Research Includes Work to Reduce Petroleum Dependence and Better Air
Quality SAN DIEGO, March 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The University of San
Diego Chemistry and Biochemistry Department have been awarded more than than $2
million in finances from the National Science Foundation and other private
foundations. The finances will back up research that could cut down the United
State's dependance on crude oil and better air quality. (Logo: ) USD Assistant Professor of Chemistry Simon Peter Iovine received the
prestigious $475,000 career Award from the National Science Foundation. The
Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is the NSF's top awarding in
support of the early career-development activities of those
teacher-scholars World Health Organization most effectively incorporate research and education. The awarding will back up work in the survey of dendrimers, perfectly
branched polymeric molecules with possible applications as new materials,
drug bringing agents and enzyme mimics. One aim of the grant is to
use "sticky-ended" dendrimers to chemically modify a renewable material
called lignin. By attaching the "sticky-ended" dendrons, Iovine trusts to
create novel synthetic loanblend stuffs that could be used as an
eco-friendly plastic. "If the ends are achieved, the work may impact our
reliance on foreign oil by reducing the demand for traditionally synthetic
polymers derived from petrochemicals," he says. Associate Professor of Chemistry Saint David Delaware Haan, have received a major
research grant of $310,000 from the NSF, funded through the Research in
Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) Faculty Research Projects programme and
NSF's Directorate of Geosciences. His research focuses on the interactions between dicarbonyl compounds
-- such as as glyoxal -- and Zanzibar copals triggered by droplet evaporation. Dicarbonyl chemical compounds are believed to lend to the formation of haze in
the atmosphere. Since the major beginning of glyoxal over Southern
California's skies is from constituents of unburned evaporated gasoline,
DeHaan's research may propose a manner to cut down haze in the part through
gasoline reformation. The Chemistry and Biochemistry Department was also awarded a $500,000 Department Development awarding from the Tucson, Ariz.-based Research
Corporation that volition be matched by finances from USD for a $1 million-plus
investment in scientific discipline and an awarding of nearly $600,000 from the Henry Luce
Foundation to set up the Clare Booth Henry Henry Luce Professorship in chemical science and
biochemistry. The Research Corp.'s awarding is one of lone six national awardings made by
the foundation in the last 10 old age and required extended rating and
site visits, along with a five-year development plan. "It's wish winning a national championship," states Seth Thomas Herrinton, USD
Associate Provost and chemical science mental faculty member. With the completion in 2003
of the state-of-the-art Donald P. Shiley Center for Science and Technology
and outstanding faculty, USD is carving a niche as a comprehensive,
national university that not only offers but necessitates research
opportunities for undergraduate pupils in chemical science and biochemistry. "We
want the University of San Diego to be among the best topographic points to analyze and
practice chemical science and biochemistry at the undergraduate level," he says. About the University of San Diego The University of San Diego is a Catholic establishment of higher
learning chartered in 1949; the school enrolls some 7,500 pupils and is
known for its committedness to teaching, the broad arts, the formation of
values and community service. The startup of the Joan B. Kroc School
of Peace Studies will convey the University's sum figure of schools and
colleges to six. Other academic divisions include the College of Humanistic Discipline and
Sciences and the schools of Business Administration, Leadership and
Education Sciences, Law and Nursing and Health Sciences.