Accomplishments: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced the establishment of a $25 million cooperative agreement with a University of Florida-led consortium of 16 universities for research in topical areas relevant to nuclear forensics. This long-term investment will support the consortium at $5 million per year for five…
A research article by Ph.D. candidate Joel Castillo, his advisor and program director Artem Gelis (both Radiochemistry), and collaborators from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was recently published in Inorganic Chemistry. The article, "Multiplicity of Th(IV) and U(VI) HEH[EHP] Chelates at Low Temperatures from Concentrated Nitric Acid…
Art Gelis, Ken Czerwinski, and Dan Koury (Radiochemistry) have been notified that their proposal, "Research Traineeship for Nuclear Forensics," has been selected for a Nuclear Forensics Research Award from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office. The $1,395,000 award, which is expected to start…
Mary Blankenship (The Lincy Institute, Brookings Mountain West, Chemistry) was invited and participated in a workshop hosted by the US-EU Trade and Technology Council to discuss Russian disinformation in Africa and Latin America. Blankenship has appeared in the media numerous times discussing disinformation and misinformation, and has published…
Hui Zhang and Hong Sun’s (both Chemistry and Biochemistry) biochemistry laboratories recently published a research article titled “The Assembly of Mammalian SWI/SNF Chromatin Remodeling Complexes is Regulated by Lysine-Methylation Dependent Proteolysis,” in Nature Communications. This research revealed for the first time how the…
Cory Rusinek (Chemistry and Biochemistry) was awarded $315,000 from Batelle Savannah River Alliance, LLC for his project titled, "Long-term monitoring of pertechnetate and other radionuclides in groundwater using passive sampling and a novel electrochemical sensor." The funding comes from the Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program…
Harry Jang (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has been awarded a prize in the Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, office of nuclear fuel and supply chain. Jang's award is in the Competition for Students at Universities with Less than $600 Million in 2020 R&D Expenditures. His award-winning…
Art Gelis, Dan Koury, and Kelly Seeley (all Chemistry and Biochemistry) recently were published in JACS, the Journal of the American Chemical Society for their work, "Transuranium Sulfide via the Boron Chalcogen Mixture Method and Reversible Water Uptake in the NaCuTS3 Family." This research, in collaboration with University of Columbia…
Mary Blankenship (The Lincy Institute, Brookings Mountain West, Economics, Chemistry) recently had her research on Twitter posts featured in a Las Vegas Review-Journal story and on a City Cast Las Vegas podcast episode. She collects and studies varying public responses on Twitter that occur after a mass shooting. After reviewing tweets…
Mary Blankenship (The Lincy Institute, Brookings Mountain West, Economics, Chemistry) recently had part one of a two-part report published in the Brookings Institution blog, Africa in Focus. The piece, "Russia’s Narratives about its Invasion of Ukraine are Lingering in Africa," analyzes Twitter data to examine the broader Russian narratives…
Kwang Kim (Mechanical Engineering) and Dong-Chan Lee (Chemistry) are inventors of a patent, Fabricating Ionic/Polyimide Membranes with its issue number, US 11,312,851, recently granted by the , the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.   
Jun Yong Kang (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has been awarded a patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the invention “Chiral n-heterocyclic phosphorodiamidic acids (NHPAS) and derivatives as novel bronsted acid catalysts” This invention describes new synthetic methods of novel NHPA organocatalysts, which…