DR. .JAMES JENSEN, CSULB HONORS DR. HENRY PO

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1 1 l a Some CHAIR'S REPORT DR. DOROTHY DOT'^ GOLDISH WINS I n many ways this has been a very good year for our depart- ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP AWARD ment. Our degree programs in Chemistry and Biochemistry 0 n May 30 at the Alumni Quoting from the award are attracting increasing numbers of students, our graduates Awards Banquet, held in citation, "She has been in- are finding employment and placement in graduate and profession- the Long Beach Hilton volved in the development, al schools, the master's programs show signs of revitalization, we Hotel, Dr. Dorothy Goldish, or drafting or revision of nearly continue to improve our c~rric~l~m, private support of the depart- DO^" as she prefers to be all academic policies since merit is the highest ever, and many hane~s h9vd GO e LO Our facul- called, was presented the 1971. As Vice Chair of the Fi- ! ty and students. Some of these pitive deve1oprnenZ % '&%$etailed Nicholas perkins Hardeman nancial Affairs Council, then as elsewhere in this Newslet - , Academic Leadership Award Chair of the Academic Senate, On the other ban ace 1989 we have lost six faculty fr~k for her extraordinary service she has been a strong voice on the tenure track an d vk not been able to replace any of the over tBR yeap to the universi- the Resource Planning Process vacated Positions. * has placed a much greater burden on the ty. Assdsfaculty member said, Task Force, pressing the needs remaining facultyeiOur student/faculty ratio has increased signifi- 9 seems that whenever a of the instructional program cantly, and rese&h-active faculty, especially in biochemistry, Bdership emergency exists. and the focus on serving stuhave large num@~ of students to supervise. We have lost a Stock- Goldish is called in to clari- dents. Goldish herself has said' room position, $ this has resulted in reduced services. By. issues and guide imperiled that sometimes getting things Long-range ns are to convert Peterson Hall 1 to a class- programs." done requires nothing more room and office kilding, renovate Peterson Hall 2 and 3, and build a new extensfon to Peterson Hall 3, but funding for renov - tion and constructim is not available yet, so plans are on hold. Meanwhile, we are kving to cope with an overcrowded and dete- *$ 1 'k riorating facility whicB is not designed for modern science. President Maxson has assured us that the proposed science construction and renovation projects have the highest priority. statistical information: -k Graduating students. A summary of && ~raduat- ing class of 43 is given: I BA Chemistry 9 BS Biochemistry 19 BS Chemistry 12 MS Chemistry 3 , * . Majors. The department has a total of 296 majors (138 I females and 158 males), the highest ever, distributed as follows: I BA Chemistry 37 MS Biochemistry 26 1 BS Chemistry 69 MS Chemistry 25 I BS Biochemistry 139 Alumni. Through 1995 our department has 1,027 alumni, Dr. Dorothy Gddish, Hardernan Awardee, and President Robert Maxson 870 bachelor's and 157 master's graduates. In addition to her 37 years Fundraisin!& The department raised $131879 from Pri- of service as a professor in the vate sources during the 1994-95 fiscal year. This amounts to Department of Chemistry and $47,323 in cash and $84,556 in in-kind gifts of equipment. sup- Biochemistry, she was Acting plies and services. When it is realized that we received only Administrator in the Depart- $16,500 from the state for operating expenses (approximately $4 ment of FrencMtalian; Acting for each enrolled student), it is readily Seen that Our programs are Associate Dean, Educational heavily dependent on gifts from alumni such as yourself, and busi- Policy, school of Letters and nesses and industry. We have a wonderful support group among Science; Acting Coordinator, our alumni-by far the best in the university! Through our Advisory Educational Policy, school of Council, we have a network of mutual support. If you are contacted Business Administration; ~ ctthan suggesting a solution to the right person. But more often it means getting the right people to work on the issue, perhaps assisting a group to accomplish its task by defining that task clearly or by providing helpful materials or by suggesting just the right phrasing for documents." 1$ ? t 1 by Phonathon callers, and decide to give a gift to the university, we would appreciate your stating that your gift is for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, unless you wish otherwise. Thanks to all of you for your letters, gifts, visits, and suggestions. When you can, please come by the department for a vislt. Sincerely, Ken Marsi, Chair ing Dean of the school of Natural Sciences; and for the past three years. Chair of the Academic Senate. ! . I
DR. NELSON J. LEONARD: 16TH UNOCAL LECTI JRER by Ana R. Perez and Thomas Gillespie, Undergraduate Chemistry Students r. Nelson J. Leonard, Reynold C. Fuson Pro- fessor Emeritus, Univer sity of Illinois at Urbana, and presently Faculty Associate in Chemistry at California Insti- tute of Technology, was this year's UNOCAL Lecturer on March 29. Dr. Leonard, widely known for his work in heterocy- clic chemistry and more re- cently for his research in bio- organic chemistry, spent a day in the department, talking with faculty and students, and pre- senting two lectures. informative lectu the Solutiomn" "r. Leonard spoke of Intific process in a refrc,.&& ight. Sometimes students thil~~ uf scientists as as pure as the scientist'? tions. Scientists seek thc but when they find it, he s a p they don't always "tell it like it is"; i.e., they put their own slant on the outcome. Dr. Leonard seems to prefer truly telling it like it is. If your outcome arose from an unexpected accident, mistake, or wrong turn, then let the world know. Not only does it demystify the world of science, but it can also aid in both understanding and replicating the results. The prime example of this is Roger Adams' discovery of the use of platinum oxide as a catalyst for hydrogenation. A student working with him broke the container of platinum, spilling the contents everywhere. Dr. Nelson J. Leonard, UNOCAL Lecturer Adams told him to scrape up all mnants, treat them with HNO,, and finally fuse the rmue with NaNO,. During this last step, a brown powder formed-Pt0, -which proved to be an excellent hydrogenation catalyst. When re- A porting his findings, Adams merely stated the step: with. Dr. Leonard also gave PO HONORED many examples of serendipity, continued from page one or accidental discoveries, like the discoveries of Teflon, nylon, "The students in Dr. Po's 3 cis-platinum, A n phthalocya- group somehow seemed more nin, and cyclic AMP. motivated and excited than in In his second lecture, he other groups. Someone was discussed the synthesis of always working in his lab, even compounds that mimicked the A-U (in RNA) and A-T (in DNA) base pairs, but with covalent linkages which prevented the base pairs from coming apart. Dr. Leonard felt that if one could incorporate these A-T when the building was other- "cross-sections" into a DNA 4 molecule, the DNA wouM replicate. Then we would havb a way of stopping DNA and RNA synthesis, both of which begin with the dissociation of 1 so( base pairs during the unwind- State a ing of the DNA and db mn,n- (MS1' ,ersity, Minnesota. ). cules, ' F e d college at a fairly youn ge (1 5) and would tacking 1 O-memWm!RJicyclic ntaining six asymmetric s), planning a synthetic gy by reverse synthesis, Leona' -,,L,u oxidation leading to ring closure, protection of the intermediate and subsequent deprotection, and the NMR, MS, and results-H. C. Brown's discovery of hydroboration. Thus, solutions in science are often not acquired systematically. Much of the time. observations are made first; then a problem is formulated so that it is explained by the observation. In Dr. Leonard's own lab, many experimental results evolved from an unexpected turn of events, like the "facile" synthesis of pyrrolizidines, which came unexpectedly from X-ray analyses of various stages of the process. He then spoke about the use of spatial and fluorescent probes to see how binds to various enzymes and to gain information about the mechanism of hydrolysis of ATP to ADp and phosphate, He also discussed applications of etheno-bridged nucleotides as structural probes of RNA and DNA and studies of the mechanisms of carcinogenesis and a graduate student's mixing many different compounds to see what he could come up enzyme activity. 7 not hav reached my goal of becoming a physician without his thoughtful guidance and advice". . . Richard W Lee, MD, FAACC. (BA 1977). "He was amongst one of my favorite professors. He was enthusiastic about research. Over the years, even with his heavy teaching load and relatively limited support, he was still able to maintain an active research program and publish continuously in leading chemistry journals" ... Rick W K. Wong, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Hong Kong Baptist College. (BS 1974). "I am hopeful that the committee will select Dr. Po as the University Outstanding Professor, although in my mind and heart he already has been the most outstanding professor in all my educational years" ... Donna Nagata, DDS, Senior Dental Administrative Advisor, Den ticare of California. (Student, 1983).
Page 1: For past and present students and f
Page 5 and 6: NEW ORGANIC CHEMISTRY CURRICULUM by
Page 7 and 8: My former students are doing well i
Page 9 and 10: MAJORS SPEND SUMMER IN OFF- CAMPUS
Page 11 and 12: GIFI'S BY INDlVIDUALS For the 1994-
Page 13 and 14: Thang Dink Hemdersw Molar and Dana
Page 15 and 16: AS NJ'l'STANDLNG ALUMNUS .by Adsrmt
Page 17 and 18: tion to my independent studies and
Page 19 and 20: nity with an expanding line of mono
Page 21 and 22: Robert Rzasa, BS, and Rhonda Cunnin
Page 23 and 24: Fall 1995, Number 20. Dear CSULB Ch

DR. .JAMES JENSEN, CSULB HONORS DR. HENRY PO

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