Professor of Chemistry George Shields gave an invited lecture at the University of Maryland, College Park, on April 16. His talk, "An Overview of Chemical Physics Research at Hamilton College: Accurate pKa calculations in aqueous solution, progress and challenges," was part of a series on interdisciplinary problems in chemistry and physics.
In his talk he briefly discussed the overall research in chemical physics being conducted by Ann Silversmith, Gordon Jones, Karen Brewer, and John LaGraff at Hamilton College. He then discussed the research carried out by his students in his lab, particularly the work of Annie Toth '02, Matthew Liptak '03, Sinan Misirli '03, Emma Pokon '04, Brent Matteson '04, Abby Markeson '04, Andreu Viader Valls '05, Hima Poonati '05, Christy House '06, Meghan Dunn (Clinton graduate, GWU '06), and Mohawk high school senior Skylar Ferrara. He discussed the ability of state-of-the-art quantum chemical simulations to accurately predict the charged state of molecules in water, and the impact of the charge state on the ability of these molecules to interact with biological targets within cells.
