25th) in CTLH 322. The presentation will begin at 4PM but there will be refreshments at 3:30! We hope to see you there!

It's National Chemistry Week! The theme this year is Chemistry is Out of This World! We'll be having a bunch of activities this week, plus the third floor of Carson-Taylor has been decorated by our awesome members so y'all can really get in the spirit! The activities planned for this week are listed on this flyer. We hope you'll celebrate with us!

Tomorrow (October 18th) Mona Alsaleh will be presenting "Effective Magnetic and Electric Response of Composite Materials". The presentation will begin at 4 PM but you can join us at 3:30 PM for refreshments. Hope to see you there!

October 26th is the 10th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference! This conference will be held on LSU's campus. The deadline for abstract submission is THIS FRIDAY (October 19th)!