Chemistry and Biochemistry Canned Food Drive

Chemistry and Biochemistry Canned Food Drive

All Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty, Staff, PDF, Grad and 410 Students:

Bring in your unexpired can goods or non perishable food items.

You are being challenged - lets set a record and beat the other departments in the Faculty of Science.  If we win, we get to share a coffee break!  

There is a box set up in the main office.   Contest runs from Nov. 1-30, 2015

Details below.

Corey Scipione wins poster prize at Canadian Lipoprotein Conference

Congratulations to Corey Scipione (Koschinsky group), who was awarded a $500 prize for best graduate student poster at the recent Canadian Lipoprotein Conference.

The presentation was entitled: "Lp(a)/apo(a) promotes pro-inflammatory responses in vascular cells: A role for the oxPL moiety on apo(a)."

Corey, along with other members of the Koschinsky lab (Dr. Rocco Romagnuolo, presented an oral presentation and Matthew Gemin, presented a poster presentation) presented their work at the 40th Annual Canadian Lipoprotein Conference in Toronto this past weekend.

Windsor Research Spotlight - Stretching the Limit

NSERC Research Spotlight - Stretching the Limit

A research team at the University of Windsor has found that working with a problem, instead of against it, can result in incredible breakthroughs. Chemistry professor Tricia Carmichael and co-investigator Heather Filiatrault have successfully created stretchable electronics able to continue conducting electricity even after stretching to the point of cracking.

Stretchable light-emitting devices are the building blocks of foldable and expandable display screens and electronics-integrated clothing, as well as other soft devices designed to go inside a body, like a stretchable balloon catheter that can mend damaged areas of the heart.

“The dilemma with the design of these devices is that when we use electrically conductive materials, like aluminum or copper, these materials will crack when stretched even a minimal amount,” says Dr. Carmichael.

Stretchable electronics integrate a thin film of electrically conductive material with a film of rubber, but the conductive materials crack when they are stretched, which breaks the circuit and renders the device useless.

Carmichael and her lab team investigated the theory that when a rough surface is stretched it generates multiple micro-cracks, instead of a few large debilitating cracks. To manipulate the cracking, she simply added a layer of inexpensive white glue before the thin sheet of metal was attached.

“Instead of eliminating cracks, we encouraged a lot of cracking, like a spider web of cracks that don’t form a continuous pathway through the sheet,” says Carmichael. “The cracks purposefully interfere with each other, relieving the strain, so the current can flow along a jagged but continuous pathway.”

The glue layer is watered down to control the film thickness. It is spread over the rubber layer and creates the required roughness by forming blobs. Members of Carmichael’s lab built a strain sensor out of rubber, glue and gold and wrapped it around a thumb. The sensor successfully monitored when the digit was extended, and when it was not.

Carmichael says this is a low-cost, green solution, which uses simple components that could potentially scale up to larger surface devices.

“We made the system more defective in order to make it work better,” she says. “I love this concept of embracing the natural tendency of cracking, and then pushing it further.”


This research is published as the cover story in the September 30th edition of  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 

To see the original story on the NSERC web site, click here.

Mike Jaroszewicz awarded Marie Curie fellowship

Mike Jaroszewicz just completed his M.Sc. (Chemistry) at the University of Windsor under the supervision of Prof. Rob Schurko.  He is now heading to the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel to work on his Ph.D. in the research group of Prof. Lucio Frydman.

He has been awarded an Early Stage Researcher (ESR) Marie Curie fellowship under the framework of the H2020 Innovative Training Network (ITN) entitled “Europol”.  The approximate value of the fellowship is about 200000 CAD over 36 months.  We wish Mike all the best in his new position!

Chemistry grad turns in gold-medal doctoral performance

Chemistry grad turns in gold-medal doctoral performance

Soon after taking up graduate study, Nick Vukotic was drawn into sessions brainstorming a problem that had eluded his advisor Stephen Loeb—and others around the world—for years. Dr. Vukotic’s design solution led to a cover article in Nature Chemistry that is now ranked as the most-accessed article of May 2012 in any chemistry journal.

His creativity and problem-solving ability saw Vukotic complete his doctorate in chemistry with a grade average of 96 percent, earning him the Governor General’s Gold Medal for the highest academic standing at the graduate level among his cohort. He will receive the award during the first session of Convocation at the St. Denis Centre on Saturday, October 17.

Vukotic received his BSc in 2009, then began Master’s studies before early transfer to a PhD program. He received graduate scholarships from 2009 to 2014 and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship in 2009 and 2010; the NSERC Canada Graduate Master’s Scholarship in 2010 and 2011; and the NSERC Graduate Doctoral Scholarship from 2011 to 2014. He is the author of 16 publications in refereed journals and a book chapter. Four more manuscripts based on his work are currently in progress.

Serving a post-doctoral fellowship under the Ontario Centres of Excellence TalentEdge program, Vukotic works on the development of x-ray diffraction instrumentation for Proto Manufacturing.

See the original story on the UWindsor Daily News

Besa Xhabija wins poster prize at the 10th Biannual Great Lakes Glia Meeting

The Vacratsis lab participated in the 10th Biannual Great Lakes Glia Meeting that took place on Sept 27-29th, 2015 in Traverse City, Michigan. Besa Xhabija was awarded the Best Poster Award, which carried a cash prize of $200.  Congratulations Besa!

2 DAY Workshop: Introduction to Practical Aspects of Solution NMR for Chemists

2 DAY  Workshop: Introduction to Practical Aspects of Solution NMR for Chemists

Date: Wednesday Oct 14 and Thursday Oct 15

Time: 9:00 am to 12:00 pm each day

Location: Science Resource Centre Rm 182 EH

This introductory workshop is geared toward undergraduate students, summer students and/or graduate students with limited (or no) NMR experience, but who are expected to make use of the NMR spectrometers as part of their research projects. 

The workshop is meant as a supplement to the "one on one" training that new NMR users receive and will allow an opportunity to go into greater depth on many topics, therefore students who have recently started to use our NMR instruments are especially encouraged to attend.   Please inform new students in your lab who may not be on this mailing list.

The schedule will consist of a lecture to start each day followed by hands-on learning sessions where participants will get the opportunity to make NMR samples as well as to collect and process NMR data.

The topics covered include:

• How an NMR spectrometer works
• NMR Magnet Safety
• Preparation of NMR Samples
• Set up of 1D 1H and 13C NMR Experiments
• Processing and Presentation of NMR Data

The workshop is free of charge to members of the Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry; however, enrollment is limited, so please register soon!

To register click here