Grantee News

Nobel Prizes in Organic Chemistry Featured on Nobelprize.org

Nobelprize.org has recently posted "Speed Reads" concerning 23 Nobel Prize winning organic chemists, which provide simple and concise summaries of the relevant research and its significance. The creation of these articles was funded by the Dreyfus Foundation Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences.

K-12 Chemistry a Hit at Science Buddies

Science Buddies, an online library of tools, project ideas, and how-to information, is one of the most popular websites for K-12 students developing science research projects. The Topic Selection Wizard (TSW) tool is especially popular with students. The Special Grant Program provided support to build a resource-rich "Chemistry Interest Area" for the TSW, which has become one of Science Buddies' most popular content areas.

Related link: http://www.sciencebuddies.org

Alice Y. Ting: New Probes of Protein-protein Interactions

Dr. Alice Y. Ting's group at MIT designs new probes that can be used to study most protein-protein interactions. According to Dr. Ting, "We can use these probes to identify new protein partners or to characterize existing interactions. We can identify the signaling pathway the proteins are involved in and the cell cycle phase during which the interaction occurs." A paper recently published online by the Journal of the American Chemical Society further describes useful applications in cell biology and proteomics. This research has been partially funded by Dr. Ting's 2006 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar and a 2002 New Faculty awards.

Related links:

MIT Article: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice

Abstract: http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi

Ting laboratory: http://web.mit.edu/chemistry/Ting_Lab/index.html

Special Grants: Enhancing Interest in Chemistry

Enhancing interest in chemistry is one of the goals of the Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences. Selected recent grants towards that end are listed below:

The Museum of Science, Boston: $200,000 for the production of a multimedia exhibit that will address the growing human energy requirements and the chemistry of possible solutions, with an emphasis on solar.

Nobel Web Education Fund: $45,000 to develop simple explanations and illustrations for online educational materials that teach the history of organic chemistry through the pioneering work of Nobel Prize winners.

Science Television Workshop: $48,000 to support a "Science and Art" television project, that will feature the forensic chemistry of art, specifically the chemistry of paints, the identification of fraudulent works, and the restoration of paintings damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

American Institute of Physics: $60,000 to promote important discoveries in contemporary chemistry research with videos supplied to local television news.

West Texas A&M University: $33,000 to develop exhibits for the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum that highlight chemistry of regional relevance, such as the organic chemistry of petroleum, Native American medicine, and fabric chemistry.

University of Texas at El Paso: $15,000 for production and dissemination of a weekly radio program, "Science Studio," that conducts interviews with notable chemists.

Related link:

Special Grant Program: http://www.dreyfus.org

Molecules That Matter Traveling Exhibit

Molecules That Matter, an exhibit that highlights ten molecules that had a significant impact on the 20th century, from aspirin to buckminsterfullerene (a.k.a. buckyball), is currently on display at the College of Wooster Art Museum. First shown at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, the exhibit ran at the Chemical Heritage Foundation through January 9, 2009, and will subsequently travel to Baylor University and Grinnell College. Partial support for this exhibit was provided by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation's Special Grant Program.

Related links:

Exhibit article and podcast: http://www.wksu.org

Exhibit opening at Grinnell College: http://beta.desmoinesregister.com

Molecules That Matter Web feature: http://tang.skidmore.edu/pac/mtm/

Catalyst Links Top High Schoolers with Eminent Chemists

Catalyst, a week-long summer enrichment program administered by the
American Psychological Association and funded by the Camille and Henry
Dreyfus Foundation, pairs some of the brightest young high school
students who are interested in chemistry with eminent faculty in the
chemical sciences to embark upon longer-term research projects. As part
of the program, students learn about how creativity inherent in scientific research also manifests itself in the arts. Inaugurated in 2007 at Williams College, Catalyst will run through the summer of 2009, funded by the Dreyfus Foundation's Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences.

Monitor on Psychology article: http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov07/betterliving.html