Wilson Group News Archive

 

Barry Goldwater Scholar
Emily Hu was selected as a Barry Goldwater Scholar (April 2016). Congratulations, Emily!.

 

Former postdoc Mike Drummond was a contestant on Jeopardy
Dr. Michael Drummond was a contestand on Jeopardy on January 15, 2016. Drummond made it to finals and won $20K! You can view the annoucement here.

 

Former group member Kristin Lennox was featured in Popular Science
Dr. Kristin Lennox, Statistical Consulting at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, was interviewed about the odds of winning the lottery (January 2016). In this interview, she discussed the probability and statistics of winning the powerball. You can read more and watch the interview here.

 

Dr. Wilson appointed NSF Director of the Division of Chemistry
Dr. Angela Wilson will be joining the NSF Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS) as the Director of the Division of Chemistry. She will begin this position in March 2016.

You can view the MSU announcement here and the official NSF announcement here.


Dr. Wilson receives UNT Foundation Eminent Faculty Award
Dr. Angela Wilson has received the UNT Foundation Eminent Faculty Award. According to the UNT Faculty Success website, the award "recognizes a faculty member, who has made outstanding and sustained contributions to scholarly-creative activity, teaching, and service and has served as an inspiration to the University of North Texas community." She was presented the award at the UNT Salute to Faculty Excellence Awards Dinner & Ceremony at Apogee Statdium on Friday, October 2, 2015.

More information about the award can be found here.

A list of the other UNT Faculty Excellence award winners can be found here.


Wilson group members attend workshop in Germany
Several group members attended the "Bonding Analysis with Methods of Computational Chemistry" workshop, hosted at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, May 18-22, 2015. The workshop focused on bonding analysis of molecular and solid state systems.

More information about the workshop can be found here


TAMS Chemistry student becomes Intel Science Talent Search 2015 finalist
Lily Liu, a TAMS student working with Dr. Angela Wilson, was the only student from Texas selected as a finalist for the Intel Science Talent Search 2015. In March 2015, Lily traveled to Washington, D.C., for the final competition which included presentations about her research. Lily visited the White House and met President Obama.

You can view information about the Intel Science Talent Search 2015 here.

 

Chemistry student selected as a participant in the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
Michael Jones was selected as a participant in the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, June 28-July 3, 2015, in Germany. The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings were established in 1951 as an initiative for the reconciliation of leading scientists after World War II, the Lindau Meetings have evolved into a unique scientific dialogue platform that fosters the exchange of knowledge across generations, cultures and nationalities.

Photo: Michael with Prof. Ada E. Yonath, a 2009 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

You can find additional information about the meeting’s history here.


CASCaM professor receives a National American Chemical Society award
Dr. Angela Wilson, Chemistry, has been awarded the Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal by the American Chemical Society. According to the website, the purpose of the award is to "recognize distinguished service to chemistry by women chemists." She will be presented with the award at the WCC luncheon during the ACS Spring National Meeting in Denver, Colorado.

More information about the award can be found here.


CASCaM professors recommended to receive NSF grant to upgrade CASCaM HPC system
Several CASCaM professors (Paul Bagus, Wes Borden, Marco Buongiorno Nardelli, Thomas Cundari, and Angela Wilson) have been awarded an NSF-MRI grant to upgrade the CASCaM High Performance Computing (HPC) system. The new hardware is expected to be available by Summer 2016."

 

Dr. Wilson named Editor for Computational and Theoretical Chemistry
Dr. Angela Wilson, Chemistry, has been named an Editor for the journal Computational and Theoretical Chemistry. According to the journal’s webpage, "Computational and Theoretical Chemistry publishes high quality, original reports of significance in computational and theoretical chemistry including those that deal with problems of structure, properties, energetics, weak interactions, reaction mechanisms, catalysis, and reaction rates involving atoms, molecules, clusters, surfaces, and bulk matter."

 

TAMS Chemistry student becomes Regional Finalist for the 2013 Siemens Competition
William Ou, a TAMS student working with Dr. Tom Cundari, is one of only students from UNT selected as regional finalists for the 2013 Siemens Competition. In November, William will travel to UT-Austin for the regional competition. Additionally, Hans Ajieren, Benjamin Chi and Siva Manivasagam, all TAMS students working with Dr. Angela Wilson, were semifinalists in the Math/Science/Technology section of the 2013 Siemens Competition.

You can learn more about the Siemens Competition here.


Dr. Wilson Wins a UNT Faculty Excellence Award
During the UNT Salute to Faculty Excellence Awards Dinner and Ceremony on Friday, September 27, 2013. Dr. Angela Wilson, received the UNT Foundation Faculty Leadership Award and the 2013-2015 Decker Scholar Award.

More information can be found here.

 

Marie Laury Selected for Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award
Marie Laury, Chemistry Graduate Student working with Dr. Angela Wilson, has been selected for a Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award, given by the ACS Division of Computers in Chemistry. She is one of 5 graduate students that will be recognized at the ACS National Meeting in New Orleans, LA, in April 2013.

You can view more information about the awards here.


Cong Liu Wins Award at Southwest Theoretical Chemistry Conference
Cong Liu was awarded a Graduate Poster Presentation Award, during the Southwest Theoretical Chemistry Conference, October 26-28, 2012. She received the award for her poster presentation titled “Transition metal catalyst mediated C-O bond cleavage of the β-O-4 linkages of lignin.”


Cong Liu received 1st place award for ACS Meeting-in-Miniature talk.
Cong Liu received the 1st place award for her research talk during the graduate student session of the ACS 45th Annual "Meeting-in-Miniature," April 21, 2012. The talk was titled "Computational Studies of CO2 Activation using Transition Metal Catalysts" and was in collaboration with Drs. Thomas Cundari and Angela Wilson.

You can view the abstract here.


Wanyi Jiang research article chosen as cover of Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation.
Wanyi Jiang, Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Angela Wilson, had a 2nd research article, "Multireference Character for 3d Transition Metal-Containing Molecules", chosen as the cover for a scientific journal, the February 14, 2012 edition of the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation. The article was co-authored by Drs. Nathan J. DeYonker and Angela Wilson.

You can view the article here, and the entire publication, including cover, here.


CASCaM Faculty edit special issue of Computational and Theoretical Chemistry
Drs. Tom Cundari, Jincheng Du, Srinivasan Srivilliputhur and Angela Wilson edited the May 1, 2012, (Volume 987) issue of the journal Computational and Theoretical Chemistry. The entire issue is dedicated to computational chemistry in materials science and materials chemistry.

You can view the issue here.


Wanyi Jiang research article chosen as cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry A
Wanyi Jiang, Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Angela Wilson, had a research article, "Toward Accurate Theoretical Thermochemistry of First Row Transition Metal Complexes", chosen as the cover for the January 19, 2012 edition of the Journal of Phyical Chemistry A. The article was co-authored by Drs. Nathan J. DeYonker, John J. Determan, and Angela Wilson.

You can view the article here, and the entire publication, including cover, here.


Four TAMS Chemistry students named Semi-Finalists for Intel Science Talent Search 2012
Four TAMS students, Kurtis Carsch, Mitchell Powell, Michael Zhou, and Jonathan Zhu, have been named Semi-Finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search 2012. Kurtis works with Dr. Tom Cundari, and Mitchell, Michael and Jonathan work with Dr. Angela Wilson.

You can view more information about the Intel Science Talent Search 2012 here.


Cong Liu selected for Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award
Cong Liu, Chemistry Graduate Student working with Dr. Angela Wilson, has been selected for a Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award, given by the ACS Division of Computers in Chemistry. She is one of 5 graduate students that will be recognized at the ACS National Meeting in San Diego, CA, in March 2012.

You can view more information about the awards here.


Dr. Angela Wilson received UNT's 2011 Research Leadership Award
On November 1, Dr. Angela Wilson received the UNT Research Leadership Award for 2011. The Research Leadership Award recognizes the veteran UNT faculty member whose research excellence and leadership at UNT has made substantial contributions and has achieved national/international recognition.


Rebecca Weber receives the 2011 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Rebecca Weber, a graduate student conducting research with Dr. Angela Wilson, has been awarded the 2011 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.  Rebecca is one of 2 UNT students to receive this national award.


CASCaM Researchers Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalists
This year, CASCaM had three Texas Acadamy of Math and Science (TAMS) students reach semifinalist stage in the Intel Science Talent Search. Out of almost 2,000 applicants, only 300 semifinalists were chosen. 

  • Somak Das with his paper: The ONIOM Correlation Consistent Composite Approach for Systems of Biological Importance
  • Katheryn Shi with her paper: Quantum Mechanical Prediction of the Existence of Rare Gas-bound Species

Additionally, Katheryn Shi is one of 40 going on to the finalist round in March. Congratulations participants! 

Work by Drummond, Wilson, and Cundari in the New York Times
The article "Toward Greener Carbon Capture Technologies: A Pharmacophore-Based Approach to Predict CO2 Binding Sites in Proteins," authored by Michael Drummond, Angela Wilson, and Tom Cundari is featured in the ClimateWire section of the New York Times. Check it out at nytimes.com.


"Toward Greener Carbon Capture Technologies: A Pharmacophore-Based Approach to Predict CO2 Binding Sites in Proteins"
by Drs. Drummond, Wilson, and Cundari
Dr. Michael Drummond, along with Drs. Angela Wilson and Thomas Cundari, published a new article on December 30, 2009 titled: Toward Greener Carbon Capture Technologies: A Pharmacophore-Based Approach to Predict CO2 Binding Sites in Proteins". This publication is featured in the ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: February 03, 2010, which states: "Carbon dioxide from industrial smokestacks could be captured with eco-friendly proteins developed with a technique long used to discover new medicines."                

A quote from the abstract:
"Successful sequestration of emitted carbon dioxide is a crucial ingredient in addressing rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations, but current CO2 capture technologies are often corrosive and can generate hazardous waste. Inspiration for more environmentally friendly sequestration is sought in Nature by searching for common patterns by which proteins bind CO2. Specifically, three-dimensional functional group patterns responsible for binding CO2 are extracted from the few protein-CO2 complexes that have been characterized by X-ray Crystallography."

You can find the article here.

View the ACS write up here.


Dr. Wilson on Editorial Board of JPC
Dr. Angela Wilson has been named to the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Physical Chemistry (JPC). JPC is is a leading journal within the subdiscipline of physical chemistry. Her term will begin in January 2010.