Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference

Due to the Boston Bombing tragedy, and ongoing investigations city-wide, the 2013 NSCRC and CS have been cancelled

ABOUT

The Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC) is organized for students by students. It is devoted to the research of undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral chemistry students, providing an opportunity for students to share their work in a relaxing atmosphere. The day-long event features student poster and oral research presentations, awards, and catered lunch. The conference encourages students to network and get feedback from their peers. The 1st NSCRC was held April 24, 1999 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

PROGRAM BOOK

Download a PDF of the program book here!

POSTER GUIDELINES & DETAILS

To print your poster, visit our customised PhDPosters portal via the link here!

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR 2013 EVENT

The 15th Annual Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC) will be held at Boston University’s Department of Chemistry on Saturday April 20th, 2013.

In celebration of our 15th conference the YCC is “going green” with a special focus on green chemistry & energy conservation. We strongly encourage students with research in these fields to participate.

If you would like to attend the 2013 NSCRC, please fill out the registration form. Registration and participation is free, but you must register. If you wish to give a presentation at the conference, you must submit an abstract as well.

All abstracts are due by Friday, March 29th at 5:00 pm. The abstract template can be found on the registration page.

Awards will be presented for:

Awards for Oral presentations sponsored by Strem Chemicals
$300 Outstanding Oral presentation by an Undergraduate/Graduate student
$200 Excellent Oral presentation by an Undergraduate/Graduate student
Awards for Poster Presentations
$250 Overall Outstanding Poster Presentation sponsored by The Conditas Group
$200 Excellent Poster Presentation by a Graduate Student sponsored by The Conditas Group
$200 Excellent Poster Presentation by an Undergraduate student sponsored by the BUYCC/WIC
Specialized awards
$200 Graduate Women in Science Award
Phyllis A. Brauner Book Award

*Select winners will be additionally awarded registration fees to NERM 2013 to present their work & attend the awards dinner. This additional award is sponsored by the New Haven Section of the American Chemical Society
** All award recipients will be featured in the NUCLEUS

Keynote Speaker: John Warner, Ph. D

President, Chief Technology Officer, Board of Directors

Talk Title: “Green Chemistry: The Missing Elements”

Biography: John received his BS in Chemistry from UMASS Boston, and his PhD in Chemistry from Princeton University. After working at the Polaroid Corporation for nearly a decade, he then served as tenured full professor at UMASS Boston and Lowell (Chemistry and Plastics Engineering). In 2007 he founded the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, LLC (A research organization developing green chemistry technologies) where he serves as President and Chief Technology Officer, and Beyond Benign (a non-profit dedicated to sustainability and green chemistry education). He is one of the founders of the field of Green Chemistry, co-authoring the defining text Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice with Paul Anastas. He has published over 200 patents, papers and books. His recent work in the fields of semiconductor design, biodegradable plastics, personal care products, solar energy and polymeric photoresists are examples of how green chemistry principles can be immediately incorporated into commercially relevant applications. Warner received The 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Mentoring, the American Institute of Chemistry’s Northeast Division’s Distinguished Chemist of the Year for 2002 and the Council of Science Society President’s 2008 Leadership award. Warner was named by ICIS as one of the most influential people impacting the global chemical industries. In 2011 he was elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and named one of “25 Visionaries Changing the World” by Utne Reader.

SCHEDULE

Download a copy of the schedule here.

Time	Schedule
8:30 – 9:00 am	Registration – Life Science & Engineering building
9:00 am	Opening Remarks – Heidi Teng, PhD NSYCC Chair
9:10 am	Lawrence D. Ziegler, PhD – Boston University Department of Chemistry Chair
9:20 am	Bimetallic Nanostructures Compromising Rh for Electrochemical Energy Storages Casey Brodsky, Boston College
9:40 am	Atomic Scale Morphology of Catalytically Relevant PtCu Surface Alloys Felicia Lucci, Tufts University
10:00 am	The Determination of the Optimal Crosslink Density for the Durability of Acrylic-Titania Composite Photocatalytic Materials Bria Pelletier, Gordon College
10:20 am	Poster Session I & Coffee Break Metcalf Science Center
11:20 am	Supramolecular Hydrogels of Chemoattractants for Immunomodulation of Neutrophils In Vivo Fan Zhao, Brandeis University
11:40 pm	Mechanism of Transcriptional Bursting in Bacteria Shasha Chong, Harvard University
12:00 pm	Lunch Break
1:30 pm	Synthesis and device fabrication of robust organic semiconductors Jeremy Kintig, University of New Hampshire
1:50 pm	Multi-electron redox catalysis in Shewanella oneidensis cytochrome c nitrite reductase Evan T Judd, Boston University
2:10 pm	Poster Session II & Coffee Break Metcalf Science Center
3:10 pm	Synthesis and Evaluation of Hedgehog Signaling Inhibitors Based on Vitamin D3 Scaffold Upasana Banerjee, University of Connecticut
3:30 pm	Structure and Applications of Carboxylate-containing Poly-amido-saccharides Sarah Stidham, Boston University
3:50 pm	A split ligand for lanthanide binding: facile evaluation of dimerizing peptides Yue Zhao, Boston College
4:10 pm	Keynote Speaker: John Warner, PhD Warner-Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry
5:10 pm	Closing remarks & Award Ceremony

JUDGES

Penny Beuning, Ph. D (tentative)

Penny Beuning earned a B.A. in Chemistry from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in the field of RNA-protein interactions and RNA biochemistry. She completed postdoctoral research focused on the protein-protein interactions that regulate cellular responses to DNA damage at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), funded by a fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. Since 2006, she has been an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Northeastern University in Boston. Her research on DNA damage tolerance is funded by a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award, a Cottrell Scholar Award and an NSF CAREER Award. Prof. Beuning has been active in efforts to enhance the recruitment and retention of groups traditionally underrepresented in the sciences; she is currently the President of the Boston chapter of Graduate Women in Science.

Lauren Brown, Ph. D

Lauren Brown received her B.S. from the University of Southern California (2003) and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz (2009) working under Professor Joseph P. Konopelski. She performed postdoctoral studies with Professors Scott E. Schaus and John A. Porco, Jr. at the Center for Chemical Methodology and Library Development at Boston University. She is currently a Research Scientist at the CMLD, leading efforts in the center’s Analytical and Library Synthesis Cores. Her research interests include the discovery of new methodologies for library synthesis and medicinal chemistry related to biologically active compounds in the CMLD collection.

Kathy Chaurasiya

Kathy Chaurasiya is from Seattle, Washington, and she moved to Boston to attend Simmons College as a Centennial Scholar in the Honors Program. She graduated magna cum laude with her B.S. in Physics and Chemistry, and her honors thesis research used dynamic light scattering to study beta-amyloid aggregation. Kathy is a Ph.D. candidate in Biophysics at Northeastern University, in the single molecule laboratory of Mark Williams. She uses optical tweezers to investigate protein function by quantifying DNA-protein interactions. An IGERT fellowship supported this research and an internship with Gijs Wuite and Erwin Peterman at Vrije University in Amsterdam, where she combined optical tweezers with fluorescence to visualize individual proteins binding single-stranded DNA. She is planning to continue her research as a post-doctoral associate, focusing on HIV replication.

Jason Gavenonis, Ph. D

Jason Gavenonis is an NIH-IRACDA postdoctoral fellow at Tufts University, investigating new ways to inhibit protein-protein interactions in the laboratory of Joshua Kritzer. He received his PhD from Boston College in 2010, where, under the supervision of Marc Snapper, he made ruthenium-based olefin metathesis catalysts do things they weren’t originally designed to. His interests include transition-metal catalysis, peptide chemistry, and chemical education.

Sherryllene S. Pinnock, Ph. D

A native of St. Catherine, Jamaica, Pinnock earned her bachelor’s degree, with honors, in chemistry with education from the University of the West Indies (Mona campus). She joined Binghamton University (SUNY) in 2006 where she obtained her doctorate degree in materials chemistry in 2011. As a materials chemist, Pinnock studied photo-induced electron and energy transfer processes in polymer systems with specific research interests in polymer sensors.

She recently served as adjunct professor at Binghamton University (SUNY), Curry College and Worcester State University, and visiting professor at Framingham State University in 2012.

Pinnock has participated previously in the “Go Green Institute” which is an annual summer program that brings about 50 of the Southern Tier’s brightest middle-schoolers to the Binghamton campus for an intensive 10-day, hands-on exploration of science with a focus on a sustainable living environment. Pinnock spent the past 8 years of her life mentoring students involved in undergraduate and graduate research.

Jayashee Ranga, Ph. D

NSYCC

Northeastern Section Younger Chemists Committee