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Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky, Spring 1998
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRPERSON, The Department was also very successful in its last recruiting
efforts in which our top two candidates have accepted the positions
BOYD E- HALEY offered. Dr. Dong-Sheng Yang, a physical chemist, will enhance our
. a, 4:“; As i sat pondering an introductory line that Phyéica' chemistry program and comes to US from Canada as an
.52: , %:% would reflect the energy, enthusiasm and suc— assrstant professor. Our second hire was atthe assocrate professor
rfifl cess of the current Department of Chemistry, level and represents a strong addition to our inorganic chemistry pro-
- 2 159/ w l was reminded about the recent advertise- gram. :rof. David Atwood brings an impressive set of teaching and
‘ -. . .. - - . . researc credentials and a well-funded research program. These
T 8:12:32“? ”Stgthetgthégs 5:“; filigihhzgf are notable young scientists but most impressive was the major rea-
{21' ' .. g ence in pursuit of new kn,owledge, must con- son they gave forchoosing our Department. It was not our resources,
, , «.5 tinually change its focus to remain on the cut- the equipment, or the quality of our facilities. instead, it was our
, ‘ . , ting edge. The intent of this message is to tell faculty that Impressed them most. 'The collegial atmosphere of the
'~ r" * our alumni that, while the faculty in the De- Department is what i alsoconsrder its strongest point, and this is not
partment of Chemistry have changed considerably, you will still find a new development. If the, had not exrsted before I WOUId not have
us a very friendly, congenial department and we would encourage consrdered taking the posrtion of Chair. Both current and past faculty
you to visit or get back in touch with us. You will find that the Depart- Of the Department should take pride 'h,the attitude they have fos-
ment has been keeping pace with modern teaching and research. 1 tered that makes th'e Department specral and unique. However, I
think you will be quite proud of the current Department and its ac— would be remiss if I did not pornt out that provrding Significant start-up
complishments within the academic teaching and research programs funds andrecent help wrth major equipment purchases from the up-
made possible by the efforts of both present and past faculty. per administration was also a key factor in our ability to attract such

Recently, the normal turnover of faculty due to retirements has outstanding faculty. , ,
required the replacement of four positions. In a scenario that will A recent charge to the Unrversrty 0f Kentucky from the 9°Yem°r
repeat itself over the next few years, there will be other replacements Of the state 'S to become a "toptwenty" public research 'hShtUtIOh by
due to retirements. On the downside, this represents a loss of expe- the year 2020' Th'3 led to an internal revrew 0f many departments
rienced, high-quality faculty who have served the Department well and programs to identify those that had the potential to achieve na-
for many years; their contributions will be greatly missed. On the tronai prominence 'f they were Q'Veh additional support. The Depart-
positive side, it allows the Department to change focus. As an older ment 0f Chemistry (he Yew well 'h the revrew as we the Materials
faculty member myself, i recognize the advantages of youth and re- Scrence Program, which includes several of ourfaculty. In other places
cent training. Several factors such as the combined computer as- 'h th's newsletter you Will see that our faculty are very well funded
sisted molecular modeling of compounds and data reduction param- and have received numerous national and local honors. The Depart-
eters from NMR, mass spectrometry, IR, X-ray crystallography, etc. ment has. done very well With the resources it has been provrded.
are h an di ed totally differently than just a few years ago. I was raised Because it takes resources to attract the best graduate students and
using a slide rule. Our younger faculty were raised with computers new faculty, I hope, as do all Of our faculty, that the Commonwealth 0f
and, thus, represent a new era in using powerful computer technol- Kentucky follows through and provides the resources necessary to
ogy to enhance chemical experimentation. The Department can be take our Department, and the entire Universrty, to a greater promi-
proud of its young professors, many of whom have already received nence. The future quality Of a Department '8 directly dependent on
external grants and prestigious awards. the quality of the new faculty and students.

Recently, the relatively new field of fullerene, or Buckyball, chem- The generosrty Of the alumni and others, as represented by COIO'
istry, has emerged as a major research area of extreme importance nel Sidney Behrman, has allowed the Department to recrurt better
in materials science. With the advent of molecular biology and mo- graduate students. This past fall, Drs. Selegue and Brock introduced
lecular modeling, chemistry has found an important role in such di- an outstanding group 0f new graduate students to the Department.
verse biomedical research areas as computer assisted drug design These students were recrurted as a result of their tireless efforts and
and the combination of chemistry with molecular biology/biochemis- funds made available by the Behrman Fuhd’ a Universrty endow-
try to develop medical treatments and diagnostic tests not possible ment account founded by e very generous gift fromColonei Behrman
before. This represents a research intensive area called biological for the purpose 0f enhancing graduate education 'h the Department
chemistry, and its importance is acknowledged by the American of Chemistry. When one iS in the posrtron of chairofadepartment, a
Chemical Society in requiring introductory courses in this area for all _ ..
future accreditation. it is these two areas, materials science and ' Rule “'"F'be' 129 m the 1883-84 An-
biological chemistry, that the faculty of the Department of Chemistry nual Register Of Stete College 9f Ke'n-
have chosen to enhance. The recent hiring of Robert Haddon, an 1 tucky (cor responding to our Universrty
internationally recognized scientist from Lucent Technologies, repre- 6;, Catalog) says: Students are forbidden
sents a major addition to the materials science program, has greatly to take or have 'h the" quarters any
strengthened the area of fullerene chemistry, and has led to signifi- newspapers or other periodical publications wrthout spe-
cant external funding. My appointment in the Department brings cral permissron from the Presrdent. They are also forbid-
additional expertise to an already very strong biological chemistry den to keep .'h the” rooms any books except tethOOKS’
group that is well funded by grants from NIH, NSF, DOE, and other W'thOUt specral permissron from the Presrdent."
external sources.