1. Organic Chemistry Faculty Research Interests

2. Prof. Deb Dillner Overview: NMR Spectroscopy and Collaboration with Professor Rehill (biology) on a project to isolate and identify tannins from oak leaves. Continuing projects: 1. Isolation and identification of tannins from Oak leaves (Midn. J. Mohamed) – Combines chromatography and NMR spectroscopy.

3. Prof. Deb Dillner Overview: NMR Spectroscopy and Collaboration with Professor Rehill (biology) on a project to isolate and identify tannins from oak leaves. Continuing projects: 2.Using NMR spectroscopy and Computational Modeling to Investigate Conformation and Chemical Shifts for Bicyclic Compounds. H2H2 H3H3 2

4. Prof. Jeff Fitzgerald Overview: Synthesis and understanding of nonlinear optical materials. Continuing projects: Tetraazaporphyrin / phthalocyanine hybrids for optical limiting. - Optical limiters are materials which transmit ambient light but are opaque to laser light. - Some Pb phthalocyanine complexes show good limiting but the analogous tetraazaporphyrin complexes are disappointing.

5. Prof. Jeff Fitzgerald Overview: Synthesis and understanding of nonlinear optical materials. Continuing projects: Tetraazaporphyrin / phthalocyanine hybrids for optical limiting. - Optical limiters are materials which transmit ambient light but are opaque to laser light. - Some Pb phthalocyanine complexes show good limiting but the analogous tetraazaporphyrin complexes are disappointing.

6. Prof. Jeff Fitzgerald Overview: Synthesis and understanding of nonlinear optical materials. Continuing projects: Tetraazaporphyrin / phthalocyanine hybrids for optical limiting. - Optical limiters are materials which transmit ambient light but are opaque to laser light. - Some Pb phthalocyanine complexes show good limiting but the analogous tetraazaporphyrin complexes are disappointing. - Alex Kriegel, ‘12, found a way to make and separate four hybrids of phthalocyanine and tetraazaporphyrins. Bz 3 TAP cis-Bz 2 TAPtrans-Bz 2 TAP BzTAP - I would like to study the optical limiting behavior of Alex’s hybrids in order to understand the structure required for effective optical limiting.

7. Assoc. Prof. Shirley Lin Overview: My background is in organometallic and supramolecular chemistry with a focus on polymers. My research interests are: A)developing new catalytic transformations (with Prof MacArthur and CDR Brown, USNA) B)synthesis of new functional materials C) chemical education (with Prof. Hartman, USNA) Project : tandem catalytic synthetic methodologies (fulfills biochemistry concentration) Hydrodehalogenation of ArCl and ArBrCyanation of ArCl K. A. Cannon, M. E. Geuther, C. K. Kelly, S. Lin, and A. H. R. MacArthur Organometallics 2011 30 (15), 4067-4073 M. M. Coughlin, C. K. Kelly, S. Lin, and A. H. R. MacArthur Organometallics 2013 32(12), 3537-3543

8. Prof. Joe Urban Overview: Computational chemistry/molecular modeling of organic and bioorganic compounds Projects: Molecular Modeling Studies of Model Peptide Mimics Computational chemistry techniques are being used to investigate the conformational properties of modified peptide compounds. The work involves using molecular modeling software (ex: Spartan) on local computers as well as remote DoD supercomputers. Current students: 1/C Mac Hastings I am taking new research students. Please contact me if you are interested. (urban@usna.edu)

9. Peptide Mimics by Modification of Peptides The mimics we study come from the modification of either the peptide bond that links amino acids in a natural peptide, or the amino acids themselves. We use molecular modeling to investigate how these modifications impact the structure and properties of the mimics in comparison to their natural peptide counterparts.

10. Professor Craig Whitaker Overview: My research areas focus on materials and polymer chemistry. Project: Smart hydrogels incorporating chemical agent markers and dye sensor molecules are being synthesized and characterized. The novel polymeric materials will use a chemical reaction to detect and destroy organophosphorus nerve agents (Sarin gas). The stimuli-responsive hydrogels will act as sensors when immersed in water supplies, used as filtering materials or as boundary layers in surgical masks. Current students: Ashley Gilliard (‘14), Allison Reitmayer (‘14) and Elaine Zhong (‘14)