A toxin produced by mold on nuts and grains can cause liver cancer if consumed in large quantities. UC Irvine researchers have discovered what triggers the toxin to form, which could lead to methods of limiting its production. Because of lax or nonexistent regulation, 4.5 billion people in developing countries are chronically exposed to vast amounts of this toxin, called aflatoxin - often hundreds of times higher than safe levels. In places such as China, Vietnam and South Africa, the combination of aflatoxin and hepatitis B virus exposure increases the likelihood of liver cancer occurrence by 60 times, and toxin-related cancer causes up to 10 percent of all deaths in those nations. "It's shocking how profoundly these molds can affect public health," says Sheryl Tsai (pictured), UCI molecular biology & biochemistry, chemistry, and pharmaceutical sciences associate professor. Tsai is lead author of a study in the Oct. 22 issue of the journal Nature that reports the finding.   More »

With $20 million over five years from the National Science Foundation, UC Irvine scientists hope to become the first ever to make real-time videos of single molecules in action - a feat that has proved elusive because size and time scales are so small. Success for UCI's Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit, one of three NSF Centers for Chemical Innovation, would greatly accelerate the pace of nanoscience, which is driving the miniaturization of technologies ranging from computers to radios to satellites. "If you can see a single molecule in action, then you can intervene, control and direct what it does," says UCI chemist V. Ara Apkarian (pictured), center director. "UCI is ahead of the curve. We're starting to image the motion of molecules, and we've developed methods that sense motion on length scales smaller than the nucleus of an atom."   More »

John Hemminger, physical sciences dean, has been selected to the first class of fellows of the American Chemical Society. Hemminger is one of 162 members who "share a common set of accomplishments, namely true excellence in their contributions to the chemical enterprise coupled with distinctive service to ACS or to the broader world of chemistry," said past President Bruce E. Bursten, who championed creation of the fellows program and shepherded it through board approval last year. Hemminger is co-director of the UCI Center for Solar Energy and an affiliate of AirUCI, the campus's atmospheric chemistry research group.   More »

It's a recipe for choking smog: Burn tons of fossil fuels. Pump those chemicals into the air, where they react on surfaces of buildings and roads. The result is the creation of photochemical smog-forming chlorine atoms, UC Irvine scientists led by Barbara Finlayson-Pitts (pictured) report in a new study. Under extreme circumstances, this previously unknown chemistry could account for up to 40 parts per billion of ozone - nearly half of California's legal limit on outdoor air pollution. The reaction is not included in computer models used to predict air pollution levels and the effectiveness of ozone control strategies that can cost billions of dollars. Study results appear the week of July 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.   More »

About 20 local science teachers are at UC Irvine this week and next to learn about atmospheric chemistry as part of the AirUCI Summer Teacher Workshop. UCI researchers share their knowledge about air quality, climate change, car emissions and other topics with the participants, who in turn take the information back to their 7th- through 12th-grade classrooms. Goals are to connect with the local teaching community and increase student interest in science. Researchers with AirUCI study topics ranging from indoor air purifiers to the effects of sea salt on urban smog formation.   More »

UC Irvine has been awarded up to $300,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy for nuclear energy research. Mikael Nilsson, chemical engineering & materials science assistant professor, initiated the effort along with Russell Detwiler (pictured), civil & environmental engineering assistant professor, and George Miller, chemistry senior lecturer and director of UCI's nuclear reactor facility. With the grant money, the scientists will purchase new equipment and strengthen UCI's nuclear science and engineering research program.   More »

Three UC Irvine scientists have been awarded nearly $1.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to buy research instruments. Suzanne Sandmeyer, biological chemistry professor, will receive about $500,000 to purchase a next-generation DNA sequencer; Tom Poulos, molecular biology & biochemistry professor, will get about $477,000 for an X-ray diffraction instrument; and Greg Weiss (pictured), chemistry associate professor, will receive about $500,000 for a mass spectrometer, which helps determine molecule mass and examines proteins in great detail.   More »

Chemistry professor James Nowick has been awarded more than $98,000 for a project that seeks to understand and control peptides and proteins that are involved in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. This work is supported by the National Institute of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences through the Recovery Act. Nowick's research interests include organic and bioorganic chemistry, chemical biology and biomolecular nanotechnology.   More »

Alan Heyduk, assistant professor of chemistry and founding member of the UCI Physical Sciences Center for Solar Energy, has been named a 2009 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. The $75,000 award will support Heyduk's research. He is one of 14 scientists to receive the award, which goes to outstanding chemical sciences faculty members who are in the first five years of their academic careers. “The intent is to support exceptional young academic researchers at an early and crucial stage of their independent careers,” said Mark Cardillo, executive director of the foundation.   More »

UC Irvine will receive $2 million over five years as part of two of 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers recently announced by the U.S. Department of Energy. The goal is to accelerate scientific breakthroughs necessary to build a sustainable energy economy. Chemists John C. Hemminger (pictured) and Matt Law are part of the Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics involving Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, which will develop materials that convert sunlight to electricity with high efficiency. Chemist Reg Penner and physicist Phil Collins are involved with the Center for the Science of Precision Multifunctional Nanostructure for Electrical Energy Storage at the University of Maryland that aims to design a new generation of electrodes for electrical energy storage.   More »

Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at UC Irvine, will receive a California Air Quality Award from the Coalition for Clean Air. The Carl Moyer Award for Scientific Leadership and Technical Excellence recognizes her significant contributions toward reducing California’s air pollution. Finlayson-Pitts directs AirUCI, a research group that explores atmospheric issues. This year, the clean air coalition recognizes visionary women who are changing the future of California’s air quality in the areas of advocacy and government, corporate stewardship, media and science. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis also will receive awards.   More »

UCI chemistry professor James Nowick has been named Scientist of the Year by the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals. Nowick researches the biological interactions between peptides and proteins. Understanding these interactions could lead to new therapies for Alzheimer's disease, cancer and other diseases. Nowick will receive his award at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting Feb. 12-16 in Chicago.   More »

Reg Penner, UC Irvine chemistry professor and Center for Solar Energy director, has been awarded the 2009 Faraday Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry, the major European group that promotes chemistry. This award is one of the most significant in the field of electrochemistry. Penner is an expert in growing nanowires in different patterns. He will receive his award and give a lecture during the Electrochem '09 meeting in Manchester, England, in September.   More »

John Hemminger (pictured), UC Irvine physical sciences dean, chaired a national committee that recently released a report on the energy/environment crisis. The 13-page report makes the case that real solutions to the crisis will require basic research in the areas of chemistry and physics. The report was distributed to science policymakers, including members of president-elect Barack Obama's transition team, federal house and senate Appropriations Committee staffers, presidents of major research universities, and Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences and former UCI chancellor. Policymakers in other countries also will receive the report, which was issued by the U.S. Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee.   More »

Desiré Whitmore, a chemical and material physics graduate student at UC Irvine, was profiled in the Minorities and Women in Optical Society of America's newsletter as one of four up-and-coming women in optics. In the profile, Whitmore shares how she became interested in her field, the importance of being a role model, how her mentors influenced her view of science, and her desire to become a professor. Whitmore researches the dynamics of chemical bonds under Eric Potma, assistant professor of chemistry at UCI.   More »

Two UC Irvine chemistry professors, Fillmore Freeman (pictured) and Gregory Weiss, were recently awarded a National Science Foundation grant to promote undergraduate chemistry research. The $235,000, 3-year grant will be used to support the Chemistry Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, or Chem-SURF. Each year, it will allow eight students to spend their summer at UCI to conduct hands-on, cutting-edge research. Fellows will receive a $3,500 stipend as well as funding for housing and travel expenses. Chem-SURF is designed to introduce students from universities and community colleges to faculty-mentored and collaborative research in the chemical sciences that's unavailable at their home campuses.   More »

Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, chemistry professor at UC Irvine, has been awarded the Tolman Medal from the Southern California section of the American Chemical Society in recognition of her outstanding contributions to chemistry. She will receive the prize during a dinner meeting at the University Club Wednesday, May 7. Finlayson-Pitts studies chemical reactions in the atmosphere to better understand air pollution. She directs AirUCI (Atmospheric Integrated Research for Understanding Chemistry at Interfaces), a group that researches how reactions on the surfaces of airborne particles, buildings and vegetation affect air quality and global climate change.   More »

Ara Apkarian, professor of chemistry at UC Irvine, has been awarded this year's "Service Through Chemistry" award by the Orange County section of the American Chemical Society. The award was presented Wednesday, March 19, at a dinner meeting, where Apkarian gave a talk on "What is a Photon?" Apkarian is co-founder of the Chemical and Materials Physics graduate program at UCI, and he directs the National Science Foundation-supported Chemical Bonding Center. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.   More »

UC Irvine chemistry professors Doug Tobias and John Hemminger (pictured) have an invited perspectives paper in the journal Science Friday, Feb. 29, titled, "Getting Specific about Specific Ion Effects." Different types of salt have predictable effects on a wide variety of chemical phenomena. For example, salt solutions containing fluoride ions tend to precipitate proteins, while salt solutions containing iodide ions dissolve them. These "specific ion effects" have been known for more than a century, but their molecular mechanism continues to evade scientists. This Science paper reviews recent progress toward unraveling specific ion effects, including research from the AirUCI Environmental Molecular Sciences Institute.   More »

William Evans, professor of chemistry at UC Irvine, has been awarded the 2008 Spedding Award, the top honor for researchers in the field of rare-earth science. This field involves lanthanide metals, which were called rare earths because they were among the last to be discovered. Lanthanides now are common in automobile catalytic converters, high-efficiency light bulbs and magnets, TV screens and MRI analyses. Evans was chosen for his excellence and achievement in the field. The award will be presented to him in June at the 25th Rare Earth Research Conference in Alabama, where he will give a lecture on highlights of his research. Evans studies the fundamental chemistry of lanthanide metals as well as actinide metals such as uranium and thorium.   More »

Filipp Furche, associate professor of chemistry at UC Irvine, has received two prestigious awards. The Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (Germany's Chemical Industry Fund) has awarded him with a Lecturer's Scholarship, running for a maximum of five years. Just four young chemists win this award annually. The Lise Meitner-Minerva Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry has awarded Furche its Outstanding Young German Scientist Award for 2008. Furche recently came to UCI from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.   More »

Five UC Irvine students were among 26 first-place winners for outstanding scientific research presentations at the 2007 Sigma Xi Student Research Conference in Orlando, Fla., held Nov. 2-3. The students and their areas of study were: Nicholas Olivas, behavioral science; Aaron Mendez, cellular and molecular biology; Brian León, chemistry; Amanda Ruiz, ecology and evolutionary biology; and Kameelah Abdullah, physiology and immunology. The students were recognized at an awards ceremony with medals and invitations to join Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Over the years, the society has had more than 200 Nobel laureates among its members. Nearly 200 undergraduate and graduate students, representing 100 institutions, participated in the two-day conference.   More »

Eight UC Irvine faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They include Suzanne B. Sandmeyer in biological chemistry; Donald Blake, Robert Corn, Scott Rychnovsky and Athan Shaka in chemistry; Jean-Luc Gaudiot and Michael Goodrich in electrical engineering & computer science (engineering school -- Goodrich also is in computer science in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences); and Christine M. Gall in neurobiology & behavior and anatomy & neurobiology. In all, 83 UCI faculty members are fellows of AAAS, the world's largest general scientific society. This honor recognizes their efforts to advance science in a variety of disciplines.   More »

The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday passed HR 593, a resolution recognizing F. Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen for their groundbreaking work in atmospheric chemistry. The trio shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering that chlorofluorocarbons in products such as aerosol sprays and coolants were damaging the Earth’s protective ozone layer. The finding was controversial at first, but it ultimately led to a world ban on CFCs. Rowland (pictured), Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry and Earth System Science at UCI, regularly addresses major conferences and advises world leaders on the impact and dangers of ozone depletion and global warming. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, sponsored the bill.   More »

Space Shuttle Endeavour blasted off into space Wednesday, Aug. 8, carrying its flight crew, teacher Barbara Morgan and UC Irvine's mascot, Peter the Anteater. The 3-inch stuffed anteater hitched a ride aboard the shuttle in a small box designated for items from colleagues of the astronauts. Tracy Caldwell, one of the astronauts, came to UCI in 1997 as a Dreyfus Environmental Postdoctoral Fellow with Barbara Finlayson-Pitts and John Hemminger, who now head AirUCI, the campus’s atmospheric chemistry research group. Caldwell asked AirUCI if it wanted to contribute something to the Endeavour box, and AirUCI sent her Peter with an AirUCI patch on his belly and a flag in his paw that says, "First EMSI in Space." EMSI stands for Environmental Molecular Sciences Institute, the National Science Foundation-funded program that supports AirUCI.   More »

Organic chemist Larry Overman will receive this year's prestigious Nagoya Medal. Overman, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, was chosen for his invention of new chemical transformations that allow valuable organic molecules to be prepared from inexpensive starting materials by chemical synthesis. A particular focus of Overman's research is inventing new chemistry that will be of value in the discovery and production of pharmaceutical agents.   More »

The Department of Biological Chemistry celebrated the 80th birthday of Masayasu Nomura, the Grace Bell Professor of Biological Chemistry, with a symposium titled “Ribosomes: From Structure to Gene Expression and Beyond” April 19-20 at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies. Over his career, Nomura has been one of the world’s leading researchers on ribosomes, which are responsible for assembling proteins that give form and function to cells. This work has advanced medicine in areas such as cancer and the effectiveness of antibiotics. The invitation-only symposium brought the world’s ribosome royalty to Irvine – colleagues, friends and former students of Nomura – including Nobel Prize recipient James Watson, Lasker Award winner Robert Roeder and more than a dozen other members of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.   More »