Students Present at National Convention

Students Present at National Convention — More Examples of Undergraduate Research

Two undergraduate students doing research with professor Alvan Hengge in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, presented their work at poster sessions at the national convention of the American Chemical Society in New York City Sept. 7–11.

Jamie Purcell presented her research "Mechanistic Studies of Phosphoryl and Thiophosphoryl Group Transfer." Jarod Younker's presentation was titled "Mechanistic Study of Aryl Aryl Sulfate Diesters."

The meeting attracted more than 14,000 attendees and featured nearly 7,000 scientific presentations. Purcell and Younker were the only undergraduates to present posters at the convention, professor Hengge noted.

Purcell and Younker have also co-authored scientific publications. Purcell is a co-author on the paper "Transition State Differences in Hydrolysis Reactions of Alkyl versus Aryl Phosphate Monoester Monoanions" that has been accepted for publication in the Journal of the America Chemical Society, which is the top journal in the chemistry field.

Younker, along with Stuart Gibby, a former Utah State undergraduate (class of 2002), are co-authors with Dr. Hengge of a paper titled, "An Investigation of the Sulfuryl Transfer Step from Substrate to Enzyme by Aryl Sulfatases." This paper will appear in a special edition of the Journal of Physical Organic Chemistry in honor of William Jencks, whose work provided the foundations for much of the field of bioorganic chemistry.

Both Purcell and Younker have additional publications in the works as well. Both have received URCO (Undergraduate Research and Creative Opportunities) awards at Utah State (Younker in 2002 and Purcell in 2003), and both are planning to pursue doctorates in chemistry after graduating from Utah State.

Purcell and Younker joined several Utah State graduate students who presented at the convention as well. The students also study with professor Hengge. Tim Humphry presented "Alteration of the mechanisms of phosphate ester hydrolysis by complexation to a dinuclear metal center" and Subashree Iyer presented "Synthesis and evaluation of aryloxymethyl and aryloxyethyl phosphonates as inhibitors of phosphatases."

Two additional graduate students presented their work. Aleksey Kuznetsov, from professor Alexander Boldyrev's group, presented "Antiaromaticity in inorganic compounds and all-metal species."

"Aleksey came to graduate school at Utah State from Belarus with a grade point average of 4.0," Boldyrev said. "He will graduate this semester with a 4.0 GPA from Utah State."

During his time here while pursuing his doctorate, Kuznetsov has published 11 articles in the most prestigious journals, including two articles in Science Magazine, an accomplishment that is unprecedented for Utah State, Boldyrev said. Last year Kuznetsov won the prestigious Robins Award as the best graduate researcher of the year.

The final student to present a poster at the conference was Krzysztof Bzymk, a student in professor Richard Holz's group. Chris, as he signs his messages, presented "Role of glutamate151 in the catalytic mechanism of the leucine aminopeptidase from Vibrio proteolyticus."