Chemistry

Probst Lecture 2012

Dr. Mark Von Itzstein

April 23, 2012

“ Rotavirus and Host-Cell Glycan Interactions ”
“ Viruses in the 21st Century - an Alternative Approach to Tackling Viral Diseases ”

        Prof. Itzstein (Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia) is a world wide recognized scientist who has international standing in glycoscience and drug discovery especially in the area of anti-infective drug discovery. His research team designed the synthesis of Relenza®, which is currently used as anti-influenza drug. This discovery is a milestone and at the same time a starting point for the use of carbohydrates and carbohydrate-recognising proteins as drug discovery targets. Relenza® is also the first ‘designer’ anti-viral drug in the world.

        Prof. Mark Von Itzstein established and heads the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, which is the only multidisciplinary glycoscience research centre in Australia. His research accomplishments and the relevant contributions to drug design and discovery are internationally recognized by the whole scientific community. The number of his publications, book chapters and invited papers, in addition to the awards received validate the impact of his scientific contributions.

For additional information on the seminar location and times please contact Cristina De Meo.

For directions to the campus please visit the SIUE maps.

Probst Lecture 2011

Dr. Jerald L. Schnoor

“Water Sustainability in a Changing World”
“Phytoremediation from Molecular to Field Scale”

        Professor Jerald Schnoor is a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his pioneering work using mathematical models in science policy decisions. He testified several times before Congress on the environmental effects of acid deposition and the importance of passing the 1990 Clean Air Act. While serving as Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Science and Technology, Jerry guides the leading journal in the world in both environmental engineering and environmental science. His editorial writings on environmental policy and research have been widely accessed by the international community. Professor Schnoor has published (as author, co-author, or editor) six books and over 150 research articles in archival journals, in addition to serving as lead editor of a series of texts and monographs.

        Professor Schnoor and his students have pioneered phytoremediation, the use of plants to help clean the environment. The research involves discovering novel pathways for the uptake, storage, and metabolism of toxic organic chemicals at waste sites. Schnoor's publications cover a wide range of environmental problems including toxic chemical fate and transport, surface and groundwater contaminant modeling, phytoremediation, and carbon sequestration for mitigation of greenhouse gases. Over the past three years, Jerry has developed a novel course at the University of Iowa on sustainable environmental systems and has worked closely with students in Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW).

Probst Lecture 2010

Dr. Gary M. Hieftje

“Models, Methods, and Machines for Chemical Measurements”
“Teaching and Research: Symbiosis or Conflict?”

        Gary M. Hieftje is Distinguished Professor and Mann Chair of Chemistry at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.  His research interests include the investigation of basic mechanisms in atomic emission, absorption, fluorescence and mass spectrometric analysis, and the development of instrumentation and techniques for atomic methods of analysis.  He is interested also in the on-line computer control of chemical instrumentation and experiments, the use of time-resolved luminescence processes for analysis, the application of information theory to analytical chemistry, analytical mass spectrometry, near-infrared reflectance analysis, and the use of stochastic processes to extract basic and kinetic chemical information.  He has won numerous awards in the fields of analytical chemistry and spectroscopy, has held major offices in several scientific societies, and has served on the editorial boards of many major journals.  He is the author of over 500 publications, 10 books, and 15 patents.  More than 65 students have received doctorates under his direction.

Probst Lecture 2009

Dr. William A. Eaton

“Protein Folding Dynamics”
“Searching for a Cure for Sickle Cell Disease”

         William A. Eaton is the distinguished investigator and the Chief of Laboratory of Chemical Physics at National Institute of Diabetics and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the scientific director of intramural AIDS Targeted Antiviral Program of the Office of the director at NIH. Dr. Eaton received both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1964 and 1967. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow from 1968 to 1972. His research focuses on kinetics, dynamics, and mechanisms of protein folding using pulsed laser methods, single molecule spectroscopy, theoretical models, and computer simulations; physical chemistry of sickle cell hemoglobin polymerization and high through-put screening for the drugs for sickle cell disease; cooperative interactions in multi-subunit proteins. Among the awards Dr. Eaton has received are the Founders Award of Biophysical Society (2006) and Gordon G. Hammes ACS Biochemistry Lectureship (2009). He has been the Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Biophysical Society, and member of National Science of Academy.  Dr. Eaton has served on a number of editorial boards, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), Chemical Physics, and Journal of Physical Chemistry. He has published more than 140 prestigious publications, given hundreds of seminars, and has received recognition from chemistry, biochemistry, and biophysical societies.

Probst Lecture 2008

Dr. C. Dale Poulter

         C. Dale Poulter is the John A. Widtsoe Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah. He earned his B.S. in 1964 from Louisiana State University and his Ph.D. in 1967 from the University of California, Berkeley. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow from 1967 to 1969 with Saul Winstein at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Poulterπs research combines synthetic and mechanistic organic chemistry with biochemistry and molecular biology to study the chemistry of enzyme catalysis. This work has focused on enzymes in the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway, including those in sterol biosynthesis and protein prenylation. 

         Among the awards Poulter has received are an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1975), the American Chemical Society Ernest Guenther Award (1991), an ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (1998), the ACS Repligen Award (2002), and the ACS James Flack Norris Award (2004).  He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Dr. Poulter has served on a number of ACS committees, NIH review panels, and editorial advisory boards. He has held several different offices in the Organic and Biological Divisions of ACS and served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Organic Chemistry and for Organic Letters. Dr. Poulter is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Organic Chemistry. He has consulted in the pharmaceutical industry and is a founding scientist of two start-up companies.

The Probst Lecture Series

The Department of Chemistry of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) initiated the Probst Lecture series in 1975 as a memorial to one of its founding faculty members, Professor William J. Probst.  Each year a noted chemist is invited for a visit that features several lectures.  An evening lecture usually consists of a topic that is broad in scope to attract the interest of alumni, faculty, and students throughout the arts and sciences, while a second afternoon lecture focuses on the guest's contributions to chemical research.  In recent years, the lecture series has been planned to coincide with the Chemistry Senior Assignment Poster Session and the Student Research Symposium.

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