Department of Chemistry

Department of Chemistry Chemistry Newsletter Number 331 Friday 17 October, 2008 This evening the undergraduate students will be celebrating the end of the teaching year. A group of 300l3vel students started a bit early, with lots of food (of dubious nutritional quality) in the common room outside 431 yesterday afternoon. The Chemistry exam papers have now all been submitted (thanks Diane) and I know that after (or perhaps during) the weekend, swotting will become a student preoccupation –I must add that I don’t envy them! There are a couple of significant changes to the personnel noted below – one an appointment to the University and the other an announced retirement from the department. Bryce People ……………………………….... Russell to Retire It's a bit over a year ago that it was announced (in issue 266 of this newsletter) that Russell Gillard had decided to retire from full-time work and move onto a fixed-term, part-time contract until 2010. At the time it was commented that the Amberley Vintage Motorbike Restoration Workshop would be more fully staffed in the intervening period. Obviously, Russell has enjoyed his extra freedom away from the University and, having reassessed his options, has decided to retire fully from 23 December this year. Russell is probably the longest continuing employee of the University, having started in the Department (then situated in the current Arts Centre) in May 1961 as a 16-year-old. He initially worked as Assistant Technician to Dick Nokes in a small workshop under roof skylights in the chemistry building, which faced onto Hereford Street. His duties involved making and maintaining teaching equipment, servicing vacuum pumps, etc; much the same as now! In the 47 intervening years, he has made tremendous contributions to this department and, more recently, to Physics and Astronomy as an expert technician and highly effect workshop head/coordinator. Further, he has been one of the important contributors, with others, to the department's social activities, especially the annual Christmas lunches. Later in the year we will organise a function to thank him for his wonderful contributions and to join him in celebrating his retirement. I'm sure that we will continue to see more of him at departmental events in the future. Comings and Goings Sally is away today. Colin is back on Monday and Vladimir is back next Friday. Congratulations ………………………….... PhD Completion Congratulations to Justine Cottam, who has qualified for the award of PhD. Justine's "Studies in Metallosupramolecular Chemistry" were conducted under the supervision of Prof Peter Steel. University administration news…… ……………………….... New Vice-Chancellor Appointed On Wednesday afternoon, the Chancellor, Dr Robin Mann (whose incidentally has a PhD from this department) was “delighted to announce that Dr Rod Carr has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canterbury. He will take up the position in February.” He added, “Dr Carr is currently Managing Director of Christchurch-based Jade Software Corporation. Prior to joining Jade in 2003, he was Deputy Governor and Director of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. He has also held senior positions within the Bank of New Zealand and the National Australia Bank. Dr Carr comes to us with proven leadership skills and an impressive academic record. He has LLB (Hons) and BCom (Hons) degrees from the University of Otago, an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business (New York), and MA and PhD degrees from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Carr is a long-time supporter of the University. He currently chairs the advisory board of NZi3 - the national ICT Innovation Institute based at UC. He is also a director of the Geospatial Research Centre and a member of the College of Business and Economics Advisory Board. Dr Carr has impressed Council with his understanding of the broad issues facing not just this university, but the whole tertiary sector. We believe his experience dealing with central government will serve us and the sector well. His appointment is the outcome of an extensive recruitment process which attracted outstanding applicants from New Zealand and overseas. I would like to take this opportunity to thank members of academic staff, general staff, SMT, the student body and Council for their contributions.” Academic Board Meeting (2:00-3:45 pm, Wednesday 15 October) There was a very large turnout to this meeting – perhaps twice the normal, and including several people who were granted special permission to be “in attendance.” The earlier business related to new membership of the Disciplines Committee, the Acting VC’s report and reports from the Academic Committee (to be rerenamed the Academic Administration Committee) and the Library Committee. But the reason for the large turnout was (I’m sure) the agenda item on common (15-point) course sizes. The debate was carefully managed by the chair, with speakers asked to limit the time that they took and to speak only once on each issue. By that control, the issue was dealt with very much faster than would, almost certainly, otherwise have been the case. Firstly, each of the Faculty Deans (or in one case the Dean’s nominee) were invited to speak. Most (but not all) Faculties appear to be against the proposal, with varying degrees of passion. The majority (but again not all) of the un-deanly speakers also spoke against the proposal. Some presented what seemed to be good reasons, mostly to do with the particular needs of their programmes. There seems also to be a significant degree of fear about EFTS (and therefore funding) shifts, and at least a hint of inherent aversion to change. The representatives from the Student Association were perhaps the most stridently opposed of the sectors represented at the Board and made it very clear that they will keep a close eye on how any changes are implemented. Andy and Bryce were present if anyone wants further information of the discussion. Department administration news………………………… ……….... Missing Mug During the last week my tea stained mug has gone missing from the tearoom. It is easily identified. A grey mug labelled KYOSPIN. If it has been broken, please let me know so I can replace it. If it has been removed accidently, I would appreciate it back. On a previous occasion, a former colleague persisted in using my mug -- but that is another story! Rod Claridge. Social news…… …… ……… …………….... Class of 68 Alumni Reunion The University alumni event for Chemistry on Saturday 12th was attended by some 50 people, including at least 25 former students from the class of 68 and before. Several former staff also attended, including our former glass blower who is now 90, invoking fond memories from many former students. The group was welcomed by the Bryce. Short talks were given by Paul, Sally, Chris and Emily outlining what they saw as the future of chemistry and how they might play into that future. Morning tea and lunch were organised thanks to Sarah Wilson-Coutts, with assistance from Neroli Ayling and several other graduate students. We thank them and the students who had posters on the walls. Thanks also to the local branch of the NZIC, which sponsored the lunch, and to Waipara West for excellent wines at a discounted price. Seminars ………………………………….... Four New Courses in High-Performance Computing As part of the University's commitment to supporting the use of high performance computing four new courses at 600 level have been created which will provide students and researchers with the skills and knowledge to use HPC in their work. These courses will involve "hands-on" sessions and give students and researchers the chance to interact with Australasia's fastest supercomputers.  ENGR 684 (Parallel Computing Architectures)  ENGR 685 (Structured Programming for Scientific Computing)  ENGR 686 (Parallel Programming using the Message Passing Interface )  ENGR 687 (Distributed Computing Visualisation) For further information please contact Professor Tim David: tim.david@canterbury.ac.nz Postgraduate Supervision Seminars UCTL is hosting three sessions concerning the supervision of postgraduate students at the University. Postgraduate Supervision and External Examiners Monday, 20 October, Law 427 3.10-4.15 pm Dr Margaret Kiley from Australian National University will be discussing issues of postgraduate supervision. Dr Kiley has written extensively on postgraduate programme development and supervision, and a few of her most recent research publications include "Promoting and recognising excellence in the supervision of research students: An evidence-based framework" (forthcoming in Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 2008), "Thinking like a Researcher" (in Supervising Doctorates Downunder: Keys to effective supervision in Australia and New Zealand, 2007), and "Opening the black box: How examiners assess your thesis" (in Doctorates Downunder: Keys to successful doctoral study in Australia and New Zealand, 2006). Postgraduate Processes & Policies Monday, 20 October, Law 427 4.25-5.00 pm Dr Keith Comer (standing in for Professor Steve Weaver, Dean of Postgraduate Studies), will offer an introduction to the processes and procedures for the supervision of postgraduate students at the University of Canterbury. This meeting is compulsory for all staff wishing to be appointed as senior supervisor for postgraduate students for the first time at UC. New academic staff, irrespective of previous supervisory experience, and also current academic staff who have not previously been appointed as senior supervisors need to sign-up for and attend this session. Supervision of Postgraduate International Students Tuesday, 21 October, Law 427 9.30-11.00 Professor Margaret Kiley from Australian National University addresses issues of postgraduate supervision related to international students. This presentation and workshop focuses on examining expectations both supervisors and students bring to postgraduate programmes, and exploring how supervisors can most effectively communicate and guide their international students. Please sign-up for any of these sessions at: http://uctl.canterbury.ac.nz/ Refreshments will be provided. Sign-up for any of these sessions at: http://uctl.canterbury.ac.nz/ Recent publications ……………………….... Synthetic and biological studies on the spiro-mamakone system. Annabel C. Murphy, Sean R. A. Devenish, Andrew C. Muscroft-Taylor, John W. Blunt and Murray H. G. Munro, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2008, 6, 3854-3862 Physical Sciences Library News ………………………………….... Perkin Transactions We have access to the Royal Society of Chemistry Journals Archive. If you are trying to access one of these electronic journals, be aware that the title you seek may be hidden in the dropdown title list. For example: Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions 2 (19722002). From the Library catalogue you will be taken to the publisher’s site, where you will see an option to Select Journal for 2001-2002. To access earlier years, you must use the dropdown list. Many thanks to Alan Happer for pointing out an error in our catalogue records for Perkin transactions I [electronic resource] and Perkin transactions II [electronic resource]. These have been corrected and both now direct the user to full text from the archive. SciFinder versions to be discontinued On January 30, 2009, CAS will discontinue the following versions of SciFinder:  SciFinder 2006 for Microsoft® Windows  SciFinder 2006 for MAC OS X Note: SciFinder 2007 client version will continue to be supported. In November, the web version will also have more robust features that extend functionality of the web version beyond SciFinder’s client versions. The new web version will include: · Powerful refine capability that allows you to categorize your answer set · Combine options now with multiple answer sets · Refine by atom attachment · New Keep Me Posted features…and much more, including content enhancements Degenerate states ………………………………….... Amplification is the vice of modern oratory - Thomas Jefferson 1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi. 2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian. 3. She was only a whisky maker, but he loved her still. 4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption. 5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work. 6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery. 7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was charged with littering. 8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart. 9. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie. 10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. 11. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it. 12. Atheism is a non-prophet organization. 13. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack. One hat said to the other, 'You stay here, I'll go on a head.' 14. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me. 15. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab centre said: 'Keep off the grass.' 16. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, 'No change yet.' 17. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion. 18. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large. 19. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran. 20. A backward poet writes inverse. 21. In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes. 22. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion. 23. Don't join dangerous cults: practice safe sects! (Contribution from Nina Sullivan, 3rd yr BCHM student) Contact details If you have items of news or interest that you would like included in the Department of Chemistry newsletter, then contact Rachael Hocking before noon on Thursday at; rachael.hocking@canterbury.ac.nz or phone 364-2100 / extension 6100.