www.chem.plu.edu 1 Swank retirement symposium / dinner Students, alumni, and colleagues participated in Dr. Duane Swank’s symposium and dinner. Page 4 My first visit to Pacific Lutheran was shortly after the famous Columbus Day storm (October 12, 1962). I was on campus to visit a close friend. Fast forward a few years to March, 1970. I was once again on campus, but this time to interview for a faculty position in the department of chemistry. Meeting with the members of the department was a delightful experience and I was struck by how thoughtful and engaged the students were. Dwight Zulauf gave me a tour of the computing facilities and President Wiegman provided an overview of the university, especially its culture and goals. While on interview I stayed in the guest room of Hinderlie hall. Upon my return to my room after dinner with the department, I was invited by one of the students, to attend a candle ceremony. I was curious, not knowing anything about a “candle ceremony,” so I said yes. Of course, I found out it was to honor one of the young women that had become engaged and part of the ceremony was the passing of a candle on which the engagement ring had been placed. This was my introduction to PLU and its students. September, 1970 - it all began in earnest. My first Faculty Fall Conference, held at Crystal Mountain, was a two and a half day affair providing a great opportunity to meet PLU faculty and to learn much more about the University. I came away knowing that I had made the right decision when I accepted the offer the join the chemistry department. That first year was a learning experience. All members of the Department attended chapel on a regular basis, sitting in the front row. After chapel a number of faculty met in the University Center for coffee, along with campus pastor Don Taylor. During the 1970’s most members of the department were engaged in teaching during Interim (now J-Term). Burt Nesset co-taught a course called “On Becoming Human,” Bob Olsen taught a course on Students and faculty attend the national ACS meeting in San Francisco A dozen students and five faculty attended with many presenting posters or talks. Page 3 Lights, camera, action! PLU faculty put digital video to work in teaching Drs. Justin Lytle and Neal Yakelis have been awarded a PLU grant to support the use of digital video in the chemistry curriculum. Page 5 Spring 2010 www.chem.plu.edu Lutetium Seniors present capstone seminars Eleven seniors presented their capstone research seminars this spring. Page 4 Meet our newest faculty members! Welcome to Dr. Andrea Munro (Physical Chemistry) and Dr. Tina Saxowsky (Biochemistry). They will join us in the fall. Page 7 Fromage, käse, queijo, cheese? Different languages but the same chemistry Dr. Justin Lytle lectured about the chemical side of cheese. Page 6 The PLU Chemistry Department Newsletter Duane Swank: Reflections on 40 Years of Service My first visit to Pacific Lutheran was shortly after the famous Columbus Day storm... by Duane Swank
Transcript
www.chem.plu.edu 1
Swank retirement symposium / dinnerStudents, alumni, and colleagues participated in Dr. Duane Swank’s symposium and dinner.
Page 4
My first visit to Pacific Lutheran was shortly after the famous Columbus Day storm (October 12, 1962). I was on campus to visit a close friend. Fast forward a few years to March, 1970. I was once again on campus, but this time to interview for a faculty position in the
department of chemistry. Meeting with the members of the department was a delightful experience and I was struck by how thoughtful and engaged the students were. Dwight Zulauf gave me a tour of the computing facilities and President Wiegman provided an overview of the university, especially its culture and goals. While on interview I stayed in the guest room of Hinderlie hall. Upon my return to my room after dinner with the department, I was invited by one of the students, to attend a candle ceremony. I was curious, not knowing anything about a “candle ceremony,” so I said yes. Of course, I found out it was to honor one of the young women that had become engaged and part of the ceremony was the passing of a candle on which the engagement ring had been placed. This was my introduction to PLU and its students.
September, 1970 - it all began in earnest. My first Faculty Fall Conference, held at Crystal Mountain, was a two and a half day affair providing a great opportunity to meet PLU faculty and to learn much more about the University. I came away knowing that I had made the right decision when I accepted the offer the join the chemistry department. That first year was a learning experience. All members of the Department attended chapel on a regular basis, sitting in the front row. After chapel a number of faculty met in the University Center for coffee, along with campus pastor Don Taylor.
During the 1970’s most members of the department were engaged in teaching during Interim (now J-Term). Burt Nesset co-taught a course called “On Becoming Human,” Bob Olsen taught a course on
Students and faculty attend the national ACS meeting in San FranciscoA dozen students and five faculty attended with many presenting posters or talks. Page 3
Lights, camera, action! PLU faculty put digital video to work in teachingDrs. Justin Lytle and Neal Yakelis have been awarded a PLU grant to support the use of digital video in the chemistry curriculum.
Page 5
Spring 2010 www.chem.plu.edu
Lutetium
Seniors present capstone seminarsEleven seniors presented their capstone research seminars this spring.
Page 4
Meet our newest faculty members!Welcome to Dr. Andrea Munro (Physical Chemistry) and Dr. Tina Saxowsky (Biochemistry). They will join us in the fall. Page 7
Fromage, käse, queijo, cheese? Different languages but the same chemistryDr. Justin Lytle lectured about the chemical side of cheese.
Page 6
The PLU Chemistry Department Newsletter
Duane Swank: Reflections on 40 Years of ServiceMy first visit to Pacific Lutheran was shortly after the famous Columbus Day storm...
Pacific Lutheran University - Department of Chemistry
2 www.chem.plu.edu
A l c h e m y a n d Astrology, and one
year Fred Tobiason and I taught a non-chemistry majors “Instrumental Analysis” course, designed for biology majors, and students interested in medical and dental studies. For several years I taught a culinary chemistry class during Interim. When the Integrated Studies Program (Core II) was created, department members regularly taught courses in the program as well as in other interdisciplinary programs such as Environmental Studies. Also, department faculty participated in campus leadership positions; something department faculty have continued to do over these many decades. I also discovered the importance the department placed on undergraduate research. Thanks, initially, to the efforts and foresight of Chuck Anderson, NSF and other funding agencies provided department funding in support of undergraduate research, in which I participated during my first years. In order to carry out x-ray diffraction studies, Cap Jacobs (physics) and I moved into the old women’s locker room in Memorial Gym. There was no room in Ramstad for either of our items of equipment. We were also among the first, if not the first, department to require a senior capstone presentation. Now, capstones have become a university requirement for all departments.
Major change came to the department when, after many years of discussion and planning, we vacated Ramstad Hall in January 1985 and moved into the new Rieke Science Center. This was a dream culmination of a 1966 consultant’s report on the need for a new science facility. There appears to be an unwritten code that it takes around 20 years from conception to birth of a new building. The Rieke Science Center is one example and The Mary Baker Russell Music Center, envisioned in 1978 and completed in 1998, is another.
The chemistry department spent many years before construction of Rieke planning and designing a curriculum for an
Open lab style program.
The 1980’s continued to see changes in the Department. NSF and other grants e x p a n d e d instructional and research equipment, and faculty research continued to grow. Opportunities for students to continue sciences studies off c a m p u s a l s o expanded with the creation of a joint p r o g r a m a t Chengdu, China. Organic chemistry
and physics were available to PLU students at Chengdu, taught by PLU faculty. Chuck Anderson, Bill Giddings, and Fred Tobiason participated in the program over the years. I was honored to be elected Chair of the Division of Natural Sciences during this period. At the end of the 1980’s PLU celebrated its Centennial. I had the privilege of participating in the creation of the Natural Sciences’ contribution to the Centennial program and chairing a session involving notable scientists including Drs. Jonas Salk and William Foege.
The 1990’s saw a change in PLU leadership when Dr. Loren Anderson became president. Chuck Anderson and Fred Tobiason retired and PLU experienced a decline in student enrollment. As a result of these declines the department lost one faculty position. This loss significantly decreased our ability to contribute faculty to programs outside the department. However, out of this challenge has come opportunity. The university and the department now create annual goals as well as long-range plans, and they have created better assessment tools to measure program and student successes and to inform change. During this period PLU started a summer Advanced Placement Institute. Since 1990, I have taught AP chemistry teachers during the one week Institute and participated in other College Board AP programs.
Six faculty, Drs. Anderson, Giddings, Huestis, Nesset, Tobiason, and myself had been at PLU from at least 1970 until 1991. Since that period the department has seen several faculty come and go. Of those now actively teaching in chemistry, Dr. Craig Fryhle is the longest serving member with 24 years of service.
What I have observed during the past decades is a great vitality in the Department. Many curricular changes have occurred, much new equipment has been acquired, and department faculty have played significant leadership roles throughout the University. It has been my pleasure to serve as Department Chair, Dean of Natural Sciences, Chair of Environmental Studies, Director of Interdisciplinary Programs, and on many university committees. Through these positions I have come to know much more about the PLU faculty and to appreciate their dedication to teaching. No matter how much change has occurred in the department, one thing has remained constant; the desire to provide students with a high quality chemistry education and an opportunity to do research with a faculty member. These have been a signature of the department for many decades.
Now I leave full time teaching. However, I leave the department in excellent hands. I wish all members of the department, including the new cohort of faculty, all the best, and I hope that their careers at PLU are as rich and rewarding as mine has been. Though I retire, I hope to continue contributing as much as I can to further student education at PLU.
... Duane Swank Reflections continued
Pacific Lutheran University - Department of Chemistry
3 www.chem.plu.edu
A record number of PLU Chemistry students and faculty were able to attend national professional meetings to present their research this year. In March, a dozen Lutes accompanied by five faulty members flew to
the Bay Area to join the other 18,000+ attendees of the 239th American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting held in San Francisco, CA. Senior Gregory Peterson (’10) was selected to give an oral presentation in the Undergraduate Research in Polymer Science
session, and Melisa Farias (’10) co-presented with her research mentor Neal Yakelis in the Organic New Reactions and Methodology session. Erik Arnits (’11), Jessica Dottl (’11), Adrienne Hollister (’11), Erin Madden (’11), Ashley Marshall (’12), Morgan Ostendorf (’12), and Emily Tollefson (’11) presented posters about their student-faculty research projects. Faculty members Craig Fryhle, Justin Lytle, Brian Naasz, Dean Waldow, and Neal Yakelis each contributed oral presentations to the technical program as well. The Chem Club (our ACS Student Chapter) was represented by officers Julia Rutherford (’12), Eric Boze (’11), and Joshua Siverson (’11) at the Sci-Mix Student Chapter Poster Session. The PLU Chem Club also received an Honorable Mention Award plaque for its activities last year. In addition to their presentations, students attended talks on "Chemistry for a Sustainable World" by speakers such as Jean-Michel Cousteau (Ocean Futures Society), Nobel Prize winner Robert Grubbs (California Institute of Technology), and others. The group got to indulge in some amazing food and sights in Chinatown, Telegraph Hill, and the Mission District.
Other Meetings: The Lutes have attended other conferences during the Spring Term as well. In April, Alayna Linde (’10) presented a talk entitled “What Makes an Environmental Argument Convincing? Measuring the Impact of Scientific, Economic, and Ethical Approaches to the Clean Coal Debate” at the 24th National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) at the University of
Montana in Missoula. She and co-presenter Rebecca Krzmarzick (’10) completed this student-faculty research project under the
mentorship of Brian Naasz as well as Kevin O’Brien (religion) and Suzan Harmon (business). In May, PLU was well-represented at the annual ACS Puget Sound Section Undergraduate Research Symposium on the windswept campus of Central Washington University in Ellensburg. Gregory Peterson had another opportunity to share his work on binary tetrablock copolymers in an oral presentation. Many of the research students mentioned above presented their posters at this conference, and two Lutes – Yuanqing Tang (’12) and Erik Arnits (’11) – were the lucky winners of a raffle for copies of the Merck Index. We congratulate all of the students and faculty in their research endeavors and acknowledge the generous support of the PLU Natural Sciences Division and the National Science Foundation for funding the travel to these conferences.
- Neal Yakelis
ACS National Meeting and Others!Students and faculty attended the spring meeting of the ACS in San Francisco, California presenting posters and talks.
D E P A R T M E N T O F C H E M I S T R Y
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Capstone Celebration Week!Capstone presentations were given this year by eleven seniors during the week of academic festival. The presentations occurred in the afternoons and featured a wide variety of topics (organic synthesis, polymer chemistry, ionic liquids, and more) that students pursued as laboratory or literature research. Please visit our website to see their titles and abstracts. The student presentations were thirty minutes long with questions following.
http://www.chem.plu.edu/capstone2010
Pacific Lutheran University - Department of Chemistry
Share your Alumni Information with Us!We would love to know what is happening in your life. Feel free to fill out and mail this form below (or a copy). If you prefer, you can just email the information to the department! Please include your last name at graduation as well if it has changed and any other information you care to share.
Check this box if it is OK to share this information.
Retirement Symposium and Dinner Held in Honor of Duane Swank
As many of you know, Professor Duane Swank began phased retirement this fall. We celebrated Duane’s distinguished 40-year career with a symposium and banquet in his honor on Saturday May 8th. Events were attended by alumni, students, colleagues, and administrators.
The symposium was held in Leraas Lecture Hall of Rieke Science Center. Presentations were given by alumni that included Peter Anderson, Ph.D. (‘01); Gregory Cain, M.D. (’76); Clinton Dahlberg (’07); Thomas P. Fuesler, Ph.D. (‘78); Rick Kiene (‘72); Deanna Dahlke Ojennus, Ph.D. (‘95); Jeffrey Probstfield, MD, (’63); Richard Rogers, Ph.D. (‘98); Fred L. Tobiason, Ph.D. (’58); Joseph Tobiason, Ph.D. (’86); and Laurie L. Wood, Ph.D. (‘93). Topics ranged from science in health care to nanoscale technology, natural products, biochemistry, and molecular modeling. For a complete list of titles and abstracts, please see the link to the Swank Symposium at the Chemistry Department Home Page.
The banquet was held in the Scandinavian Cultural Center, located in the University Center. The evening featured a tribute to Duane and his career by Professor Sheri Tonn (PLU V.P. Finance and Operations and long-time Chemistry Department colleague), as well as a video honoring Duane sent by Clayton Cowl, M.D. (’88) of the Mayo Clinic. Photos from the events are in the department’s online photo gallery. A great day of celebration was enjoyed by all, and through it we reiterated our thanks and best wishes to Duane for his many years of dedication and service to PLU. - Craig Fryhle
Congratulations Dr. Swank!
2010 Graduating Seniors!
Alayne Linde Eric BrauserErin FogartyGreg Peterson
Jaclyn Lemon Liliya Shcherbina Edmund Valentin Emilie Sunde Nadya Kosanovskaya Jacob Berman
Pacific Lutheran University Department of Chemistry
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N O T E F R O M T H E C H A I R
Greetings, alumni and friends of the PLU Chemistry Department,
It is my pleasure to invite you to read about a number of milestones and events in the Chemistry
Department since last year’s newsletter. We hope you will enjoy this update.
Professor Duane Swank completed his last year of full-time teaching and has begun phased retirement. We celebrated Duane and his rich career with a symposium and banquet
on May 8. Events were attended by alumni, students, friends, and colleagues. Participation by a number of you helped make it a very special day for Duane and all of us.
Last year we conducted two tenure-track faculty searches. As a result, two very fine individuals are joining the department this year. Dr. Andrea Munro is a new physical chemist. Dr. Tina Saxowsky joins us as a new biochemist. You will find brief biographical sketches about them in this newsletter. We are delighted that they are joining our faculty team.
A large number of PLU chemistry students and faculty presented research at national meetings this year, including the spring national meeting of the American Chemical Society (San Francisco) and the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (Bozeman, Montana). Vigorous research programs continued under the direction of several faculty and included grant support from the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Our new 500 MHz NMR ($743,190) was fully integrated into our research, teaching, and outreach activities, fulfilling the plans in our NSF proposal that helped earn this very special level of funding. The department has been involved in planning for a much-needed renovation of Rieke Science Center, intended to follow closely on creation of the beautiful space that now houses the new NMR. We have identified our critical needs for space and we have dreams for the renovation, but so far the realities of funding tell a somewhat different story regarding what might actually be possible. It is a positive sign that enrollments continue to be high, however. Last year we graduated one of our largest classes. The strong level of student interest in chemistry stretches our facilities and resources, but it provides much satisfaction in our work, as well.
NORM 2009 Conference held at PLU was a success!June 28th to July 1st, 2009, the chemistry department hosted the ACS Northwest Regional
Meeting (NORM 2009). Four members of the chemistry department led the effort: Craig Fryhle (Chair), Dean Waldow (Program Chair), Neal Yakelis (Treasurer), and Terry Nicksic (Exhibits Chair). The NORM 2009 meeting was attended by nearly 350 chemists and featured 17 exhibitors.
The program included a variety of themes ranging from Chemistry, Energy, and Sustainability, to Novel Polymer Science for Modern Applications. Keynote speakers included Professor Neil Kelleher (PLU, 1992) from the University of Illinois and Professor Daniel Nocera from MIT. The meeting also included a “Green” Chem Demo, a “Wizards of Chemistry” show, and a presentation of “Madame Curie” by Carole Berg. - Dean Waldow
http://www.chem.plu.edu/norm2009/
Pacific Lutheran University - Department of Chemistry
NORM 2009: The meeting was held primarily in the Morken Center for Teaching and Learning. There were nearly 350 attendees and 17 vendors. A number of workshops and special events were also held during the meeting.
The Chemistry Club had another very active year hosting outreach and service events such as our Mole Day Eve Spooktacular, Desserts and Demos, hands-on activities for the Tacoma chapter of MESA (Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement for middle and high school students), and helping with environmental analyses for the PLU Garden Club. The club received an award in San Francisco from the American Chemical Society for their work and activities in the preceding year.
We hope you will enjoy the updates in this newsletter. My thanks go to Dean Waldow for his help to produce it. We also invite you to peruse our departmental web pages to learn more
about student and faculty activities and accomplishments (www.chem.plu.edu). All of my faculty colleagues continue to give of themselves professionally and personally to the great benefit of our students in many ways. I am honored to work with such a fine group.
This year’s external funding news!We are grateful for the support that we have received
from various external funding agencies. Here is a list of the currently funded grants and awards for the 2009-2010 year. Thanks to our colleagues for the proposal writing!• Justin Lytle, "Order vs. Disorder: Does Pore Geometry Affect the Electrochemical Performance of
Carbon Electrode Nanoarchitectures?", ACS Petroleum Research Fund Award, #50094-UN110, Year 1, $50,000.
• Craig Fryhle, Dean Waldow, and Neal Yakelis, “Acquisition of a 500 MHz Solid State NMR Spectrometer for Research and Research Training at Pacific Lutheran University and the South Puget Sound Area”, NSF Major Research Instrumentation Award, #0723226, Year 3, $743,179.
• Dean Waldow and Craig Fryhle, Research Start-up Grant for New Science Faculty, Physical Chemistry Position (Andrea Munro), M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust, $25,000.
• Dean Waldow, “Compatibilization Studies of Bulk and Thin Film Polymer Blends with Copolymer Additives”, NSF Research in Undergraduate Institutions Award, #1006250, Year 1, $98,000.
Pacific Lutheran University - Department of Chemistry
Lights! Camera! Action! Online video learning modules in PLU’s chemistry curriculum
PLU Chemistry faculty Justin Lytle and Neal Yakelis were recently awarded a grant from PLU’s Digital Media Center to purchase a video camera, software, and hard drives to supplement the Chemistry curriculum with video content. Much like attempting a new cooking recipe as seen on television, chemistry reactions tend to go much more smoothly if students can visualize
an experiment’s procedure from start to finish. Department faculty will record the essential steps and accompanying safety information of our laboratory experiments, and we will make this footage available through the Department’s website. Online chemistry lab tutorials are already successful at other undergraduate institutions, and nineteen networked computer stations are currently available in PLU’s Open Lab to supplement the information in our experiment handouts. We anticipate that the video content will be a useful hands-on guide, will improve student understanding of basic chemical principles, and will augment our chemical safety. The grant has also secured software to capture video directly from faculty computer desktops, so that Chemistry faculty can efficiently teach students to use common software (Microsoft Office, IgorPro, ChemSketch, SciFinder Scholar, online course homework). As a pilot test during the Spring 2010 semester, a video tutorial of using Excel to create graphs of lab data was popular with our General Chemistry students, and we hope to increase our students’ comprehension in many of the finer points of the sciences. - Justin Lytle and Neal Yakelis
The Delicious Chemistry of CheeseHow does something as seemingly simple as milk transform into hundreds of tasty cheeses? Elise Erickson (Campus Ministry), Erica Fickeisen (Dining Services), and Prof. Justin Lytle (Chemistry) eulogized moo juice in an hour-long presentation on April 28th about the finer points of fromage, and turophiles from PLU’s community were on hand to savor many—and sometimes challenging—cheeses. Milk itself is surreptitiously complex. Different flavors, aromas, and textures of cheese are born from: 1) the distinctive amounts of proteins, fats, and sugars in milks from different mammals; 2) the accompanying floral compounds in forage that is eaten in different environments and at different times of the year by our lactating ruminant friends; and
3) the state of enzymes and proteins in milk depending on whether or how the milk was pasteurized. Miss Muffet probably didn’t realize that the chymosin enzyme in rennet clips kappa casein proteins off of casein micelles in milk, curdling the milk into a gelatinous web of protein and watery whey. After draining the soluble whey and salting for flavor and sanitation, curds controllably age (a.k.a. rot) in climate controlled conditions by incubating molds and bacterial cultures. In this way, the complex biological molecules of milk gradually transform into simplified organic compounds with distinct flavors and textures that so many of us crave.
- Justin Lytle
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Photographs from the 2009 Mole Day Eve ‘Spook’tacular event during National Chemistry Week.
Pacific Lutheran University Department of Chemistry
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Pacific Lutheran University - Department of Chemistry
N E W F A C U LT Y P R O F I L E
Dr. Andrea Munro attended the University of Washington where she obtained both her B.S. in Chemistry and a dual Ph.D. in Chemistry and Nanotechnology. She was awarded a National Science Foundation American Competitiveness in Chemistry postdoctoral fellowship and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Chemistry department at the University of Arizona. Her research
interests have focused on the characterization of CdSe nanocrystal quantum dot photoluminescence and on determining the effect of the surface ligands on the energy levels of CdSe nanocrystals. She has worked on collaborations incorporating nanocrystals in light-emitting diodes and photovoltaics. Most recently, Andrea has been performing research to measure the energy levels of nanocrystals and organic molecules at material interfaces. When two materials are brought together dipoles and interfacial states can form as the chemical potentials of the materials align. As part of her postdoctoral fellowship, she has been developing and distributing science and math activities that will be incorporated into the curriculum for 2nd-5th grade classes in the Tucson Unified School District. Besides her interest in physical chemistry, Andrea enjoys hiking, walking her dog, and cooking and she is excited about being back in the Northwest!
Department of ChemistryRieke Science CenterPacific Lutheran [email protected]
FacultyCraig B. Fryhle, Professor, ChairJustin Lytle, Assistant ProfessorAndrea Munro, Assistant ProfessorBrian Naasz, Clinical Assistant ProfessorStacia M. Rink, Faculty FellowTina Saxowsky, Assistant ProfessorSheri J. Tonn, PLU VP of Finance and Op., ProfessorDean A. Waldow, ProfessorNeal Yakelis, Assistant Professor
Pacific Lutheran University1010 122nd St. S.Tacoma, WA 98447www.plu.edu
In AppreciationWe would like to extend a gracious note of thanks to the public donors that we know of at this point for their support of the Chemistry Department this year.Dr. Robert and Anna Kreiger Dr. Larry and Bonnie HeustisAnonymousGeorgia ('59) and Denis BaileyNorthwest Marine Chemist, Inc.Estate of Alice T. TobiasonJerry ('54) and Lois ('59) SheffelsRichard Olsen ('59)Thomas ('78) and Susan FueslerAnonymousJill Whitman and Donald MarseeCraig and Deanna Fryhle
H. Eugene ('62) and Carla ('64) LeMayCharles and Margaret AndersonSheri and Jeffrey TonnRichard ('83) and Leesa CoynerRobert ('67) and Anasthasia KriegerGeorge ('72) and Delphine BlairMichael and Judi RashCarol Ann Quigg ('58)Fred ('58) and Dorothy TobiasonSusan and Lars LidenMelissa ('78) and Gregory ('76) Cain
In addition to general gifts to the department, the following endowments and funds are additional options for giving.Robert C. Olsen FundAlumni grateful for Dr. Robert C. Olsen's inspired teaching established the Robert C. Olsen Chemistry Fund in 1974.
Charles and Ann Laubach FundThe Charles and Ann Laubach Student Research, Scholarship, and Equipment Fund was established in 1987 by the Laubach family.
Ramstad Scholarship FundThe Anders and Emma Ramstad Scholarship Fund was established by family, friends and former students.
Dr. Fred L. Tobiason Endowment for Faculty/Student Science ResearchEstablished by Chuck and Ann Laubach in honor of Professor Fred L. Tobiason.
The Fred L. and Dorothy A. Tobiason Endowment for Faculty/Student Environmental ResearchThis fund was established with a gift from Alice T. Tobiason to honor Fred L. and Dorothy A. Tobiason.
N E W F A C U LT Y P R O F I L E
Dr. Tina Saxowsky spent her childhood in Rock Springs, Wyoming and attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. At Lewis and Clark she took full advantage of opportunities presented by a small liberal arts environment, such as playing varsity volleyball, doing community service projects with the local Circle K chapter, and spending a semester studying in Russia before
ultimately majoring in chemistry. Her interests at the interface between chemistry and biology led her to graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland as a Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellow. She was engrossed by the chemical details of how life proceeds at the molecular level. After completing her Ph.D. in 2003 Dr. Saxowsky undertook a postdoctoral fellowship funded by a Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. There she was able to feed her passion for biochemistry while also pursuing her interest in teaching. She looks forward to continuing to meld these two topics at PLU. Her research interests focus on the balance between DNA damage and repair, and the potential biological consequences of the accumulation of unrepaired DNA damage.
