CCE Newsletter Fall 2021
Welcome Message from The Chair, Dennis Dougherty
Welcome to a new academic year in CCE! Despite the challenges of the ongoing global pandemic, the Division has been working hard to ensure that our teaching spaces are ready to go and that we have all the necessary resources to provide a rewarding educational experience this fall. The research enterprise continues, with the students, faculty, and staff pulling together to keep us moving forward. I want to especially acknowledge the hard work put in by the Division staff to make sure we are all safe and productive. This fall we welcome our largest and most diverse incoming graduate class ever. This newsletter highlights just some of the efforts of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee over the past year.
On the research side, we are pleased to announce the acquisition of a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer (JMS 600H from JEOL) that is now up and running. The newly renovated Linus Pauling Lecture Hall seats 224 and will be used for both classes and seminars. Our research spotlight this quarter highlights the work of Garnet Chan’s lab. Finally, we welcomed two new faculty members to CCE this past summer. Read the stories below on Hosea Nelson and Shasha Chong to find out a little more about them and their research.
On September 7, 2021, we welcomed back our staff and researchers, who have spent nearly 18 months working remotely. It is great to see some familiar faces – even behind a mask! I know there will be challenges ahead, but I am confident that the CCE family work together to advance the research and teaching missions of the Division and Caltech. Here’s to a new quarter and the hope that we will all be together soon.
CCE'S MOST DIVERSE CLASS
The graduate admission numbers (incoming Fall 2021) for the institute are highly encouraging in terms of diversity (30% Women, 17% URM), and the CCE numbers mirror that of the Institute (39% Women, 19% URM). We look forward to welcoming and supporting the most diverse undergraduate and graduate incoming classes in Caltech’s history this Fall.
CCE FUTURE Ignited planning began in August 2020 with compiling contact information for department/division chairs in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from over 200 institutions, focusing specifically on increasing our footprint with potential underrepresented minority graduate student applicants. Nearly 200 undergraduates from more than 120 colleges and universities across the country join Caltech in this virtual event designed to encourage students of color to pursue graduate studies in science and engineering.
FUTURE Ignited was hosted by more than 70 faculty, staff, postdoc, and student volunteers from the divisions of Biology and Biological Engineering; Chemistry and Chemical Engineering; Engineering and Applied Science; Geological and Planetary Sciences; and Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy. FUTURE Ignited is scheduled to take place this year on October 2, 2021.
NEW FACULTY
Dr. Hosea Nelson
Professor Nelson earned a B.S. in Chemistry from University of California at Berkeley in 2005 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 2013. After postdoctoral training at University of California at Berkeley, Prof. Nelson joined the UCLA faculty in 2015. In 2021 he joined Caltech's Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Professor Nelson's research program is focused on the development of enabling technologies for chemical synthesis.
Dr. Shasha Chong
Professor Chong obtained her B.S. in Chemistry from University of Science & Technology of China and her Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University. She did her postdoctoral research at University of California, Berkeley and joined the faculty of California Institute of Technology in August 2021. Research in the Chong lab interfaces between chemistry, physics, and biology to tackle the molecular mechanisms of fundamental cellular processes.
Research Spotlight: Chan Lab
In a recently submitted article, “Systematic electronic structure in the cuprate parent state from quantum many-body simulations”, researchers in the Chan group report their progress in understanding the famous copper-oxygen based materials that exhibit high-temperature superconductivity. Says Chan, “for over a decade, we have been building a numerical toolkit to solve different aspects of the Schrödinger equation for complicated materials, and specifically, the cuprate superconducting materials. This work reports the first time all the pieces have been assembled to carry out a complete calculation of the real material”. Using these computational methods, student Zhi-Hao Cui, staff scientist Xing Zhang, and postdoctoral researcher Huanchen Zhai showed that they could reproduce the physical properties of a series of cuprates from the brute-force solution of the Schrödinger equation.
FACILITY UPDATES
The Mass Spectrometry Lab is delighted to announce that the CCE Division has invested in a state-of-the art mass spectrometer to replace a 19-yr-old magnetic sector mass spectrometer (JMS-600H from JEOL) that was used for accurate mass measurements of various molecules.
In July, the Lab installed The JMS-T2000GC AccuTOF™ GC-Alpha. This new instrumentation is a high-performance GC-MS system that simultaneously realizes high mass resolution, high mass accuracy, high sensitivity, high speed data acquisition, wide dynamic range, and wide mass range.
JEOL Engineers Satoshi Shimoda and John Atchason verifying AccuTOF performance.
CCE DEI Updates & News
The CCE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee was established to work on the multiple and varied tasks required to understand and improve the climate of the division in terms of inclusion, diversity and equity. The CCE DEI Committee met for the first time on October 21, 2020, and since then has helped support many division ideas, initiatives and events.
WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY
This year, Women in Chemistry (WiC) created a scholarship program for young women interested in science. The three awardees, high school seniors in the Pasadena Unified School District, conducted literature reviews and presented talks on topics in sustainability with the help of graduate student mentors. To prepare them for their self-led research into a topic the students attended workshops organized by members of the Chemistry Graduate Studies Committee on how to read scientific papers and give scientific talks. The talks, "Biomimicry in Modern Architecture", "Challenges with Industrial Fertilizer", and "Drones which Plant Trees" were given in front of selected members of the CCE Division in April.
DEI COORDINATORS
In the effort to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in individual research groups, CCE adopted a new group role, the DEI Coordinator. Modeled after the existing Safety Coordinator role, the purpose of the DEI Coordinator is to help foster a healthy, diversity-oriented space within their research group and to discuss and encourage participation in DEI-related ideas and initiatives.
The DEI Coordinator role is open on a volunteer basis to senior graduate students (G2+), senior postdocs, or other dedicated group staff. Each DEI Coordinator is trained by the Caltech Center for Inclusion and Diversity (CCID) and attends regular meetings with the appointed CCE Diversity Officer to discuss the DEI climate on campus and to propose actionable items and/or relay feedback to promote DEI in their groups.
Upcoming CCE Events
October
- October 1: (Virtual) Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Charles C. McCrory (University of Michigan)
- October 2: FUTURE Ignited
- October 6: (Virtual) Organic Chemistry Seminar - Gonçalo Bernardes (University of Cambridge)
- October 7: Center for Molecular and Cellular Medicine Seminar - Heyun Li (Pierce Group), Caltech
- October 8: (Virtual) Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Thomas S. Teets (University of Houston)
- October 13: (Virtual) Organic Chemistry Seminar - Dr. Patrick Montgomery (Pfizer)
- October 14: Center for Molecular and Cellular Medicine Seminar - Jingzhou Wang (Mayo Group), Caltech
- October 15: (Virtual) Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Lesley Schoop (Princeton University)
- October 20: Watson Lecture - Megasupramolecules: From Disaster to Discovery - Julie Kornfield
- October 21: CCE Seminar Day
- October 21: (In-Person) Chemical Engineering Seminar - Michelle O’Malley (UCSB)
- October 21: Center for Molecular and Cellular Medicine Seminar - Shirin Shivaei (Shapiro Group), Caltech
- October 22: (Virtual) Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - R. David Britt (UC Davis)
- October 27: (Virtual) Organic Chemistry Seminar - Robert Macfarlane (MIT)
- October 28: Center for Molecular and Cellular Medicine Seminar - Mark Fornace (Pierce Group), Caltech
November
- November 4: Center for Molecular and Cellular Medicine Seminar - Ronghui Zhu (Elowitz Group), Caltech
- November 11 : Center for Molecular and Cellular Medicine Seminar - Veronica B. Hubble (Stoltz Group), Caltech
- November 18: (Tentative): Organic Chemistry Seminar - Robert Phipps (University of Cambridge)
- November 18: Center for Molecular and Cellular Medicine Seminar -Tyler J. Fulton (Stoltz Group), Caltech
- November 19: (Virtual) Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Yan-Yan Hu (Florida State University)
December
- December 2: (In-Person) Chemical Engineering Seminar - Benjamin Keith Keitz (UT Austin)
- December 2: Center for Molecular and Cellular Medicine Seminar - Jeffrey K. Kerkovius (Reisman Group), Caltech
- December 3: (Virtual) Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Lior Supanaru (UC Santa Barbara)
- December 9: Center for Molecular and Cellular Medicine Seminar - Anand K. Muthusamy (Lester Group), Caltech