1. Greg Lackner Marian High School December 14 th, 2011 Chemistry After Marian: What’s out there?

2. The most common question… “When am I EVER going to use this stuff?!”

3. Chemistry teaches us how to think  vs. Math, History, Biology  Concepts Calculations Ideas

4. An Education Road Map High School (foundations) College (general education) Graduate, Medical or Professional School (Specialization in one field) Industrial Scientist Teacher or Professor Doctor or Professional Occupation Industrial Scientist

5. Chemistry In College  Myth: “You won’t take it if you don’t major in chemistry”  Fact: Most people take at least some chemistry  Majors: Physical Therapy, Biology, Physics, Math, Psychology, Environmental Sciences, Recreation, Dietetics & Health,  All pre-medical, pre-dental, pre-optometry, pre-veterinary Wouldn’t you want your doctor to be smart?

6. College: General Education General Chemistry Organic Chemistry Inorganic Chemistry Physical Chemistry Analytical Chemistry Biological, Nuclear, etc.

7. College: General Education General Chemistry Orbitals Lewis Dot Structures

8. College: General Education Organic Chemistry Morphine (Starting Materials) Synthesis Reaction Design + + “Cross-Coupling” Ei-ichi Negishi, Purdue University Nobel Prize 2010

9. College: General Education Inorganic Chemistry Oxidation and reduction of metals 4Fe 2+ + O 2 4Fe 3+ + 2O 2- Hemoglobin: Needs iron to work! … Why is carbon monoxide so dangerous?

10. College: General Education Physical Chemistry Fuel Cells Alternative energy sources

11. College: General Education Analytical Chemistry Separation and purification Chemical identification

12. Undergraduate Research Ask professors about research in their “groups” (they love to talk about their own work) Start looking ~ sophomore year (websites, professors) (even if you don’t want to go to graduate school) Why do it? Nothing looks better on an application Smooth(er) sailing in graduate school Personal satisfaction, scholarships, etc. Graduate students Undergraduates

13. My Undergraduate Research Professor Michael VanNieuwenhze Pablo Garcia-Reynaga

14. Dispelling the stereotype

15. Background on Natural Products Pacific Yew tree 1967: US National Cancer Institute program makes a discovery…

16. Taxol Component in chemotherapy treatments for many cancers Problem: Need more than 1,000 trees to get a useable amount of taxol (Pacific Yew declared in danger of extinction in 2008) Solution: What if we could make taxol using chemistry?

17. Patellamide A Marine natural product -Found in sea sponge Lissoclinum patella Shown to kill leukemia cells in mice and to “disable” other cancer cells in humans

18. A disclaimer about cancer “cures” Problem: “Selectivity” “How do we make something that kills only the cancer cells while other leaving body cells unharmed?” No obvious answer – We need your help!

19. How we made Patellamide A “Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins” -How do animals (like us) make proteins? Ribosome stitches together amino acids to make proteins Ribosome Amino Acids

20. Patellamide A is 8 amino acids

21. Making Patellamide A Strategy: Buy amino acids from chemicals company Use chemical reactions to link amino acid chain together in appropriate order “biomimetic” Connect the ends of the chain to form the ring

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24. Graduate School in Chemistry YearDuties FirstTake classes, begin researching, teach SecondResearch, teach ThirdResearch FourthResearch FifthResearch Most programs are 5 year Ph.D. programs Application process is just like college Graduate schools pay you to be there

25. University of California, Irvine

26. Mechanisms Class How do molecules interact during a reaction? Why does it matter? Learning about reactions helps you come up with new ones!

27. Substitution Reaction CH 3 Br + NaOHCH 3 OH + NaBr CH 3 Br NaOH δ-δ- δ+δ+ + -

28. Spectroscopy Class Identification of unknown chemicals

29. Spectroscopy Problem

30. OH?

31. ? ? phenol

32. Last minute advice! Don’t force yourself to decide on an occupation while in high school! Take as many new classes as you can! Take physics in high school if you will see it in college!

33. Thank you for your attention! Questions?