McNeill Group News Archive
July 27, 2008Matt departs for NorwayMatt 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! |
June 25, 2008Anne and Betsy's research on the photochemistry of amino acids appears onlineAnne 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). |
May 18, 2008Photos of the most recent Lake Superior research cruiseThe 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). |
May 12 , 2008Betsy Edhlund defends her Ph.D. thesisCongratulations 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. |
May 12, 2008Sarah Kliegman's review article on cobalt-mediated dechlorination appears onlineSarah 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. |
May 2, 2008Alicia Peterson awarded Doctoral Dissertation FellowshipAlicia 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! |
April 28, 2008Kris named Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor and inducted into the Minnesota Academy of Distinguished TeachersKris 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. |
April 18, 2008McNeill Group participates in Earth Day Watershed CleanupOnce 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. |
February 11, 2008Matt Grandbois recognized with college-wide TA awardMatt 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! |
November 1, 2007Kris recognized with "Excellence in Review" Award from Environmental Science and TechnologyKris 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. |
27 July 2007Environmental fate of tylosinGraduate 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. |
25 July 2007Chlorination of cimetidine, a wastewater contaminant, leads to unexpected productsResearch 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. |
5 June 2007Inactivation 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. |
4 May 2007McNeill Group undergraduate researchers win awardsCongratulations to Sarah Page and Kyle Dullinger, McNeill Group undergraduate researchers who are the recipients of three awards. |
8 February 2007Collaborative study of Co-C bonding appears onlineA 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. |
28 September 2006Photo ArchiveThe McNeill Group Photo Archive is back! A link is on the righthand side menu bar. |
20-21 September 2006Pictures from September cruiseSome 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 2006Alicia Peterson's paper appears onlineAlicia 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. |
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30 August 2006Joe and Kristen have a paper published online in Dalton TransactionsJoe 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. |
12 August 2006Jeff Buth is awarded EPA STAR graduate fellowshipJeff 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! |
25 Apr 2006Ann McNally graduates and is awarded the Sharon L. Doherty AwardAnn 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 2006Sarah Page is awarded the Lloyd W. Goerke ScholarshipSarah 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 
24 March 2006McNeill Group research published in ScienceMicroheterogeneity of Singlet Oxygen Distributions in Irradiated Humic Acid Solutions
15 March 2006Taylor Career Development Award to KrisKris is awarded the 2006 George W. Taylor Career Development Award, which recognizes "exceptional contributions to teaching by a candidate for tenure." |
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Kris
is named McKnight Land-Grant Professor (2004-2006) Link to Award Announcement Link to McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Program |