CEM Announces Finalists for the 2007 MJ Collins Award
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CEM Corporation has announced the finalists for the 2007 MJ Collins Award. The award recognizes outstanding research by a student in the field of microwave chemistry and is open to undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral students attending academic institutions in the United States.
The winning student will receive a cash prize of $5,000 with matching funds presented to the student’s sponsor. The winner will be announced at the MJ Collins Award Reception on August 20, 2007 at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston, Massachusetts.
“The quality of research being conducted by the students nominated for this award has been remarkable,” commented Grace Vanier, PhD, Chair of the MJ Collins Award Committee. “It was very difficult to narrow the field to just four finalists and I would like to commend all of the nominees for their exceptional work in the field of microwave chemistry.”
The MJ Collins Award Committee received applications spanning a wide variety of areas of microwave research including various applications in organic synthesis, sample preparation, chemical biology, materials science, polymer technology, and nanotechnology. The first MJ Collins Award was presented in 2006 and interest in it has grown tremendously. The award committee received twice as many nominations for 2007 as for 2006.
The finalists for the 2007 MJ Collins Award are as follows:
• Matthew D. Bowman, (University of Connecticut: post-doctoral researcher) Sponsor: Professor Nicholas E. Leadbeater
Bowman’s microwave research has spanned both his graduate and post-graduate careers. His graduate research focused on the development of a combinatorial chemistry platform called SPOT-synthesis that utilized microwave energy to accelerate the synthesis of a variety of compounds. His post-graduate work focuses on the scale-up of microwave promoted reactions using both batch and continuous flow processing.
• Matthew D. Hill, (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Graduate student) Sponsor: Professor Mohammad Movassaghi
Hill’s research focuses on the development of new methodologies for the synthesis of azaheterocycles, and he has quickly discovered the advantages to using microwave energy to promote this chemistry. This methodology allows the synthesis of pyridine, quinoline, and pyrimidine derivatives from N -vinyl or N -aryl amides and p -nucleophiles under mild reaction conditions.
• Amanda L. Jones, (Boston University: Graduate student) Sponsor: Professor John Snyder
Jones’s research focuses on microwave-promoted transition metal catalyzed [2+2+2] cyclization reactions. Specifically, she has extended this methodology to the cyclization of diynes with enones to give cyclohexadiene products, an area of this chemistry largely unexplored prior to her research.
• Douglas D. Young, (North Carolina State University: Senior) Sponsor: Professor Alexander Deiters
Young’s research focuses on the development of solid supported microwave mediated [2+2+2] cyclotrimerizations. This methodology has led to the synthesis of libraries of compounds including pyridines used for phenotypic screens and azaanthracenes used as fluorescent dyes.
