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Thirteen Hamilton undergraduates and five members of the Chemistry Department attended the 253rd National Meeting of the American Chemistry Society (ACS) in San Francisco April 2nd to 6th.

Five student and alumni co-authors contributed to research from the laboratory of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Max Majireck that was recently published online in the journal Tetrahedron Letters.

Ten women participating in summer research in the Hamilton College Chemistry, Computer Science and Physics departments have been recognized as Clare Boothe Luce Undergraduate Research Scholars. Funded through a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation and matching funds from Hamilton College, these awards provide stipends and funding for equipment, supplies, and travel to encourage women to either begin or continue research projects in the three disciplines.

Seven students and alumni from the laboratory of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Max Majireck presented their research in a poster session at the 250th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

This summer, Jon Shapiro ’17 is working with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Max Majireck to explore molecules with potential, biological application. Shapiro hopes not only to create such a molecule, but he also hopes to develop an understanding of how best to create it.

Organic chemistry research students from Hamilton, Colgate University and Hobart and William Smith Colleges convened to report on their summer research on July 8 when Hamilton’s chemistry department hosted the annual meeting of the Summer Organic Research Symposium (SmORS).

Sharif Shrestha ’17 is staying on campus this summer working with assistant professor Max Majireck on a project at the crossroads of biological chemistry, education, economics and entrepreneurship.

Hamilton College’s highest awards for teaching were presented to four faculty members during the annual Class & Charter Day ceremony on May 11. Professor of Classics Shelley Haley was awarded the Samuel & Helen Lang Prize for Excellence in Teaching; Assistant Professor of Mathematics Courtney Gibbons was honored with the John R. Hatch Excellence in Teaching Award; and Max Majireck, assistant professor of chemistry, received the Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award. In addition, Education Studies Program Director Susan Mason received Student Assembly’s Sidney Wertimer Award.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Max Majireck was a co-author on a collaborative paper published in the Feb. 10 issue of Cell Reports. “Niche-Based Screening in Multiple Myeloma Identifies a Kinesin-5 Inhibitor with Improved Selectivity over Hematopoietic Progenitors” resulted from a project that involved 33 researchers and 16 different institutional affiliations including Harvard, Columbia and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.

Junior biochemistry concentrator Ben Wesley received a Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research (GIAR) award for a proposal titled “Development of a Continuous Flow Reactor for Synthesis of Izidine Alkaloids.” Each year, several hundred to 1000 proposals are submitted to Sigma Xi to fund research-related expenses in many different areas of science.  The award program is highly competitive, and only about 15 percent of applications are funded.