Green Chemistry @ MUN

Fran Kerton and Chris Kozak attended IUPAC’s World Chemistry Congress and General Assembly #IUPAC100 #IUPAC2019Paris.  Talks were given on our group’s research, Fran participated in ChemRAWN committee meetings and we had a fun time socializing with other chemists! and making plans for #IUPAC2021Montreal.

With friends on a ghost walk!

IUPAC ChemRAWN committee

Ju attended the ACS Summer School on Green Chemistry and Sustainable Energy. She had an awesome time, learnt lots, had fun and made new friends. Thank you to Mary Kirchoff and all the organizers, and the sponsors ACS, ACS Petroleum Research Fund, and ACS Green Chemistry Institute.

White water rafting

Driving a hydrogen fueled car

Presenting research

Hiking in Golden, CO

Kori traveled to the UK to take up her visiting student position at the University of Oxford with Prof. Andy Weller. She is funded through an NSERC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement, and will be expanding her knowledge of boron chemistry.

Kori at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, July 2019

Dr. Khaled Omari (PhD 2012, Kerton group) will be moving from Canada to the Middle East later this summer.  He has accepted an appointment at the American University of the Middle East in Kuwait and will be an analytical chemistry professor. Congratulations Khaled!  Here are some photos from his time at Memorial University:

Photo after Khaled’s defence: Dr. Schlaf (University of Guelph) and Dr. Kerton attended via webcamera. Dr. Solberg was Chair. Dr. Helleur and Dr. Hawboldt (not in photo) were the internal examiners.

Group Photo

Graduate Students Award Ceremony, May 2010

Group Photo – July 2009

Khaled Omari, PhD Candidate, using microwave reactor

Boxing Day 2008

Although, Khaled had been working in industry in Canada for sometime – he had a drive to give back and teach others about chemistry so he is very happy to move back into the academic environment although he is sad to be leaving his home in Canada.

Khaled began his PhD with Fran in September 2008 after completing his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Jordan and helping to set up water analysis labs there (7 years of industrial work experience pre-PhD). Khaled published several papers during his 4 year PhD with Fran:

K. W. Omari, J. E. Besaw and F. M. Kerton, “Hydrolysis of Chitosan Into Levulinic Acid and 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural In Water Under Microwave Irradiation”, Green Chemistry, 2012, 14, 1480-1487, DOI:10.1039/C2GC35048C cited 100 times!

M. W. Drover, K. W. Omari, J. N. Murphy and F. M. Kerton, “Formation of a renewable amide via direct conversion of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine”, RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 4642-4643,  DOI:10.1039/C2RA20578E

K. W. Omari, L. Dodot and F. M. Kerton, “A Simple One-Pot Dehydration Process to Convert N-acetyl-D-glucosamine into a Nitrogen-Containing Compound, 3-acetamido-5-acetylfuran”, ChemSusChem, 2012, 5, 1767-72, cssc.201200113

F. M. Kerton, Y. Liu, K. W. Omari and K. Hawboldt, “Green chemistry and the ocean-based biorefinery”, Green Chemistry, 2013, 15, 860-871,DOI:10.1039/C3GC36994C cited 123 times!

After defending his PhD, Khaled moved to Nova Scotia and worked with Dr. Stephanie MacQuarrie as a postdoctoral fellow on a biochar-relaed project in collaboration with B.W. Bioenergy Inc.  He was then awarded an NSERC Visiting Postdoctoral Fellowship  and was a scientist at Agriculture and Agri-food Canada in London, ON. After his postdocs, he went back to industry and worked as a Laboratory Director at Testmark Laboratories, ON, Canada.  As you can see – Khaled’s career path is an excellent example of the varied routes and positions that chemists can experience. He now has the unusual ‘history’ of working in industry, national research labs and academia.  Keep in touch Khaled – we are very proud of you and all that you have accomplished.

We all attended #CCCE2019 in early June. Fran Kerton and Chris Kozak then went on to Reston (near Washington DC) for the 23^rd Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference and 9^th International Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry. It was good to catch up with colleagues from around the world and make many new friends and connections.

Here are some photos from CCCE2019:

During CCCE2019, Fran gave her GCEN Canadian Green Chemistry & Engineering Award Lecture and received her award at the Awards Ceremony and Dinner Reception. Her is a picture of her receiving the award from Prof. Philip Jessop (Technical Director, GreenCentre Canada)

Advance news for July is that Courtney was interviewed by Downhome magazine in May and in the current issue of the magazine (available now, July issue) – you can read all about her research on plastics made using waste fish oil. This oil is extracted from the guts and other by-products (waste) produced when fish are filleted ahead of sale.

Hopefully, we’ll have lots more exciting news to share with you as the summer progresses.

In the Department of Chemistry at Memorial University, in addition to stipends of $20,000 (M.Sc.) and $22,000 (PhD), new students are potentially eligible for the following awards:

Chen Entrance Scholarships for New Graduate Students in Chemistry

All eligible incoming students in the Department of Chemistry (M.Sc. or PhD) will receive a $3000 Chen Entrance Scholarship. More information on this website: https://www.mun.ca/chem/Graduate_Students/Chen_Graduate_Scholarships/index.php

The School of Graduate Studies F. A. Aldrich Fellowship

More awards are also available and you should consult the website above for more details.  The department of chemistry maintains a website with details of our program and if you cannot find your answer there (https://www.mun.ca/chem/Graduate_Students/index.php) – you should contact a faculty member that you are interested in working for.

Ju’s first paper will be available as an accepted article very soon. Her first author article titled “Oxidized Biochar as a Simple, Renewable Catalyst for the Production of Cyclic Carbonates from Carbon Dioxide and Epoxides” has been accepted for publication in the Women of Catalysis Special Issue 👩🏼‍🔬👩🏽‍🔬👩🏾‍🔬👩🏿‍🔬👩🏻‍🔬👩‍🔬of ChemCatChem. Thank you to Artur for preparing the eye-catching table of content’s graphic. Co-authors include Ju’s co-supervisor Stephanie MacQuarrie (Cape Breton University) and one of Stephanie’s undergraduate researchers, Vincent Andrea. Finally, thank you to the editors for inviting us to participate in this special issue.

It’s been an exciting week for Kenson Ambrose… a paper published in Dalton Transactions and a successful defense of his PhD thesis earning him a distinction! Well done Ken!

During the profs’ trip to Florida for the ACS meeting, Courtney Laprise (co-supervised by Kerton and Kozak) appeared on the Broadcast and was interviewed by Jane Adey. You can find out about Courtney’s research on this page: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/waves-of-change-alternative-fish-guts-1.5083058

There is also a facebook video.

Note: we are not endorsing the capture or aquaculture of additional fish to produce plastic. We are using by-products/waste from fish processing plants to obtain a low grade fish oil (not suitable for human consumption) and using this to make new materials that should show enhanced biodegradation. Experiments and tests are ongoing. Any companies interested in this technology should contact Dr. Kerton and Dr. Kozak.

Hart’s research on cationic aluminum complexes has been accepted for publication in Inorganic Chemistry. Thank you to Louise and Jen for their crystallographic contributions, and all other advice including the referees and editor.

I will post the link once the paper is available online. The proofs have just been returned to ACS Publishing, and I need to go watch some more talks at #ACSOrlando

**UPDATE: Inorganic Chemistry, 2019, 58,  (8), 5253–5264, http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b00347 **

Earlier this month, Courtney’s latest blog post was shared by the School of Graduate Studies: http://www.mun.ca/sgs/studentblog/struggle/ The good news is Courtney’s departmental seminar went really well and she has had many exciting results in the lab too 🙂

Sorry we forgot to share this blog sooner – it discusses really important #mentalhealthmatters. Remember, you are not alone.

The School of Graduate Studies has just made a wonderful 3 minute video featuring Kori Andrea. Kori is a Vanier Scholar in Dr. Kerton’s group. She is passionate about her research and a wonderful mentor to undergraduates in our group and also in our teaching labs.

For more information on Vanier Scholarships see: http://www.vanier.gc.ca/en/home-accueil.html

Also, our department hosted a #GlobalBreakfast yesterday as part of the #IUPAC100 celebrations. It was one of ten events across Canada: http://www.cnc-iupac.ca/news_e.html There will be a news story on the breakfasts in the CIC magazine later this month. Thank you to Juliana (Kerton group), and Steph and Silvana (Merschrod group) for your hard work and skilled organization of this event! The two quizzes (Women in Science, and Periodic Table Trivia) were challenging and made us all realize we need to study a bit more 😉  See @MUN_GWB on twitter for photos of the event

Thank you to Artur for preparing the eye-catching poster.