College of Arts & Sciences
Graduate News
Notable accomplishments of our graduate students.
Mr. John Sansone has successfully defended his Thesis
Mr. Sansone has successfully completed his Thesis entitled "The Kinetics of Epoxidation of Alpha-Beta-Unsaturated Ester by Dimethyldioxirane: A Mechanistic Study" under the direction of Professor Al Baumstark and Professor Pedro Vasquez.
Dr. Peter Kuklenyik has successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Kuklenyik has successfully completed his dissertation entitled "Detection and Quantification of Organophosphate Pesticides in Human Serum" under the direction of Professor Gabor Patonay. His is the 114th PhD awarded by the Georgia State University Chemistry Department.
Dr. Julianne Caton-Williams has successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Caton-Williams has successfully completed her dissertation entitled "Synthesis and Enzymatic Studies of Selenium Derivatized Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids" under the direction of Professor Zhen Huang. Hers is the 113th PhD awarded by the Georgia State University Chemistry Department.
Dr. Rong Fu has successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Rong Fu has successfully completed her dissertation entitled "Biochemical and Spectroscopic Characterization of Tryptophan Oxygenation: Tryptophan 2,3-Dioxygenase and MauG" under the direction of Professor Aimin Liu.
Miss Emilia Elangwe successfully defended her thesis
Miss Emilia Elangwe has successfully completed her thesis entitled "Site Directed Mutagenesis, Expression and Enzymatic Studies of the Human HIV-Tat 1 Interactive Protein, Tip60" under the direction of Professor Yujun George Zheng. Currently the Department is graduating 20 or more MS's per year, placing the Department in the top 10 nationally in MS production.
Dr. Osbourne Quaye has successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Osbourne Quaye has successfully completed his dissertation entitled "On the Pre-Organization of the Active Site of Choline Oxidase for the Hydride Transfer and Tunneling Mechanism" under the direction of Professor Giovanni Gadda.
Dr. Rong Fu has successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Rong Fu has successfully completed her dissertation entitled "Biochemical and Spectroscopic Characterization of Tryptophan Oxygenation: Tryptophan 2,3-Dioxygenase and MauG" under the direction of Professor Professor Aimin Liu.
Dr. Senol Akay has successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Senol Akay has successfully completed his dissertation entitled "Synthesis and Evaluation of Dual Wavelength Fluorescent Benzo[b]thiophene Boronic Acid Derivatives for Sugar Sensing and Synthesis of Diamidines and Arylimidamides as DNA minor Groove Binders and Antiparasitic Agents" under the joint direction of Professor Professor Binghe Wang and Professor David Boykin.
Dr. Xiaoguang Qu has successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Xiaoguang (Sunny) Qu has successfully completed her dissertation entitled "NMR Study of Sructure and Orientation of S4-S5 Linker Peptides from Shaw Related Potassium Ion Channels in Micelles and Binding of ZNF29R Protein to HIV RREIIBTR RNA" under the direction of Professor Markus Germann.
Dr. Sarah Shealy Cepeda has successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Sarah Shealey Cepedahas successfully completed her dissertation entitled "Metal-Assisted Hydrolysis of Biological Molecules" under the direction of Professor Kathy Grant.
Miss Yidan Liu successfully defended her thesis
Miss Yidan Liu has successfully completed her thesis entitled "A Novel Method for the Quantitative Evaluation of Fibrinogen Coagulation" under the direction of Eminent Scholar Professor Binghe Wang. She received departmental honors for her M.S. project.
Dr. Shan Jin successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Shan Jin has successfully completed his dissertation entitled "Development of Boronic Acid-Based Chemosensors" under the direction of Eminent Scholar Professor Binghe Wang.
Miss Adriana P. Castiblanco successfully defended her thesis
Adriana P. Castiblanco Alfonso has successfully completed her thesis entitled "Expression and Purification of Engineered Calcium Binding Proteins" under the direction of Professor Jenny Yang.
Miss Denise Tevis successfully defended her thesis
Denise Tevis has successfully completed the M.S. degree: thesis title "Heterocyclic Diamidines Induce Sequence Dependent Topological Changes in DNA: A Study Using Gel Electrophoresis" under the direction of Regents Professor Dave Wilson.
Dr. Jia Sheng successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Jia Sheng has successfully defended his dissertation on the "Synthesis of Selenium and Tellurium Derivatized Nucleic Acids for Structure/Function Studies" under the direction of Professor Huang.
Mr. Ha Nguyen successfully defended his thesis
Ha Nguyen has successfully defended his thesis entitled "Structural Factors that Influence the Inhibition of Type II Restriction Enzyme by Minor Groove Binders" under the direction of Regents Professor Dave Wilson.
Chemistry Graduate Studies Award Winners
- Catharine Collar (Dr. W. David Wilson's Group): "David W. Boykin Graduate
Fellowship in Medicinal Chemistry" - Yidan Liu (Dr. Binghe Wang's Group): "2008 Graduate Award for Outstanding
Research at the Thesis Masters Level" - Kevin Francis (Dr. Giovanni Gadda's Group): "Ambrose H. Pendergrast Fellowship"
- Hongxia Pei (Dr. Stuart Allison's Group): "2008 Graduate Award for
Outstanding Research at the Doctoral Level" - Jia Sheng (Dr. Zheng Huang's Group): "2008 Graduate Award for Outstanding
Research at the Doctoral Level and Best Overall Chemistry Graduate Student"
Mr. Bin Wang successfully defended his thesis
Bin Wang has successfully defended his thesis entitled "Utility of Cationic and Anionic Chiral Sufactants in Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) and CE Coupled to Mass Spectrometry (CE-MS)" under the direction of Professor Shamsi. Bin will officially graduate this Spring.
Dr. Nancy Yun Huang successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Nancy Yun Huang has successfully defended her dissertation entitled "Integration of Extracellular and Intracellular Calcium Signals: Roles of Calcium-Sensing Receptor (CASR), Calmodulin and Stromal Interaction Molecule 1 (STIM1)" under the direction of Professor Jenny Yang. Congratulations.
Mr. Daniel Joshua Rabinowitz successfully defended his thesis
Mr. Daniel Joshua Rabinowitz has successfully completed his M.S. thesis entitled "Electrochemical Studies of Substituted Anthraquinones" under the direction of Professor Tom Netzel and Professor Dabney Dixon. We wih continued success for Daniel.
Dr. Maryam Rahimian successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Maryam Rahimian has successfully defended her dissertation entitled "Binding, Bending And G Jumping In The Minor Groove: Experimental And Theoretical Approaches" under the direction of Regents Professor Dave Wilson. Congratulations.
Dr. Ning Chen successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Ning Chen has successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Design Genetic Fluorescent Probes to Detect Protease Activity and Calcium-dependent Protein-protein Interactions in Living Cells” under the direction of Professor Jenny Yang. Dr. Chen will be leaving to take a postdoctoral position at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
Dr. Reham Abou-Elkhair successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Reham Abou-Elkhair has successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Synthesis of Anthraquinone Derivatives and their Conjugates With 2'-Deoxynucleosides as New Probes for Electron Transfer Studies In DNA” under the direction of Professor Tom Netzel. Dr. Abou-Elkhair is the 100th Ph.D. in Chemistry.
Dr. Patra Volarath successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Patra Volarath has successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation entitled "Application of Term-Rewriting Grammar in Chemical Reaction Prediction" under the direction of Professor Robert Harrison (Computer Science). Congratulations to Dr. Volarath, we wish her well.
Dr. Prashanth Athri successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Prashanth Athri has successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation entitled "Application of Computer-Aided Drug Discovery Methodologies Towards the Rational Design of Drugs Against Infectious Diseases" under the direction of Professor Dave Wilson. Congratulations to Dr. Athri, we wish him well. .
Vasim Momin successfully defended his thesis
Vasim Momin successfully defended his thesis entitled "The Analysis of Antimicrobial Testing Vinetoxicum stockii and the Isolation of a Highly Active Compound Against Candida albicans" under the direction of Dr. Keith Pascoe.
Ahmad Khan successfully defended his thesis
Ahmad Khan successfully defended his thesis entitled "Cyclic Enzymatic Solid Phase Synthesis of DNA Oligonucleotides on an Epoxide-Activated Resin." under the direction of Dr. Markus Germann.
Dr. Brian Sook successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Brian Sook successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation entitled "I. Characterization of Sulfonated Phthalocyanines by Mass Spectroscopy. II. Characterization of SIAA, a Streptococcal Heme-Binding Protein Associated with a Heme ABC Transport System" under the direction of Professor Dabney Dixon. Congratulations to Dr. Sook, we wish him well.
Osbourne Quaye on cover of Biochemistry
Chemistry PhD candidate, Osbourne Quaye makes the cover of Biochemistry, an ACS publication. The April, May and June 2008 covers of Biochemistry feature a figure taken from an article authored by Osbourne Quaye who is from Professor Gadda's research group. The crystal structure of choline oxidase is shown with color coding to indicate binding sites in which Glu312 was discovered to play an important role. Link to Abstract: http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/bichaw/2008/47/i01/abs/bi7017943.html
Slavica Mijatovic successfully defended her thesis
Congratulations to Slavica Mijatovic on the successful defenseof her M.S. thesis entitled "Oxidation of Alkyl Nitronates Catalyzed by 2-Nitropropane Dioxygenase from Hansenula mraki" under the direction of Professor Gadda.
Shan Jin and Yubin Zhou win the "2007 Graduate Award for Outstanding Research at the Doctoral Level"
We extend our sincere congratulations to Shan Jin of Professor Binghe Wang'sa group and Yubin Zhou of Professor Jenny Yang's group for winning the "2007 Graduate Award for Outstanding Research at the Doctoral Level".
Dr. Amy Watson successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Amy Watson has successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Binding Studies of Near Infrared Cyanine Dyes with Human Serum Albumin and Poly-L-Lysine Using Optical Spectroscopic Methods” under the direction of Professor Patonay. Congratulations to Dr. Watson, we wish her well.
Dr. Yubin Zhou successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Yubin Zhou has successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Exploring the Role of Calcium Ions in Biological Systems by Computational Prediction and Protein Engineering” under the direction of Professor Yang. Congratulations to Dr. Zhou, we wish him well.
Dr. Yao Xin successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Yao Xin has successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Electrokinetic Modeling of Free-Solution Electrophoresis” under the direction of Professor Allison. Congratulations to Dr. Xin, we wish her well.
Michelle Kim successfully defended her thesis
Michelle Kim successfully defended her thesis entitled "The Hydrolysis of Naphthalene Diimides" under the direction of Professor Dixon. Miss Kim will be joining a Ph.D. program at UC-Davis.
Dr. Miki Kassai successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Miki Kassai successfully defended her dissertation entitled "Zirconium(IV)-Assisted Peptide Hydrolysis" under the direction of Professor Grant. We wish her the best of luck in her career
Dr. Dean Norton successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Dean Norton successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Capillary Electrochromatography-Mass Spectrometry (CEC-MS) of Surfactants" under the direction Professor Shamsi. Dr. Norton has accepted an industrial position. We wish him the best of luck in his career.
Dr. Sandra Craig successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Sandra Craig successfully defended her dissertation entitled "The Design and Evaluation of Boronic Acid Derivatives for the Recognition of Cell Surface Carbohydrates for Medicinal Applications" under the direction Professor B. Wang. Dr. Craig's Ph.D. will officially graduate in December.
Dr. Charmita Burch has successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Charmita Burch successfully defended her dissertation entitled "The Extent of Perturbation of Skin Models by Transdermal Penetration Enhancers Investigated by 31P NMR and Fluorescence Spectroscopy" under the direction of Professor Smith. Dr. Burch has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor.
Mr. Michael Kirberger has successfully defended his M.S. thesis
Michael Kirberger successfully defended his thesis entitled "Analysis and Applications of Metalloprotein Complexes" under the direction of Professor Yang.
Dr. Tanya Myers has successfully defended her dissertation
Dr. Tanya Myers successfully defended her dissertation entitled "New Techniques for the Qualitative and Quantitative Measurement of Naturally-Occurring Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Analogues by Mass Spectroscopy" under the direction of Professor Patonay. Her research has been supported by a Solvay Supplemental Fellowship.
Dr. Hsiau-wei Lee has successfully defended his dissertation
Dr. Hsiau-wei Lee has successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Determining the Site-Specific Metal Binding and Structural Properties of EF-Hand Proteins Using Grafting Approach" under the direction of Professor Yang. Dr. Lee.s degree is the 85th Ph.D. awarded by the department. We wish Dr. Lee a very successful career
Kevin Francis wins Suddath Symposium Award
Kevin Francis was awarded third prize in the poster competition at the 15th Suddath Symposium at Georgia Tech. The symposium was called "DIRECTED MOLECULAR EVOLUTION MECHANISMS." The title of Kevin's poster was: "Role of the anionic flavosemiquinone in the reductive half-reaction of 2-nitropropane dioxygenase." Kevin is a first year Ph.D. student in Prof. Gadda's laboratory,
Dr. Beth White has successfully defended dissertation
Dr. Beth White has successfully defended her dissertation entitled Selective Recognition of Quadruplex DNA by Small Molecules under the direction of Regents Professor Dave Wilson. We wish her continued success.
Mr. Michael Bishop successfully defended M.S. thesis
Mr. Michael Bishophas successfully defended his thesis entitled The Application of Weak-Anion Exchange Chromatography for the Analysis of Organic Zwitterions Using LC/MS/MS under the direction of Professor Patonay.
Dr. Beth Wilson has successfully defended dissertation
Dr. Beth Wilson has successfully defended her dissertation entitled Syntheses and DNA Interactions of Acridine and Phenothiazine Based Photosensitizers under the direction of Professor Kathy Grant. Dr. Beth Wilson will be taking a postdoctoral position in San Diego at the end of the term.
Dr. Gurpreet Kaur has successfully defended dissertation
Dr. Gurpreet Kaur has successfully defended her dissertation entitled "Synthesis of Boronic Acid Sensors for Glucone and Synthesis of Novel and Selective PDE4 Enzyme Inhibitors" under the direction of Prof. Wang. Please congratulate Dr. Kaur on her excellent work. We wish her continued success.
Dr. Jack Zheng successfully defended dissertation
Dr. Jack Zheng successfully defended his dissertation entitled Development of Chiral/Achiral Analysis Methods for Use in CE and CE Coupled to M.S. under the direction of Professor Shamsi. Dr. Zheng has taken a lucrative industrial position.
Dr. Anila Gill successfully defended dissertation
Dr. Anila Gill successfully defended her dissertation entitled Insights into Sulfonated Phthalocyanines; Insights into Anionic Tetraaryl Phorphyrins; Irradiation of Cationic Metalloporphyrins Bound to DNA under the direction of Professor Dabney Dixon. Dr. Gill has accepted a position teaching at a private school.
Dr. Yi Miao successfully defended dissertation
Dr. Yi Miao successfully defended her dissertation entitled Shape-Dependent Molecular Recognition of Specific Sequences of DNA by Heterocyclic Cations under the direction of Professor Dave Wilson.
Ms. Jane Hoang successfully defended M.S. thesis
Ms. Jane Hoang successfully successfully defended her M.S. thesis entitled Inactivation of Choline Oxidase by Irreversible Inhibitors or Storage Conditions under the direction of Professor Gadda.
Dr. Yunfeng Tie successfully defended dissertation
Dr. Yunfeng (Tracy) Tie successfully defended her dissertation entitled Crystallographic Analyis and Kinetic Studies of HIV-1 Protease and Drug-Resistant Mutants under the direction of Professor Weber.
Lisa Jones wins Suddath Symposium First Place Prize Again
Once again Lisa Jones in Dr. Jenny J. Yang's group won first prize in the poster competition at the 14th Suddath Symposium of Signal Molecule Dynamics in Biology. The title of Lisa's poster this year is Structural Biology of a Novel Calcium Binding Proteins.
Dr. Mahmoud Ghanem successfully defended dissertation
Dr. Mahmoud Ghanem successfully defended his dissertation entitled On the mechanistic roles of the protein positive charge close to the N(1) flavin locus in choline oxidase under the direction of Professor Gadda.
Rafay Shareef successfully defended his M.S. thesis
Rafay Shareef has successfully defended his M.S. thesis entitled Synthesis Of Potential Anti-Leishmanial Dicationic Diaryldiamidnes under the direction of Professor Boykin.
Dr. April Ellis successfully defended dissertation
April Ellis successfully completed the defense of her dissertation entitled Rational Design of Calcium Biosensors under the direction of Professor Jenny Yang. Dr. Ellis will officially graduate in May of 2006. She will be the first Chemistry Brains and Behavior Fellow to complete the Ph.D. degree. Congratulations!
Dr. Fan Fan successfully defended dissertation
Dr. Fan Fan successfully defended her dissertation entitled "On the Catalytic Mechanism of Choline Oxidase" under Professor Gadda's. direction. Dr. Fan is the first MBD Fellow working in Chemistry to finish (hopefully more to come in Spring). Her Ph.D. officially will be awarded in Biology but she'll always be a biochemist in our minds!
Dr. Brian Crow successfully defended dissertation
Dr. Brian Crow successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Epoxidation of Alkenes by Dimethyldioxirane: Kinetics, Activation Parameters and Solvent Studies" under Professor Baumstark's. direction. Dr. Crow has taken an industrial position in Norcross. We wish him the best of luck in his career.
Yi Miao's poster wins award
Yi Miao of Dr. Wilson's group attended the Biannual International BIAcore Molecular Interaction Conference 2005 in Philadelphia and presented a poster, "Biosensor Analysis of Antiparasitic Diamidine-DNA Interactions" which is a collaboration with the Boykin group. Yi was one of three poster award winners at the conference.
Dr. Anna Wilkins Maniccia's dissertation defense
It is Chairman Baumstark's pleasure to announce the successful defense of Dr. Anna Wilkins Maniccia's dissertation entitled "Analyzing the Effects of Net Charge and Ligand Type to the Metal Binding Affinities for Calcium Binding Proteins by Design" under the direction of Dr. Jenny Yang. Please join Dr. Baumstark in congratulating Dr. Maniccia. .
Rucks Winkeljohn's dissertation defense
It is Chairman Baumstark's pleasure to announce the successful defense of Rucks Winkeljohn's dissertation entitled "Synthetic and Physical Studies of Heteroatom Chemistry" under the joint direction of Professor Strekowski and Professor Baumstark. Please congratulate Dr. Winkeljohn. He will start a postdoctoral appointment with Dr. Dunams on Defense-related research next month.
Lisa Jones wins the Suddath Poster Presentation
Congratulations to Lisa Jones of Dr. Jenny Yang's lab for winning the Poster Presentation award at the 13th Annual Bud Suddath Bioscience Symposium "Fluorescence Imaging in Cellular Biology." Her poster was entitled "Understanding the Effect of Electrostatic Interactions on Calcium Binding Affinity: Proteins by Design." Co-authors include Kendra L Hubbard, Daniel Spratt, Wei Yang, Yiming Ye, and Jenny J Yang.
Nebiyou Desalegn's successful M.S. thesis defense
It is Chairman Baumstark's pleasure to announce the successful defense of Ning Chen's thesis entitled "Kinetic Studies of the Thermolysis of 3-Halogenated-4,5-Dihydro-3H-Pyrazoles" under the co-direction of Professors Kennedy and Baumstark.