A History of FIU Chemistry: US POSTAGE Department of ... · chemistry of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Pg. 1 • Did you know? Get the latest from the department. Pg. 2 • Chairman

Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryFLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

In this issue:

• We put the spotlight on

Alex Mebel, a computational

chemist who is modeling the

chemistry of Titan, Saturn’s

largest moon.

Pg. 1

• Did you know? Get the latest

from the department.

Pg. 2

• Chairman David Chatfield

brings us up to speed on the

changes in the department

over the past year.

Pg. 2

• Nuclear Chemistry heats

up at FIU.

Pg. 3

• Get the latest faculty news.

Pg. 3

• Find out what our alumni

are up to.

Pg. 4

• Dr. Len Keller continues his

series on the development of

the Chemistry Department at

FIU (1992 – 2001).

Pg. 5

The forensic research of an FIU team headed by Provost and

Executive Vice President, Kenneth G. Furton, has been published

in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B,

the oldest scientific journal in the English-speaking world.

The paper, titled “Advances in the use of odor as forensic

evidence through optimizing and standardizing instruments and

canines,” is based on an invited presentation made by Furton in

February of 2015 at a conference organized by the Royal Society.

The Society, founded in 1660, seeks to recognize, promote and

support excellence in science and to encourage the development

and use of science for the benefit of humanity. This is the first

time that forensic science has been a focus for the historic

fellowship of distinguished scientists.

“It’s an honor to have been invited and to be among the first forensic scientists to present to the Royal Society,” said

Furton, who also is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and a frequent expert witness in criminal cases. “It is

testament to the significant advances being made in the field of forensic sciences.”

Furton’s presented work focused on identifying trace amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that originate

from forensic specimens, such as drugs, explosives, live human scent and the scent of death. This trace evidence in

the form of VOCs has been used increasingly in criminal proceedings as it can indicate the presence of contraband

and can associate an individual to a particular location or object.

The paper is coauthored by Norma Iris Caraballo, Michelle M. Cerreta and Howard K. Holness.

The science of smell featured in Royal Society journal

Stay in TouchFIU Chemistry alums can be found all across

the globe making their degrees work for

them. Your FIU Department of Chemistry

would like to stay in touch. We love hearing

about where your degree has taken you!

Email us at [email protected] or call us at

305-348-2606 or connect via Facebook by

joining the FIU Chemistry Alumni Group. We

recently hit 200 members! Here you can find

out what your old classmates are up to and

you can let them know where your career

has taken you.

We now have a Chemistry Chapter of FIU

Alumni! Jeannette Perr, Ph.D. (2005) is the

President of the chapter. Look for us on

Facebook: Search “FIU Chemistry Alumni”

and ask to join!

Department of Chemistry and BiochemistrySchool of Integrated Science and HumanityCollege of Arts, Sciences & EducationFlorida International University11200 SW 8th Street, CP 304Miami, FL 33199

For more information about online programs offered by the College of Arts, Sciences & Education visit cas.fiu.edu.

For general information, visit fiu.eduFlorida International University is an Equal Opportunity/Access Employer and Institution

15906_07/16

Newsletter Spring 2016

chemistry.fiu.edu

The decade of the 1990’s was one of growth and maturation for the

FIU Chemistry Department. Although the department had finally

moved into its own building in 1991, settling into our new home was

fraught with construction issues that had to be addressed. We walked

into a number of labs where water was connected to gas lines, and sink

drains were not connected so that water ran out onto the floor, some

hoods were not properly vented, and there were many water leaks

behind walls. Additional lab furniture had to be purchased and installed.

But the worst problem was the noisiness of the hoods such that

instructors could not be heard in the teaching labs. It took a $1 million

fix to get the hoods working properly. There was also a serious acoustic

problem in the lecture hall (CP145) that had to be addressed by acoustic

engineers before it was resolved. The building withstood Hurricane

Andrew (1992) quite well, except for the new “pliable, rubberized” roof

having to be replaced with a conventional one.

Further growth in the chemistry program led to the hiring of thirteen new

faculty members during the 1990’s: Kevin O’Shea, 1991 (UCLA, Organic

Chemistry), William Cooper, 1992 (University of Miami, Environmental

Chemistry) (left FIU in 1997), Rudolf Jaffe, 1993 (Indiana University,

Environmental and Analytical Chemistry), David Becker, 1993 (MIT, Organic

Chemistry), Webe Kadima, 1993 (University of Alberta, Canada, Physical

Chemistry) (left FIU in 1998), Yiwei Deng, 1994 (Swiss Federal Institute

- ETH, Analytical Chemistry) (left FIU in 2001), David Chatfield, 1995

(University of Minnesota, Physical Chemistry), Yong Cai, 1997 (Nankai

University, China, Environmental and Analytical Chemistry), Stanislaw

Wnuk, 1997 (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, Organic

Chemistry), José Almirall, 1998 (University of Strathclyde, UK, Analytical

and Forensic Chemistry), Piero Gardinali, 1998 (Texas A&M University,

Analytical and Environmental Chemistry), Palmer Graves, 1998 (University

of Oklahoma, Chemical Education), and Kathleen Rein, 1998 (University of

Miami, Organic Chemistry).

Sadly, Professor Howard Moore passed away in 1994, and Laboratory

Manager Fred Hoover passed away in 1998.

In 1994, after thirteen years of service, Leonard Keller stepped down as

department chairman. Ramón López de la Vega became chair of chemistry

(1994-1997) followed by Ken Furton (1997-2001).

Growth and maturation were fueled by a number of things that were

taking place at the University during the 1990’s on a number of fronts –

all of which were interconnected: undergraduate courses and labs were

growing phenomenally as the University grew creating the need for more

faculty. With the addition of more full time faculty, research activity, external

grant funding, and publication increased; and with the need for more

undergraduate lab sections, there was a growing need for more graduate

student teaching assistants to teach those labs. By the end of the decade,

our graduate student population had grown to over thirty.

Forensic Science came to FIU within the Chemistry Department during the

late 1990’s where the International Forensic Research Institute (IFRI) was

founded by Ken Furton in 1997, and the Department began offering the MS

degree in Forensic Science in 1998.

A good deal of the decade was spent working toward and justifying the

approval of a Ph.D. degree in chemistry. It all came together in 1997 when

the program was approved by the Florida Board of Regents. The program

was to focus on two areas: biomedical chemistry and environmental

aspects of chemistry, being held together by the traditional areas of

analytical, organic, physical, inorganic, and biochemistry. The program

began with the modest enrollment of three students (compare this number

with our current graduate student population of 151!), and the first Ph.D.

degree in chemistry was awarded to Albert Sabucedo in 2001.

With the end of the decade, chemistry at FIU had finally started to mature

and would blossom with the coming of a new century.

The Chemistry and Physics building then and now.

Top: 1991. Bottom 2015.

NON PROFIT ORG

US POSTAGE

PAID

MIAMI FL

PERMIT NO 3675

A History of FIU Chemistry:1992-2001

This is the fourth installment in a series outlining the history of chemistry at Florida International University. Each segment will

be written by a Chemistry faculty member who has been part of the FIU chemistry story over the years.

by Leonard Keller

Continued on page 4

5

Story from FIU News.

Using theoretical calculations to understand chemical evolution in planetary atmospheres and the interstellar medium

Then

Now

Alexander M. Mebel

joined the Department

of Chemistry and

Biochemistry in 2003,

after spending 7 years

as a Research Fellow in

the Institute of Atomic

and Molecular Sciences

of Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He earned his PhD

in Physical Chemistry from the Russian Academy of

Sciences in Moscow in 1990.

The area of Mebel’s research is applications-oriented theoretical chemistry, i.e, computer simulations of the behavior of molecules based on ‘the first principles’ – the laws of quantum mechanics.

The calculations using powerful supercomputers are employed to investigate chemical and photochemical reactions relevant to combustion of fossil fuels, atmospheric chemistry of planets and moons in the Solar System, and astrochemistry. The theoretical computations provide the 3-D distribution of electrons in atoms and thus the overall energy level of a molecule and also reveal mechanisms of chemical reactions

FIU Nuclear and Radiochemistry program keeps growing

Dr. Sonia M

Underwood joined

the Department of

Chemistry and

Biochemistry at FIU in

January of 2016. Sonia received her

Ph.D. in Chemistry from Clemson

University focusing in the area of

chemistry education. She continued

at Clemson as a post-doctoral fellow

before working at Michigan State

University as a Research Associate.

In her current research, she

develops assessments to investigate

the effects of curricula changes,

how students connect structure-

property relationships, as well as

how students then apply their

chemistry knowledge to other

science courses.

Senior Lecturer

Dr. Uma Swamy

was recognized with

a Faculty Award

for Excellence in

Teaching, presented at the 50th

anniversary celebration of the Faculty

Convocation Awards in fall 2015.

Dr. Swamy was the first to use a

fully flipped classroom approach in

conjunction with active learning in a

large lecture setting in chemistry at FIU.

In addition to supervising the general

chemistry and Survey of Forensic

Science laboratories, she also serves

as an advisor to the FIU Chemical

Society (formerly the Chemistry Club)

and MEDLIFE and she oversees a

volunteer tutoring program called

CHEMPAL (Chemistry Peer

Assisted Learning).

Professor Kevin

O’Shea was

recognized with a

Faculty Award for

Excellence in

Research and Creative Activities,

presented at the 50th anniversary

celebration of the Faculty


Professor O’Shea joined the

Department of Chemistry at FIU in

1991. His research interests over the

past 25 years have centered on the

reactions of reactive oxygen species

with compounds of environmental

and biological significance. He is

recognized as a pioneer in the field

of environmental chemistry and is

considered an expert on

understanding the oxidative

transformation of toxins and

pollutants especially related to

innovative technologies for drinking

water purification. The O’Shea

research group has published — 120

peer-reviewed publications and given

— 300 conference papers and

invited talks. The majority of these

papers are published in the top tier

journals including Environmental

Science and Technology, the #1

ranked journal for environmental

sciences. One of his 2014 papers

was downloaded more than 20,000

times! This award recognizes

exceptional performance and

provides a one-time honorarium, an

engraved award, and an FIU medal.


Faculty News

I extend warm greetings to alumni,

students and friends and appreciate

your remaining in touch. It is with great

sadness that we report the passing

of Dr. Leonard Keller on Sunday, July

17. Lenny was one of FIU’s founding

faculty, having spent 44 years in this

institution. Our next newsletter will

feature a retrospective of Lenny’s

career at FIU.

This year, I will use my bully pulpit

to tell you about a few of our new

directions and programs – and ask you

to spread the word! Do you remember

your first course in chemistry? Struggling with a host of new concepts, from

atomic orbitals to titration to Lewis’s vs Brønsted’s definition of acids and

bases? Maybe you, like me, found it fascinating to knit these ideas together

into a new view of physical reality. Many, though, find it daunting. With the

front-and-center position of STEM education nation- and world-wide, FIU is

investing in new pedagogies to help students master science, and that means

doing research on effective science teaching and learning techniques. We

recently hired our first chemical education researcher, Dr. Sonia Underwood.

Her interests include the presentation of concepts that cut across the

disciplines of chemistry, biology and physics in ways that reinforce each other.

Help me welcome Dr. Underwood!

In Fall 2016 we will begin enrolling students in a brand new program, a B.S.

in Biochemistry. Many scientists hail the 21st century as the Biotech Century,

anticipating an explosive merging of computer and information technology

with advances in biochemistry and molecular biology like rapid sequencing

and gene editing techniques such as CRISPR. We are excited that our new

Biochemistry B.S., and our still young and growing Biochemistry Ph.D., will

prepare students for cutting-edge fields like biotechnology. Also coming on

line last year was our new Radiochemistry Track within the Chemistry Ph.D.

program. With connections to national labs, fellowships, and scholarships,

our students will learn about biosensor and therapeutics development based

on radionuclides, environmental remediation, and clean energy alternatives.

We are resourcing these new programs, with hiring underway as I write.

Stay posted!

On a personal note, I will be stepping down as chair this August. I have

enjoyed the eight years leading a growing department. So much change!

New buildings have sprung up, as have programs like the Biochemistry B.S.

and Ph.D. and the Environmental and Radiochemistry tracks. The faculty

size and student population have swelled. I am optimistic about the future

of the department and of FIU. As you will read elsewhere in this issue, Dr.

Yong Cai will be the new chair and, I am sure, lead the department with

very capable hands. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to a long overdue

sabbatical and to turning my efforts more energetically to teaching

and research.

These are just a few of the many developments in the department. We

invite you to come for a visit, see a former professor, attend a seminar,

visit our website chemistry.fiu.edu, or check out the alumni Facebook group

“FIU Chemistry Alumni” (ask to join!). We hope it is a banner year for you and

the department!

David Chatfield, Chair

Our Ph.D. Program

in Chemistry

has been ranked

number 11 among

183 Chemistry

Programs nationwide by PhD.org (http://www.phds.org/rankings/

chemistry). These rankings are based on Assessments by The National

Research Council and Surveys of Earned Doctorates, Postdoctorates and

Graduate Students carried out by the National Science Foundation, National

Institutes of Health and the National Center for Education Statistics.

A new degree, the Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, is being offered

by our department. We expect students who complete this degree to be in

high demand from pharmaceutical and other biotechnological industries. It

will initially accept students in the Fall of 2016.

FIU’s Biomolecular Sciences Institute brings together interdisciplinary

and distinguished experts from several departments within the College of

Arts, Sciences & Education, the College of Engineering & Computing, the

Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work and the Herbert

Wertheim College of Medicine. It has been enabling students to work

with a strong group of researchers on collaborative projects focusing

on biomacromolecular interactions, development and identification

of biomarkers, and the application of nanotechnology to infectious

diseases, cancer biology and neurodegenerative disorders.

Our own Professor Leonard Keller, a founding faculty member at FIU,

has been presented with a “Salutes to Excellence” award by the South

Florida Section of the American Chemical Society. It recognizes his

many contributions to the University, to his students and to the

Chemical Community.

Department elects new chair! After serving two

consecutive four-year terms as department chairman,

Dr. David Chatfield, is stepping down. Many thanks to

Dr. Chatfield for all of his efforts over the past eight years.

He has overseen significant growth of the department

including eight faculty and instructor hires, the implementation of

environmental and nuclear tracks within our Ph.D. program and the

approval of a new BS in Biochemistry. Dr. Yong Cai, an analytical chemist

who has been with the department for 18 years will take over as chair

in August of 2016.

Ross Harper ’05 Ph.D., Forensic Track, Professor Furton. Dr. Harper is a senior staff scientist in the explosives division ofICx Technologies, which develops and integrates advanced sensor technologies for homeland security, force protection, and commercial applications.

Yunping Xu, ’05 Ph.D., Environmental Chemistry, Professor Jaffe. Dr. Xu assumed a faculty position at the University of Peking, the most prestigious university in China after a two-year postdoctoral appointment in Canada.

Mr. Richard (Rick) Middleton Jr. ’08 B.S., Undergraduate research, Dr. Kavallieratos. After graduation, Rick served as a medic in Iraq. He is now a certified chemistry teacher at Piper High in Broward.

Dr. Monica Joshi ’10 Ph.D., Forensic Track, Dr. Almirall. Dr. Joshi is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Meilian Chen ’11 Ph.D., Dr. Jaffé. Meilian holds a post-doctoral position at the Department of Environment & Energy, Sejong University in Korea.

Mr. Jonathan Gabison ’12 B.S., Undergraduate research, Dr. Liu. Jonathan is a medical student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Dr. Wentian Wang ’12 Ph.D., Dr. Rein. Wentian holds a post-doctoral appointment at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Dr. Kevin Schneider ’13 Ph.D., Dr. DeCaprio. Kevin is a forensic toxicologist for the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Forensic Science. He conducts ante- and post-mortem analysis of drugs of abuse in human specimens.

Dr. Wenjun Jiang ’13 Ph.D., Dr. O’Shea. Wenjun is working in industry focused on water analyses in South Carolina where he lives with his wife and their new son.

Dr. Jessie Pulido ’14 Ph.D., Dr. Wnuk. Jessie accepted a full-time tenure track faculty position at Miami-Dade College. Jesse and his long-time girlfriend Jessica Zias (also one of Dr. Wnuk’s students) recently became engaged!

Karla Lorente ’14 B.S., Undergraduate Research, Dr. Liu. Karla is a medical student in Boston University School of Medicine.

Dr. Ryan Cassell ’14 Ph.D., Dr. Rein. Ryan recently accepted a full-time tenure track faculty position at the Wolfson Campus of Miami-Dade College.

Dr. Pablo Sacasa, B.A. ’97, M.S. ’03 Ph.D., 2010, Dr. Wnuk, now chair of the Department of Chemistry at Miami-Dade College North Campus, and his wife recently celebrated the birth of their daughter.

Alumni Notes

2 3 4

Letter from the chairman

Did You Know?

Continued from cover.

Ph.D. Program

Ranked #11

Within the last couple of years, team efforts from

the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department have

brought to FIU millions of dollars in research,

education, curriculum and faculty development

in Nuclear and Radiochemistry. FIU is now at the

forefront of this high-growth area with excellent

job prospects for our students including a new

Ph.D. track in Radiochemistry.

The Radiochemistry Ph.D. track is preparing

students with an interest in the broader

chemical aspects of nuclear and radiological

sciences. Graduates will have developed a

strong expertise in both applied radiological

sciences and chemistry, and will be able to find

employment in these very high-demand areas in

government, industry and academia.

Since 2012, the department nuclear team

efforts, led by Dr. Konstantinos Kavallieratos

have brought 8 contracts and grants to FIU,

7 of which are currently active, in excess of

$2.5M, from sources, such as the US Nuclear

Regulatory Commission, (NRC), the US Dept.

of Energy Environmental Management Program

(US-DOE-EM) and the US-DOE Nuclear Energy

University Programs (NEUP). This success

was a result of close collaboration with the

FIU Applied Research Center (ARC) and its

Executive Director Dr. Ines Triay, and Associate

Director Dr. Dave Roelant. More than $1 million

was awarded in July 2015 alone with 6 awards

from the last 6 proposals. Currently, $1.7

million is pending in submitted proposals.

Florida Power & Light Co. has supported

a seminar program that has brought 6

distinguished Nuclear Chemistry Speakers to FIU.

A new American Nuclear Society (ANS) Student

Chapter was established by the ANS President

Dr. Eugene Grecheck at FIU. U.S. Department of

Defense Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense

for Nuclear Matters, Dr. Vahid Majidi, visited

FIU to discuss funding opportunities related to

homeland security and nuclear forensics. Our

team also presented at the French Society for

Nuclear Energy meeting in Paris.

Our nuclear research efforts led by

Dr. Kavallieratos are funded by US-DOE (EM-

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions) to improve

the solvent extraction process for High-Level

Nuclear Waste by co-extracting Cesium

and Actinides. Our FIU Nuclear Research

Scholarships program has supported 21

undergraduate student research projects,

while our research fellowships program

supports currently 4 Ph.D. and 2 M.S. research

assistantships. Both programs have been

sponsored through 3 separate NRC grants.

In addition, a new $3M/7year cooperative

agreement between FIU and DOE-NEUP signed

in July 2015, allows FIU graduate students to

compete nationally for the prestigious DOE-

NEUP fellowship for up to three FIU spots, to be

awarded annually, and for scholarship spots for

undergraduate students.

Through an NRC Faculty Development grant

effort led by Dr. David Chatfield, FIU is now

attracting two world-class radiochemistry faculty

and is expanding its nuclear and radiochemistry

capabilities. With this rapid expansion in the

horizon, the next challenge for the nuclear

faculty group is to manage its extensive

resources, student tracking, recruiting and

engagement on research. We hope to introduce

you to our new nuclear faculty hires in our next

newsletter.

unraveling how various molecules interact with each other to form reaction intermediates and eventually different products.

Some of the most fascinating projects in Mebel’s lab are the studies of chemical processes in the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan, which are performed in close collaboration with several experimental groups in the US, France, and Taiwan. With NASA’s Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and its environs providing us, the closest view ever of a distant planetary system, we have learned that the great moon, Titan, is indeed like a dark reflection of Earth. Titan has long been thought to resemble a frozen primordial version of our home planet, and its atmosphere exhibits remarkable parallels to our own. It is dense, 1.4 bar at the surface, composed primarily nitrogen with a few percent methane and countless trace constituents but little oxygen. With a surface temperature of 90 K, there exists a “methanological cycle” analogous to the hydrological cycle on earth, that gives rise to methane clouds and rain. There is a tropopause at 75 K and a stratosphere that is considerably warmer owing to absorption of solar radiation by dense haze layers playing the role of ozone on Earth. This complex haze has completely obscured the surface until the recent infrared and radar imaging from Cassini, the more limited terrestrial observations in the infrared, and the visible imaging directly from the surface by the Huygens probe.

Mebel’s theoretical calculations together with experiments carried out by an international team of scientists confirmed a key chemical reaction that forms the molecule triacetylene in the ultra-cold atmosphere of Titan. Since Titan’s current atmosphere is thought to resemble Earth’s early atmosphere, the researchers’ study suggested triacetylene may have been formed in Earth’s early atmosphere and offered clues to the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere before the development of life some 3.5 billion years ago. Triacetylene is member of the polyyne family of compounds. Polyynes are

thought to serve as an ultraviolet radiation shields in planetary environments, thus acting as prebiotic ozone, and as important components of the orange-colored and aerosol based haze shrouding Titan. The studies revealed that the transformation of acetylene and diacetylene to polyacetylenes such as triacetylene likely present one of the most fundamental steps in the evolution of planetary atmospheres. Triacetylene can be formed by a single collision of a “radical” ethynyl molecule and a diacetylene molecule. Ethynyl is produced in Titan’s atmosphere by the photodissociation of acetylene by ultraviolet light. Mebel’s group combined the experimental results with theoretical computations of the reaction of ethynyl and diacetylene and the computations confirmed that triacetylene may be formed from the reaction of a single radical ethynyl molecule colliding with diacetylene and the existence of three transient intermediate molecules. Most importantly, since the temperature of Titan’s atmosphere ranges from -99 F to -290 F, which necessitates that these chemical reactions release energy, Mebel’s computations confirmed that the formation of triacetylene should be exothermic. These results were used to develop advanced photochemical models of Titan’s atmosphere and the models suggested that triacetylene may serve as a building block to form more complex and longer polyynes and produce potential precursors for the aerosol-based layers of haze surrounding Titan.

In another study, Mebel, together with an international team of scientists, discovered a novel chemical route to form polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) — complex organic molecules such as naphthalene — in ultra-cold regions of interstellar space. These findings have important implications for the synthetic routes to a key class of organic molecules in the interstellar medium associated with the origins of life. PAHs have been dubbed as the ‘cradle of life’ in the interstellar medium and are considered key players in the astrobiological evolution. Functionalized PAHs were found in organic extracts from the Murchison meteorite and form membrane-like boundary, or rudimentary cell type structures, which are a pre-requisite to the origin of life. Mebel and his collaborators showed that naphthalene can be formed as a consequence of a single collision event via a barrier-less and exoergic reaction between the phenyl radical and vinylacetylene. The computations indicate that the reaction has no ‘activation energy’ a finding that challenges the conventional view that PAH can only be formed at high temperatures and implies that low temperature chemistry can initiate the PAH synthesis in cold planetary atmospheres like that of Titan.


Dr. Sonia M

Underwood joined

the Department of

Chemistry and
















science courses.

Senior Lecturer

Dr. Uma Swamy

was recognized with

a Faculty Award

for Excellence in
















Assisted Learning).

Professor Kevin

O’Shea was

recognized with a

Faculty Award for

Excellence in



































Faculty News










career at FIU.




























Stay posted!










and research.





the department!


Our Ph.D. Program

in Chemistry

has been ranked

number 11 among

183 Chemistry























Chemical Community.










in August of 2016.














Alumni Notes

2 3 4


Did You Know?


Ph.D. Program

Ranked #11










































































newsletter.







Dr. Sonia M

Underwood joined

the Department of

Chemistry and
















science courses.

Senior Lecturer

Dr. Uma Swamy

was recognized with

a Faculty Award

for Excellence in
















Assisted Learning).

Professor Kevin

O’Shea was

recognized with a

Faculty Award for

Excellence in



































Faculty News










career at FIU.




























Stay posted!










and research.





the department!


Our Ph.D. Program

in Chemistry

has been ranked

number 11 among

183 Chemistry























Chemical Community.










in August of 2016.














Alumni Notes

2 3 4


Did You Know?


Ph.D. Program

Ranked #11










































































newsletter.







In this issue:





largest moon.

Pg. 1



Pg. 2




over the past year.

Pg. 2


up at FIU.

Pg. 3


Pg. 3


are up to.

Pg. 4




FIU (1992 – 2001).

Pg. 5


































has taken you.





and ask to join!




15906_07/16


chemistry.fiu.edu






























































Top: 1991. Bottom 2015.

NON PROFIT ORG

US POSTAGE

PAID

MIAMI FL

PERMIT NO 3675




by Leonard Keller

Continued on page 4

5



Then

Now

Alexander M. Mebel


of Chemistry and












In this issue:





largest moon.

Pg. 1



Pg. 2




over the past year.

Pg. 2


up at FIU.

Pg. 3


Pg. 3


are up to.

Pg. 4




FIU (1992 – 2001).

Pg. 5


































has taken you.





and ask to join!




15906_07/16


chemistry.fiu.edu






























































Top: 1991. Bottom 2015.

NON PROFIT ORG

US POSTAGE

PAID

MIAMI FL

PERMIT NO 3675




by Leonard Keller

Continued on page 4

5



Then

Now

Alexander M. Mebel


of Chemistry and











Documents

A History of FIU Chemistry: US POSTAGE Department of ... · chemistry of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Pg. 1 • Did you know? Get the latest from the department. Pg. 2 • Chairman