November 2009
- Alumnus of the Year, Raymond Rawson (B.S., Chemistry, 1963)
- Astrophysics: “GRB 090423 as the New Beacon at the Frontier of the Universe”
- “People of Note: Scientist builds something like Google for the bricks of life: Engines for analyzing proteins may find targets for new AIDS drugs,” by Brendan Buhler, Las Vegas Sun, October 12, 2009
- “Astronomer puzzles over universe: $450,000 grant pays for researchers, helps UNLV cover upkeep,” by Richard Lake, Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 5, 2009
- ”National Science Foundation grant has researcher seeing stars,” Rebel Yell, by Victoria Gonzalez, October 12, 2009
- Alumni Profile, Dana X. Kerola, (B.S., Physics, 1973)
- Staff Profile, Yanxin Teng, Ph.D.
- Chemistry Learning Center
- Chemistry Club
- UNLV Magazine, Fall 2009
- Physics and Astronomy Seminar
- Chemistry Seminar
- Mathematics Seminar
- Submit Your News Items
- Email Subscription
Alumnus of the Year, Raymond Rawson (B.S., Chemistry, 1963)
Raymond “Ray” Rawson is the 2009 College of Sciences Alumnus of the Year.
Ray Rawson served as student body president of the first graduating class of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in zoology and chemistry from UNLV in 1964. He received his Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.) from Loma Linda University Dental School (1968) and returned to UNLV where he earned a Master of Arts degree in physical anthropology (1978).
Rawson has researched, taught, and lectured extensively on public policy, dentistry, anatomy, anesthesia, and specialized criminal justice. He has served nationally on the Education Commission of the States and the Western Interstate Commission of Higher Education. He is a prolific writer of research papers and has been widely published in scientific journals. A former senator, Rawson served in the Nevada State Legislature from 1984 to 2004. Regent Ray Rawson was appointed to the Board of Regents by Gov. Jim Gibbons in January 2009. He serves as chair of the Business & Finance Committee, and as vice chair of the Health Sciences System Committee. He is also a member of the Investment & Facilities Committee.
Among his many accomplishments and honors, Ray Rawson was selected Alumnus of the Year, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1997. Regent Rawson is currently a practicing dentist in Las Vegas. He and his wife, Linda Downey Rawson, have seven children, 22 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Regent Rawson was born in Sandy, Utah. A former senator, Rawson served in the Nevada State Legislature from 1984 to 2004. He recently finished his service on the auditing committee of the American Legacy Foundation in Washington, D.C., is current Vice-Chairman of the Springs Preserve Foundation in Las Vegas, and Deputy Commander of the Nevada-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team for the Department of Health and Human Services of the Federal Government. Regent Rawson is currently a practicing dentist in Las Vegas. He and his wife, Linda Downey Rawson, have seven children, 22 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
“GRB 090423 as the New Beacon at the Frontier of the Universe”
Bing Zhang, associate professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department, is the author of an essay, “Astrophysics: Most Distant Cosmic Blast Seen,” in Nature, the world’s leading scientific journal. In a press release, Nature editors described Zhang’s article, found in the News and Views section of the publication:
“Astronomy: A Beacon from the Cosmic Dark Ages,” (Nature 461, 1221-1223 (29 October 2009) Published online 28 October 2009)
Light from a star that exploded 13 billion years ago has reached Earth, setting a new record yet observed. The characteristicsγfor the most distant astronomical object -ray of the explosion, known as a burst, show that massive stars were already forming only 630 million years after the Big Bang.
The detection of the gamma-ray burst, named GRB 090423, is reported in two papers in this week’s Nature. Two teams of astronomers, led respectively by Nial Tanvir and Ruben Salvaterra, each measured the redshift of the object at about 8.2 — meaning that the burst occurred when the Universe was less than 5% of its current age. The previous record-holder was a galaxy at redshift 6.96, corresponding to an age 150 million years younger than GRB 090423.
Beyond the mere breaking of a record, the age of the newly detected object opens a window into a cosmological era that has not previously been accessible to observation. The cosmic ‘Dark Ages’ are thought to have ended about 800–900 million years after the Big Bang, when light from stars and galaxies re-ionized the previously neutral gas pervading the Universe. As gamma-ray bursts are more possible to trace the detected from these early times, it more possible to trace the progress of this re-ionization, leading to should be the intergalactic medium we see today.
Zhang’s is also quoted in a number of national and international scientific publications and websites on this new phenomenon.
A UNLV press release on this topic is available at: http://publicaffairs.unlv.edu/news-PublicAffairs.html?id=2429
“People of Note: Scientist builds something like Google for the bricks of life: Engines for analyzing proteins may find targets for new AIDS drugs,” by Brendan Buhler, Las Vegas Sun, October 12, 2009
Photograph by Sam Morris
Martin Schiller says a cell infected with HIV becomes a factory that creates many versions of the virus. His tools may find commonalities, which drugs can attack.
Martin Schiller, UNLV’s newest trophy hire, is primed to run research projects that will identify the targets for the next generation of HIV/AIDS drugs.
This is not the most important project Schiller is working on.
The most important project is using a pair of search engines that he devised to find and compare prized fragments of proteins.
The search engines, almost as easy to use as Google, can trawl the thousand-odd databases and terabytes of data that contain the recipes of known proteins, the builders and shapers of life on a cellular level. The search engines can then highlight portions of their recipes believed to have a known function and compare proteins across species. These search engines are powerful tools that Schiller calls a “hypothesis generator” because they suggest new possibilities to anyone figuring out the machinery of life.
Schiller’s search engines will help make sense of a field that combines the hardest parts of biology with the hardest parts of chemistry. Biochemistry has a reputation as a difficult science because it is one. Compared with biochemistry, little projects like building a robot, putting it on a rocket, sending it to Mars and driving the robot around remotely are pretty easy and intuitive. Biochemistry can make a nuclear chemist — a scientist who regularly contemplates how to light the fires of the sun — despair and ask to talk about something easier, like particle physics. Life — and biochemistry is life — is subtle, surprising and hard to keep up with.
Schiller’s search engines make it easier to keep up with biochemistry because one of their most basic functions is to serve as a kind of dictionary for motifs — short portions of a protein’s amino acid chain that have been identified as having particular functions.
Schiller is an intense and animated explainer of his work, lured from the University of Connecticut to run his own lab and team of graduate and undergraduate scientists at UNLV. He would have preferred that someone else write a motif dictionary.
Schiller is a laboratory biochemist, trained to run experiments and analyze the results. A program like Schiller’s is something you would expect a computational biochemist to come up with, except that, 10 years ago, none of them had. Which is why Schiller found himself complaining to his father, Stanley, at one of their regular get-togethers to play chess and drink port.
Schiller’s father was losing at chess and pouring the port more quickly than he might have if he had been winning. Pretty soon, neither father nor son could play chess. Schiller complained to his father that every time he wanted to know what a motif did, he had to go to conferences or pore through journals, hoping someone had found his motif in his protein and figured out what it did. When is someone going build a search engine and database to find and catalog these things? he said.
“I can build you an Excel macro in a weekend,” Schiller’s father said. “Go ahead,” Schiller said. “I’ll do it,” his father said. “And I was like, ‘Ah, you’re drunk,’ ” Schiller recalled. About a month later, the macro — a miniature program that runs through Excel computer spreadsheets — arrived in an e-mail. It worked. Pretty soon, Schiller had a new project: to create a search engine to hunt through the world of proteins and flag their similarities.
Schiller’s main search engine is called the Minimotif Miner. Proteins are built with 20 amino acids, and are often represented as long chains of letters. An average protein is about 300 letters long. Schiller’s search engine looks for short chains of acids — motifs — that are known to perform specific roles in other proteins, such as modifying or bonding to molecules. If you find a motif in one protein, chances are it performs the same or a similar role in another protein. If you find a motif repeated consistently in versions of the same protein, from the yeast version to the human version, chances are it’s a very important motif.
In this way, the Minimotif Miner is almost like an incomplete but rapidly expanding dictionary. The drawback to it is that it represents these motifs in the standard two-dimensional strings of letters. Proteins, however, are three-dimensional tangles, like a ball of string you might find in your pocket. How a motif functions may depend on its interactions with other motifs, which depends on their relative locations in the tangle.
This is why Schiller’s second search-and-compare engine was created to model proteins in three dimensions. When viewed in this second program, repeated motifs that were scattered randomly in the string are often clustered together in the three-dimensional tangle. Grouped together, they may have a common function, such as hooking onto a DNA molecule.
Schiller suspects that this is like discovering syntax in language, where you can see how words relate to each other and change each other’s meanings.
But life isn’t merely a language, it’s also a construction job. Everyone says DNA is like a blueprint. Fine. We don’t live in blueprints. If you want a house to live in, you’re going to need tools. Proteins do just about everything that needs doing — sticking cells together, dividing cells, forming the superstructure of cells and signaling between cells. Proteins are life’s tools. And life has very different ideas than your average general contractor.
In house-building, more advanced tools replace their crude cousins. Flaked obsidian gave way to metal hand saws, which were replaced by circular saws and so on. In biology, pretty much every tool is still in use.
As Schiller points out, nature is amazingly modular. We share genes and proteins with earthworms and fruit flies. The genes and proteins are not exactly the same, but they’re more similar than they are different. Humans are more complex than the average nematode, so we’re built with a few new and improved tools, but working right alongside them are the same stuff that builds a worm.
If life were to build your house, it would bring along all of its tools and blueprints. Your house would be a hodgepodge of tepee walls, tumbled stone, two-by-four framing, with maybe a steel-beamed skyscraper rising out of the middle. This would not bother life, because life would just go on working on your house and start expanding across the neighborhood in a major act of urban clearance. Life really believes in job security.
And so do viruses and HIV in particular. When HIV infects a cell, it turns it into a factory for new viruses. The replication process is sloppy, creating many different versions of HIV. A person might be infected with 10,000 versions of HIV, a variety that frustrates and overwhelms the human immune systems and our drugs. Say you find a way to kill 90 percent of the viruses — the other 10 percent thrive, repopulate the host body and mutate some more.
This is where Schiller’s search engines become more than dictionaries. They become a way to design weapons.
Schiller says the extraordinary mutability of HIV makes it an ideal target for his team’s search engines, that it has “huge advantages, not for people, but for us.” If you use his engines to compare the proteins in 10,000 versions of HIV, you will find a handful of motifs that exist in every one. Drugs that attack these points will attack all HIV viruses. If the drugs hit key points, such as where the virus attaches itself to a cell, you could cripple all known varieties of HIV.
Schiller won’t be designing those drugs. He’ll be refining the tools to find where they’re needed and identifying targets.
He works about 70 hours a week.
“Astronomer puzzles over universe: $450,000 grant pays for researchers, helps UNLV cover upkeep,” by Richard Lake, Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 5, 2009
Photo by John Gurzinski
SPENDING ESTIMATE
Ken Nagamine, an assistant professor of astronomy at UNLV, is using a National Science Foundation grant to study the origins of supermassive black holes. The research could lead to a greater understanding of the universe, but it also benefits the university by employing research assistants and enhancing its reputation.
Ken Nagamine is trying to figure out where you came from. Specifically, where the molecules that make up your body came from, or at least how they came together to form a person. He wants to know the origins of the Earth, the sun, the galaxies, the supermassive black holes and the exploding stars and the space gases and the atoms within those gases. How did all that stuff come together to form things?
He's studying all this from a closet-sized office at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with a computer screen the size of a nice TV. He's doing this, too, with half his brain tied behind his back, by his estimate. But Nagamine, 35, an assistant professor of astronomy who is originally from Japan, is also doing it with a $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, which helps pay for extra brains -- about 4.5 extra brains, again, by his calculation.
Those extra brains belong to student researchers who get paid through the grant. The grant, officially, allows Nagamine to study black hole feedback and galaxy formation -- a unique enough goal from an admittedly young and comparatively inexperienced researcher that he was able to snag an ultra-competitive NSF grant.
The grant, which runs for three years, also covers many other things: general upkeep of the university (about 46 percent of the money), a good portion of Nagamine's own pay (about 15 percent), travel expenses, publication expenses, and so on. So, for Nagamine's state salary of $72,072, the university gets that back several times over because of the grant. In addition, he's employing a post-doctoral student at a hefty salary, a couple of graduate students and five undergraduate students.
Which means that, in addition to being a teacher of introductory astronomy and a researcher studying the Big Questions of the Universe, Nagamine is also a small business.
And, say university officials, he is pretty typical of young science faculty members at the university. Though not all of them are working with large federal grants, the university's leaders say many of them are. Last year, the university brought in $40 million in research funding. Though that's not much when compared to major research institutions, researchers point out that $40 million is still a lot of money.
Typically, as in Nagamine's case, nearly half of grant funding goes directly to the university. The rest pays for research assistants, equipment and the like. And, said UNLV President Neal Smatresk, the latest in a line of UNLV presidents who want the university to focus more on research, there are other benefits, too.
"Maybe, just maybe, we're solving some real problems," he said.
Take Carl Reiber, a professor and the associate dean of the College of Sciences. Reiber is about to launch a research project studying zebrafish in such a way that it might, he hopes, lead to a treatment for children with a rare chromosomal disorder called Williams syndrome.
The potential practical benefits from that and other research also translates to the classroom. It keeps Reiber and his graduate assistants up on the latest developments in the field, which they bring into the classroom. The same goes for Nagamine.
He came to the United States for graduate school, studying at Princeton and Harvard universities before joining UNLV in 2006. He uses data gathered by astronomers all over the world. He feeds it into complicated computer programs, adds and subtracts a variable here and there, and tries to figure out how the universe ended up the way it is.
From the big bang onward, apparently random particles have gathered together to make everything that we know exists. And it's still going on. He tries to simulate a supernova -- that's an exploding star -- in his computer to see what happens. "We're basically trying to understand the origin of all the structures in the universe," he said. "Including us."
He figures he has three duties as a professor: teaching, research and other, which includes advising and lecturing outside the university. "It's a really time-demanding job," he said. But with the grant, he gets all those extra brains: the student researchers. That is the crux of why the university has been striving toward a more research-oriented approach.
Though Smatresk acknowledged that the goal is still a long way off, and that it may be delayed during the state's ongoing budget crisis, he said the university is making steady progress. Total external funding -- that's grants and contracts, largely -- topped $76 million last year, up almost 4 percent from the year before.
Smatresk said the university is trying to make "high impact" hires only right now, recruiting the kind of professors who not only will conduct great research, but who will enhance the university's reputation.
Imagine, he said, if UNLV were to become the major research institution its leaders have been working toward making it for the last decade. What then?
Why, more Ken Nagamines, of course.
”National Science Foundation grant has researcher seeing stars,” Rebel Yell, by Victoria Gonzalez, October 12, 2009
Physics and astronomy professor awarded grant
A year after winning a National Science Foundation grant to study the universe and its origins, a UNLV professor is still attempting to build a team to advance his research.
Kentaro Nagamine, assistant professor in the UNLV Department of Physics and astronomy, won a $450,000 award from the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences in 2008.
The funding, which will sustain Nagamine’s research for the next three years, has allowed Nagamine to hire a postdoctoral researcher. The funds will also support his graduate students and five undergraduate students.
“I was, of course, delighted and excited to hear about the award, because this award allows my research group to expand and enhance my research activity for the next three years,” he said.
Nagamine has focused his research on studying the formation of supermassive black holes and how they affect the formation of galaxies. He said that understanding how the supermassive black holes grew in our universe is a hot topic in astrophysics right now.
“Astronomers now believe that all galaxies host a supermassive black hole in their center and their evolution is closely correlated with the formation history of the host galaxy as well,” Nagamine said.
Nagamine’s research has been greeted by increased media attention as UNLV’s focus has shifts toward becoming a world-class research institution.
Wanda Taylor, interim dean for the college of sciences and professor of geoscience, said Nagamine is trying to learn the origins of the Earth, the sun, galaxies, supermassive black holes, exploding stars and space gases.
“He also focuses on how all those things came together to form other items, including the atoms in people,” Taylor said.
Nagamine earned the grant through his submission of a 15-page research proposal to the NSF, describing his research plan.
He had to include what the proposed budget of the project would be.
The proposal then went through a rigorous selection process by a panel of NSF scientists. Only one out of six or seven proposals are approved for funding each year.
Taylor said she believes that once the money has been fully allotted, student researchers will get hands-on practice.
She added that students would be provided with learning opportunities outside the classroom.
“Having Southern Nevada faculty and students engaged in this research makes both [faculty and students] better informed, science literate citizens,” said William Brown Jr., director of planning and communications for the college of sciences.
Brown also said better faculty members attract better students, just as improved students help universities attract and retain better faculty.
He added that successful research programs improve classroom teaching and instruction.
“The grant promotes the scientific excellence of the research carried out at UNLV,” Nagamine said.
“We are transforming into a real research university with forefront research going on, especially in the college of science.”
The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency, created by Congress in 1950 to promote science of all kinds, including computer science and social science.
The NSF is also the major source of federal funding for research in these types of fields.
Nagamine said he thinks his research is a great chance to make a significant contribution to science.
“It brings a special feeling,” Nagamine said, “when you think about the fact that you are contributing to the new knowledge of human beings about the universe that we live in.”
Alumni Profile, Dana X. Kerola, (B.S., Physics, 1973)
Dana X. Kerola (dkerola@netzero.com) received his B.S., 1973 (Physics, with Distinction) from UNLV and subsequently earned the M.A. in Astronomy from UCLA, (1975), and the Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences, from the University of Arizona, (1994). Until recently Dana worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an atmospheric scientist specializing in studying how light is transferred through the earth’s atmosphere. Dana is currently pursuing career options, as the author of books on popular science. During his tenure at JPL, Dana participated in two peer-reviewed papers, and one conference proceeding (as first author on each); validation of the LSpec (LED Spectrometer) test site using Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) Hyperion data; site analysis in preparation of on-orbit satellite sensor calibration at Railroad Valley (RRV), Nevada; and radiative transfer model simulations at RRV to intercompare with coincident overpass data from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer).
Dana is the author of a new book entitled Inside Out: Looking for Ourselves in Time and Space, a 2009 release from Cambridge Scholars Publishing (www.c-s-p.org). The publisher describes the work as, “…a new look at the age-old philosophical question of the “mind-body” duality. The author adeptly demonstrates that there is not really any conflict in the two seemingly opposing views. When it is realized that the universe is governed purely by physical laws, the supposed dichotomy dissolves. Inspired by his long-running exploration of the panorama of pop music, the author blends in references to song lyrics as he explains the ways in which the lives of human beings are inextricably tied to the larger, precedent world of planets, stars, and galaxies. His personal reflections on reality include topics ranging from the “epistemology” of satellite remote sensing, to fundamental discussions of anthropology, astronomy, and atmospheric science. He also offers thoughtful commentary on our quest to continue present and future space exploration as he forecasts what will become of the universe and us in the very distant future.”
Dana kindly took a few minutes to reflect upon his UNLV years and answer some questions about his career.
How did your childhood influence your educational pursuits?
Growing up in Henderson, Nevada, when the Las Vegas Valley was still reasonably unpopulated and the night sky was quite dark still, I took an interest in observing the heavens. My father bought me a 3-inch reflecting telescope when I was eleven years old. From there on, I fell in love with all things astronomical.
Why did you attend UNLV?
Upon receiving the Max. C. Fleischmann Foundation Scholarship as valedictorian at Basic High School in Henderson in 1969, I realized that I could readily begin my undergraduate studies in Physics at the up-and-coming new school named “University of Nevada, Las Vegas,” and continue to reside at home without traveling far away from family and friends.
What surprised you the most about UNLV?
I think I was most surprised and impressed by the quality of the faculty and teaching across the whole spectrum of liberal arts and sciences at UNLV, even back at that early time when the school was still so young.
Do you recall any memorable faculty members, fellow students, places on campus, events, or activities?
Yes, certainly I do. My primary academic advisor, throughout my 4 years of studying physics at UNLV was Professor Lon D. Spight. He helped foster UNLV’s initial curriculum direction in Astrophysics. Also, I recall the (then) newly erected Donald Moyer Student Union Building – and listening to John Lennon’s circa 1970 song “Instant Karma” [and all of the other unequaled rock ‘n roll of the time] on the juke box there during some occasions after classes were finished for the day.
How did UNLV prepare you for graduate education/career?
UNLV provided me with a sound, well-rounded undergraduate curriculum in mathematics and the physical sciences.
What advice would you give a student who is thinking about attending UNLV?
That whatever major area of study they are pursuing, they should maximize their use of the very good academic resources which the University of Nevada system provides.
What are your proudest accomplishments?
Fostered by my original attendance at UNLV, and studies of physics, I was able to fulfill my goal of becoming an astrophysicist and educator.
What are your future plans?
My primary goals now are to stay involved occupationally in areas of earth and space science, and to continue to expand my endeavors at popular science writing.
Any Other Thoughts?
I definitely care a lot about communicating to the general public the importance and impact that fields of study like astronomy and physics have in present day America. With that in mind, I am quite happy to see how UNLV is making great progress in a variety of exciting research directions which it is taking.
Staff Profile, Yuanxin Teng, Ph.D.
The College of Sciences houses a number of laboratories and research centers. One such operation, the Environmental Soil Analysis Laboratory (ESAL), recently relocated to the new Science and Engineering Building (SEB). Yuanxin Teng, Ph.D., serves as ESAL’s laboratory manager. He discussed the operations of the lab and his work at UNLV.
Q. Tell us about your family life and education. How long have you worked at UNLV?
I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Soil Science from Zhejiang University, China, and Ph.D. in Forest Soils from University of Toronto, Canada. I have worked as a lab manager since 1994, including two and one-half years at UNLV. I have two adult daughters who still live in Toronto, Canada, while I work at UNLV, so I travel a lot between the two cities. We all like Las Vegas’ all-year sunny climate, and the many fun places and natural wonders here, so I am hoping they can join me soon.
Q. What does your role as lab manager involve?
I was hired in the summer of 2007, as Dr. Brenda Buck established a new lab, the Environmental Soil Analytical Laboratory (ESAL) housed in the Geoscience Department. ESAL provides accurate, reliable, and prompt analysis of soil, sediment, and plant and water samples utilizing state-of-the-art equipment and technology. The lab serves research programs within UNLV and DRI and also engages with public and private clients in Nevada and the region. As a result the Lab is able to facilitate interactions between a diverse clientele of researchers.
My primary responsibility is to setup, operate, and manage the lab. I work to maximize the efficiency of laboratory resources and maintain the equipment in good condition, create and enforce quality control protocols, and coordinate the efforts of assistants, students, and other users. Since August 2009, ESAL has been housed in the new Science and Technology Building (SEB). The lab is now equipped with several new, sophisticated, and sensitive instruments that analyze the chemistry of water, soils, and plants. The staff can perform routine and special chemical, physical, and mineralogical analyses of soil and geological sediments, and chemical analyses of plant and water samples.
Equipment available in ESAL includes:
- Elementary Vario MAX CNS Elemental Analyzer
- Dionex ICS 3000 Ion Cheromatography
- Perkin Elmer Lambda 25 Spectrometer
- Retsch GMbH AS 200 Analytical Wet Sieving Set
- Eppendorf 5810 Centrifuge
The lab also houses the Milestone Ethos D Microwave Digestion system, a Malvern MS 2000 Laser Particle size analyzer, and a Perkin Elmer AA 400 Atomic Absorption Spectrometer.
My secondary responsibility is to train and supervise staff and students working in ESAL. Our staff includes lab assistants and students that range from the high school to the graduate student level. I also instruct staff in the proper and safe use of lab facilities. Most importantly, I show staff and students sophisticated, complex ways to prepare samples for analysis--all to ensure accurate and reliable results.
I also teach a course, Advanced Soil Analysis in Geoscience (GEOL-796), at the graduate level. The course emphasizes analyzing soils and sediments, and interpreting data for desert soil research programs.
Q. What is a typical day like for you?
I start usually before 7:30 a.m., checking the analysis results from instruments that have run overnight. I focus on quality control. I solve problems and work to ensure normal operation of instruments. I also order any chemicals and supplies needed. I then brief the lab crew for the day. Finally, I check all chemical reagents.
During the day I will review any new analysis results for validity, and send results to the clients. I also prepare invoices when projects are complete.
In the afternoon, I usually prepare samples for setting up analyses automatically performed by the instruments. My rounds include checking with and helping lab workers. An important duty is to ensure that the lab is clean and orderly, especially at the end of the day.
Q. What are you working on currently?
Our staff is currently working on the physical, chemical, and mineralogical analyses of soils and dust from Nellis Dunes Recreation Area, north of Las Vegas; U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) soil survey samples from multiple areas in Nevada; soil samples to assist with re-vegetation of mining areas in southern Nevada; and an extremely large set of samples from Dr. Scott Abella with the Public Lands Institute, who is studying regional vegetation.
Q. How do you balance working with all the different types of people who are involved in the lab?
Respect is the keyword. I am a coordinator among professionals and a supervisor of students. I provide guidance, advice, and assistance in the lab. I am really thankful to everybody who has worked with me, particularly during the relocation of the lab the SEB. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with everyone associated with the lab.
Left to right: Doug Merkler, U.S.D.A. Soil Scientist; Dr. Brenda Buck, Professor, Geoscience Department and ESAL Director; Amanda Williams, Ph.D. candidate, Geosicence Department; Praveen Raj, ESAL assistant, undergraduate student; Dr. Debbie Soukup, ESAL Associate Director; Dr. Yuanxin Teng, ESAL Manager; Colin Robins, Ph.D. candidate, Geoscience Department; Robert Davis, ESAL assistant, graduate of UNLV ; Dr. Dirk Goossens, Research Professor, Geoscience Department; Michelle Stropky, M.S. candidate with Dr. Rodney Metcalf, Geoscience Department.
Q. What’s the best part of your job? What’s the most challenging?
The best part of the job is being a lab manager. I not only interact with fascinating machines, but also with an interesting variety of people. It is fun knowing your toys and making new friends every day!
The most challenging part of my position occurs when we analyze some unusual samples that cannot be analyzed with standard methods. One example involves determining soil texture in soils with very high gypsum content—quite common in the Mojave Desert. I do enjoy developing new methods of analysis to meet new challenges.
Q. What safety issues are involved in your work?
Every laboratory requires the careful use of equipment and materials. In ESAL we use many strong acids and alkaline materials in sample treatments. Some reagents are also toxic. All staff members are required to take the lab-safety training provided by the Risk Management and Safety Department of UNLV.
Q. What would people be surprised to know about you?
I enjoy very modern music; my tastes are more like today’s undergraduates. And, I am happy to report that I am a grandpa!
The Chemistry Department has opened a Learning Center where students in 100 level classes and students enrolled in Organic Chemistry can meet with teaching assistants and their professors to obtain extra help or tutoring. Each teaching assistant in the Chemistry Department hold his or her office hours (1 hour for each lab taught) in the Learning Center, located in Room 109, Chemistry Building (CHE). This convenient location allows students, teaching assistants and faculty to meet and discuss individual questions on chemistry readings and assignments.
For the Fall 2009 semester, teaching assistants and faculty are available:
Monday (8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.)
Tuesday – Wednesday (9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
Thursday (9:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. and 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.)
Friday (8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
The UNLV Chemistry Club received an honorable mention award from the American Chemical Society for its many activities and programs. Among the highlights of Chemistry Club activities in recent month are the following:
- Organized and hosted the undergraduate program of the 2008 American Chemical Society Western Regional Meeting and a group of students also attended the ACS national meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah in March 2009.
- Participated in a number of community service events including Meals on Wheels, Relay for Life, and Mt. Charleston cleanup.
- Conducted chemistry demonstrations at West Prep, taught a cub scout science badge clinic, and promoted National Chemistry Week and Earth Day.
- Assisted with College of Sciences orientation activities for new students.
The Fall 2009 issue of UNLV Magazine includes reports on UNLV’s emerging Radiochemistry Program, under the leadership of associate professor Ken Czerwinski, and an article, “Yucca Mountain Fallout: Volcanologist’s Career, UNLV Programs Develop as Nuclear Waste Repository Battle Drug Out.” The article highlights the research activities of geoscience professor Gene Smith, recipient of the 2006 Harry Reid Silver State Research Award
On Friday, October 2, 2009, Professor Josh Bloom, UC Berkeley, offered a seminar, “Transients in the Wide-Field Synoptic Era.”
Abstract: The advent of precursor experiments to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Project herald a fundamental transition in time-domain astronomy: the data acquisition rates simply swamp the traditional capabilities of astronomers to perform and react to discoveries. New tools are required to abstract humans out of the real-time loop in order to extract novel science from such datastreams. I will discuss the some of scientific aims of the Palomar Transients Factory, the Synoptic All-Sky Infrared Survey (SASIR) and LSST, with a particular focus on rarities and synergies with gravity wave projects. I will also discuss our new NSF Cyber-enabled Discovery Initiative effort to build a computational framework, based in part on parallelized machine-learning algorithms, for classifying time-series data in the context of discovery and follow-up.
On Friday, October. 9, 2009, Dr. Robert Preece, University of Alabama Huntsville delivered a talk, “GRB Observations with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope.”
Abstract: After the first 14 months of operations, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has observed over 320 GRBs, including more than 10 by the ground-breaking Large Area Telescope. As with each new capability, the new observations are re-writing the book about what we thought we knew about GRBs as well as raising new questions. In particular, the joint spectroscopy from the two instruments, covering roughly 6 decades in energy, has revealed some remarkable surprises. In particular, there are some interesting limits that can be placed on the level of violation of Lorentz Invariance by high-energy photons.
On Friday, Oct. 16, 2009 at 3:30pm, BPB 21, Krzysztof Nalewajko, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center , Warsaw, Poland offered a seminar entitled, “Energy Dissipation Mechanisms in Blazars.”
Abstract: This talk explored the relevance of studying energy dissipation mechanisms for understanding the emission of blazars. The model of internal shocks has been proven to explain most of the observed activity in blazars. Recently, two phenomena have turned our attention to alternative models. A peculiar outburst of knot HST-1 in the jet of nearby galaxy M87 is most probably a manifestation of reconfinement shocks. The studies of typical length scales, dissipation efficiency and polarization of emission from reconfinement shocks are reported. Observations of fast TeV flares call for processes acting in magnetically dominated inner jet regions. A model of minijets, based on energy dissipation via magnetic reconnection, was presented.
On Friday, October 23, 2009, Dr. Vojin Joksimovich (retired nuclear energy consultant) offered a seminar, “"Nuclear Renaissance."
Abstract: The following subjects were specifically addressed: Sources of U.S. electricity, factors driving new construction, remarkable performance of 104 U.S. plants including life-extension, carbon-free U.S. electricity sources, economics of nuclear power, status of new U.S. plants, and availability of nuclear fuel. Obstacles addressed include: financing, nuclear waste management and political ones. Chemistry Seminar
On October 9, 2009, Joseph P. Hornak Magnetic Resonance Laboratory, RIT, Rochester, New York, offered a seminar, “Can MRI be Used to Find Buried Objects?”
Abstract: Since its introduction in the mid 1980s, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become the imaging modality of choice in clinical settings because of its excellent ability to image soft tissue. In geophysics, the leading geophysical sub-surface imaging technique for finding buried objects is ground penetrating radar (GPR). GPR fails in soils with a high water content and high conductivity, conditions in which MRI excels. Can the principles of MRI be used to build a device which can find buried objects? This talk explores this question by addressing three aspects of the problem: 1.) the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal from hydrated sands, 2.) unilateral (one sided) MRI instrumentation, and 3.) MRI fundamentals in soil.
The NMR signal from hydrated sand is governed by the spin-lattice and spin-spin relaxation rates (R1 and R2 respectively) of the water, as well as the water content. The R1 and R2 depend on the bound to bulk water ratio in the voids between the grains of sand as well as the relaxation rate of the bulk water and the surface relaxivity of the sand grains. R1 and R2 vary with applied magnetic field (Bo) and therefore should be measured at the Bo value of a proposed subsurface MRI system. Results from fully hydrated sands at BEarth will be presented.
Conventional NMR and MRI are performed by placing the sample in a homogeneous Bo and radio frequency (RF) magnetic fields. This is practical in NMRs used by chemist and MRIs used by clinicians. Sub-surface MRI will require the RF source and detection coil to be placed on the surface of the Earth. This is inherently a less sensitive configuration and subject to many problems. A possible design is for a unilateral MRI system presented.
Assuming appropriate signal conditions and the instrumentation limitations can be overcome, there is at least one other factor which must be addressed. Is the Bo and RF homogeneity of soil sufficient for sub-surface MRI? To answer this question, magnetic susceptibility variations were measured as a function of depth in a set of test wells. These values were used to simulate magnetic resonance images and the geometric distortion measured. The magnetic susceptibility was found to significantly limit the imaging options.
Scott W. Cowley, Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado offered a seminar entitled, “The History and Science of Laser Printers and Photocopiers & Research at CSM on Photoconducting Polymer Films.”
Abstract: Dr. Cowley, Associate Professor of Applied Chemistry and a member of the Material Science Faculty at the Colorado School of Mines will discuss the invention and development of electrophotography. He will explain how photocopiers and laser printers operate. And finally, he will discuss his involvement with IBM and Lexmark International in understanding the electrophotographic processes and associated problems, such as dark voltage decay (dV/dt), dot defects and carrier mix failure.
Electrophotography, the process used in laser printers, employs a multi-layered photoconducting (PC) film consisting of an aluminum ground plane coated with a barrier, charge generation, and charge transport layers. The surface PC film is charged to approximately -650 volts using a corona discharge. A latent image is generated by exposing the charged PC film to laser or reflected light. Toner is affixed to the remaining charged area and subsequently transferred and fixed onto paper to produce the final document.
Two research projects, that address problems associated with the electrophotography (Xerography) process, will be highlighted in this presentation. In dry climates, such as those experienced in the western United States, the print quality deteriorates with time. This process is referred to as dark voltage decay (dV/dt) and is caused by dehydration of the native oxide layer on the aluminum ground plane. A process was developed at the Colorado School of Mines which reduces the dark voltage decay and the dot defect problems. Treatment of the aluminum oxide layer with a phosphate salt solution displaces the weakly bound water associated with dark voltage decay and reduces defects in the oxide structure. Problems associated with carrier beads will also be presented and a description of how the use of analytical methods, such as AES, XPS, and SIMS were used to identify the problem and suggest a potential solution. This work was funded by IBM and Lexmark International.
On Friday October 23, 2009, Wei You, Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina offered a seminar, “Engineering Band Gap and Energy Levels of Conjugated Polymers for Organic Solar Cells.”
Abstract: The bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic photovoltaic cells of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (RR-P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) represent one of the most successful systems with reproducible efficiencies approaching 5% after careful optimization. However, with a fixed band gap of 1.9 eV, P3HT can only harvest a small portion of the solar spectrum (maximum 22.4%). In recent years, low band gap polymers for better light harvesting have been intensively pursued. I will review the current status of low band gap polymers. By balancing the open circuit voltage (Voc), the short circuit current (Jsc), and the fill factor (FF), I will summarize the design criteria for “ideal” polymers to be used in conjugation with PCBM to further improve the efficiency of BHJ photovoltaic devices. A library of novel polymers discovered in my lab with tunable band gap and HOMO/LUMO levels for BHJ organic photovoltaic cells will be discussed in detail to explain these design criteria. A design motif has been proposed, which successfully produced a few polymers that demonstrated close to 5% efficiency in BHJ devices. Detailed studies of these materials help elucidate the structure/properties relationships and provide insights into underlying fundamental transport mechanisms that are essential for intelligent exploration of future organic photovoltaic design.
On October 16, 2209, Manny Macatangay and colleagues from NV Energy, offered a seminar,” “Optimal Mix and Structure of Natural Gas Hedging Instruments.”
Abstract: They will present an approach to determine the mix and structure of financial instruments for hedging the cost of natural gas under a mechanistic hedging framework in accordance with pre-defined risk metrics and corporate financial constraints.
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