Chemistry News

Congratulations to the Zaikina Group, on your feature in the ACS Virtual Issue, "Emerging Investigators in Solid-State Inorganic Chemistry."

The issue showcases recently published research papers from Inorganic Chemistry, Chemistry of Materials, and The Journal of the American Chemical Society to demonstrate the creativity, range, and areas of interest of selected up-and-coming researchers in this field who have started their independent laboratories in the past five to eight years.

Check out the Editorial or the recent paper on hydride route toward new antimonides.

Javier Vela is one of seven researchers at Iowa State University being recognized by The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), for his work.

The goal of Vela’s research is to design powerful and widely applicable synthetic strategies – across molecular, nano, and bulk scales – that enable the effective incorporation of new materials into energy conversion and catalytic technologies. He has also helped develop a more diverse and inclusive scientific workforce by working with young scientists and engineers, from high school students to postdoctoral scholars.

The new class of AAAS fellows will be announced in the Nov. 29 issue of the journal Science.

The AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of Science and other journals. The association was founded in 1848 and includes nearly 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million people.

Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate scientist Dr. Benjamin Prince was recognized as an AFRL Science and Engineering Early Career Award winner. Each ECA award winner receives a three-year grant of $100,000 per year in support of their research. (Courtesy photo)

Prince became an AFRL government research chemist in the Space Vehicles Directorate in 2011 after a two-year stint as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the directorate. He greatly expanded the scope of the Space Chemistry Laboratory at Kirtland to enable work on space situational awareness, fundamental high-energy physics, next-generation spacecraft propulsion, atmospheric sensing technologies, and hypersonics, all areas of exceptionally high interest to the Air Force. Prince has made outstanding technical contributions to defining fundamental physics associated with fielding future space propulsion systems. He has a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry form Iowa State University and was the Air Force nominee to the prestigious 2018 Arthur S. Flemming Award for Basic Science.

Congratulations Dr. Benjamin Prince!

Shannon Lee and Bryan Owens-Baird, two graduate students in Kirill Kovnir's Group have been awarded fellowships from the Iowa Space Grant Consortium.

This is the second time Lee has been awarded the fellowship, her first award was for enerygy applications. Tlhis is the first award for Owens-Baird. A big congratulations to both of them for their work.

The Iowa Space Grant Consortium (ISGC) will award fellowships to support outstanding graduate students pursuing research opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines that support the mission of NASA.

Congratulations to Javier Vela, who was recently invited to join the editorial board of ACS Energy Letters!

Congratulations to Pat Thiel, who was elected to the board of the American Vacuum Society (AVS).

As a professional Society, AVS supports networking among academic, industrial, government, and consulting professionals involved in a variety of disciplines related to materials, interfaces, and processing. 

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory is launching a four-year, $3.2 million project to develop software that will bring the power of exascale computers to the computational study and design of catalytic materials.

Ames Laboratory scientist Mark Gordon, also the Francis M. Craig Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Iowa State University, will lead the laboratory’s project.