The Indiana University Nanoscience Center is sponsoring a workshop on advanced battery technologies from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13, in the IU Bloomington Chemistry Department. The workshop is an outgrowth of a major two-day Energy Conference held at IU Bloomington and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in August.

A small molecule designed to detect cyanide in water samples works quickly, is easy to use, and glows under ultraviolet or "black" light. Although the fluorescent molecule is not yet ready for market, its Indiana University Bloomington creators report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (now online) that the tool is already able to sense cyanide below the toxicity threshold established by the World Health Organization.

The time has changed for an Indiana University Bloomington program recognizing the winner of the Tracy M. Sonneborn Award and the inaugural IU Provost's Professor. The program will start at 5:30 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 8) in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana Memorial Union. David E. Clemmer, the Robert and Marjorie Mann Chair of Chemistry, is 2009 recipient of the Sonneborn Award. Lisa Pratt, IU professor of geological sciences, is the first IU Provost's Professor.

David E. Clemmer, the Robert and Marjorie Mann Chair of Chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington and the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Tracy M. Sonneborn Award at IU, and Lisa Pratt, IU professor of geological sciences and the inaugural IU Provost's Professor, will be recognized at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 8 (Thursday), in the Indiana Memorial Union's Frangipani Room. Clemmer will present the Sonneborn Lecture, "Measurements for the Masses," shortly after 5 p.m. The lecture and a reception afterward are free and open to the public.

The new Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry is the first science department created on the Indiana University Bloomington campus in 33 years, and is the culmination of more than seven years of planning. The IU Trustees recently approved the department. The department is offering M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biochemistry, but does not award undergraduate degrees. Biochemistry faculty members will teach undergraduate courses, however, for their departmental allies, Biology and Chemistry.

About 800 participants from around the world will be in Bloomington this week for the 21st American Peptide Society Symposium, a forum for exchanging cutting-edge developments in biotechnology. The program consists of scientific opinion leaders from academia with keynote lectures from two pharmaceutical CEOs and two CSOs, as well as a collective of other executives from the pharmaceutical and venture capital sectors. Indiana University Bloomington biochemist Richard DiMarchi is co-chairing the event.

The National Institutes of Health has approved a $1.2 million, four-year grant that will allow Indiana University Bloomington scientists to continue their study of Huntington's disease. The project, led by IU Bloomington structural biologist Joel Ybe, has focused on the interaction of two proteins, HIP1 (Huntingtin-interacting protein 1) and HIPPI (HIP1-protein interactor), whose association is believed to trigger the death of nervous system cells.

Indiana University Bloomington Provost Karen Hansen and Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Tom Gieryn have announced that two Indiana University Bloomington professors will receive prestigious university awards. David E. Clemmer, the Robert and Marjorie Mann Chair of Chemistry, will receive the 2009 Tracy M. Sonneborn Award, and Lisa Pratt, professor of geological sciences, will be named the inaugural Provost's Professor.

Indiana University faculty members recently received a $2 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate the efficacy of an IU-developed online learning tool called Computer Assisted Learning Method (CALM). This grant could determine if CALM -- used by high school chemistry students and teacher -- becomes the leading program of its kind nationwide. The Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP) in the IU School of Education will conduct the study.

Chemistry and math majors now have a more efficient path to earning both a master's degree in education and teacher licensure under a new agreement between the Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Education.

The Indiana University Research and Technology Corporation has granted Indianapolis-based Prosolia, Inc., the option to license an IU Bloomington technology that promises to improve medical, forensic and scientific endeavors. And thanks to a new STTR (small business technology transfer) grant from the National Institutes of Health, Prosolia's scientists will work with Steven J. Ray and Jacob T. Shelley in IU Bloomington chemist Gary Hieftje's research group to develop the Hieftje group's "ambient" mass spectrometry device into a market-ready product.

Daniel J. Mindiola, associate professor of chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington, is the recipient of a 2009 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award. Mindiola will receive a 45,000-euro prize (US $56,600) from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He will also be given the opportunity to work with some of Germany's best chemists over 11 months.

Students considering a career in health care can learn about more than careers as "doctor" and "nurse" at Indiana University Bloomington's Health Programs Fair on March 4 (Wednesday). The fair, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Indiana Memorial Union Alumni Hall, will feature more than 100 health care representatives on hand to meet with students and answer questions about educational and career opportunities.

Indiana University scientists have developed a fast, low-cost, high-precision device that can be used to analyze samples in a wide array of settings -- from atop Icelandic glaciers to the benches of operating rooms. The technology, developed by IU Bloomington analytical chemist Gary Hieftje and graduate student Michael Webb, allows users to determine what chemical elements are in a solution of unknown makeup.

A consortium of scientists including Indiana University Bloomington chemist Michael VanNieuwenhze has helped secure a $38 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to research fats, cholesterols, and other lipids.

A bioinformatics group within Indiana University's School of Informatics recently received three grants, two from the National Institutes of Health and one from Eli Lilly and Company. The grants will enhance IU's impact on life sciences research. The largest grant, from the NIH, is for $810,000 and spans three years.

The National Science Foundation has awarded chemists from Indiana University Bloomington a $2,925,000 grant to study how viruses pull themselves together. Martin F. Jarrold, Bogdan Dragnea, Stephen C. Jacobson, Peter J. Ortoleva, James P. Reilly, and their collaborators at the IU Nanoscience Center and Indiana University's Center for Cell and Virus Theory will study how viruses build themselves up from their components, as well as how structural transitions occur in the assembled viruses.

Indiana University has acquired a 10-ton, 18.8-Tesla magnet that is part of a $2 million, 800-MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer system. The instrument, which fits snugly into a pit in Simon Hall's basement, will help IU's life scientists expand their study of the large molecules that are fundamental to all life -- and do so at atomic resolution.

Indiana University's excellence in discovering, developing and delivering life sciences research and innovations will be on display June 17-20, in San Diego, Calif., during BIO 2008, the leading international conference for the biotechnology industry in the United States. More than 20,000 attendees from biotechnology companies, academic institutions and related organizations will participate in BIO.

Six Indiana University Bloomington undergraduates are the recent recipients of prestigious scholarships. All six students are enrolled within IU Bloomington's College of Arts and Sciences.

David R. Williams, the Harry G. Day Chair and professor of chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington, will deliver the 2008 Distinguished Faculty Research Lecture, in which he will discuss the efforts of his laboratory group to explore the chemistry of recently discovered natural products from the marine world and how substances from those products may be transformed into new treatments for disease.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded Indiana University Bloomington chemist Dongwhan Lee its 2008 Sloan Research Fellowship, a coveted $50,000 early-career grant. The fellowship is intended to enhance the careers of young faculty members in chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics.

Indiana University Bloomington chemists have designed an organic molecule that binds negatively charged ions, a feat they hope will lead to the development of a whole new molecular toolbox for biologists, chemists and medical researchers who want to remove chlorine, fluorine and other negatively charged ions from their solutions.

Three years after its construction began on the Indiana University Bloomington campus, Simon Hall officially opens its doors with a dedication ceremony tomorrow, Tuesday, Oct. 16. The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. outside Simon Hall, 915. E. 3rd St. (north of Myers Hall and west of Jordan Hall).

Jamie L. Stalker, M.D., medical director of Argonne National Laboratory, is the 26th Joan Wood Lecture Series honoree. Stalker will present "Flexibility and the Fickle Finger of Fate: A Peculiar Path from Musician to Medical Director," on Oct. 3, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., in Myers Hall 130 on the Indiana University Bloomington campus.