Green Chemistry @ MUN

Last Thursday was Fall convocation. Yi payed us a visit after receiving her MSc degree and we celebrated at the Grad Pub on campus, Bitters.

Here are a couple of photos:

Yi is now completing a PhD with Prof. Bruce Arndtsen at McGill University.

During her time at MUN, Yi “Charlene” worked with Chris Kozak on ROP reactions catalyzed by Zn complexes. (She should not be confused with our other Yi, who works with Fran Kerton on dehydration reactions of N-acteyl-D-glucosamine and related chemistry)

Here’s a link to a video on St. John’s: https://vimeo.com/185322106

It is a relaxing and fun city to live in. Get in touch if you are interested in pursuing research here.  In some cases, Canadian MSc/PhD applicants can come to visit and have their costs reimbursed.

We were very lucky to have 3 talented German chemistry students visit our group for the past 2 months. Thank you so much for all your hard work Lilo, Laura and Friedi. Safe travels home and continued best wishes as you complete your undergraduate degrees. Auf Wiedersehen!

Lilo, Laura and Friedi watching a 3-D movie at the Johnson Geo-Centre in St. John’s

Dean of Science,  Dr. Mark Abrahams, giving the Distinguished Scholar Medal to Dr. Fran Kerton

Fran was honoured to received the Faculty of Science’s Distinguished Scholar Medal last week. This is for “outstanding and sustained contributions which demonstrate a balanced approach to scholarly activities in both teaching and research“. Dr Kerton and her group perform research in the area of Green Chemistry – specifically related to sustainability issues surrounding our ocean environment including valorization of fishery/aquaculture waste, carbon dioxide as a C1 feedstock and degradable polymer synthesis. In teaching, she has been teaching introductory inorganic chemistry for a number of years, and also teaches green chemistry, organometallics, catalysis and general chemistry.

Welcome back to Tyler!

Tyler worked with us this past summer preparing some coordination compounds of iron for use as catalysts. He will be continuing his research part-time this semester as a 40 h MUCEP and will be working alongside Kori. Hopefully, they will discover some interesting reactivity of the iron compounds during the course of the Fall semester. Good luck in the lab!

Tyler Brown (NSERC USRA 2016, MUCEP Fall 2016) on the London Eye

Simon has been awarded a ‘teaching’ MUCEP with Dr. Kerton. He completed his BSc degree including research with Dr. Bodwell a few years ago and is looking forward to pursuing an MSc degree in the future. He will be helping Dr. Kerton upgrade/modernize some of the Chem 2210 labs and also helping out with some organic chemistry research time-permitting.

Simon Brake in our main research lab space, C5006

During the remainder of September and into October, we will be profiling some of the new students in our group.

Welcome to Kori Andrea. She joins us from Cape Breton University where she completed her B.Sc.(Hons) degree in chemistry. In addition to completing her honours thesis with Martin Mkandawire (Dept of Chemistry and Verschuren Cenre for Sustainability), she has performed summer research incl. a work term in Germany funded by DAAD and was extensively involved with the chemistry society there incl. hosting the Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan.  She currently holds an NSERC CGS-M award in the Kerton group and is performing research related to catalyst development for carbon dioxide activation.

Kori at Flatrock, NL, September 2016

The School of Graduate Studies will hosting information sessions online during the next semester: http://www.mun.ca/become/graduate/webinars/

Learn about Memorial, how to complete an application etc.

Information for prospective students in the chemistry department can be found here: http://www.mun.ca/science/chemgrad/

For Canadians applying for NSERC scholarships, the deadline is December 1st: http://www.mun.ca/science/chemgrad/cgs-m.php and NSERC’s website, http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/PG-CS/CGSM-BESCM_eng.asp and the SGS website https://www.mun.ca/sgs/current/scholarships/national.php

Holders of NSERC scholarships receive a $5k per year Dean’s excellence award.

Welcome to Memorial University, from us and our alumni

This is a little video on youtube.

There are so many opportunities here. We all (professors, graduate students and undergraduate research assistants) have traveled far and wide to promote and talk about our research.

Due to the new residence buildings and increasing graduate student numbers, apartment style accommodations on campus are now being made available to graduate students. There is a link to apply at the bottom of the news story.

https://gazette.mun.ca/student-life/more-housing-for-graduate-students/