Volume 12 Winter 1998 No. 1
Publisher: Department of Chemistry Alistair J. Lees, Professor and Chair Mailing Address: Department of Chemistry Binghamton University (SUNY) P.O. Box 6016 Binghamton, NY 13902-6016 Telephone: (607) 777-2517 Department Office (607) 777-2229 Editor FAX: (607) 777-4478 E-Mail: cmyers@binghamton.edu Editor: Clifford E. Myers, Professor Emeritus Production Editor: Pat Gorman, Department Secretary
In this issue of The Newsletter we feature an interview with Lois Mackey. Many of you will remember Lois as the "Mother Superior" of the general chemistry laboratory program. She had a wonderful mix of support for the timid and firmness for the brash, all with an evident affection for everyone she worked with, students, faculty, and staff alike!
You will also find news of current, retired, and former faculty. We also describe initiatives in the applications of technology in our instructional program, as well as a sampling of current research. As is always the case, we have a generous helping of alumni news. Thanks to all of you who have sent in accounts of your comings and goings.
This issue of the newsletter appears at a particularly upbeat point for the Chemistry Department. Despite recent budget cuts the University is doing well, ranking third in the nation for quality and value combined, and twentieth for quality itself. This is a significant achievement and there is no doubt that the department makes a huge contribution to this effort.
One aspect of our success is reflected in the undergraduate enrollments which are at all-time highs. We can hardly accommodate any more students without resorting to laboratory sessions at weekends! Some of you who have been away for an extended period would be astonished to hear that our General Chemistry (Chem 107) class is up to 650 students now. Even upper-level class enrollments have risen dramatically, for example, our physical chemistry lecture class (Chem 351) now attracts over 100 students. This year we have 90 majors in our program.
Yet we are thriving as a research department too. We are very successful at attracting research grants and the faculty is publishing in the best journals. Perhaps, most importantly, the close relationship between the faculty and the students has been maintained. It is that relationship which, I believe, is the key to Binghamton’s success.
The present period is one of transition for the department as in recent years a number of our faculty has left and/or retired. Fortunately, we have been able to hire some excellent junior faculty which have provided new impetus and energy to the department.
Finally, I would like to thank all that have recently given gifts to the department and I urge others to consider doing this. We have many vital needs that cannot be met from State funds and your donation is really needed. Recently a fund was established for an undergraduate student book prize to be given in the name of Professor Madan. We received some generous contributions for this from our own faculty; if you would also like to make a contribution do not hesitate to contact me.
We remind you that Alumni Weekend '98 is scheduled for May 1, 2, and 3. A number of class reunions are being planned. The Chemistry Department will have an open house on Saturday morning, May 2. On Friday, May 1, the Chemistry Colloquium speaker will be Bruce Lipshutz (BA'73) who is a professor at UC-Santa Barbara. Why not come early? We need to know how many of you expect to be on campus that weekend so we can make appropriate plans. Please drop us a line, E-Mail or "Snail-Mail". We'll get details to the Alumni Office for inclusion in their mailings.
Chuan-Jian Zhong will be joining the faculty at the beginning of the fall semester as Assistant Professor in the area of analytical chemistry. "C-J" received a BS from Hunan University and an MS and PhD in physical chemistry from Xiamen University. He has had postdoctoral positions in the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin and in the Department of Chemistry of the University of Minnesota. Since 1993 he has been Associate Scientist in the Microanalytical Instrumentation Center of the Ames Laboratory (U.S. Department of Energy) at Iowa State University. He has had extensive experience with electrochemistry and materials chemistry of conductive polymer films, interfacial chemistry of organic thin films, spectroscopic and microscopic methods, and microanalytical instrumentation.
Robert N. Ben will be joining the faculty at the beginning of the fall 1998 semester as Assistant Professor in the field of organic chemistry. Rob did an Honours BSc in biochemistry at Laurentian University in 1990 and a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Ottawa in 1994. He was a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the university of Toronto from 1994 until 1996 and currently is at the Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences of the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. His research interests include stereoselective synthesis of molecules important in various biological and pathological processes.
Stan Madan continues to be an important part of the Department's life. He maintains contact with many alumni and generously passes information on to the editor.
Cliff Myers is in the last semester of his three-year transition following official retirement in 1995. He plans to continue editing The Newsletter and has some research activities still in progress.
Udo Brinker has resigned from the faculty to continue as Professor Ordentlich of Organic Chemistry at the University of Vienna in Austria.
Olivier Martin continues on leave through the spring of 1998 as Professeur Ordinaire in Organic Chemistry at the University of Orléans in France.
Alistair Lees was on sabbatical leave in the spring and summer of 1997 at the University of York in England.
David Doetschman was Interim Chair while Alistair was away. Dave was on sabbatical leave for half the fall and will be on leave during the second half of the spring. His principal focuswill be the Regional Center for Pulsed EPR. He has or will have visitors from Brockport, McMaster, and Crete. The Center has a new Research Associate, a renowned Russian scientist, Dr. Sergei Dikanov. Dave plans visits to laboratories in Australia and Greece before fall.
Eugene Stevens was on sabbatical leave during the fall semester. He spent a couple of months in London pursuing his research interests.
Philip Kocienski holds the Regius Professorship, a gift of the Queen, at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Previous holders include Derek Barton and Ralph Raphael. He has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1997 was awarded the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Medal of the Polish Chemical Society. Address: Department of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland. E-Mail: P.Kocienski@chem.gla.ac.uk
Dan Konowalow had coronary bypass surgery back in October and is doing well. He and Marcy Rosenkrantz (BA'69, MA'76, PhD'84) have built a new house overlooking Cayuga Lake a few miles north of Ithaca. Home address: 199 Algerine Road, Lansing, NY 14882. E-Mail: marcyr@tc.cornell.edu
Visit the department's Web Page at http://www.chem. binghamton.edu. There you will find back issues of the Chemistry Newsletter as well as faculty profiles, program descriptions, and other potentially useful and interesting information.
Wayne Jones and Jim Dix are continuing their development of an electronic chemistry learning environment. Activities include exploration of chemistry in the context of a student's own interest (e.g. equilibrium concepts in blood chemistry and medicine), interactive on-line viewing of molecular structures, multimedia presentations, interactive problem solving, and on-line homework assignments. Feedback from students continues to be positive. According to Jones, several students have said that, when they are working through the material and asking questions by e-mail, they feel more connected with the instructor than they ever expected to be in such a large class - about 600 students. You can learn more from: http://introchem.clt. binghamton.edu
In a related development Richard Quest has been using the CAPA (Computer Assisted Problem Assignments) in general and organic chemistry courses, the latter in cooperation with Bruce Norcross.
Thanks to the efforts of Jan Musfeldt and an NFS-ILI grant, new DSC and GPC instrumentation has been integrated into the physical chemistry instructional laboratory. Students use the DSC to study the 2-component phase diagram of ß-naphthol/acetamide, and they use the GPC to study the change in molecular weight distribution of C60 on photoirradiation. On a more advanced level, she and colleagues at Buffalo and Stony Brook have developed a fully network-based graduate level course on organic molecular conductors which is being offered for the first time this spring. Check it out: http: //chemiris.chem.binghamton.edu/MUSFELDT/org.htm
Dave Doetschman developed (as chair) and executed (as instructor) the revamping of Chem. 111 to accommodate engineering students.
Jan Musfeldt continues her fruitful association with the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, FL. Jan won the "Visiting Scientist Award" at the Laboratory which consists of 1 month's free magnet time and $5,500. She was elected for a three-year term to the National Users Committee for the Laboratory and is organizing the "Spectroscopy at High Magnetic Fields" symposium at the 1998 American Physical Society National Meeting in Los Angeles. Jan's research is taking on an international flavor. She recently was awarded a 3-year grant of $51,461 by the NSF: "A Cooperative Study of the C60 Photopolymer: Infrared, X-ray, Thermal, and EPR Investigations". She will be collaborating with scientists in the Research Institute for Solid State Physics in Budapest, Hungary.
Our department, like all other chemistry departments across the country, needs additional resources. Funds from the state are limited in amount and are fenced in by numerous regulations. Research grants from external sources make possible the vitality of individual laboratory efforts but necessarily have a circumscribed focus. We generate some additional support for our undergraduate program by publication of our own lab manuals for the big courses. However, we still have needs which you can help us meet. These include:
Gifts should be to the Binghamton University Foundation, Account #785 (for programs in the Chemistry Department). Many companies match donations made by employees (multiply your support!). If you contemplate a major gift to the department, we ask you to contact Alistair Lees to work things out.
We thank all of you who already have contributed toward the department's needs. In the 1996-97 academic year we had 13 gifts from alums totaling $2,325 plus corporate matching contributions of $1,450.
Albert Wolkoff, MD (BA'61) was in Stan Madan's first offering of an Inorganic Chemistry course at Harpur. He has been back in Binghamton for 19 years. He is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the SUNY-Clinical Campus in Binghamton and has a private practice of psychiatry. He is Chairperson of the Southern Tier Area Psychiatrists. He has remarried and has a five-year old daughter. His older son has a computer store in Vestal, and his youngest son is doing an internship in Hawaii.
Richard Schultz (BA'64) enjoyed the Bruce McDuffie. As an undergraduate Richard was a teaching assistant in general chemistry under Dorothea Mueller and in organic lab with Joe Berman and, later, Bruce Norcross. He, along with Robert Kukier and David Becker, did undergraduate research with Norcross on paracyclophane; the results were published in J. Org. Chem. He recalls an incident involving the unintended detachment of a reflux water hose which may be best forgotten! He also recalls the visit made to the campus by Linus Pauling. Richard received his PhD in organic chemistry at Brandeis in 1969 and did a postdoc at the Harvard Medical School. He joined the faculty of Loyola University Medical School in Chicago in 1971 and has served as chair of the Department of Biochemistry since 1984. He and Rima Lunin (Harpur BA'65) were married in 1965. Rima received her PhD in History in 1985 and now directs a major women's history project at the University of Illinois-Chicago. They have two grown children (Carl, 28; Eli, 24). Their address: 320 N. Ridgeland, Oak Park, IL 60153.
Mark Wolraich (BA'66) is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Child Development at Vanderbilt University. He is Past President of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and currently chairs a committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics. His wife, Debra Kowaloff Wolraich (BA'68), is a learning disabilities tutor. They have three children. Their oldest son is a graduate student in philosophy, their daughter is a counselor in a program for troubled boys, and their youngest son is an undergraduate at Harvard. Mark tells us that Mark Weinstein (BA'66) now works for the FDA in the area of blood products. Mark and Debra's address: 5328 General Forrest Ct., Nashville, TN,37215-5205.
Ethan Nydorf (BA'74) went on to get his MD at NYU in 1978 and completed residencies in both internal medicine (SUNY-Stony Brook, 1981) and dermatology (Yale 1983). He was an assistant professor of dermatology at Yale until 1986. He then went on to be chief of dermatology at the Fallon Clinic in Worcester, MA. Currently he directs the dermatology laser program at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He and his wife, Jayne Weiss, MD, have one daughter: Alana (5). E-Mail: enydorf@pol.net
John Serino (BA'74) has a new address: Suite 425, 369 Montezuma Avenue, Sanat Fe, NM, 87501-2626. E-Mail: jaseino@mail.BatelNET.bs
Robert Tuggey (PhD'75, Verbit) is Director at the Wilson Hospital Laboratories in Johnson City, NY. For some time he has been interested in art work activities. Address: Arrowhead Lake Road, Brackney, PA 18812
Thomas Conti (MA'76, Myers) is serving this year as Vice President of Pittcon '98 (Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy); next year he will be President of the conference. Tom still works for Mobay. He and Nancy and son Chris live at: 10 Balsam Drive, Triadelphia, WV, 26059-9618.
Richard Dipietro (BA'76) particularly enjoyed the Newsletter interview with Professor Madan. He did his undergraduate research project with Dr. Madan and remembers fondly the many cups of tea he shared with him in his office. He credits Professors Madan and Eisch for setting him on his present course of research chemistry. After his B.A. in 1976 Rick spent some time travelling and, of all things, working in a bookstore, before ending up in San Diego in 1978 where he took a Master's in Organic Chemistry at UCSD and met his wife Sue. Still unsure of his ultimate destination, he spent a few years preparing steroid analogs for Professor Alan Hofmann at the UCSD Medical School. From this work was born an interest in synthetic medicinal chemistry for which he went to the University of Michigan and received a Ph.D. under Dr. Robert Griffith in 1984. After a post-doctoral period at Syntex Research in Palo Alto, California, he joined E. R. Squibb and Sons in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he stayed until 1988 when he moved to the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose (he says he got an offer he couldn't refuse) where he is currently a member of the Synthetic Development Laboratory. He thinks he'll stay there. He and Sue have two excellent sons, Christopher (14) and Michael (10) who are so used to their father's giving chemistry and rocketry demos (not to mention showing up as the Easter bunny and Santa Claus for many years) at their schools that they're not surprised at anything he does anymore. He was saddened at the passing of Martin Paul. Rick's father, who graduated from the first chemistry class at Harpur College in 1951, was guided by Dr. Paul into his career in chemistry. In fact, his brother's middle name is Paul in his honor. Rick sends regards to Professors Madan, Eisch and Janauer. E-Mail: dipietro@almaden.ibm.com
Sybil Goodkin (Zipp) (PhD'76, Madan) tells Stan Madan that her daughters are all grown and busy in their professions. Sybil is no longer in chemistry but enjoys her work. Address: 175 E. Limberlost - 104, Tuscon, AZ 85719
Nicholas J. Stamato (BS'76, Biology), MD, FACC, serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation of Binghamton University-SUNY. He is with Cardiology Associates, 30 Harrison Street, Johnson City, NY 13790
Shakoor Khan (PhD'77, Schrier) has his own business and has had eight or nine FDA approvals for new products. Address: 2069 Westfield Drive, Gurnee, IL 60031
Mark Thompson (BS'78) has been named Vice President for Development and Advanced Products for the Electronics Division of Raychem Corp. in Menlo Park, CA. Previously he was technical director for the company's PolySwitch circuit protection business. Mark did his PhD at North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Mohammed Bakir (MA'80, Stevens; PhD, Purdue) is teaching at the University of the West Indes - Mona Campus. He has established an outstanding research program at UWI that has attracted support from international organizations. Address: Department of Chemistry, University of the West Indes - Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica E-Mail: mbakir@uwimona.edu.jm
Michael Sailby (PhD'80, Madan), Professor of Chemistry at the University of New Haven, was on sabbatical last year completing a lab manual and re-tooling himself for full-time teaching after serving in many administrative positions during the past several years. He's happy to get back to the classroom and lab.
David Gasper (BS'81) is enjoying working as lawyer and scientist at DuPont.
Bruce Wilson (BS'81; MA'84, Madan) is a manager at Pall Mall, Inc., in Cortland, NY, where he supervises the work of eight or nine people. His older son is going to Scotland this summer with the Boy Scouts.
Kathleen Fallot (BA'82) has two lovely boys and is caring for their needs. She works half-time at IBM.
Joel Gellen (BA'82) continued his education at the New York College of Podiatric Medicine and is enjoying his private practice of podiatry in Brooklyn. He married Deborah Bachman (BS'85, Computer Science) and they have a 4-1/2 year old daughter, Avigael Chana, and were expecting twins last spring. Address: 16 Waldorf Ct., Brooklyn, NY 11230.
Daniel Hershlag (BS'82, Biochemistry) recently won the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry which is sponsored by the ACS Division of Biological Chemistry (C&EN, July 7, 1997). Dan did undergraduate research with Gene Stevens before going on to Brandeis for his PhD in biochemistry. After a postdoc at Colorado-Boulder, he joined the Biochemistry Department at Stanford as an assistant professor in 1992. Dan was recognized for his application of mechanistic enzymology and physical organic chemistry to the study of RNA enzymes. Dan has been a Lucille P. Markey Scholar in Biomedical Sciences, a Searle Scholar, and a recipient of a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation.
Mark J. Schadt (BS'82; MS'84, Lees) and his wife Rebecca (BA'84) recently talked with Stan Madan. Since their children are now a bit older, she is looking into rejoining the work force. Mark is still at IBM-Endicott.
Chris (BA'83, MS'87) and Kathy Rawlins (PhD'90) Duda stopped by recently and talked with Stan Madan. At last report Chris works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)and Kathy for the U.S. Patent Office. Their address: 3806 Tedrich Blvd., Fairfax, VA 22031.
John C. Davila (BA'84) has been working for Prudential Healthcare for the past seven years and is currently Director of Contracting. He received an MBA from California-Irvine in 1991. John is married and has two beautiful daughters, Carla Georgina and Giovanna Marie. Address: 72 Racing Wind, Irvine, CA 92614.
Stephen Warshafsky (BA'84) got his MD from New York Medical College in 1989 and completed a residency in internal medicine in 1992. He has been on the faculty of New York Med. since 1992 and is now Assistant Professor of Medicine. His research is in the area of clinical decision making. In addition to publications in medical journals, he has had television appearances on channels 7 and 11, the former an "Eye Witness News" spot on garlic therapy. Steve has a private practice in White Plains. He and Suchin Kim (BS'96, Computer Science and Mathematics) were married four years ago and were expecting their son to be born last June.They have recently bought a new home. Address: 24 Scott Place, Hartsdale, NY 10530. Steve tells us the Jeff Beck (BS'84) is a senior research chemist at Mobil Corporation and was married in 1996.
P. Chobe (PhD'85, Hassner) returned to India where he worked for Glaxo in Bombay for three years. For the past eight years he has been working for BASF India Ltd and is now Head of the BASF R&D Unit. Chobe lives in Bombay with his wife Medha, his three year-old son Kshiteesh and his mother. His wife visited Binghamton in 1989 and, after touring the USA, concluded that Binghamton is the best town in the country! In the past Medha has worked as a Lecturer in Zoology, but now is a housewife. Address: A/2 Ultra Society, DILIP Gupta Road, Mahim, Mumbai - 400 016 India. FAX 00091-22-7670334.
Chobe tells us the he sometimes hears from Suresh Dua (PhD'86), who settled in Australia, and Mohammed Behrooz (PhD'85) who has returned to Iran. He would like to know the whereabouts of Rosario D'Costa (postdoc'85, Hassner), Alan Aradi (PhD'84), and Mike Lucarelli (PhD'87).
Apostolos Rizos (PhD'85) returned to Greece after a postdoc and is a member of the chemistry faculty of the University of Crete. He has returned to Binghamton for a sabbatical with Dave Doetschman in the Pulsed EPR Center.
We were saddened to learn that M. M. Zulu (MS'85, Madan; PhD'88, Lees) died on October 18, 1997, as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident. He recently had been promoted to Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Zululand in South Africa. He would have been fifty years old in November of 1997.
Mitchell Brustein (BS'86) went on to get a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. While a graduate student at Penn, Mitch investigated the dynamics of the OH-Ar van der Waals complex using various laser spectroscopies. He then spent almost three years at L'Université de Montréal as a postdoctoral fellow studying the chemisorption of water on single crystal surfaces by means of High Resolution Electron Energy Loss (HREEL) and Reflectance-Absorbance Infrared (RAIR) Spectroscopies. Since 1994, Mitch has worked as a patent agent for an intellectual property law firm in Philadelphia. Mitch prepares and prosecutes patent, trademark and copyright applications for a variety of clients. He is attending law school in the evenings at Temple University and expects to complete his law degree this year. He would like to hear from other chemistry alumni. Phone: 215-563-4100 E-Mail: 76042.2662@compuserve.com
Lynn Pert (BS'86) was with IBM for ten years and is now a homemaker in the Binhgamton area.
Lisa Kulikowski Mihalko (BS'87) completed a BS in pharmacy at SUNY-Buffalo in 1994. She married Matthew Mihalko on August 31, 1996, and now works as a pharmacist at Wegman's in Johnson City, NY. Address: 1173 Green Meadow Lane, Endicott, NY 13760
Pamela Bouton (BS'88) has taken the editor to task for an error in her graduation year (mea culpa!). She graduated from the School of Dental Medicine at the University at Buffalo in'92 and completed a one-year general practice residency at St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse, and went on to a one-year fellowship in oral maxiofacila surgery at Temple. She opened her private practice at 153 Main Street in Owego in March of 1996. Address: 53 Summit Road, Apalachin, NY 13732
While we are taking note of the editor's mistakes, Pat Bobik (BS'82) and Steve Sexsmith (PhD'88) were married in 1984. E-Mail: s_sexsmi@lvc.edu
Stephen J. Slavin, MD (BA'88) is working as an anesthesiologist at Winthrip Hospital on Long Island and was to be married last July. Address: 4 Croyden Road, Mineola, NY 11501
Michael Capani (MA'89, Janauer) now works for Broome County Building Supply in Vestal, NY. Address: 76 Bennett Ave., Binghamton, NY 13905
Scott Cummings (BS'89) says it was nice to read about Bruce McDuffie. As he recalls, Scott was in McDuffie's last Instrumental Methods class. He was sad to hear of Annie Cron's death. As of last February he had just accepted a tenure-track appointment as Assistant Professor at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH. He had been there for two years in a "visiting" appointment. He's quite happy with the department, the bright and mature students and the ability to set up an active research program. Scott's field of interest is photochemistry, which he says can be entirely attributed to the wonderful influence of Alistar Lees and David Doetschman. His interest in this area was sparked at Binghamton while working in their labs, and stayed with him throughout my graduate work at the University of Rochester (with Rich Eisenberg). He's teaching Physical Chemistry, Introductory Chemistry and laboratory courses at Kenyon, and has several students involved in research. Phone: 614-427-9130 E-Mail: cummings@kenyon.edu Homepage: http://lutton.kenyon.edu/faculty/cummings.htm
Elizabeth Glaze (BA'89) was employed from 1989 till 1993 at CIBA-Geigy in Suffern, NY, and, during that time earned an MS in biotechnology at Manhattan College. Since 1993 she has been a doctoral student in Pharmacology at the University of Michigan. She was advanced to candidacy in 1995. Address: 4798 Washtenaw, Apt. C3, Ann Arbor, MI 48108. Phone: 313-572-0396. Elizabeth tells us that Philip Shuler (BS'87) has been working for CIBA-Geigy (now Novartis) since he graduated.
Kathleen Ricker (BA'89) is working as an analytical chemist at Sherry Laboratories in Tulsa, OK, doing environmental and metallurgical testing. Her primary responsibilities are gas chromatographic analyses of environmental samples for petroleum products, pesticides, PCBs, and herbicides. At the time she wrote us, Kathleen had recently attended the AAU-Chinese Martial Arts National Championships at Disney World in Orlando. She won 2nd, 3rd, and two 4th place medals. She is still single. Address: 6507 S. 93rd E. Ave., Apt. H, Tulsa, OK 74133
David Dwyer (PhD'90, Doetschman) is Associate Professor of Chemistry at the SUNY College at Brockport. This year he is back at Binghamton on sabbatical leave doing research in the pulsed EPR center. His efforts are supported by an NSF-RUI grant (Research at Undergraduate Institutions) entitled, "Pulsed EPR Studies of Photoinduced Charge-transfer Reactions in Solution".
Carlos Humberto Perez (BS'90) is working in the Quality Control Lab of Novartis (merger of CIBA-Geigy and Sandoz) in the area of transdermal delivery of three substances: estradiol, nitroglycerine, and nicotine. He was married July 1, 1995, and a son, Daniel Sebastian, was born December 18, 1996. Carlos is finishing an MBA degree with a designation in International Business. He expects to graduate in May of this year. Address: PO Box 1042, Suffern, NY 10901. Carlos gives us more information on Philip Shuler who finished an MBA in 1996. Philip married Marilyn Moore (BSN'87, Decker School of Nursing, Binghamton) and their son, Justin Philip Townsend Shuler, was born in October 1994. Philip's work at Novartis is in quality control-process validation.
Josie M. Reger Rosen (BS'90) is a senior formulation chemist at Sun Chemical, working on surface inks development. In 1995 she finished an MS in chemistry at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She and David Rosen (BS'91, Economics) were married in July 1991 and their daughter, Rebecca Leiah Rosen was born October 19, 1995. Address: 1408 Rosewood Court, Highland Mills, NY 10930
Jeff McCreary (BS'90, MS'92, Myers) and Kristen Peake McCreary (BS Management,'90) have moved back to upstate New York. Jeff works for Corning, Inc. Address: 613 Hillingdon Way, Horseheads, NY 14845. Phone: 607-562-7442
Valerie Uzcátegui (MS'92, Costello) recently accepted a position as Associate Editor for Holt, Rinehart, and Winston in Austin, TX. She is working on high school chemistry texts. Address; 30103 Augusta Ct., Georgetown, TX 78628
Joe Aiken (PhD'93) expressed appreciation for Annie Cron whose efforts allowed many people to graduate on time (or at all) by providing the correct information and paperwork. Joe has been working at Purdue Pharma L.P. in Yonkers, since he graduated. His work deals primarily with developing analytical methods for controlled-release pharmaceutical products. Joe was promoted to Principal Scientist in 1996 and became a Group Leader in 1997. Joe says that, for being relatively close, Binghamton is sorely under-represented at his company. He solicits resumés from new and prospective graduates. Joe says he speaks to Nian Wu (PhD'93) and Bill Horvath (PhD'95) often. They are all enjoying the fruits of their Binghamton education. Address: 320 South Broadway, T-7, Tarrytown, NY 10591 E-Mail: aiken@pharma.com
Paul Russo (BS'93) is pursuing his PhD in chemistry at the University of Virginia in the area of biological and immunological mass spectrometry. He says he's working hard and having fun. Address: 110 Middlesex Dr. Charlottesville, VA 22901. Paul tells us that Lynn Manzella is at Princeton and is doing well and that Heike Radke expects to be graduating soon from Boston College.
Geoffrey Barker (PhD'94, Hartwick) has been Research Scientist, SFBIA Neurosciences, Inc., La Jolla, CA, since 1997. Previously he held assistant professorships at Hartwick College in Oneonta and at Eastern Carolina University, Greenville, NC. Address: 11052-1/2 Camino Playa Carmel, San Diego, CA 92124
Brian Ng (BS'96) is employed as a research technician for the Population Council which is located at Reckefeller University in New York City. His lab specializes in steroid drug design and delivery systems, and his primary duties include steroid and serum assays. They also conduct animal experiments and human clinical trials on a peptide implant used for androgen deprivation therapy, which targets prostate cancer. Address: 154-25 20th Road, Whitestone, NY 11357 E-Mail: brianng@popdor.rockefeller.edu. Brian tells us that, at the time he wrote, Mary Lim (BA'95) was a first-year student at New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM) and now resides in Bayside, NY.
Lois Mackey is a native of New Hampshire. She earned a BS degree from the University of New Hampshire. After a short stint of teaching, she joined Ansco Corporation in Binghamton in 1942. She was out of the work force for a few years taking care of her young children. In 1963 she joined the teaching staff in chemistry at Harpur College. She had a part time faculty position as Lecturer from 1965 until 1971 when she became a full time faculty member with rank of Instructor. She retired as Instructor Emerita in 1978. She and her husband, E. Scudder Mackey, live at 2 Stone Road, Binghamton, NY 13903. This interview was recorded on December 9, 1997, and the transcript has been edited by Lois and the editor.
CEM Where did you grow up?
LDM I was born in Brentwood, New Hampshire, and at age 10, after my father passed away, my mother and I moved to Exeter where I lived until I was graduated from the University of New Hampshire.
CEM Now your maiden name was Draper. Where did the Drapers come from? Are they English?
LDM I believe English. My father came from Guilford, Maine, south of Moosehead Lake area, Baxter National Park. After high school (ca. 1917), he left and went to Lowell, MA, where he apprenticed in machinist school at United Shoe Machinery Company. During World War I, they were doing a lot of munitions work for the army. Near the end of WWI my father was sent to Brentwood, NH, where my mother lived, to supervise installation of machinery at a new wood heel manufacturing plant. This was a very interesting operation in which hardwood logs, cut in the woods, were hauled to the mill site on horse drawn wagons (sleds in winter). After soaking in the mill pond they were rough cut into planks, seasoned in a dry kiln, and sent to the turning plant via an overhead roller-trough to be planed and cut to dimensions for making specific heels. A series of hand fed turning machines shaped the heels. There was no OSHA then, and the blowing of the factory whistle during works hours was an ominous sound. My father became plant superintendent and was recognized as an expert in the industry. I remember his flying to Chicago on United Shoe business. We lived in Brentwood until my father's death from cancer.
CEM You had a pretty tough time when your father died?
LDM My mother and I moved to Exeter, NH. I left a one room, one teacher, eight grade school and entered a brick and granite three story school, Robinson Seminary. My 1937 graduating class was larger than the county school! My mother had no training as was very often the case in those days. After a while my mother worked as a clerk in the dye works of Exeter Manufacturing Company where raw cotton was processed into finished fabrics. She bought a typewriter, taught herself to type, and was transferred to the main office where she learned to use the office machines as she needed them. Lawrence Warehouse Corporation also hired her to be their resident manager of two cotton warehouses.
CEM So you went to the University of New Hampshire?
LDM Yes. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I went to college. At first I was going to major in languages. I liked sciences in high school, so I did take Chemistry my first year. The second semester was taught by Dr. Iddles, the head of the department. He was one of the most organized teachers I ever had. His lectures were clear, and he really enjoyed doing the lecture demonstrations. I was so impressed by his enthusiasm that I decided to major in chemistry. I knew my math was weak, so I spent hours going through the university catalog trying to figure out how I could manage it. I decided I could take enough courses to meet the university requirements for a liberal arts major in chemistry and enough other science courses for a minor in general science. I went to the Chemistry Department, told them about my math problems, and showed them my plan. They looked at it and said, if you pass this course (in qualitative and quantitative analysis) you can begin your major.
CEM What did you do when you finished college, and how did you get to Binghamton?
LDM I taught general science and health, botany (the one science I had never studied), and physics for five months at a consolidated school (grades 1-12 in one building) in West Newbury, MA. I had not been able to fit the practice teaching course into my schedule at UNH, and that was a very long five months! In February of 1942 the UNH placement office notified me that Ansco Corporation in Binghamton needed "women with a knowledge of chemistry". I applied, came for an interview, and was hired. I arrived in Binghamton on a cold, rainy night in March 1942, knowing no one in the community. I replaced a very capable man who had left for the army and did not return to Ansco until the end of the war. The work at Ansco was very good. Dr. Mueller supervised my work in the Emulsion Department Research Laboratory [F. W. H. Mueller was the husband of Dorothea Mueller who was a member of the Harpur chemistry faculty from 1957-69.]. We did some organic chemistry and investigated the photographic and physical properties of gelatins. He taught me to keep a research notebook and to write progress and summary reports.
CEM While you were at Ansco you got together with this guy from New Jersey?
LDM Yes. The "NJ guy" is my husband, E. Scudder Mackey, a Lafayette'42 chemistry major. During college he worked summers at a small chemical plant in his home town in New Jersey. After college, during WWII he worked at a Hercules powder plant in Radford, VA, on a rocket powder production line. Near the end of the war he went with Carbide and Carbon at Oak Ridge, TN, for a year and then returned to New Jersey to live and worked at the GAF Central Research Lab in Easton, PA. He was assigned to an Ansco project and was transferred to Binghamton to continue his research. We met at an ACS picnic at Ansco Lake. We were married in 1949 and built a home in 1951. I resigned from Ansco in 1952. We have two sons, Scudder D. and Michael. I worked with the League of Women Voters to keep occupied when the boys were small. Home life with two small boys was not at all like being in a laboratory! After a while I was elected councilman of the Town Board of the Town of Binghamton.
CEM How did you come to be at Harpur?
LDM My husband had attended a joint dinner of local technical societies (ACS, PSA, SPSE, etc.) and sat with Professor Bruce McDuffie who mentioned that they needed help in the Chemistry Department because one of the members of the staff had leukemia and had to reduce his work load. The small staff was having difficulty covering the laboratories for his course.
CEM That would have been Joe Berman.
LDM I believe it was Joe Berman. I never did meet him. At first I was on a part time basis, and Harpur was on a trimester schedule. With the trimester schedule, though I had school age children, I did have time to do research for Dr. Schrier in the free trimester. I enjoyed that very much.
CEM You mentioned that you were also active in the Town of Binghamton government?
LDM Shortly before I got involved at the University I had been elected councilman on the Town Board of the Town of Binghamton. It became a real question as to whether I could or should handle both things. I decided that I really wanted to do the chemistry bit at the University. Sometimes my days were more full than I needed, but it worked out.
CEM It appears your joining the chemistry program was rather sudden.
LDM It was. Within 24 hours after making the decision, I was in front of a laboratory section. I don't think I have ever been more at sea or more afraid in my life. I immediately realized that the chemistry I had in college about eighteen years earlier had become high school chemistry!
CEM This would have been in the mid 60s?
LDM That's right. I graduated in 1941. I had not even seen a recent college textbook! When students complained about having to study and work they never realized that I was studying and working harder than they were! It was hard. There were wonderful senior students who assisted me in the labs and in my efforts to catch up. I particularly remember Doreen Mehs. I can't remember names right now, but if it hadn't been for them I probably would have given up. Everyone in General Chemistry was always very helpful.
CEM You were at first simply doing the laboratory instruction yourself but your role changed over some period of time?
LDM Actually my role changed as the department and the facilities changed. When I started I was part time. I taught two sections of general and two of organic chemistry in the old science building. The next fall I taught only general chemistry labs. There was only one laboratory assigned to general chemistry at that time which had a very small stock room adjacent to it. By the next fall, 1968, we were in the new Physical Science building (Science II) where we had four lab rooms for first year chemistry and a large stock room for preparation and storage of chemicals and equipment for the labs. A full time stockroom attendant was added to the staff. By then the PhD program was under way and more graduate students were assigned to teach the additional labs. Within a few years three courses in general chemistry, plus a special course for the nursing school, filled all the labs with students. I worked with the graduate students assigned to the labs. My "teaching" now came in preparing and supervising the graduate students. All along I had overseen the logistics of supply, equipment, and scheduling with the stockroom personnel. Doris Perkins managed the stockroom then and continued after I left until she retired because of health considerations. She was an invaluable part of the laboratory programs in general and organic chemistry.
Now being a teaching assistant, that's tough! While some had previous experience as student assistants, most had never taught. They rarely had any idea of the kind of responsibility they had to take; they did not understand when they came that they were now the teacher and would be in charge of 20-24 students per section at a time! A number of our graduate students came from abroad - China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, etc. I remember asking a Chinese graduate student to show me his grade book and finding that the record was in Chinese!
CEM It's a big change from being part of a class to being in charge of a class.
LDM It certainly is! The course professor and I did our best to introduce the TAs to their responsibilities. I met with them weekly to discuss the experiment assigned. We went over the theory briefly, the procedure, the safety aspects, and the special equipment. We emphasized any problems that might occur with operations, data observations, and results. We tried to prepare them in advance for the questions that can come from 20 or so students. Safety was always strongly emphasized. My personal emphasis was on the importance of an instructor's knowing and using student's names and relating to them as individuals. In 100-300 enrollment courses students "get lost". Since laboratory instructors spend three hours a week with each section they teach, they have the opportunity to detect excellence, laxity, latent potential, and problems. I tried always to make the TAs understand that they could really make a difference.
CEM There are still ups and downs. We do have a real good program. Richard Quest is certainly outstanding.
LDM Richard Quest has brought it to where it should be. I'm glad that someone like him got in there to do it. I think the summer program that he's developed is extremely valuable. Did they do it again this year?
CEM They haven't had funding for a couple of years.
LDM That's what I was afraid of.
CEM You mentioned Doreen Mehs. Were there other students or colleagues that you particularly remember?
LDM I remember many. Unfortunately names don't come to me immediately. One of our early masters students, and perhaps the first degree recipient, was Bill Lewis who went to Eastman Kodak. This was of interest to me because he eventually worked with Dr. James whose research papers on the fundamental processes of photographic imaging I had read when I worked at Ansco. At the time Bill had to go to Rochester for his interviews he and his wife were expecting a baby. I was checking on his wife while he was away; I told him that if anything happened I'd be there. He was hired! Jeffrey Czeisler, who was a senior student and then in the masters degree program with Dr. Schrier, was a particular friend of mine and of great help to me. Actually everyone - seniors, graduate students, and professors were always available to help. I couldn't have continued without their support.
CEM Who were the faculty members you worked with in the 60's and 70's?
LDM Let's see. When I first started out, who was teaching general chemistry? Dr. Mueller, Dr. Madan, Dr. Myers, Dr. Norcross, Dr. Verbit, Dr. Konowalow, Dr. Starzak, and Dr. Dehner. Dr. Gene Schrier did some general teaching. He also did an early advanced course. I remember it very well - particularly an experiment where the equipment was on the first floor and the lab was on the third floor. I spent a good deal of time going up and down stairs in those days. The x-ray diffraction experiment always sent me into the trig books to try to figure out some of the required relationships! I remember Jim Pankow as a special student; he was outstanding. He has done very, very well. He headed that NSF-funded Student Originated Studies project on the Susquehanna in the summer after his junior year.
CEM So how long were you in the department?
LDM I retired in 1978. I think I was there 16 years.
CEM Tell me about your family.
LDM We have two sons. The older one, Scudder, was graduated from Hobart in 1975 and received a masters in geology at the University of Wisconsin in 1977. He was in the oil industry and was released in a downsizing. He came to SUNY-Binghamton and received his PhD in geology in 1993. A paper, based on his dissertation and co-authored with his mentor Dr. John Bridge, was selected as the outstanding paper in 1995 in the Journal of Sedimentary Geology. He and his wife Deb went to Dallas to get the plaque, and we watched the children. He and Deb live in Ohio now where he is a geologist in charge of the Ohio Division of the Geological Survey. Our other son, Mike, graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He earned a Masters in Transportation Management at Syracuse University and has been with various trucking industries ever since. He and his wife Phyllis live in Easton, MD, with their two children. I have five grandchildren ranging in age from six to nineteen. Scudder and Deb have three. The oldest one, Erin, is a freshman at the Firelands Community College unit of Bowling Green University. Michelle, a sixteen year old, is a junior in high school, Scudder C., fourteen and a freshman in high school, is on the basketball and track teams and plays the flute in the orchestra. Mike and Phyl's two are Wil, ten, and Anna, seven. Wil is quite a lacrosse player. He was voted the best defenseman at his team level this year. Anna has started soccer.
CEM Young Scudder played the tuba as I remember.
LDM Yes, but he hasn't touched it since he left high school.
CEM I remember his playing in the community symphony under Fritz Wallenberg.
LDM He really enjoyed that. I still remember carrying the tuba around in the Volkswagen convertible.
CEM My granddaughter is playing the string bass.
LDM Oh is she? That's just about as big.
CEM So what do you do with yourself these days? I know you went bowling today.
LDM I do bowl now.
CEM You used to go cross-country skiing.
LDM I did. I gave up downhill skiing when my knees began to get bad and cross-country skied as long as I could. In 1993 I had my left knee replaced which does fine, but now the right one is beginning to think it needs attention. I walk a good deal, swim, and bowl.
CEM Are you still in your cottage six months a year?
LDM Well it's nearer four. Yes, we go up in mid-May and stay until mid-October. We're purely temperature dependent because we have no insulation or central heat. We rely on a small wood stove in one room. This year we had everything painted and had the roof re-shingled. We have a wooden breakwater where the high tide comes, and this past fall and winter there were terrific high tides with a very severe wind. The result was that steps we had built to get down to the edge of the creek were damaged. Our neighbors tied them up to keep them from floating away. We rebuilt them and also reinforced the wooden breakwater this past summer.
CEM You still find time to fish and make good fish chowder?
LDM Yes, clam chowder is more my thing than fish chowder. I did a minimum of fishing this year. The great thing is that the young man who lives next door is rigged for lobster fishing and sells lobsters to our small neighborhood for a very reasonable price. So when lobsters are running we eat lobster! He keeps them in a car off his boat and brings the lobster in right out of the water. Best way to have them!
CEM So what else are you up to?
LDM This year we traveled. We went to Puerto Rico in February and Maui in September. My husband doesn't like to travel. He would rather go hunting. But our son, in his work with the trucking company, set up a transportation unit in Puerto Rico. There are many assembly industries there, so there is a lot of trucking that has to be done in getting supplies and raw materials in to them and the products out to the docks. That intrigued us, so we had a secondary interest in going there to see what the island is like. It is fascinating.
CEM We were in San Juan on our one and only Caribbean Cruise.
LDM Our trip to Puerto Rico was a UNH Inter-Hostel trip. We were there for two weeks and covered a great deal of the island. It's really fascinating. For a comparatively small piece of land the diversity is unbelievable. It has the only tropical rain forest preserve in the national park system. There are major differences from one side of the island to the other.
Maui is the most relaxing place I've ever been. Good friends of ours celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary out there. Lloyd used to work here at Ansco. He left and went to Beckman Instruments in California. They asked us to come out to help them finish their 50th wedding celebration. We went out in September and had a fantastic seven days! Just wonderful! Walking beaches, going up to the volcano and seeing the fields where the lava had run down to the ocean and hardened. It was just great.
CEM You've done other traveling too over the years?
LDM I did a great deal over the years before my legs got bad. I went to England, Ireland, Norway, England, Australia, New Zealand, China, and the last I did was Costa Rica. I am very happy that I did go before age began to catch up with me. Travelling now will involve going to Ohio, Maryland, New Hampshire, and wherever our families go. At some point they'll have to come see us!
NAME _____________________________________ DEGREE _________ YEAR _______ ADDRESS__________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ EMPLOYMENT/PROFESSIONAL NEWS: PERSONAL NEWS: NEWS ABOUT OTHERS? COMING TO ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND'98?_______________________ Mail to: Chemistry Newsletter c/o Professor C. E. Myers Chemistry Department Binghamton University (SUNY) P. O. Box 6016 Binghamton, NY 13902-6016 FAX: (607) 777-4478 E-Mail: CMYERS@binghamton.edu