Professor Emeritus James Arnold passed away Friday, January 6, following a long illness. He was an internationally renowned geophysical chemist, member of the National Academy of Sciences (elected 1964),a founding member of the Department of Chemistry and the University of California, San Diego, the first Chair of the Department, and the holder of the first Harold C. Urey Chair. He was a valued colleague and will be missed. Memorial arrangements will be announced when they become available.

Professor Emeritus James Arnold passed away Friday, January 6, following a long illness. He was an internationally renowned geophysical chemist, member of the National Academy of Sciences (elected 1964),a founding member of the Department of Chemistry and the University of California, San Diego, the first Chair of the Department, and the holder of the first Harold C. Urey Chair. He was a valued colleague and will be missed. Memorial arrangements will be announced when they become available.

Using a novel chemical reaction, chemists have created self-assembling cell membranes, the structural envelopes that contain and support the reactions required for life. Neal Devaraj, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and Itay Budin, a graduate student at Harvard University, report their success in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. By assembling an essential component of earthly life with no biological precursors, they hope to illuminate lifes origins. Although other scientists recently announced the creation of a synthetic cell, only its genome was artificial. The rest was a hijacked bacterial cell. Fully artificial life will require the union of both an information-carrying genome and a three-dimensional structure to house it. The real value of this discovery might reside in its simplicity. From commercially available precursors, the scientists needed just one preparatory step to create each starting lipid chain. The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering supported this work. UC San Diego has filed a patent application on this discovery. Anyone with commercial interest in the research or application should contact senior licensing officer Eric Gosink in the technology transfer office at egosink@ucsd.edu.

Professor Robert Continetti, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Diversity Awards University-wide Award Recipient for 2011. Continetti, who chaired the Chancellor's Diversity Council (2009-11), is being recognized for exemplifying the UC San Diego Principles of Community. Nominations recognize those individuals, departments and organizational units who made outstanding efforts in furthering diversity, equal opportunity and affirmative action at UC San Diego. Physical Sciences Dean Thiemens is a University-wide Award Recipient for 2010.

Professor Robert Continetti, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Diversity Awards University-wide Award Recipient for 2011. Continetti, who chaired the Chancellor's Diversity Council (2009-11), is being recognized for exemplifying the UC San Diego Principles of Community. Nominations recognize those individuals, departments and organizational units who made outstanding efforts in furthering diversity, equal opportunity and affirmative action at UC San Diego. Physical Sciences Dean Thiemens is a University-wide Award Recipient for 2010.

Asian dust pollution, kicked up by sandstorms in the interior deserts of the continent, could actually be causing heavier snowfall in California. New research from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego suggests that storm clouds with Asian dust drop more snow on the Sierra Nevada than clouds without the dust. This does not include industrial pollution from burning coal or car exhaust, which actually decreases precipitation. Professor Kimberly Prather joins Madeleine Brand on National Public Radio to explain the implications of the study. http://www.scpr.org/programs/madeleine-brand/2011/12/07/21671/silver-lining-to-asian-dust-cloud-more-snow-in-cal The CBS Evening News also aired an interview with Professor Prather at 6:00 p.m. P.S.T. on December 13, 2011. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57341838/pollution-from-china-alters-weather-in-u.s-west/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cbsnews%2Ffeed+%28CBSNews.com%29

Asian dust pollution, kicked up by sandstorms in the interior deserts of the continent, could actually be causing heavier snowfall in California. New research from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego suggests that storm clouds with Asian dust drop more snow on the Sierra Nevada than clouds without the dust. This does not include industrial pollution from burning coal or car exhaust, which actually decreases precipitation. Professor Kimberly Prather joins Madeleine Brand on National Public Radio to explain the implications of the study. http://www.scpr.org/programs/madeleine-brand/2011/12/07/21671/silver-lining-to-asian-dust-cloud-more-snow-in-cal The CBS Evening News also aired an interview with Professor Prather at 6:00 p.m. P.S.T. on December 13, 2011. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57341838/pollution-from-china-alters-weather-in-u.s-west/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cbsnews%2Ffeed+%28CBSNews.com%29

Nine professors at the University of California, San Diego have been named 2011 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nation's largest scientific organization. Professors Joseph O'Connor and Michael Sailor are members of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. O'Connor, an organic chemist, was honored for major contributions to synthetic and mechanistic organometallic chemistry, including transition metal-triggered enediyne cyclizations. Sailor, an inorganic chemist, was honored for developments in the chemistry of nanomaterials, in particular nanoporous silicon and iron oxide nanoparticles, that have led to fundamental advances in sensors, drug delivery materials, and in-vivo diagnostic devices. Further information is available online http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressreleases/nine_uc_san_diego_professors_named_2011_aaas_fellows/

Nine professors at the University of California, San Diego have been named 2011 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nation's largest scientific organization. Professors Joseph O'Connor and Michael Sailor are members of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. O'Connor, an organic chemist, was honored for major contributions to synthetic and mechanistic organometallic chemistry, including transition metal-triggered enediyne cyclizations. Sailor, an inorganic chemist, was honored for developments in the chemistry of nanomaterials, in particular nanoporous silicon and iron oxide nanoparticles, that have led to fundamental advances in sensors, drug delivery materials, and in-vivo diagnostic devices. Further information is available online http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressreleases/nine_uc_san_diego_professors_named_2011_aaas_fellows/

Rommie Amaro

Computational Chemistry and Biophysics

Timothy Baker

Macromolecular, cryoelectron microscopy and three-dimensional, image-reconstruction techniques.

Timothy Bertram

Experimental Atmospheric Chemistry

Stacey Brydges

Chemical Education: Development of context-rich curriculum; Use of collaborative learning strategies in large lectures; Communication of chemistry

Michael Burkart

Natural product synthesis/biosynthesis, Biological chemistry and enzymology, Metabolic engineering.

Seth Cohen

Bioinorganic and coordination chemistry. Metalloprotein inhibitors and supramolecular materials.

Robert Continetti

Dissociation dynamics of transient species, three-body reaction dynamics, novel mass-spectrometric methods

John Crowell

Materials chemistry, surface kinetics of metals/semiconductors, CVD, photo-induced deposition, thin-film spectroscopy.

John Czworkowski

Science and Math Initiative/California Teach; problem-based learning; the use of computer multimedia for science instruction

Edward Dennis

Biochemistry: phospholipase A2, signal transduction in macrophages, lipid maps, prostaglandin regulation, mass spec of lipids and proteins.

Neal Devaraj

Biomimetic Chemistry, Molecular Imaging, Electrochemistry

Jack Dixon

Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase, Dual=specific Phosphatase, PTEN

Daniel Donoghue

Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptors (FGFRs) in Human Cancer

Pieter Dorrestein

Biochemistry, Chemical Biology, Mass spectrometry; Harvesting genomic information for therapeutics.

Joshua Figueroa

Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry: Synthesis, Small Molecule Activation and New Transformations.

Marye Anne Fox

Physical organic chemistry; photochemistry; nanoscience of organized arrays.

Michael Galperin

Electron Transport in Condensed Phases. Dissipation and Relaxation Processes. Non-equilibrium Open Quantum Systems. Molecular Electronics.

Gourisankar Ghosh

Biochemistry and biophysics: transcription, signaling, pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA transport, protein-protein, protein-DNA and protein-RNA interactions

Partho Ghosh

Mechanisms of bacterial and protozoan pathogenesis, and host response against infectious microbes.

Nathan Gianneschi

Bioorganic chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry, Bionanotechnology, Materials, Synthesis

Carlos Guerrero

Chemical synthesis; synthesis-oriented organic chemistry; methods development; synthesis design; total synthesis of natural products.

Thomas Hermann

RNA as a Drug Target.                                                 

Alexander Hoffmann

Biochemistry: signaling, transcription, computational network; stress and immune responses, apoptosis, proliferation

Patricia Jennings

Biophysical chemistry: protein structure, dynamics and folding; 2, 3 and 4D NMR spectroscopy; PCR; equilibrium and kinetic-fluorescence, absorbance and circular dichroism spectroscopies

Simpson Joseph

Biochemistry & Biophysics: ribosome structure, function and dynamics; discovery of novel antibiotics

Judy Kim

Biophysical chemistry: Spectroscopic studies of membrane protein folding and dynamics

Elizabeth Komives

Structure, function, dynamics and thermodynamics of protein-protein interactions: NMR, mass spectrometry and kinetics

Clifford Kubiak

Inorganic, materials, and physical chemistry: electron transfer, catalysis, fixation and utilization of carbon dioxide.

Andrew Kummel

STM/STS of gate oxides on compound semiconductors and adsorbates on organic semiconductor

Katja Lindenberg

Theoretical chemical physics: non-equilibrium statistical mechanics;stochastic processes; nonlinear phenomena; complex systems; condensed matter.

Douglas Magde

Experimental physical chemistry: photochemistry and photobiophysics; pico- and femtosecond lasers

J. Andrew McCammon

Statistical mechanics and computational chemistry, with applications to biological systems

Mario Molina

Physical Chemistry: Gas Phase Chemical Kinetics and Photochemistry; Chemistry of Atmospheric Aerosols; Air Pollution in Megacities of the Developing World

Tadeusz Molinski

Organic chemistry of marine natural products, synthesis, NMR, and biomedical applications

Ulrich Muller

Biochemistry: Evolution of catalytic RNAs, the Origin of Life

Terunaga Nakagawa

Biochemistry: Function and structural changes of the protein complexes involved in synaptic plasticity.

KC Nicolaou

Total Synthesis and Chemical Biology of Natural and Designed Molecules

Joseph O'Connor

Organotransition metal; organic; physical organic; bioorganometallic; synthetic; and inorganic chemistry

Stanley Opella

NMR structural studies of proteins in membranes and other supramolecular assemblies

Francesco Paesani

Theoretical chemical physics of complex interfaces of relevance to the environment

Charles Perrin

Physical-organic chemistry: stereoelectronic effects; hydrogen bonding; isotope effects; ionic solvation

Robert Pomeroy

The application of analytical chemistry to forensic, environmental and industrial chemistry, then bridge these experiences into the classroom. This also includes the role technology and instrumentation play in discovery and problem solving.

Kimberly Prather

Environmental, physical/analytical chemistry: gas/particle processes of tropospheric significance; mass spectrometry; laser-based analysis techniques.

Arnold Rheingold

Inorganic chemistry: Small-molecule crystallography, synthesis of transition metal/p-block clusters

Michael Sailor

Nanomaterials: porous silicon, chemical and biological sensors, biomaterials, electrochemistry

Barbara Sawrey

Chemical education: development of computer-based multimedia to assist student learning of complex scientific processes and concepts

Amitabha Sinha

Experimental physical chemistry: photochemistry; laser spectroscopy; reaction dynamics of vibrationally excited molecules

Michael Tauber

Physical chemistry; Optical and magnetic spectroscopy; Fundamental studies of charge transport and solvation; Applications to energy conversion and energy storage.

Susan Taylor

Structure, Function, Dynamics, and Localization of PKA as a Prototype for the Protein Kinase Superfamily.

Akif Tezcan

Bioinorganic and biophysical chemistry; Metalloprotein structure, function and biosynthesis; Biomaterials

Emmanouil Theodorakis

Synthetic, Medicinal, Bioorganic and Biological Chemistry, Methods and Strategies in Natural Products Chemistry

Mark Thiemens

Atmospheric chemistry: physical chemistry of isotope effects; solar system formation

Navtej Toor

Structure and Function of Introns and Retroelements

Yitzhak Tor

Ligand-nucleic acid interactions; Antiviral and antibacterial agents; Fluorescent nucleosides and nucleotides; Cellular delivery vehicles

William Trogler

Inorganic chemistry: polymer chemistry; nanomaterials.

Roger Tsien

Chemical biology; design, synthesis, and application of molecular probes of biological function

Robert Tukey

Environmental toxicology: The role of environmental and chemical toxicants on gene expression

Hector Viadiu

Laboratory of Structural Biochemistry: X-ray Crystallography and Cryo-Electron Microscopy of DNA Binding Proteins and Membrane Proteins

Wei Wang

Inference of gene regulatory networks and determination of protein specificity

John Weare

Physical chemistry: calculations of the dynamics of complex systems; theoretical geochemistry

Haim Weizman

Chemical education, Bioorganic chemistry

James Whitesell

Organic chemistry: studies of stereochemistry, both in a molecular and a supramolecular sense.

Jerry Yang

Bioorganic Chemistry, Molecular Self-Assembly, Molecular Synthesis, Materials Chemistry, Bionanotechnology