Save the Date: CSH Undergraduate Research Showcase Nov 4th

Hello, everyone:

A quick save the date announcement: The CSH Undergraduate Research Showcase will be November 4th from 12:00-5:30 in McGowan South.  There will be both oral presentations and poster presentations. CSH undergraduates, if you’re interested in presenting, talk to your research advisers. The deadline for oral abstracts is Oct 3rd, and Poster info must be to submitted by Oct 14th. Your adviser will have received an email with the submission process.

Here’s some more info for interested presenters.

This is always a great event, put it on your calendars to come check it out!

 

Don’t miss a lecture from chemistry’s newest professor this July…

Northwestern’s Simpson Querrey Institute (SQI) is hosting The “Rising Stars of SQI” lecture series on Tuesday, July 26.  The newest tenure-track addition to our department, Dr. Charles Rubert Perez will be speaking on Mimicking the Bioactivity of Growth Factors Using Supramolecular Structures.

For more information including RSVP information, check out the below flyer or visit the SQI website.

Review: Spring Awards Symposium

Summer is here, spring classes are over and summer courses are already underway. We wanted to tell you about some of the things that happened in SQ2016.

The Department of Chemistry held its annual Research and Award Symposium on Friday May 20, 2016. The symposium is a time to celebrate all of the great accomplishments of our students in their coursework, research, and service.

Cate Shamblen from Dr. Caitlin Karver’s lab and Lauren Bejcek of Dr. Paul Vadola’s lab (pictured above), both graduating seniors, presented their research. A total of 15 undergraduates and one graduate student received one or more of the 15 endowed and one departmental Scholarships totaling $43,542, the most ever awarded by the department. The department also presented 12 different chemistry awards as well as outstanding teaching assistant awards to 14 undergraduates and 3 graduate students.

Since 2015, we have added an alumni speech to the annual Symposium. This year, Mary Hannon (BS (2013) and MS (2014)) of Stepan Company, Northfield, IL, spoke to the students and faculty. Her talk was titled “Life After DePaul: Applying Your Degree in Industry and More” and you can find the attachment here: Mary Hannon DePaul Speech 2016.

Students and staff enjoying the 2016 symposium.

Review: Graduation Party 2016

At the end of the academic year, the invites inivites the graduating seniors and MS students  to a graduation party so they can celebrate with faculty before they go off to their next great endeavors. We all had a great time and are sad to see our students go, but we know they will be doing wonderful things.

Best wishes to the class of 2016.

 

Save the Date: May 20th is the Awards Symposium

Put May 20th on your calendar! We will be having an awards symposium in the afternoon on May 20th. There will be student research talks and an alumni speaker in addition to the announcements of the winners of departmental scholarships and awards. All students, alumni, friends, and family are welcome and encouraged to attend. It’s a time to celebrate the accomplishments of our fantastic students! More info to come soon.

Cross McGowan Classic: CHEM vs. BIO

Play in the CHEM vs. BIO softball game on Thursday, May 12 at Cacciatore Stadium. Faculty, staff, and students are all encouraged to play. If you’re not interested in playing, come out and cheer on your team!

The winning team gets bragging rights as the best major in College of Science & Health.

#TEAMBIO wears blue | #TeamCHEM wears white

 

 

CAURS deadline is March 7th!

Hi DePaul Students and Friends,

The Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium (CAURS) is on April 7th, and the deadline for the application is March 7th.

CAURS (http://www.caurs.com/index.html) is a great opportunity for undergraduates to present their research to peers and faculty at local institutions, including DePaul, UChicago, Loyola, IIT, and others.

In previous years, the chemsitry department has participated, and if you would like to present, talk to your advisor and submit an abstract!

If you are not an undergraduate and would like to be an observer or judge, you can also sign up to attend on the website.

We hope to see you there!

Call to Chem Alumi: We need you!

 

We need you!

 

We are re-invigorating our commitment to regular advisory board meetings and wanted to see if you are interested in being on the board. The Chemistry Alumni Advisory Board is invited to meet on campus once or twice a year, with the first yearly meeting to be scheduled for mid-to-late fall quarter and the second for late spring quarter; each meeting will be about two hours in length. Our first meeting of 2016 will be May 20^th, the same day as our Annual Awards Symposium.

The Alumni Board will make recommendations and offer feedback on ways to improve the chemistry curriculum offerings and program quality, to increase program enrollments (B.S./B.A. and M.S.), to improve the visibility of the Department and the College of Science and Health, and to improve the interaction between the department and alumni. If this interests you, and you think you can attend the May 20^th meeting, contact the department as soon as possible and let us know by emailing Dr. Grice, the Development Committee co-chair at kgrice1@depaul.edu. We are also looking for alumni to present at the May 20^th Awards Symposium after the Alumni Board Meeting. The presentation should be short (ca. 20 min.) and be relevant for our chemistry majors, such as explaining your career path from DePaul to your current position and how your time at DePaul informed that path.

Before a meeting, the Board will be given a list of specific areas for which the department needs feedback and suggestions. But, feedback and suggestions are of course not limited to the list.

The Board will be briefed by the Chair of the Department on the current status of the department, the faculty and their areas of research, and current students and their accomplishments and career paths. During and after the meeting, the Board will have a chance to meet our faculty and staff as well as the students, and ask questions. All meetings will likely occur on Fridays around early afternoon and run for no more than two hours.

Throughout the year, Board members (and any and all alumni!) are encouraged to give feedback and suggestions. Alumni are also encouraged (but not required) to be a part of the Alumni Share Knowledge (ASK), “a network of committed alumni and friends who serve as career mentors, working with students one-on-one, in practice interviews and at job fairs, and speaking at networking events and open houses throughout the university”. “By sharing accomplishments, insights and connections, the ASK volunteer network can help open important doors for professional growth and networking.” For more information on ASK, check out their website: http://resources.depaul.edu/ask/Pages/default.aspx

We look forward to having you back on campus!

Undergraduate Research Showcase Nov 6th!

We are getting excited around here, as the annual CSH Undergraduate Research Showcase is just around the corner! It will be Friday, Nov 6th, from 12:30 to 5:00pm in McGowan South. Come see all of the great research that the CSH students (including chemistry!) have done. A new change this year is that there will be student oral presentations in addition to poster presentations! Come check it out! Also, the keynote speaker will be a DePaul alumna, Ramiah Jacks, now a PhD student at Loyola. We are excited to hear what she has to say (can you tell we are excited?)!

One last reminder, don’t forget to tag your Instagram and Twitter posts with #DPUShowcase! You can find more photos using this hashtag  on Facebook and Storify.

Lessons on Effective Teaching via Dr. Ruben Parra

Dr. Ruben Parra, Professor of Chemistry and Director of Teaching, Learning and Assessment (TLA), recently presented a seminar on Being an Effective Teacher, which was hosted by DePaul University’s TLA Office on October 1st, 2015 on DePaul’s Loop Campus.

This seminar was specifically geared towards the Chicago Area Assessment Group (CAAG). CAAG consists of a group of approximately 15 institutions, including DePaul, that meet periodically in the city to share assessment best practices.  The mission of the Chicago Area Assessment Group (CAAG) is to advance understanding of assessment and its impact on college and university planning and effectiveness. The audience of the seminar primarily consisted of individuals responsible for faculty development and assessment at various colleges and universities in the large Chicago area, most coming from CAAG though an invitation to the seminar was also made to select faculty and staff members of DePaul University too.