chemistry

C. David Gutsche, professor emeritus of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Aug. 28, 2018, in Seattle. Gutsche was 97.

Joseph Kurz, professor emeritus of chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis, died Jan. 2, 2019, at Missouri Baptist Medical Center in St. Louis County. His health had declined over the past several years. Kurz was 85. 

2016 Nobel laureate Fraser Stoddart will deliver the Weissman Lecture Oct. 4 at Washington University in St. Louis. The lecture journeys into mechanical innovations realized during the early and mid-20th century and a new type of bonding in molecules consisting of mechanical linkages. It is free and open to the public.

The Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences recently received an Innovation Award from the Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association and Association of Public and Land-grant Universities in recognition of its outstanding program that improves research safety on campus.

A cross-disciplinary team of chemists and physicists in Arts & Sciences is building a better computer chip to improve detection and surveillance for the illegal transport of nuclear materials at U.S. borders. The work is part of a new, five-year, $10 million collaboration in low-energy nuclear science led by Texas A&M University.

Alexander Barnes, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been recognized with a 2018 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, recognizing his independent scholarship and deep commitment to education.

Bryce Sadtler, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award by the National Science Foundation. His grant, expected to total more than $610,000 over the next five years, is for research to identify the structural characteristics that make some catalysts better than others for harvesting energy from the sun.

Research from the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences advances the understanding of the chemical mechanisms involved with depositing rust and forming polymers, which will allow scientists to more easily manipulate and engineer the structures of the materials they make.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced Feb. 15 that Timothy A. Wencewicz, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded a 2018 Sloan Research Fellowship. He is among 126 outstanding U.S. and Canadian researchers selected as fellowship recipients this year.

Researchers have created a novel polymer that changes color and contracts when exposed to visible light. The tiny, makeshift muscle does some heavy lifting — relatively speaking.