School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 41-50 of 55 Results
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Jennifer Schwartz Poehlmann
Senior Lecturer of Chemistry
BioReaching out to Stanford’s diverse body of students and beyond to share the excitement of scientific discovery has been a growing passion for Dr. Jennifer Schwartz Poehlmann. In addition to coordinating and co-teaching Stanford’s freshmen chemistry sequence, she takes a leadership role in developing training programs for teaching assistants and enhancing classroom and lab experiences for undergraduates, while also providing STEM learning opportunities for incoming freshmen and local high school students.
Jennifer Schwartz Poehlmann studied chemistry at Washington University in Saint Louis Missouri (A.B. 2002) before coming to Stanford University as a graduate student (Ph.D. 2008). Her thesis work under Prof. Edward Solomon addressed structural contributions to reactivity in active sites of non-heme di-iron enzymes, including ferritins. She joined the Stanford Center (now Vice Provost) for Teaching and Learning as a Teaching Fellow in 2008. In 2009, she became Lecturer and Introductory Course Coordinator for the Department of Chemistry, and in 2011 was promoted to Senior Lecturer. She has received multiple awards for her teaching and training work, including the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, Dean’s Award for Achievements in Teaching, Hoagland Award Fund for Innovations in Undergraduate Teaching, and Society of Latino Engineers and School of Engineering’s Professor of the Year Award.
Teaching
Dr. Schwartz coordinates and co-teaches the introductory course sequence of Chem31A, 31B, and 33 for about 450 students each year. She has also created a set of companion courses (Chem31A-C, 31B-C, and 33-C) designed to provide motivated students an opportunity to build stronger study habits and problem solving tools that help them persevere in the sciences regardless of prior science background. In parallel, she has been involved in the creation and teaching of the Leland Scholars Program, which facilitates the transition to college for incoming freshman intending to study in STEM or pre-health fields.
Instructor Training
Dr. Schwartz has always believed that well-prepared and enthusiastic teachers inspire and motivate learning, yet excellent teaching requires training, feedback, reflection and support. She has worked both within the department and more broadly to help ensure that teaching assistants throughout the university receive the training, practice and mentorship they need to grow and excel as educators. She previously directed the Department of Chemistry’s TA Training program and, with the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, co-founded and directs the Mentors in Teaching Program, MinT, which provides training and resources to teaching mentors from more than 15 departments on campus. Through MinT, advanced graduate students learn effective ways to mentor TAs, through mid-quarter feedback, classroom observation, establishment of teaching goals, and workshops that enable new TAs to better engage with students in the classroom.
Enhanced Learning Experiences
Dr. Schwartz has been heavily involved in the development of hands-on, guided-inquiry lab activities that are now fully integrated into lab/lecture courses throughout the introductory general and organic chemistry sequence. Through the “Inspiring Future Scientists in Chemistry” Outreach Program, she is also helping to bring the excitement of exploring real-world chemistry into local high schools. She works with local high school teachers to design lab experiences that reinforce and compliment the chemistry concepts in the California State curriculum. Stanford Chemistry students take these activities to local high schools, providing hundreds of students the opportunity to work with enthusiastic young scientists while getting hands-on experience in chemistry. The program aims to demonstrate how chemistry relates to the ‘real world’ and to promote an appreciation for both science and higher education. -
Edward I. Solomon
Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Photon Science
On Leave from 04/01/2024 To 06/30/2024Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProf. Solomon's work spans physical-inorganic, bioinorganic, and theoretical-inorganic chemistry, focusing on spectroscopic elucidation of the electronic structure of transition metal complexes and its contribution to reactivity. He has advanced our understanding of metal sites involved in electron transfer, copper sites involved in O2 binding, activation and reduction to water, structure/function correlations over non-heme iron enzymes, and correlation of biological to heterogeneous catalysis.
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Daniel Stack
Associate Professor of Chemistry
On Leave from 04/01/2024 To 06/30/2024BioResearch in the Stack group focuses on the mechanism of dioxygen activation and the subsequent oxidative reactivity with primarily copper complexes ligated by imidazoles or histamines. Specifically, the group is interested in substrate hydroxylations and full dioxygen reduction. The remarkable specificity and energy efficiency of metalloenzymes provide the inspiration for the work. Trapping and characterizing immediate species, primarily at low temperatures, provide key mechanistic insights especially through substrate reactivity along with spectroscopic and metrical correlation to DFT calculations. Our objective is to move these efficient enzymatic mechanisms into small synthetic complexes, not only to reproduce biological reactivity, but more importantly to move the oxidative mechanism beyond that possible in the protein matrix.
Daniel Stack was born, raised and attended college in Portland Oregon. He received his B.A. from Reed College in 1982 (Phi Beta Kappa), working with Professor Tom Dunne on weak nickel-pyrazine complexes. In Boston, he pursued his doctoral study in synthetic inorganic chemistry at Harvard University (Ph.D., 1988) with Professor R. H. Holm, investigating site-differentiated synthetic analogues of biological Fe4S4 cubanes. As an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor K. N. Raymond at the University of California at Berkeley, he worked on synthesizing new, higher iron affinity ligands similar to enterobactin, a bacterial iron sequestering agent. He started his independent career in 1991 at Stanford University primarily working on oxidation catalysis and dioxygen activation, and was promoted to an Associate Professor in 1998. His contributions to undergraduate education have been recognized at the University level on several occasions, including the Dinkelspiel Award for Outstanding Contribution to Undergraduate Education in 2003.
Areas of current focus include:
Copper Dioxygen Chemistry
Our current interests focus on stabilizing species formed in the reaction of dioxygen with Cu(I) complexes formed with biologically relevant imidazole or histamine ligation. Many multi-copper enzymes ligated in this manner are capable of impressive hydroxylation reactions, including oxidative depolymerization of cellulose, methane oxidation, and energy-efficient reduction of dioxygen to water. Oxygenation of such complexes at extreme solution temperatures (-125°C) yield transient Cu(III) containing complexes. As Cu(III) is currently uncharacterized in any biological enzyme, developing connections between the synthetic and biological realms is a major focus.
Surface Immobilization of Catalysts in Mesoporous Materials
In redox active biological metal sites, the ligation environment is coupled tightly to the functional chemistry. Yet, the metal sites are also site-isolated, creating species that may only have a transient existence in a homogeneous solution. Site isolation of synthetic complexes can be achieved synthetically by supporting the metal complex on a solid matrix. Movement of these complexes into silica based materials or onto electroactive carbon electrodes represent a new direction for the group in the development of bio-inspired metal-based catalysts. -
Alice Ting
Professor of Genetics, of Biology and, by courtesy, of Chemistry
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe develop chemogenetic and optogenetic technologies for probing and manipulating protein networks, cellular RNA, and the function of mitochondria and the mammalian brain. Our technologies draw from protein engineering, directed evolution, chemical biology, organic synthesis, high-resolution microscopy, genetics, and computational design.
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Barry Trost
Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Emeritus
BioBorn in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Barry Trost began his university training at the University of Pennsylvania (BA, 1962) and completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1965). He moved directly to the University of Wisconsin, where he was promoted to Professor of Chemistry and subsequently Vilas Research Professor. He joined the faculty at Stanford as Professor of Chemistry in 1987 and became Tamaki Professor of Humanities and Sciences in 1990. In addition to serving multiple visiting professorships, Professor Trost was presented with a Docteur honoris causa of the Université Claude-Bernard (Lyon I), France, and in 1997 a Doctor Scientiarum Honoris Causa of the Technion, Haifa, Israel. In recognition of his innovations and scholarship in the field of organic synthesis, Professor Trost has received the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, among many others. Professor Trost has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Chemical Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and served as Chairman of the NIH Medicinal Chemistry Study Section. He has held over 125 special university lectureships and presented over 270 Plenary Lectures at national and international meetings. He has published two books and over 950 scientific articles. He edited a major compendium entitled Comprehensive Organic Synthesis consisting of nine volumes and serves on the editorial board for Science of Synthesis and Reaxys.
The Trost Group’s research program revolves around the theme of synthesis, including target molecules with potential applications as novel catalysts, as well as antibiotic and antitumor therapies. The work comprises two major activities: 1) developing the tools, i.e., the reactions and reagents, and 2) creating the proper network of reactions to make complex targets readily available from simple starting materials.
Efforts to develop "chemists' enzymes" – non-peptidic transition metal based catalysts that can perform chemo-, regio-, diastereo-, and especially enantioselective reactions – focus close attention to the question of atom economy to minimize waste, energy, and consumption of raw materials.
Synthetic efficiency raises the question of metal catalyzed cycloadditions to rings other than six-membered. A general strategy is evolving for a "Diels-Alder" equivalent for formation of five, seven, nine, etc. membered carbo- and heterocyclic rings.
An exciting new direction derives from the molecular gymnastics acetylenes undergo in the presence of transition metals. Additional specific goals include cycloisomerization to virtually all types of ring sizes and systems with particularly versatile juxtaposition of functionality.
Palladium and ruthenium catalysts represent a major part of the lab's efforts, in order to invent new synthetic processes together with new opportunities for selectivity complementary to that obtained using other metal complexes. Main group chemistry, especially involving silicon, zinc, and sulfur, also offers many opportunities for new reaction design. Rational design of novel catalysts for asymmetric additions to carbonyl and imine groups are an exciting thrust.From these new synthetic tools evolve new synthetic strategies towards complex natural products. Targets include β-lactam antibiotics, ionophores, steroids and related compounds (e.g., Vitamin D metabolites), alkaloids, nucleosides, carbohydrates, and macrolide, terpenoid, and tetracyclic antitumor and antibiotic agents. -
Robert Waymouth
Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering
BioRobert Eckles Swain Professor in Chemistry Robert Waymouth investigates new catalytic strategies to create useful new molecules, including bioactive polymers, synthetic fuels, and sustainable plastics. In one such breakthrough, Professor Waymouth and Professor Wender developed a new class of gene delivery agents.
Born in 1960 in Warner Robins, Georgia, Robert Waymouth studied chemistry and mathematics at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia (B.S. and B.A., respectively, both summa cum laude, 1982). He developed an interest in synthetic and mechanistic organometallic chemistry during his doctoral studies in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology under Professor R.H. Grubbs (Ph.D., 1987). His postdoctoral research with Professor Piero Pino at the Institut fur Polymere, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, focused on catalytic hydrogenation with chiral metallocene catalysts. He joined the Stanford University faculty as assistant professor in 1988, becoming full professor in 1997 and in 2000 the Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry.
Today, the Waymouth Group applies mechanistic principles to develop new concepts in catalysis, with particular focus on the development of organometallic and organic catalysts for the synthesis of complex macromolecular architectures. In organometallic catalysis, the group devised a highly selective alcohol oxidation catalyst that selectively oxidizes unprotected polyols and carbohydrates to alpha-hyroxyketones. In collaboration with Dr. James Hedrick of IBM, we have developed a platform of highly active organic catalysts and continuous flow reactors that provide access to polymer architectures that are difficult to access by conventional approaches.
The Waymouth group has devised selective organocatalytic strategies for the synthesis of functional degradable polymers and oligomers that function as "molecular transporters" to deliver genes, drugs and probes into cells and live animals. These advances led to the joint discovery with the Wender group of a general, safe, and remarkably effective concept for RNA delivery based on a new class of synthetic cationic materials, Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters (CARTs). This technology has been shown to be effective for mRNA based cancer vaccines.
