droplet   McNeill Research Group
University of Minnesota • Department of Chemistry


McNeill Group News Archive

MLG
July 27, 2008

Matt departs for Norway

Matt Grandbois is spending the 2008-2009 academic year as a Fulbright Scholar at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. At NTNU, Matt is enrolled in the Master of Science program in Globalization. Ser deg seinere, Matt! Lykke til!



tyrosine
June 25, 2008

Anne and Betsy's research on the photochemistry of amino acids appears online

Anne Boreen and Betsy Edhlund's study of the photochemical fate of dissolved free amino acids in natural waters has been posted online in the ASAP section of Environmental Science & Technology. Their research shows that the amino acids, histidine, tryptophan, tyrosine, and methionine, are photooxidized in natural waters and that their relative rates of reaction differ in waters from different sources. This work was done in collaboration with Jim Cotner in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior and was supported by the NSF (OCE-0527196).

Indirect Photodegradation of Dissolved Free Amino Acids: The Contribution of Singlet Oxygen and the Differential Reactivity of DOM from Various Sources
Anne L. Boreen, Betsy L. Edhlund, James B. Cotner and Kristopher McNeill

Environ. Sci. Tecnol. 2008, DOI: 10.1021/es800185d
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es800185d



IMG_0615.JPG
May 18, 2008

Photos of the most recent Lake Superior research cruise

The McNeill and Cotner research groups just got back from a three day research cruise on Lake Superior. Samples were taken from the Minnesota North Shore, the Western Lake Superior NOAA buoy (47.33 N 89.79 W), and the Apostle Islands. This work is part of a research project supported by the NSF (OCE-0527196).

Photos

Panorama in the Apostles Movie

McNeill Group Photo Archive




Betsy_Lucy
May 12 , 2008

Betsy Edhlund defends her Ph.D. thesis

Congratulations to Betsy Edhlund, who successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis, entitled "Natural Water Photochemistry: Singlet Oxygen Production and the Degradation of Dissolved Organic Nitrogen and Organic Pollutants." Betsy is pictured here with her (blurry) daughter Lucy.


SK_TOC
May 12, 2008

Sarah Kliegman's review article on cobalt-mediated dechlorination appears online

Sarah Kliegman has written a review of research progress in the area of cobalt-mediated dechlorination, relevant to understanding cobalamin-mediated processes in polluted groundwater systems. The article has appeared as a Dalton Transactions Advance Article.

Dechlorination of chloroethylenes by cob(I)alamin and cobalamin model complexes
Sarah Kliegman and Kristopher McNeill

Dalton Trans., 2008, DOI: 10.1039/b801679h
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/b801679h



AAP
May 2, 2008

Alicia Peterson awarded Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship

Alicia Peterson was one of five Chemistry Department graduate students to be awarded the prestigious Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship by the Graduate School. The dissertation fellowship is awarded to a select group of graduate students based on their academic excellence and research accomplishments. The fellowship will provide Alicia with one year of support. Congratulations Alicia!



DTA
April 28, 2008

Kris named Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor and inducted into the Minnesota Academy of Distinguished Teachers

Kris was among this year's16 inductees into the Minnesota Academy of Distinguished Teachers, due to his being awarded the Morse-Alumni Award for Contributions to Undergraduate Education.

Link to Award Announcement



asdf
April 18, 2008

McNeill Group participates in Earth Day Watershed Cleanup

Once again, the McNeill group participated in the Earth Day Watershed Cleanup sponsored by the Minneapolis Solid Waste Division and the Minneapolis Parks District. Danny, Britt, Elodie, Jeff, Sarah, and Kris hauled trash bags full of bottles, cans, and miscellaneous trash from the banks of the Mississippi near the historic Stone Arch Bridge.

The Minnesota Daily was there and interviewed Kris for their story on the event.

Pictures are here.



Matt
February 11, 2008

Matt Grandbois recognized with college-wide TA award

Matt Grandbois is one of the teaching assistants in the Institute of Technology voted Best TA by students in the college. He will receive his award at the IT Week Banquet later this month. Congratulations Matt!



KPM EIR
November 1, 2007

Kris recognized with "Excellence in Review" Award from Environmental Science and Technology

Kris was among the 24 reviewers for Environmental Science and Technology that were recognized for their reviews in the November 1 issue (Vol. 41, Issue 21) of the journal.

Link to the article:
Environ. Sci. Technol. 2007, 41(21), 7194.



tyl
27 July 2007

Environmental fate of tylosin

Graduate student Jeff Werner (Ph.D. '06) is the lead author on a study of tylosin, a veterinary antibiotic and growth promoter, that was a collaborative effort between the the McNeill group, the Arnold group (Minnesota Civil Engineering), and the Wammer group (University of St. Thomas, Dept. of Chemistry). The study shows that tylosin is quickly photo-equilibrated with a much less active isomer before being broken down further by sunlight.

Environmental Photochemistry of Tylosin: Efficient, Reversible Photoisomerization to a Less-Active Isomer, Followed by Photolysis
Jeffrey J. Werner, Mahati Chintapalli, Rachel A. Lundeen, Kristine H. Wammer, William A. Arnold, and Kristopher McNeill

Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 2007, 55, 7062-7068.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf070101h



 cim_chlor
25 July 2007

Chlorination of cimetidine, a wastewater contaminant, leads to unexpected products

Research by graduate student Jeff Buth shows that chlorination of cimetidine, a commonly used heartburn medication that is found in wastewater, leads to the formation of unexpected products. Some of these products are expected to have a greater ecological impact than the parent compound. This research is part of a long-standing collaboration between the McNeill group and Professor Bill Arnold in the Department of Civil Engineering on the fate of pharmaceutical pollutants in the aquatic environment.

Unexpected Products and Reaction Mechanisms of the Aqueous Chlorination of Cimetidine
Jeffrey M. Buth, William A. Arnold, and Kristopher McNeill

Environmental Science and Technology 2007, 41, 6228-6233.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es070606o



MS2 humic acid
5 June 2007

Inactivation of virus MS2 by singlet oxygen is enhanced by association with natural organic matter (NOM)

Research by Matt Grandbois of the McNeill group, in collaboration with Tamar Kohn (EPFL) and Kara Nelson (UC Berkeley), has been published online in Environmental Science and Technology. The study extends previous work by Kohn and Nelson on the mechanism of the photoinactivation of MS2 and our work on the microheterogeneous distribution of singlet oxygen in natural waters. The results of this work are relevant to the inactivation of pathogens in waste stabilization ponds and other sunlit aquatic systems.

Association with Natural Organic Matter Enhances the Sunlight-Mediated Inactivation of MS2 Coliphage by Singlet Oxygen
Tamar Kohn, Matthew Grandbois, Kristopher McNeill, and Kara Nelson

Environmental Science and Technology 2007, 41, 4626-4632.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es070295h


Related papers:
Sunlight-Mediated Inactivation of MS2 Coliphage via Exogenous Singlet Oxygen Produced by Sensitizers in Natural Waters
Tamar Kohn and Kara L. Nelson
Environmental Science and Technology, 2007, 41, 192 - 197.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es061716i


Microheterogeneity of Singlet Oxygen Distributions in Irradiated Humic Acid Solutions
Douglas E. Latch and Kristopher McNeill
Science, 2006, 311, 1743-1747.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1121636




4 May 2007

McNeill Group undergraduate researchers win awards

Congratulations to Sarah Page and Kyle Dullinger, McNeill Group undergraduate researchers who are the recipients of three awards.

Sarah Page is the winner of the David A. and Merece H. Johnson Scholarship for her acheivement in research and scholastic excellence. Sarah is also
the recipient of the Undergraduate Award in Environmental Chemistry sponsored by the Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. This award consists of a one year membership in the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry.

Kyle Dullinger is the winner of the 2007 George T. Walker Scholarship and Junior Prize for his outstanding record of research and scholarship.


ic_toc
8 February 2007

Collaborative study of Co-C bonding appears online

A combined experimental and theoretical study on the Co-C bonding in chlorovinyl complexes, relevant to dechlorination reactions, appeared online in Inorganic Chemistry. This study, which is a collaboration between the Cramer group and the McNeill group, shows that there is very little Co-C pi-bonding. This is despite appearances as the chlorovinyl group is nearly always found to be coplanar with the trans pyridine ligand. Much of the experimental work in this paper was conducted by a University of Minnesota undergraduate, Katie McNabb, who was a first-year at the time.

Characterization of Co-C Bonding in Dichlorovinylcobaloxime Complexes
Angela D. Follett, Katherine A. McNabb, Alicia A. Peterson, Joseph D. Scanlon, Christopher J. Cramer, and Kristopher McNeill
Inorganic Chemistry 2007, 46, 1645-1654.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ic0618293


28 September 2006

Photo Archive

The McNeill Group Photo Archive is back! A link is on the righthand side menu bar.

Photo archive
 

Meghan
20-21 September 2006

Pictures from September cruise

Some pictures from the September research cruise on Lake Superior are posted here. The scientific team included Jim Cotner, Kris McNeill, Rose Cory, Andre Amado, and Meghan Funke (pictured left).

 

8 September 2006

Alicia Peterson's paper appears online

Alicia Peterson's communication on the dechlorination and defluorination of halogenated ethylenes by Wilkinson's catalyst appeared on the Organometallics ASAP site today. The reactions are exemplified by the defluorination of vinyl fluoride (below). A surprising aspect of this system is that vinyl fluoride is dehalogenated six times faster than vinyl chloride, despite the generally lower reactivity of C-F bonds compared to C-Cl bonds. The dehalogenation pathways and relative rates are schematically shown in the figure to the right.

Catalytic Dehalogenation of sp2 C-F and C-Cl Bonds in Fluoro- and Chloroalkenes
Alicia A. Peterson and Kristopher McNeill
Organometallics, 2006, 25, 4938-4940.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/om0607292

 
defluorination2
defluorination1

30 August 2006

Joe and Kristen have a paper published online in Dalton Transactions

Joe Fritsch is the lead author on the most recent McNeill Group paper, which describes the preparation and coordination chemistry of a monoanionic, tetradentate ligand based on the diketiminate platform and which was published online in Dalton Transactions. The paper includes crystal structures of Mg, Zn, and Cd complexes--the Zn complex structure is shown here.

"Synthesis and structures of acyclic monoanionic tetradentate aza beta-diketiminate complexes of magnesium, zinc, and cadmium" Joseph M. Fritsch, Kristen A. Thoreson and Kristopher McNeill Dalton Trans., 2006, 4814 - 4820. DOI: 10.1039/b609616f

LZnCl

Jeff B
12 August 2006

Jeff Buth is awarded EPA STAR graduate fellowship

Jeff Buth is among the 2006 EPA STAR graduate fellows. With his fellowship, Jeff will be studying the byproducts resulting from the chlorination of pharmaceuticals and personal care products. Congratulations Jeff!



Jeff defense
7 August 2006

Dr. Jeff Werner defends

Jeff Werner defended his Ph.D. thesis on 8/7/06 and is heading off to do a post-doc with Ruth Richardson at Cornell. Pictured here is Jeff with his two co-advisors, Bill Arnold and Kris McNeill.

 

5 August 2006

Betsy Edhlund's paper appears online

Betsy's study on the photochemical degradation of nitrofuran antibiotics appeared on the Environmental Science and Technology ASAP site today. At right is a figure for the paper showing the characteristic "two-step" kinetics: fast photoisomerization to a photostationary state followed by slow photolysis.

"Aquatic Photochemistry of Nitrofuran Antibiotics" Betsy L. Edhlund, William A. Arnold, and Kristopher McNeill Environ. Sci. Technol. 2006, 40, 5422-5427, DOI: 10.1021/es0606778

FZD kinetic trace
 
furazolidone

Joe
14 July 2006

Dr. Joe Fritsch defends his thesis

Joe Fritsch defended his Ph.D. thesis on 7/7/06 and has just left town for Malibu. Joe will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at Pepperdine University. Good luck, Joe!

 

23 June 2006

Jeff Werner's tetracycline paper appears online

Jeff Werner's paper on the effect of divalent metal ions on tetracycline photolysis appeared today on the Environmental Science and Technology ASAP site.

"Water Hardness as a Photochemical Parameter: Tetracycline Photolysis as a Function of Calcium Concentration, Magnesium Concentration, and pH"
Jeffrey J. Werner, William A. Arnold, and Kristopher McNeill
Environ. Sci. Technol.2006, 40, 7236-7241.
DOI: 10.1021/es060337m

Speciation Diagram

Angela_Kris_Anne
18 May 2006

Drs. Follett and Boreen!

Angela Follett and Anne Boreen have graduated with their Ph.D. degrees. Anne defended her thesis on May 11 and Angela defended May 18, 2006.


16 May 2006

Betsy wins best presentation award at Chemistry Graduate Symposium

Betsy Edhlund was one of three winners of the Best Presentation Award at the Department of Chemistry Graduate Student Research Symposium. The prize is a $500 travel fellowship to present her work at a scientific conference. Betsy joins past McNeill group winners Angela Follett and Joe Fritsch.

Betsy Award

Ann
25 Apr 2006

Ann McNally graduates and is awarded the Sharon L. Doherty Award

Ann McNally successfully defended her Ph.D. Thesis entitled "Photochemistry of Natural Organic Matter" on April 25, 2006. Ann was also awarded the 2005-06 Sharon L. Doherty Award by the Office for University Women in recognition of her outstanding volunteer service concerning women's issues on campus and in the broader community.


20 April 2006

Sarah Page is awarded the Lloyd W. Goerke Scholarship

Sarah Page, an undergraduate researcher in the McNeill lab, has been selected as the winner of the Lloyd W. Goerke Scholarship for 2006. This award is made to a junior chemistry major who has shown outstanding academic acheivement


science cover
24 March 2006

McNeill Group research published in Science

Microheterogeneity of Singlet Oxygen Distributions in Irradiated Humic Acid Solutions
Douglas E. Latch and Kristopher McNeill
Science 24 March 2006: 1743-1747
.

See also the Perspective written by John Hassett in the same issue:
Dissolved Natural Organic Matter as a Microreactor


23 March 2006

Jeff Werner is awarded student paper award

Jeff Werner is one of the recipients of the 2006 Graduate Student Paper Award from the Environmental Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. He will present his work at the Environmental Chemistry Awards Symposium, 232nd National ACS Conference in San Francisco, CA, September 10-14, 2006.  The title of his presentation is "The environmental photochemical kinetics of tetracycline as a function of pH and water hardness." 

Jeff

Kris
15 March 2006

Taylor Career Development Award to Kris

Kris is awarded the 2006 George W. Taylor Career Development Award, which recognizes "exceptional contributions to teaching by a candidate for tenure."


Kris   Kris is named McKnight Land-Grant Professor (2004-2006)

Link to Award Announcement

Link to McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Program
©2006 Kristopher McNeill