UMass Boston

News

2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 

2017

  • The Chemistry Department at UMass Boston has hired a new Professor to expand the scope of green chemistry research conducted here. Professor Niya Sa integrates green chemistry with the fields of electrochemistry and analytical chemistry. She received her PhD in analytical chemistry from Indiana University-Bloomington. Afterward she did postdoctoral work in the Center for Electrical Energy Storage at Argonne National Laboratory (Sep. 2017)
  • The New England Scientists and Teachers for Sustainability (NESTS) received the 2017 Beacon Graduate Student Organization Award at UMass Boston. NESTS also cohosted a Green Chemistry Workshop in fall 2016 with Pfizer and NSYCC, which has been nominated for the “Outstanding Sustainability Activities Award” at the 19th Annual ChemLuminary Award Ceremony on August 22, 2017 in Washington DC. NESTS is a graduate student organization dedicated to the advancement of green chemistry and sustainable practices.
  • At the 254th ACS National Meeting in Washington DC, two UMass Boston chemistry graduate students, Ray Borg and Meredith Ward, organized a Presidential Symposium entitled “Chemistry in an Evolving Political Climate: Research Priorities and Career Pathways in Public Policy” (Aug. 2017)
  • Prof. Dowling received a three year, single PI grant for $445,367 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Insti­tutes of Health (NIH) to study the heterocyclization domain within non ribosomal peptide synthetases, which are responsible for making a family of natural products with potential as therapeutic compounds.
  • Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to give a talk at the 5th Symposium on Global Green Chemistry Centers (G2C2) in Melbourne, Australia (Aug. 2017)
  • Graduate student Raymond Borg was invited to speak at a special green chemistry symposium for the International Younger Chemists Union at the IUPAC 49th General Assembly Conference in São Paulo, Brazil. He presented NESTS to give a talk “Breaking Bad Chemistry Habits: Establishing A Green Chemistry Initiative” (July 2017)
  • Profs. Jason Evans, Wei Zhang and visiting professor Gagan Dhawan were invited to give green chemistry lectures to visiting undergraduate students from Kyung Hee University, South Korea. Profs. Jason Evans and Gagan Dhawan, and Jerry Gilligan gave lectures to students from Changzhou University, China (July 2017)
  • Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to give a summer mini-course one green chemistry at Shaanxi Normal University in China (July 2017)
  • During the summer trip in China, Prof. Wei Zhang gave several green chemistry and organic synthesis talks at Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Zhejiang Normal University, Juhua Group Corporation, Tianjin University, Renmin University of China, and Shaanxi Normal University (July, 2017)
  • Prof. Zhang was appointed as a guest professor at Zhejiang Normal University to conduct research and education on fluorine and green chemistry.  He was also appointed as an international collaborator at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry to conduct research on organofluorine chemistry (July 2017) 
  • PhD student Alex Muthengi received a travel grant from ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable to attend and give a talk at the 21st Annual Green Chemistry & Green Engineering Conference in Reston, Virginia (June 2017)
  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave an invited talk “Efficient and Greener Synthesis of Heterocyclic Molecules with Biological Interest” at the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute in Doylestown, Pennsylvania (March 2017), and a similar talk at the City University of New York, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York (May 2017)
  • The New England Scientists and Teachers for Sustainability (NESTS, formerly UMass Sustainable Scientists) is now a recognized professional association on the UMass Boston campus. 
  • The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineer­ing (AIMBE) has announced the pending induction of Rami Elhayek, PhD, director of research & discovery, Ocular Therapeutix Inc, to its College of Fellows. Dr. Elhayek was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows for pioneering work in bioresorbable hydrogels in medical devices and sustained drug delivery. Dr. Elhayek received his PhD in Green Chemistry from UMass Boston in 2008 and since then has served in the chemistry department as an adjunct professor, helping with the Analytical Chemistry Sequence. Dr. Elhayek will be inducted into the AIMBE on March 20, 2017.

2016​

  • Profs. Jason Evans and Wei Zhang were invited to give green chemistry lectures to visiting undergraduate students from Changzhou University, China (Nov. 2016).
  • During a trip to China, Prof. Zhang gave three green and medicinal chemistry related talks at Changzhou University, Changzhou Institute of Engineering and Technology, and Shanghai Institute of Technology (Nov. 2016).
  • Adjunct Prof. Berkeley Cue received the 2016 John Ziergiebel ‘73 Lifetime of Distinguished Leadership and Community Service Award from the Student Senate at UMass Boston, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Chemistry Department. 
  • Professor Neil Reilly received American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for a research on gas-phase spectroscopic detection and analysis of reactive hydrocarbons implicated in fossil fuel combustion and pyrolysis. 
  • Prof. Jonathan Rochford was invited to give two talks.  In June, he spoke at the 20th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Portland, OR on “Turning on the protonation-first pathway for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction;” and in October spoke at the Northeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Binghamton, NY on “Tuning the Catalytic Active Site of Mn(I) and Re(I) Polypyridyl Catalysts for CO2 Reduction.”
  • The Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale and the Center for Green Chemistry at University of Massachusetts Boston co-organized a one-day Green Chemistry Workshop “Innovation, Design, and Green Chemistry at UMB” on Sept. 18 at UMass Boston. Distinguished UMB alumni Drs. Paul Anastas, John Warner, Berkeley Cue, Amy Cannon, and Nicholas Anastas gave keynote speeches and participated in a panel discussion. Talks from academic, industrial, government, and NGO representatives and a poster session by local college students gave cutting edge green chemistry presentations. This workshop was held to celebrate 25th year of green chemistry and recognize important contribution from UMB and its alumni. It is also part of Yale/UMB collaboration on green chemistry.  Prior to this event, Yale hosted a 3-day Green Chemistry Workshop for UMB faculty and students.              
  • UMB graduate students Daniela Graf Stillfried, Anne Kokel, Miao Liu, Sumerya Gokalp, Syeda Akhter and undergraduate Marc Legris joined with Prof. Wei Zhang attended a 3-day Green Chemistry Workshop at the Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale from Aug. 31 to Sep. 2, 2016
  • UMB graduate students Ray Borg and Maria Kipreos hosted a symposium at the 252nd ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia titled, “Green Chemistry Innovations & Opportunities in Industry for Young Professionals” (Aug. 2016)
  • Prof. Rochford gave an invited talk at the 2016 ACS Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference symposium “CO2Utilization by Design: From Molecular Surfactants to Surface Chemistry” taking place on July 14th  titled “Turning on the protonation-first pathway for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction”(July 2016)
  • Prof. Jason Evans and Prof. Wei Zhang were invited to give green chemistry lectures to visiting undergraduate students from Kyung Hee University, South Korea (July 2016)
  • PhD student Shuai Liu received a travel grant to attend the symposium Innovations in Chemistry towards Sustainable Urban Living, May 11-13 in Univ. of Toronto.  The event is organized by the student group of Green Chemistry Initiative at Univ. of Toronto.  Shuai was also attended 2016 American Chemical Society Summer School on Green Chemistry & Sustainable Energy  at the Colorado School of Mines. (June 2016)
  • Ray Borg has been selected to attend 2016 American Chemical Society Summer School on Green Chemistry & Sustainable Energy in June at the Colorado School of Mines.  (June 2016)
  • PhD student Alex M. Muthengi received a travel grant to attend Chemistry Graduate Student Symposium at the University at Buffalo, May 16-18, 2016.  He presented a poster on the application of green organic synthesis for medicinal chemistry application.(May, 2016)
  • Dr. Hailemichael Yosief gave an invited talk on application of green synthetic methods for making new bromodomain inhibitors at the New England Regional SACNAS Conference in Boston.  Undergraduate students Chisom Udengwu and Jeremy Hyatt presented posters at the Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference at UMass Boston.  Both of their projects are related to atom economy synthesis. (April 2016) 
  • UMB hosted the 17 Annual Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference  (April 2016)
  • Dr. Buzz Cue received the 2016 John Ziergiebel '73 Lifetime of Distinguished Leadership and Community Service award. (April 2016)
  • Ken Tue Ngo, a PhD student working with Prof. Jonathan Rochford, has been selected to receive the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) award. Ken will spend 12 months working with staff scientist Dr. David C. Grills at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) on the project “Elucidation of CO2 Reduction Mechanisms by Pulse Radiolysis with Time-Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy”. The selection of Ken for the SCGSR award is in recognition of outstanding academic accomplishments and the merit of the SCGSR research proposal, and reflects his potential to advance his PhD studies and make important contributions to the mission of the DOE Office of Science.
  • Nicholas Lee was awarded a MS degree, his thesis title is: “Exploring Alternative Cobalt Redox Mediators and β-diketonate Non-innocence Ligands for Applications in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells"  
  • UMB graduate students have started a UMass Sustainable Scientists Group and have hosted two green chemistry trivia events during Spring 2016
  • Dr. Paul Anastas, the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Chair in Chemistry for the Environment at Yale University has been awarded the 2016 Royal Society of Green Chemistry Award
  • Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to give the opening-session plenary speaker at the 1st International Conference on Applied Chemistry at Hurghada, Egypt.  During the trip, he also visited Sohag University to give a seminar “Green Chemistry at UMass Boston” and another invited talk “Fluorous Technology for Medichem and Organocatalysis” at Weizmann Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel.(Feb. 2016)
  • Kenny Pham defended his master thesis "Synthesis of Fluorinated Compounds by One-Pot Reactions and Asymmetric Organocatalysis" in March 2016. Xin Huang defended his PhD thesis "Organocatalysis for Michael Addition-based Transformations Involving Fluorination and Other Asymmetric Reactions" .  Both of their works are focused on the development of new methods for atom- and pot-economic organic synthesis. (Feb. 2016)

2015

  • The Chemistry Department has an opening for a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Green Materials and/or Polymer Chemistry.
  • Profs. Berkeley Cue and Wei Zhang have been appointed to the International Advisory Board of the Drug Discovery & Therapy World Congress (DDTW) 2016. This is the third year they are serving on the board since they co-chaired a green chemistry session for DDTW in 2013.  
  • The UMass Boston ACS Chapter, advised by Prof. Jonathan Rochford, was certified for the Green Chemistry ACS Student Chapter for the third year running (Oct. 2015) 
  • The ASBMB Undergraduate Chapter, advised by Prof. Daniel Dowling, did an outreach event with local 8th graders at the Dever-McCormack Middle School that focused on photosynthesis, and understanding that CO2 is a greenhouse gas that gets converted to sugars, using model kits to build these molecules (Oct. 2015)
  • Prof. Berkeley Cue was an advisor to co-editors Peterson and Manley for their book recently published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, titled “Green Chemistry Strategies for Drug Discovery” (Oct. 2015)
  • Prof. Wei Zhang served as an organizing committee member for the 2nd Int. Conference on Past and Present Research Systems of Green Chemistry held in Orlando FL (Sep. 2015)
  • Prof. Wei Zhang received 2015 International Fluorous Technology Award at the Sixth International Symposium on Fluorous Technologies in Como, Italy. This award recognizes his contributions to the field of fluorous chemistry including applications in medicinal and green chemistry. He presented a plenary talk “Fluorous Technologies for Medicinal Chemistry and Organocatalysis” at the conference (Aug. 2015).
  • Prof. Zhang was invited by the editor of C&EN News to provide commentary on 2015 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards (C&EN News, Aug. 24, 2105, p32-35) 
  • The Center for Green Chemistry hosted the Third Annual Symposium and Workshop of the Global Green Chemistry Centres (G2C2) in Aug. 2015. Delegations from the ACS Green Chemistry Institute, University of York’s Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence (UK), and center directors from universities in US, Tanzania, UK, Brazil, Singapore, Nigeria, China and Mexica were attended. Guest speakers from the Royal Society of Chemistry, Green Chemistry and Commerce Council (GC3), Beyond Benign, Sigma Aldrich, Ely Lilly were also attended. This event is built on the success of the last two G2C2 meetings in Delhi (2013) and Cape Town (2014).  
  • At the Third G2C2 Symposium and Workshop held at UMass Boston in Aug. 2015, our faculty and graduate students made following presentations:

Invited talks:

- Prof. Berkeley Cue, “An Analysis of the Adoption of Green Chemistry by Big Pharma, Bio Pharma, and Generic Drug Sectors: Barriers, Perceived and Real, and Ways to Overcome Them”
- Prof. Wei Zhang, “Green Chemistry at UMass Boston" 

The following postdoc and graduate students made poster presentations:

- Liu, S.; Yosief, H.; McKeown, M. R.; Fu, H.; Buckley, D. L.; Justin, R. M.; Qi, J.; Bradner, J. B.; Zhang, W. “Biased Multicomponent Reactions to Develop Novel Bromodomain Inhibitors”
- Huang, X.; Pham, K.; Yi, W.-B.; Zhang, X.; Clamens, C.; Hyatt, J. H.; Jasinski, J. P.; Tayvah, U.; Zhang, W. “Recyclable Organocatalyst-promoted One-pot Asymmetric Synthesis of Spirooxindoles Bearing Multiple Stereogenic Centers”
- Zhang, X.; Zhi, S.; Wang, W.; Shuai, L.; Jasinski, J. P.; Zhang, W. “One-pot Double [3+2] Cycloadditions for Diastereoselective Synthesis of A Novel Triazolobenzodiazepine-Fused Polycyclic Skeleton” (received the Best Poster Award)

At the 250th ACS National Meeting in Boston, our faculty and graduate students made following green chemistry related presentations:

Talks:

- Rochford, J., Ngo, K. T., Narayanan, R. P., Mahanti, B., McKinnon, M. “Ligand cooperativity in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction by Mn(I) and Re(I) tricarbonyl complexes”
- Ngo, K. T., Narayanan, R. P., Mahanti, B., Reed, B., Groysman, S., Rochford, J. (oral) “Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 with manganese catalyst supported by pendant Bronsted-Lowry acid ligands”
- Lee, N. A., Ngo, K. T., Gilligan, G. E., Anzalone, Z., Lamberto, M., Rochford, J. “Photoelectrochemical characterization of non-innocent ligand ruthenium beta-diketonate complexes in dye-sensitized solar cells”
- Huang, X.; Yi, W.-B.; Zhang, W. “Asymmetric Synthesis of Organofluorine Compounds with Recyclable Fluorous Organocatalysts”
- Zhang, W.  “Green Synthesis of Diverse Heterocyclic Scaffolds”

Posters:

- Narayanan, R. P., Ngo, K. T., Reed, B., Groysman, S., Rochford, J. “Bis(aldimino)pyridine nickel complexes as electrocatalysts for the reduction of CO2”
- McKinnon, M., Ngo, K. T., Narayanan, R. P., Rochford, J. “Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction and redox non-innocence of Mn(I) tricarbonyl oxyquinolate complexes”
- Ngo, K. T., Mahanti, B., Lee, N. A., Rochford, J. “Photochemistry and redox non-innocence of electron rich fac-Re(I) tricarbonyl beta-diketonate and oxyquinolate complexes: A fundamental study toward the application of CO2 reduction”
- Lee, N. A., Ngo, K. T., Gilligan, G. E., Anzalone, Z., Lamberto, M., Rochford, J. “Photoelectrochemical characterization of ruthenium flavanoid complexes in a dye-sensitized solar cell”
- Gilligan, G. E., Lee, N. A., Bag, S., Rochford, J. “Structure-activity properties of curcuminoid ruthenium polypyridyl photosensitizers in dye sensitized solar cells”
- Qian, J.; Yi, W. Huang, Y.; Zhang, J.; Cai, C.; Zhang, W. “One-Pot Synthesis of 3,5-Disubstituted and Polysubstituted Phenols”
- Liu, S.; Yosief, H.; McKeown, M. R.; Fu, H.; Buckley, D. L.; Justin, R. M.; Qi, J.; Bradner, J. B.; Zhang, W. “Biased Multicomponent Reactions to Develop Novel Bromodomain Inhibitors”

Prof. Jonatan Rochford group presented following posters at the international conferences in July 2015:

- Ngo, K. T., Narayanan, R. P., Mahanti, B., McKinnon, M., Reed, B., Groysman, S., Rochford, J. “Non-innocent ligand redox-cooperativity in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction by manganese(I) and rhenium(I) oxyquinolate tricarbonyl complexes”. Organometallics Gordon Research Conference, Salve Regina, Newport, RI, USA
- Ngo, K. T., Lee, N. A., Rochford, J. (poster) “Exploring heteroatom variation & redox non-innocence in isothiocyanate free ruthenium(II) photosensitizers”. 21st International Symposium on the Photochemistry and Photophysics of Coordination Compounds, Krakow, Poland.
- Ngo, K. T., McKinnon, M., Narayanan, R. P., Rochford, J. (poster) “Non-innocent ligand redox co-operativity in CO2 reduction by manganese(I) and rhenium(I) oxyquinolate tricarbonyl complexes”. 21st International Symposium on the Photochemistry and Photophysics of Coordination Compounds, Krakow, Poland

UMass Boston graduate students Maria Kipreos and Ray Borg collaborated with National Presence Younger Chemist Committee member Wasiu Lawal to host a green chemistry symposium at the 250th ACS National Meeting in Boston. The symposium is titled “Careers for Young Professionals in Green Chemistry: Breaking Bad Chemistry Habits” (Aug. 2015)

Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to deliver the opening Plenary Lecture “Green Chemistry at UMass Boston” at the 5th International Conference for Young Chemists in Penang, Malaysia. The theme of this conference is Green Chemistry towards a Sustainable Tomorrow (Aug. 2015)

Prof. Berkeley Cue was a keynote speaker in the Pharmaceutical Green Chemistry session of the 19th Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference in North Bethesda, MD. His talk was “The ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable: A Perspective from One of Its Founders” (Jul. 2015) 

UMass Boston’s ACS Student Chapter has earned the Green Chemistry Chapter Award for the second year in a row.

UMass Boston will host the 3rd Workshop of the Global Green Chemistry Centres (G2C2) on Aug. 20-21, 2015. This event is co-organized by the University of York, ACS Green Chemistry Institute, and UMass Boston.

Faculty and student from our department will present following talks at the 250th ACS National Meeting in Boston, August 16-20, 2015. “CO2 reduction and utilization symposium” by Prof. Jonathan Rochford; “Green Synthesis of Diverse Heterocyclic Scaffolds” by Prof. Wei Zhang; and “Asymmetric Synthesis of Organofluorine Compounds with Recyclable Fluorous Organocatalysts” by Xin Huang (Prof. Zhang’s group.)

Graduate students Meaghan McKinnon and Sabrina Akhter were accepted to and will attend the ACS Summer School on Green Chemistry & Sustainable Energy at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado in July 2015.

Berkeley W. Cue will give the opening keynote talk at the 19th Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference in North Bethesda, MD on July 15th titled, "The ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable: A perspective from one of its founders."

Berkeley Cue and Prof. Wei Zhang are serving on the international advisory board of Drug Discovery & Therapy World Congress in Boston. The event will be held July 22-25 in Boston.

Prof. Wei Zhang gave an invited talk “Recyclable Organocatalysis for Organofluorination and Other Asymmetric Synthesis” at the Green Chemistry Session of Northeast Regional ACS Meeting, Ithaca College, NY in June 2015.

PhD student Shuai Liu received the travel scholarship to attend 2015 Green Chemistry Symposium organized by Green Chemistry Initiative at the University of Toronto in May 2015

As part of a series of Earth Day events in April organized by the Office for Sustainability at Harvard University, Prof. Zhang was invited to give a talk on green chemistry at the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department at Harvard on April 16, 2015.

Undergraduate students Anthony P. Tran and Jeremy H. Hyatt of Prof. Zhang’s group presented two posters on recyclable organocatalysts for asymmetric synthesis at the 21st Annual Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference at UMass Amherst on April 24, 2015.

At 2015 Northeastern Student Chemistry Research Conference and Career Symposium at Tufts University on April 18, 2015, Felix Nampanya of Hannah Sevian’s group presented a poster on a design of greener kinetics reaction for undergraduate chemistry laboratories. Xin Huang and Shuai Liu of Prof. Zhang’s group presented two posters on green organocatalysis and medicinal chemistry.  

Javier Reinoso of Hannah Sevian’s group presented a poster on the use of green indicators for undergraduate chemistry laboratories. This work was presented at SACNAS regional meeting at Boston College in March 2015.

ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable celebrates 10 years of achievements in Feb. 2015. UMass Boston alumni Berkeley Cue and Paul Anastas were highlighted in the video.

Jonathan Rochford gave a talk on “Metal ligand cooperativity in solar energy conversion and catalytic CO2 reduction” at Bridgewater State University, MA on Feb. 20, 2015.

The University of Massachusetts Boston was proud to announce the opening of the Integrated Sciences Complex on campus in early 2015. This state of the art building now houses many of our research and undergraduate teaching labs.

Center for Green Chemistry
Boston, MA 02125 USA
617.287.6147