USU researcher summarizes what computational chemistry has learned over the last few years about weak hydrogen bonds, and what they contribute to the structure of proteins.  This article appeared in Current Organic Chemistry.

Steve Scheiner

Tapas Kar and collaborators from Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André  and Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Brazil have published a paper in Physics Letters A on the  electronic structure of single-walled GaN, AlN, AlxGa1−xN nanotubes and GaN/AlxGa1−xN nanotube hetero-junctions using first principles (DFT) calculations. The AlxGa1−xN nanotubes exhibit direct band gaps for the whole range of Al compositions, with band gaps varying from 3.45 to 4.85 eV, and a negative band gap bowing coefficient of −0.14 eV. The GaN/AlxGa1−xN nanotube hetero-junctions show a type-I band alignment, with the valence band offsets showing a non-linear dependence with the Al content in the nanotube alloy.

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Assistant Professor Sean Johnson has been awarded a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. This grant will fund his research on "Structural Studies of Ski2-like RNA Helicases".

Katarzyna Grubel, Lisa M. Berreau and collaborators from the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire have published a paper in Inorganic Chemistry outlining the structural and spectroscopic features of a series of divalent metal complexes flavonolate complexes. Such complexes are of interest for their relevance to the chemistry of quercetin dioxygenase enzymes and for their CO-release reactivity.

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Dr. Lisa Berreau

Intercontinental Synergy: USU, Chinese Chemists Receive NSF Funding

Seated, from left, are Chemistry and Biochemistry Department professors Vernon Parker and Lance Seefeldt and standing, from left, are Nankai/USU students Zhiyong Yang, Yuan Chu, Weifang Hao, Jia Wang and Zhao Li.