Volume 7	May 2006
	M. Draganjac, Newsletter Editor

 

Faculty and Staff
Thank you
Alumni News
Department News
Other News
Scholarly Activity
Grants
Publications
Presentations
Student News
Society of Physics Students
Student Affiliates, American Chemical Society

Past issues:

Volume 1, January 2000 Issue	Volume 2, January 2001 Issue	Volume 3, January 2002 Issue
Volume 4, January 2003 Issue	Volume 5, January 2004 Issue	Volume 6, January 2005 Issue

Editor's Comments:

First let me say that this will be my last newsletter.  I have enjoyed reading about the successes of our alumni and I wish all of you continued success in your careers and in your lives.  Though I have received numerous favorable comments from former students, and would like to continue, the lack of support from the faculty just make it too difficult to continue.  I would like to thank Drs. Panigot, Zhang and Li for their continuous support and submitting their productivity.  Maybe it is a good thing that the faculty are too busy to send me their news items, as the department continues to grow in its research capacity.  We have hired a new chair, Dr. John Pratte, from Kennesaw State in Georgia, and look forward to his leadership.  With his background in Physics and education, we hope he takes our department to new heights.  Our faculty continue to receive grants and publish their research.  The number of students involved in both undergraduate and graduate studies has increased, and we are even hiring post-docs to aid in the research efforts.  Faculty with joint appointments with the Arkansas Biosciences Institute and our department continues to grow.  We have hired a new analytical chemists, Dr. Kelly Redeker and are in the process of hiring a protein chemist to work with ABI, and another physicist.  The department is as strong as it has ever been.  We hope to keep the department as one of the best in the state.

Susan Allen - Chemical Physics
William Burns - Physical Chemistry
Sam Cron - Environmental Science
Carolyn Dowling - Environmental Chemistry
Mark Draganjac - Inorganic Chemistry
Anne Grippo - Biochemistry
Robyn Hannigan - Environmental Chemistry and Geochemistry
Dawn Hefner - Instructor
Bruce Johnson - Biophysics, Condensed Matter Physics
Tillman Kennon - Science Education
Sergey Kudryasov - Chemical Physics
Maung Kyaw - Organic Chemistry
Bao-An Li - Nuclear Physics
Richard Lloyd - Physics
Argelia Lorence -
Julie Morrow - Geology
Jennifer Norris - Physical Science
Mike Panigot - Organic Chemistry
Kelly Redeker - Analytical
Scott Reeve - Chemical Physics
Andy Sustich - Nuclear Physics
Larry Weaver - Physics
William Wyatt - Physical Chemistry
Bin Zhang - Nuclear Physics

Mary Wright - Secretary
Ben Rougeau - Research Assistant/ Stockroom Manager
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Thank You

The  faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Physics would like to thank all of you that have contributed to the Department. With your continued support, we hope to continue to grow and improve the Department both academically and in our research capacity.
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Alumni News:
We would like to hear from you. Tell us what you are doing now and we'll include it in the newsletter. Also, please include your degree and the year that you graduated.  Write, call or e-mail us.

Department of Chemistry and Physics
P.O. Box 419
State University, AR 72467
Attn: Newsletter

Office:  (870) 972 -3272
Fax:  (870) 972 -3089

mdraganj@astate.edu

Alumni eGroup - where has the Alumni eGroup gone? There hasn't been much activity lately, maybe we are all busier.  Please let us hear from you.  Allen Goad is still running the group.  The web address is: http://www.egroups.com/group/ASU_Chemistry_Alumni

Others that sent letters or e-mails are:

Layla Bland recently finished her PhD in Organic Chemistry at Purdue University working with Dr. P. V. Ramachandran

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Department News:

Welcome: Dr. Argelia Lorence has joined us this year.  Dr. Lorence is working for ABI, and is part of our Department. Also welcome to Dr. Kelly Redeker.

Good luck:  to Drs. Kimberly Mace, Juliet Hahn and Rich Maiorino, who have moved on in their careers. Also good luck to Dr. Mike Panigot, who is serving as interim chair for the 2005 - 06 academic year, and to Dr. Robyn Hannigan, who has been appointed director of the Environmental Sciences program at ASU, as if she needed anything else to do with her already busy schedule.

Congratulations:  Dr. Robyn Hannigan has been awarded the 2005-06 Dean's Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award for Scholarship and Ms. Mary Wright was awarded the 2005-06 Dean's Distinguished Staff Achievement Award.

Promotion: Dr. Bin Zhang was promoted to Associate Professor of Physics with tenure last year.  A well deserved promotion I might add.

Hannigan & Dowling receive renewal grant: $434,000
Congratulations to Dr. Robyn Hannigan, Environmental Sciences, and Dr. Carolyn Dowling, Chemistry, for receiving a $434,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The five-year grant is a renewal and will continue the highly successful Research Internships in Science of the Environment (RISE). RISE provides summer research experiences in environmental sciences to under-represented minority and first-generation/low income undergraduate science majors from across the United States. RISE is designed specifically to meet the education needs of under-represented minority students with the primary goal of increasing the diversity of the science workforce.
 
 
 

Other news:
Dr. Tillman Kennon served as President of the Arkansas Science Teachers Association (ASTA).

Department Seminar Series:  The seminar series has been incorporated in to the Science Seminar series and the ACS seminars.  All of the seminars are open to the public.  Feel free to attend.

Molecular sciences Ph.D. program gets approval
The Higher Learning Commission has approved ASU's proposal for a new Ph.D. program in molecular biosciences.  The program will accept applications through Dec. 1, 2005 for those wish to start classes in the spring semester.  This will be a cross-disciplinary program emphasizing discovery in disciplines such as agriculture, medicine, forensics, environmental sciences, food sciences and renewable energy.  Dr. Tom Wheeler, program director, may be contacted at 972-3300.
 
 

Scholarly Activity:

During the past year, the Department of Chemistry and Physics has continued to publish articles in national/international journals and state/regional journals. In addition, scholarly presentations have been made at state, regional, national and international  meetings. Many of these papers have been presented by students who participated in the research. Our students have played an important role in the research and presentations of our Department. The department has also received funding from outside sources and may receive additional funding from grants which are now in review.  A listing of a few of our activities is found below:

Grants:  Several of the Faculty have received grants this year.  Funding helps support research and teaching efforts in the department.  Grants include:

 

	Bao-An Li, Probing the isospin-dependence of in-medium nuclear effective interactions at the Rare Isotope Accelerator, NSF $145,278 plus ASU match, Aug. 2005-Aug. 2008

Publications: The Department has been active in publishing their research.  The publications include:

 

	Kinetic formation of J/psi at RHIC, Bin Zhang and Donald Johnson, Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics 31 (2005) S297-S302.
	Charm elliptic flow in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, Bin Zhang, Lie-Wen Chen, and Che-Ming Ko, Physical Review C 72, 024906 (2005).
	Multiphase transport model for relativistic heavy-ion collisions, Zi-Wei Lin, Che-Ming Ko, Bao-An Li, Bin Zhang, and Subrata Pal, Physical Review C, 064901 (2005).
	Probing the isospin dependence of the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections with  radioactive beams, Bao-An Li, Pawel Danielewicz and William G. Lynch, Phys. Rev. C71, 054603 (2005).
	Nuclear matter symmetry energy and the neutron skin thickness of heavy nuclei, L.W. Chen, C.M. Ko and Bao-An Li, Phys. Rev. C72, 064309 (2005).
	Nucleon-nucleon cross sections in neutron-rich matter and isospin transport in heavy-ion reactions at intermediate energies, Bao-An Li and L.W. Chen, Phys. Rev. C72, 064611 (2005).
	High energy behavior of nuclear symmetry potential in asymmetric matter, L.W. Chen, C. M. Ko and Bao-An Li, Phys. Rev. C72, 064606 (2005).
	Isospin diffusion in heavy-ion collisions and the thickness of neutron-skin in 208Pb, Andrew W. Steiner and Bao-An Li, Phys. Rev. C72, 041601(R) (2005).
	Momentum and density dependence of isospin symmetry potential in asymmetric nuclear matter, W. Zuo, Ji-Yan Chen, Bao-An Li, P.Y Luo and U. Lombardo, High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics, Vol. 29, 885 (2005).
	Multiphase transport model for relativistic heavy-ion collisions, Zi-Wei Lin, Che Ming Ko, Bao-An Li, Bin Zhang and Subrata Pal, Phys. Rev. C72, 064901 (2005).
	Isovector part of nucleon effective mass in neutron-rich matter within the BHF approach, W. Zuo, L.G. Gao, Bao-An Li, U. Lombardo and C.W. Shen, Phys. Rev. C72, 014005 (2005).
	Several observables sensitive to the symmetry energy in heavy-ion collisions induced by  high energy radioactive beams, G.C. Yong, Bao-An Li and W. Zuo, Chinese Physics, Vol 14, No. 8, 1549-1553 (2005).
	Isospin dependence of nucleon emission and radial flow in heavy-ion collisions induced by high energy radioactive beams, Bao-An Li, G.C. Yong  and W. Zuo, Phys. Rev. C71, 044604 (2005).
	Probing stiffness of nuclear symmetry energy with isospin diffusion in heavy-ion collisions, L.W. Chen, C.M. Ko and Bao-An Li,  Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 32701 (2005).
	Correlation between symmetry energy and collective flow in heavy-ion collisions induced by high energy radioactive beams, G.C. Yong, Bao-An Li and W. Zuo, Chinese Physics Letters, 22, 2226-2229 (2005).
	Near-threshold pion production with radioactive beams, Bao-An Li, G.C. Yong and W. Zuo, Phys. Rev. C71, 014608 (2005).
	Pion probe of the nuclear equation of state of neutron-rich matter, G.C. Yong, Bao-An Li and W. Zuo,  High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics Vol. 29, 366 (2005).

Presentations: The faculty and students of the Department of Chemistry and Physics have made numerous presentations over the past year.  These include:
 
 

 

	Probing the QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) with collective flow, Bin Zhang, Mini-workshop on nuclear equation of state for nuclei, neutron starts, and supernovae, April 14, 2005, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, Arkansas
	Charm elliptic flow from A Multi-Phase Transport model, Bin Zhang, Lie-Wen Chen, and Che-Ming Ko, workshop on QCD theory and RHIC physics, June 21, 2005, Huazhong Normal University, Wuhan, China
	Charm collective at RHIC, Bin Zhang, Lie-Wen Chen, and Che-Ming Ko, Quark Matter 2005, the 18th international conference on nucleus-nucleus collisions, August 6, 2005, Budapest, Hungary
	Probing properties of sQGP with heavy flavor collective flow, Bin Zhang, Lie-Wen Chen, and Che-Ming Ko, seminar at China Institute of Atomic Energy, June 15, 2005, Beijing, China
	Quark-Gluon Plasma and relativistic heavy ion collisions, Bin Zhang, seminar at Department of Physics, University of Alabama in Huntsville, November 4, 2005, Huntsville, Alabama
	Understanding charm final state interactions via collective flow, Bin Zhang, Lie-Wen Chen, and Che-Ming Ko, The Gordon research conference on nuclear physics, Today's frontiers in nuclear physics, July 12, 2005, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
	Glycoside Dendrimers as Potential Chelating Agents. M. Draganjac, Bryanna Lies, 6th Meeting, Mid south Inorganic Chemists Association, Memphis, TN, March 5, 2005.
	Synthesis and metal binding ability of thioglycoside dendrimers. Michael J. Panigot, Audra Bowman, Jim Brands, Jessica Buck, Nick Folts, Sheffield Kent, Max Rand, Randi Sebourn, Stephani Shannon, Mark Draganjac, Nisana Andersen, Patrick Blankenship, Bradley Hyman, Bryanna Lies, and Brandon Perry, 229th ACS National Meeting, San Diego, CA, March 13 - 17, 2005.
	Potential Chelating Agents for Heavy Metals Detoxification from ETS. Bryanna Lies, M. Draganjac, 12th Annual Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference, Arkadelphia, AR, April 22  23, 2005.
	Synthesis and Metal Binding Ability of Thioglycoside Dendrimers. M. J. Panigot, A. Bowman, J. Brands, M. Cook, L. Heard, A. Johnson, S. Kent, M. Rand, R. Sebourn, S. Shannon, B. Sheridan, H. Singletary, B. Swink, M. Draganjac, P. Blankenship, B. Lies. Presented at the 39th National Organic Symposium, Salt Lake City, UT, 2005.
	Potential chelating agents for heavy metals detoxification from ETS. Bryanna Broadaway, Mark Draganjac, Michael J. Panigot, Jim Brands, Audra Bowman, Sheffield Kent, Lynn Heard, Max Rand, Randi Sebourn, Stephani Shannon, and Brandon Sheridan. 230th ACS National Meeting, Washington, D.C. August 28 - 31, 2005.
	To PP or not to PP?  Mark Draganjac. 8th Meeting, Mid south Inorganic Chemists Association, Little Rock, AR, March 11, 2006.
	Halloween ChemMagic Show at Arkansas State University: A new approach. Mark Draganjac, Bryanna Broadaway, Hunter Broadaway, Amanda Harvey, Teague Holmes, Sheffield Kent, Kevin Lyon, Tiffany Moss, Dean Murray, Max Rand, Carolyn Redman, Misty Thompson and Justin Yancey. 231st National ACS meeting, Atlanta, GA, March 26-28, 2006.
	Bao-An Li, Constraining the radii of neutron stars with terrestrial nuclear laboratory data,  Colloquium, Dec. 16, 2005, Cyclotron Institute, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA.
	Bao-An Li, Simulation as the third branch of science, One of the 2 panelists at the panel discussion on transport models for nuclear reactions,  International Workshop on Multifragmentation, Nov. 28-Dec. 2, 2005, Catania, Italy.
	Bao-An Li, Isospin dynamics in heavy-ion reaction, Invited review talk, International Workshop on Multifragmentation, Nov. 28-Dec. 2, 2005, Catania, Italy.
	Bao-An Li, Probing the Equation of State of Neutron Stars in Terrestrial Laboratories,  Colloquium, Nov. 4, 2005, NASA-NSSTC (National Space Science and Technology Center), Huntsville, Alabama, USA.
	Bao-An Li, Progress and future directions of nuclear reactions, Invited review talk, Users workshop of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Aug. 18-21, 2005, Michigan State University, USA.
	Bao-An Li, Incompressibility of neutron-Rich matter, Invited talk, International Workshop on Nuclear Incompressibility and Equation of State, Joint Institute of Nuclear Astrophysics, University of Notre Dame, July 13-16, 2005.
	Bao-An Li, EOS of neutron-rich matter and heavy-ion collisions, Seminar, July 8, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Shanghai, China.
	Bao-An Li, EOS of neutron-rich matter and heavy-ion collisions, 79th lecture of physics frontiers, Shanghai JiaoTung University, July 7, 2005, Shanghai, China.
	Bao-An Li, Transport theory for nuclear reactions,  Seminar, Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Lanzhou, China, July 5, 2005.
	Bao-An Li, Progress in isospin physics, Invited talk, International workshop on Hadron Physics, June 29-July 4, 2005, Lanzhou, China.
	Bao-An Li, Nuclear astrophysics and heavy-ion reactions,  Seminar,  June 28, 2005, Xian Jiao Tung University, Xian, China.
	Bao-An Li, Equation of State of neutron-rich matter, Session chair and Invited talk, International Summer School and Workshop on Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions, June 20-24, 2005, Wuhan, China.
	Bao-An Li, Determining the symmetry energy at high densities with high energy heavy-ion collisions, Invited review talk, International Workshop on Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions, May 25-29, 2005, Split, Croatia.
	Bao-An Li, Determining the symmetry energy at high densities with high energy heavy-ion collisions, Invited talk,  May 22-24, 2005, Gribov-75 Memorial Workshop on Quarks, Hadrons and Strong  Interactions, Budapest, Hungary.
	Bao-An Li, Probing the equation of state of neutron-rich matter with radioactive beams,  Selected contribution for oral presentation: Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics II, May 16-20, 2005, Debrecen, Hungary.
	Bao-An Li, Next Steps in determining the symmetry energy,  Organizer and discussion leader, Workshop on Nuclear Equation of State for Nuclei, Neutron Stars and  Supernovae, Arkansas State University, April 14, USA.
	Bao-An Li, Transport theory for nuclear reactions with radioactive beams, Invited talk, 2nd Argonne/MSU/INT/JINA Joint RIA Workshop, March 9-12, 2005, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
	Bao-An Li, Probing the equation of state of neutron-rich matter, Seminar, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Feb. 21, 2005, Livermore, California, USA.
	Bao-An Li, Overview of isospin physics, Session chair and invited review talk, World consensus initiatives in intermediate energy heavy-ion physics, Feb. 12-16, 2005, College Station, Texas, USA.
	Bao-An Li, Probing the equation of state of neutron-rich matter at RIA (Rare Isotope Accelerator), Session chair and invited speaker, Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, Feb. 5-12, 2005, Beaver Run Resort, Breckenridge, Colorado, USA.

Student News: Department awards for 2005-06 are: B.S. Chemistry - Bryanna Broadaway; B. A. Chemistry - Ray Bob Harrison; B.S.E. Chemistry - Carolyn Redman; B. S. Physics - Bret Young; Dr. Glenn D. Cooper Memorial Scholarship Recipient - Ryan Adkins; Dr. Earnest Lee Saunders Memorial Scholarship Recipient - Bradley Hyman; Dr. David M. Chittenden Chemistry Scholarship Recipient - Casey Robinson.

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Society of Physics Students: The ASU chapter of the Society of Physics Students was active this past year.  Highlights include funded trips to the National Center for Physical Acoustics at Ole Miss and an overnight trip to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.  The president of SPS for both this year and last is Mr. Bret Yount. Dr. Bruce Johnson is the faculty advisor to SPS. (870)972-3087 ext.262.

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Student Affiliates, American Chemical Society: Under Dr. Mark Draganjac, the ACS group received a Commendable Chapter Award from the National ACS for the 2004/05 academic year .  Congratulations to all who made the ACS group a success. Officers were Matt Whiteside and Jacob Walls (President), Bryanna Lies (Vice-President), Brad Hamilton (Secretary) and Randi Sebourn (Treasurer).    For more information, see the ACS Student Affiliate web page

Sheffield Kent, Jodi Burrows and Justin Yancey at the 231st National Meeting in Atlanta after the award ceremony.

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