chemistry

Science Students Shine at Sigma Xi Conference

November 11, 2016

University of Portland science students swept the undergraduate awards in the “Earth & Environmental Sciences” category at the Thirteenth Annual Sigma Xi Student Research Symposium, held on Friday, November 4 at Portland State University, according to faculty advisor Ted Eckmann, environmental studies.

Summer Grandy won 1st place for her coauthored paper, “Developing New Soils to Improve Green Roof Performance in the US Pacific Northwest.” Logan Simpson won second place for her coauthored piece, “Combining Spatial Interpolation with Wind Data to Analyze Industrial Odor Patterns in Portland.” The are the first students from UP’s environmental studies department to win awards at Sigma Xi, and the first from that department to present there.

Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, is the international honor society of science and engineering. See more at this link.

Sr. Angela Hoffman, O.S.B., Outstanding Higher Education Teacher in Science and Mathematics

February 24, 2014

Sr. Angela Hoffman, O.S.B., chemistry, has been named the Oregon Academy of Science 2014 Outstanding Higher Education Teacher in Science and Mathematics. Hoffman has helped undergraduate students with more than 150 projects involving the ingredient Paclitaxel and the anti-cancer drug Taxol (marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb). University of Portland environmental science professor Bob Butler was the recipient of the same award in 2013.

Paclitaxel is found originally in the rare and rapidly vanishing Yew tree, native to the Pacific Northwest. Taxol is used to treat ovarian cancer, breast cancer, the AIDS-related cancer Kaposi’s sarcoma, and other conditions. Hoffman currently has four patents from 1997, 2003, 2006, and 2010, all pertaining to recovering taxanes (including Taxol) from soil around yew trees and other plants that are grown to produce Taxol.

This past November, several dozen yew trees were planted on the University’s River Campus. Known as “Sr. Angela’s Yew Garden,” the garden is home to more than 10 different varieties of the yew tree, which Hoffman and her students will use for their research.

Hoffman was recognized in 2012 as an American Chemical Society (ACS) Fellow for her “outstanding achievements in and contributions to Science, the Profession, and the Society.” In 2007, Hoffman was chosen as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow in 2007.

The Oregon Academy of Science promotes scientific research and education in Oregon representing all areas of the natural sciences and social sciences. To see a video interview with Sr. Angela go to http://youtu.be/KbVC2xYcfVU. For more information, contact Steve Kolmes, environmental studies, at 7291 or kolmes@up.edu.

Faculty Update

January 8, 2013

Bonnie Parks, library, published“Books at JSTOR: An Interview with Bruce Heterick” in v. 38:4 (2012) of Serials Review: http://tinyurl.com/cbtapln.

Eugenijus Urnezius, chemistry, presented a seminar, “Binucleating ligands based on phosphineappended hydroquinones: A rewarding challenge“ at Vilnius University in Lithuania’s Neorganic Chemistry Auditorium on December 19, 2012.

Petra Khan, marketing and communications, received the 2020 CASE VIII Rising Star Award in Marketing and Communications from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), District VIII, which includes Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, and Yukon.

Laura Dyer, biology, received a $502 grant for “Engaging Middle School Students in Developmental Biology through Tadpole Metamorphosis” (with Allegra VanderWilde) from the Society for Developmental Biology, January 2020.

Dawn Garzon Maaks, nursing, wrote “White Paper: Recognizing Child Trafficking as a Critical Emerging Health Threat” (with Jessica Peck, Mikki Meadows-Oliver, Hays Stacia) in Journal of Pediatric Healthcare, January 2020.

Claire McKinley Yoder, nursing, (2020). “An academic–fire department partnership to address social determinants of health” (with Pesch, M. S.) in Journal of Nursing Education, 59(1), 34-37 (2020).

Heather Dillon, Shiley School of Engineering, presented “Connecting with Expert Educators” (with Timothy Doughty, Nicole Ralston, and student co-presenters Rebecca Levison and Jeff Welch) at the 2020 Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network National Conference in Dallas, Texas, January 2020.

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