Welcome Message from the Chair, Dennis Dougherty
Welcome back to another exciting academic year. From prestigious awards and honors to incredible scientific discoveries to facilities refurbishments to fun outreach events, CCE had a busy summer as we anxiously awaited the return of in-person instruction. We welcomed new faces and bid farewell to old friends all the while looking forward to a productive year ahead. Take a look at the newsletter and let me know what you think via email to cce@caltech.edu.
Awards and Honors
Faculty Awards
Shasha Chong: Pew–Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research
Scott Cushing: Shirley M. Malcom Prize for Excellence in Mentoring
Harry Gray: Israel Institute of Technology Honorary Doctorate
Hosea Nelson: 2022 Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists
Sarah Reisman: 2022 ISHC Award
Michael Vicic: ASCIT Teaching Award
Lu Wei: 2022 Vallee Scholar
Post-doc Awards
Mingyi Wang - Schmidt Science Fellowship
RESEARCH
Hoelz Lab
In a pair of papers published in the journal Science, Professor André Hoelz and his research team describe two important breakthroughs: the determination of the structure of the outer face of the NPC and the elucidation of the mechanism.
The implications of this research are potentially huge. Not only is the NPC central to the operations of the cell, it is also involved in many diseases.
"Architecture of the cytoplasmic face of the nuclear pore"
Hoelz and his research team describe how they mapped the structure of the side of the NPC that faces outward from the nucleus and into the cells' cytoplasm. To do this, they had to solve the equivalent of a very tiny 3-D jigsaw puzzle, using imaging techniques such as electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography on each puzzle piece.
"Architecture of the linker-scaffold in the nuclear pore"
The research team describes how it determined the entire structure of what is known as the NPC's linker-scaffold—the collection of proteins that help hold the NPC together while also providing it with the flexibility it needs to open and close and to adjust itself to fit the molecules that pass through.
Hoelz likens the NPC to something built out of Lego bricks that fit together without locking together and are instead lashed together by rubber bands that keep them mostly in place while still allowing them to move around a bit.
STUDENT NEWS
Caltech Outreach at Universal Studios
As part of CCE outreach, Rahuljeet (RJ) Chadha, Melinda Chan, and Kaylin (Kali) Flesch from CCE participated in JURASSIC WORLD RULE YOUR FUTURE STEAM INITIATIVE Symposium College and Career Fair & STEAM Showcase on June 4, 2022 at Universal Studios, Hollywood.
The initiative was a part of Project UP, Comcast’s comprehensive initiative to advance digital equity and help build a future of unlimited possibilities for students from underrepresented groups in the US. Working with the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE), three 10-hour STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) courses were designed by educational professionals with input from key experts. In addition to the classroom experience, 350 TRIO students were given an all-expense-paid trip to attend the “Jurassic World Rule Your Future STEAM Initiative Symposium” at Universal Studios Hollywood from June 3 – June 5, 2022. There, they participated in interactive STEAM demonstrations and attended a college and career fair.
RJ, Melinda, and Kali represented Caltech CCE at this national college fair and shared their graduate school experiences with talented high-school students from all across the country. This outreach was initiated by CGSC, DEI, and WiC.
1st Annual PySCF Developers Meeting
The 1st Annual PySCF Developers Meeting was hosted for the first time by Professor Garnet Chan on July 28-29, 2022 in the Linus Pauling Lecture Hall. The Python-based Simulations of Chemistry Framework (PySCF) is an open-source collection of electronic structure modules powered by Python.
CCE Orientation Week
CCE Orientation week kicked off Monday, September 19, 2022 with a day full of introductions as incoming graduate students met their peers and connected with current CCE graduate students. Students familiarized themselves with division courses, curriculum, library services and safety protocols. The day concluded with a fire extinguisher training in the Schlinger parking lot.
12th Annual CCE Seminar Day
Every fall, CCE presents Seminar Day, a full day of short 15-minute research talks given by graduate students and postdocs followed by division-wide poster session and social. This event is organized by CCE graduate students and provides an opportunity for graduate students and postdocs to present their work to the division though research talks and presentations throughout the day. Seminar Day allows students to enhance their presentation skills, learn about the research occurring across the various sub-fields, and provides a division-wide sense of community. Speakers are selected from faculty and student nominations with priority given to faculty nominations.
The winners of the audience-judged speaker competition this year were:
- Madeline Meier (Emergent Optical Behavior Underpinning Inorganic Phototropic Growth)
- Yujia Tao (Progress Towards the Total Synthesis of Enterocin)
- Melinda Chan (Asymmetric Total Synthesis of Havellockate)
- Chloe Williams (Selective C–C Bond Forming Reactions of Vinyl Carbocations)
The winners of the faculty-judged poster session this year were:
- Eshaan Patheria
- Brooke Versaw
FACES OF CCE
Welcome to CCE, Professor Gözde Demirer!
Professor Demirer officially joined CCE on September 1, 2022 as the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering.
Gözde was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey and received her B.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Koc University in 2015. Gözde completed her Chemical Engineering Ph.D. at UC Berkeley with Prof. Markita Landry in 2020. During her Ph.D. studies, she developed nanotechnologies for plant genetic engineering. For her postdoctoral work, Gözde joined Prof. Siobhan Brady's lab at UC Davis, where she studies nutrient use efficiency of tomato and develops high-throughput functional genomics tools to study transcriptional regulation in crops.
The Demirer lab will work on bioengineering of plants and rhizosphere for food security, sustainability, and environmental remediation using novel nanotechnology and synthetic biology approaches.
Introducing The Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bioengineering Center's new Executive Director, Dr. Ngozi Eze
Dr. Ngozi Eze joined the Rosen Center in April 2022 from MIT. She has been working with faculty and students across Caltech to promote bioengineering and the Rosen Center programs.
One such program is the Biotechnology Leadership Pre-Doctoral Training Program (BLP), which helps Caltech graduate students explore bioengineering-related career trajectories outside of academia, including entrepreneurship, biotech start-ups, industrial research, and more. This year, the BLP admitted seven phenomenal CCE students: Christian Totoiu (Hadt Lab), Ishaan Dev and Jee Won Yang (Shapiro Lab), Nicholas Friesenhahn (Mayo Lab), Ryen O’Meara and Ziyang Qin (Arnold Lab), and Xiaotian Bi (Wei Lab).
CCE Says Goodbye to Tuyen Dang
On September 28, 2022, CCE staff and faculty gathered in the Gates Library Patio to say farewell and offer well wishes to Tuyen Dang, Sponsored Research Manager, as she starts a new chapter at JPL. Tuyen joined CCE in 2004.
"For the past 18 years, I have had the opportunity to work with such an exceptional group of staff and faculty," says Tuyen. "The collegial atmosphere creates a workplace that makes you want to contribute and work hard. Even though I am leaving the division and joining JPL as a Project Business Manager, my heart will always be with CCE."
DIVISION UPDATES
Noyes and Spalding Lecture Halls Refurbishment Ahead of Classes Starting
Over the summer, the division upgraded the carpet in both Noyes 147 and Noyes 153 (J. Holmes Sturdivant Lecture Halls). Both rooms now have brand new carpet that coordinate with the existing flooring and seats. The Fred L. Hartley Lecture Hall in Spalding 106 was updated with three motorized black boards. These boards compliment the new seats, lighting, carpeting, and ceiling tiles installed last year during the winter recess. CCE continuously strives to improve the learning experience for our students and the teaching experience for our faculty.
#MeetCCE
The division's #MeetCCE feature highlights members across the division to get to know them better. We are asking for submissions from across the CCE community (staff, faculty, students, postdoc, etc.).
If you are interested in being featured, please fill out the #MeetCCE form.
CCE DEI Updates & News
Incoming Cohort of CCE Graduate Students by Self Identified Sex, Fall 2022
James LuValle Award Recipients
The James Ellis LuValle Award has been established by the CCE DEI Committee to recognize an individual’s excellent service work for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility in the CCE Division.
The award focuses on an individual’s dedication to creating an environment of inclusivity, is an agent of change and has worked toward the advancement of DEI in CCE.
This year, six CCE members were recognized and awarded the James Ellis LuValle Award, which focuses on individual’s dedication to creating an environment of inclusivity, acting as an agent of change, and working toward the advancement of DEI in CCE.
DEI FUNDING
The CCE DEI committee has limited funding to support CCE groups and individuals in activities focused on diversity, equity inclusion, and accessibility. The committee's primary aim is to foster the success of underrepresented minorities in CCE and STEM.
Please contact ccedei@caltech.edu for the funding forms and information.
ALUMNI NEWS
Gift from Donald and Judith Voet Extends Caltech Access to Powerful X-ray Source
A generous gift from Caltech alumnus Donald Voet (BS ’60) and his wife, Judith Voet, grants the Caltech community continued access to a powerful tool for determining the atomic structures and properties of molecules
John Murphy (PhD '04 - Davis Lab) "President Biden Names Twenty-First Round of Judicial Nominees"
Kurtis Carsch (BS '16) "Kurtis Carsch Wins Hertz Thesis Prize for Advancements in Pharmaceutical Chemistry"
Stephanie Culler (PhD '09): "Persephone puts poop to work to explore and heal your gut microbiome"
Helen Kupp (BS '07) : Author of newly released book "How the Future Works" and interview with Gayle King
Upcoming CCE Events
October
- October 3: Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Jay A. Switzer (Missouri University of Science and Technology)
- October 10: Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Kara Bren (University of Rochester)
- October 12: Organic Chemistry Seminar - Alexis Komor (UC San Diego)
- October 17: Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Nadav Amdursky (Israel Institute of Technology)
- October 20: Robert W. Vaughan Lecture in Chemical Engineering - Bryan D. McCloskey (UC Berkeley)
- October 20: Biochemistry Seminar -Vaclav Veverka (IOCB Prague)
- October 24: Organic Chemistry Seminar - Merck-Banyu Lectureship - Koji Hirano (Osaka University) & Kohsuke Ohmatsu (Nagoya University)
- October 25: Chemical Physics Seminar - Prineha Narang (UCLA)
- October 26: Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Kesley A. Stoerzinger (Oregon State University)
- October 27: Biochemistry Seminar - Gabriel Lander (Scripps College)
- October 31: Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Esther S. Takeuchi (Stony Brook University)
November
- November 1: Chemical Physics Seminar - Clarice Aiello (UCLA)
- November 2: Organic Chemistry Seminar - Ramesh Jasti (University of Oregon)
- November 4: CCE Safety Day
- November 7: Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Carl K. Brozek (University of Oregon)
- November 10: Biochemistry Seminar - Susan Marqusee (UC Berkeley)
- November 10: Chemical Engineering Seminar - Cole De Forest (University of Washington)
- November 14: Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Emily Tsui (University of Notre Dame)
- November 16: Organic Chemistry Seminar - Bristol Myers Squibb Lectures - Dr. Rebecca Green (Bristol Myers Squibb) & M. Christina White (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
- November 28: Inorganic-Electrochemistry Seminar - Daniel L. M. Suess (MIT)
- November 29: Chemical Physics Seminar - Stefan Willitsch (University of Basel)
December
- December 1: Chemical Engineering Seminar - Karen McDonald (UC Davis)
- December 12: Frontier in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Series - Leslie M. Schoop (Princeton University)
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
- "Greener" Fertilizer and Carbon-free Fuels Come Closer to Reality
- Caltech Faculty Members to Collaborate on Computer-Aided Chemistry Initiative at Notre Dame
- Scott Cushing Receives Funding to Build First-of-Its-Kind Ultrafast Electron Instrumentation for Chemistry and Quantum Research
- CCE Charts Path in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- Hosea Nelson Wins 2022 Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists
- Scott Cushing Named Inaugural Malcom Prize Recipient
- Caltech Introduces New Named Professors and Leadership Chairs
- David A. Evans (PhD '67), 1941–2022
- #SoCaltech: Scott Cushing
- Two Caltech Faculty Members Receive Funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts
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