BLUE HEN CHEMIST

A TIME FOR REMEMBERING

This past academic year marked the passing of three key members of our CHEM/BIOC Department’s family:

J. Edward Cathell, Sr.

Ed served as our Assistant to the Chair during 13 pivotal years (1985-1998). He was the Department’s primary contact for the construction of the Lammot DuPont Laboratory and the complete renovation of the south wing of Brown Laboratory. He passed away on September 21, 2004 in the Christiana Hospital, at the age of 75.

Ed graduated from PMC (Pennsylvania Military College), where he earned two degrees in business. He retired from the duPont Company as a manager, whereupon he assumed the CHEM/BIOC Assistant to the Chair position. He was a Korean War Veteran, serving in the US Air Force. He attained the rank of Master Sergeant as a flight engineer and participated in the Korean Airlift. Ed had been a member of the Asbury United Methodist Church in New Castle. He also was a member of St. John’s Masonic Lodge in New Castle, where he had achieved the degree of Master Mason. He enjoyed the beach, boating, family trips, his fish pond and garden, but his brightest enjoyment was his grandchildren.

He is survived by his wife, Irene, two children, and four grandchildren.

Professor Emeritus John C. Wriston, Jr.

Professor Emeritus John C. Wriston, Jr. passed away suddenly, but peacefully, Saturday evening, November 6, 2004, at his home in Newark, DE.

Born in the summer of 1925, he lived in VT during most of his early life, where he met and married his high school sweetheart, Tam, in the spring of 1945. A graduate of Swanton High School and the University of Vermont (1948), he served 3 years in the U. S. Navy during World War II before earning his PhD from Columbia University in 1953. In 1955, after postdoctoral study at the University of Colorado, he joined the Chemistry Department at the University of Delaware as its first biochemist.

He had a major role in the formation and growth of the biochemistry division within the Department. He taught a variety of courses, including both general chemistry and advanced topics in biochemistry, and supervised many graduate and undergraduate students in his laboratory. His principal research interest was the structure and function of the enzyme L-asparaginase and its use in anti-cancer therapy. He had sabbatical leaves at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and at the Carlsburg Laboratory in Denmark. For many years, he was an active member of the American Association of University Professors and served as an officer and contract negotiator. His personal integrity, principled stances, intellectual curiosity, broad interests, command of the English language and ability to engage in reasoned discussion earned him the friendship and respect of many within and beyond his profession. He retired as professor emeritus in 1985 and continued to teach a course in biochemistry through the spring of 2004. He felt strongly about education and made a point of learning about the latest developments in biochemistry to incorporate into his teaching.

Within the department, he maintained a notorious and widely read bulletin board of clippings (e.g., from the “New York Times” and “Nature”), cartoons from the “New Yorker” and beautiful scenes from his beloved VT. In his leisure, John pursued his lifelong passion for his family, the community, books, hiking (and “trail-blazing”), VT history, politics and the Newark Free Library. He contributed over 20 articles on Vermont postal history to the “Vermont Philatelist,” and in 1991, he published Vermont Inns and Taverns. Excerpts from his recent research were incorporated into the Vermont Book of Days, which was aired on Vermont Public Television and commercial radio stations and newspapers within VT. Active in the University of Delaware Association of Retired Faculty (UDARF), he coordinated the group’s special activities for many years, including organizing teams to walk in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life for several years and participating in the state’s Adopt-a-Highway program.

He is survived by a large and loving family, including his wife, Tam Wriston of Newark; his sister, Cynthia Massey of Canandaquia, NY ; his children, Michael J. Wriston of Richmond, VA, Gail A.
Mitchell of Carlisle, PA and Priscila W. Wilson of Wilmington; and his 8 grandsons and 2 granddaughters. His youngest daughter Amy, for whom he never stopped grieving, passed away last winter. He was laid to rest at a family site in VT.

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has established the John C. Wriston, Jr. Memorial Lectureship in recognition of his manifold contributions to the Department and to the University.

- Prof. Harold B. White III

Dean/Associate Provost Arnold L. Lippert

Dr. Arnold Lipptert passed away November 10, 2004. Arnold, born in Kewanee, IL, November 12, 1910, was a graduate of the University of Illinois, earning a Bachelor of Science degree, with high honors, in 1931. He later received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1934. Also in 1934, he was briefly employed as a research chemist by the DuPont Company in Wilmington, DE. From there, he went to the Joseph Bancroft Company, first serving as chemical director, then as vice president and president. He was involved in the development of many special products, including “Everglaze”, “Minicare”, “Tutored”, “Bancare”, “Bancora”, “Teutralized” and “Banlon”, held numerous patents and authored many publications for the textile industry. From 1941-1944, Arnold was chief of the dyestuff’s section of the United States War Production Board, serving in Washington, DC as a “Dollar-a-Year Man.” He was also chairman of the national committee of the dyestuff’s industry. From 1966-1971, Arnold served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Science at the University of Delaware. He then served as the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies and Associate Provost at the University from 1971-1976. In 1990, Dr. Lippert received the State of Delaware Distinguished Service Award for his service on the Delaware Health Council. He was a longtime resident of Wilmington, DE. In 1990, he and his wife moved to Matthews, NC, residing in the Plantation Estates community.

Arnold Lippert married Lela Bitchell in 1936. His wife and three daughters survive. Also surviving are 9 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.

He personified the description “a scholar and a gentleman.”

RICHARD F. HECK LECTURESHIP

The organic division unanimously proposed, and the CHEM/BIOC faculty has unanimously approved, the establishment of a lectureship named after Richard Heck, (FAC 71-89). The lectureship recognizes how Dr. Heck’s transition metal catalyzed methods for C-C bond formation have transformed organometallic and organic chemistry. The utility of the reactions he developed is broad, and has had a remarkable impact on research that interfaces with biology and materials science. As a local example, at least two members (Profs. Kristi Kiick (BS89) and Mary Galvin) of the UD Department of Materials Sciences have research that relies extensively on Heck chemistry. Another measure of this impact is evident from a search of the ISI Web of Science, which turns up more than 1300 abstracts and 400 titles that contain the words “Heck Reaction” (these are actually conservative numbers, since many titles/Abstracts use the terms Heck coupling, Heck olefination, etc). These numbers are approaching classic organic name reactions like “Cope”, “Aldol” and “Claisen”. It is conceivable that Dr. Heck’s contributions may be recognized by a future Nobel Prize.

Our belief is that this lectureship will help create substantial visibility for our Department. “Heck” is a household term in organic and organometallic chemistry, but many people do not make the connection that the bulk of his career was spent at UD. This named lectureship will help to remedy that.

The inaugural Heck Lecture was given by Dr. Heck himself on October 20, 2004. A committee will be composed to annually select a speaker who has made both fundamental and applied contributions in the area of organometallic chemistry. We plan to raise funds from local industry to create an honorarium and plaque, as well as to fund travel expenses and a reception and dinner to follow the lecture. Ultimately, we hope to create an endowment to sustain the event.

The second Heck Lecture was presented by Prof. Steve Buchwald, MIT, on April 6, 2005.

- Douglass F. Taber

JOHN C. WRISTON, JR. MEMORIAL LECTURESHIP

After John Wriston’s death last November, a number of former students, colleagues and friends asked what they could do to honor him. The members of the biochemistry division were polled and unanimously supported the idea that a John C. Wriston Jr. Memorial Lectureship be initiated. The proposal earned the unanimous support of the CHEM/BIOC faculty, as well as that of the Wriston family.

This annual lecture (colloquium) will be presented by a prominent biochemist and will be modeled after the recently initiated Richard F. Heck Lectureship in organic chemistry. Alumni have expressed interest in creating an endowment to sustain the lectureship, and have already given generously to get it started.

SAYONARA!

Dr. Yong Duan joined the faculty of the CHEM/BIOC Department in 9/00. His roster of degrees include a B.S. in Physics from Wuhan University (PRC, 1982), an M.S. in NMR Spectroscopy from the Academia Sinica (PRC, 1985), and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Pittsburgh (1996), where he worked with Prof. John Rosenberg. His arrival in Newark was preceded by a post-doctoral stay at the University of California - San Francisco, in the laboratory of Prof. Peter Kollman.

Yong’s theoretical work on the mechanism of protein folding, which involved the development of methods for molecular dynamics simulations on massively parallel computers, attracted a great deal of attention in the biochemistry community, and produced a large amount of research funding in a relatively short time. This, in turn, piqued the interest of a number of other universities. Yong accepted an offer from the University of California-Davis, and moved west in 9/04 to assume his present position of Associate Professor in the Genome Center of the Department of Applied Science. We wish him nothing but the best!

Dr. Cherie Dotson, who has directed the NUCLEUS program for the past five and a half years, is returning to her graduate alma mater, the University of Michigan, where she and her husband, Garry, will join the College of Pharmacy. He will be taking a faculty position in Medicinal Chemistry and she will be working on graduate student recruitment. Both are from Michigan originally, so they are going home, in a sense.

While at Delaware, Cherie has done a spectacular job working with underrepresented students in the sciences as part of the HHMI Undergraduate Science Education Program. During her tenure, the NUCLEUS office moved from the recesses of the Brown Lab basement to its prominent position next to John Burmeister’s office and symmetrically across the Green (formerly the Mall) from President Roselle’s office. The number of students involved in the program has increased several fold and the program has expanded to be more inclusive.

Among Cherie’s accomplishments has been the significant involvement of NUCLEUS students in undergraduate research. She also shepherded a premedical interest group into the student organization, “Making Doctors”. Through this organization, she has created opportunities for students aspiring to become physicians. A highlight for many is to observe open heart surgery. Furthermore, she has developed links between the University of Delaware and Lincoln University, Delaware State University, and Spelman College, her undergraduate alma mater. Not only has Cherie served the NUCLEUS Program well, she has become a significant member of the university community, through service on many committees and activities she has promoted.

Aside from those more tangible activities and accomplishments, Dr. Dotson was and is a significant person in the lives of many students who received support in times of need, guidance when the future looked bleak, and congratulations for their accomplishments. She worked to have students realize their full potential, broaden their horizons, and set personal goals to which they could aspire. She has been a wonderful role model for our students and her departure will leave a void difficult to fill. We wish her and her family the very best. She has helped make Delaware a better place.

- Prof. Harold White III