Awards - 2005

June 2005 Gary J. Van Berkel earns Biemann Medal

The Biemann Medal recognizes a significant achievement in basic or applied mass spectrometry made by an individual early in his or her career. The award is presented in honor of Professor Klaus Biemann and is endowed by contributions from his students, postdoctoral associates, and friends. The 2005 Medal is presented to Gary J. Van Berkel of Oak Ridge National Laboratory for his achievements and contributions to an understanding of the detailed elucidation of the electrochemical aspects of electrospray ionization.

Just over teen years ago, Dr. Van Berkel noticed molecular radical cations in the eletrospray mass spectra of metalloporphyrins. He recognized that these must be electrochemical in origin, and pursued fundamental studies to characterize the reactions.

His sustained focus and applications work have resulted in practical approaches to manipulate the population of ions made available to the mass spectrometer. By joining the disciplines of electrochemistry and mass spectrometry, he has fully elucidated the origins of his initial observation, and has gone on to influence the technology in many diverse areas including electrochemically-modulated separations, design of ESI tips, inductively-coupled plasma MS, and miniaturize analuzers.

April 2005 issue of Protein Science

Features work performed in the Center for Structural Molecular Biology in the Chemical Sciences Division at ORNL. The title of the article is Ca2+-induced structural changes in phosphorylase kinase detected by small-angle x-ray scattering.

This work was supported by NIH Grant DK32953 to G.M.C. and was performed in part under the auspices of the Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed and operated by UT-Battelle, LLC.; and contract W-7405-ENG-36 with Los Alamos National Laboratory, managed and operated by the University of California. W.T.H. and J.T. were supported by the DOE Office of Science/BER program in support of the Oak Ridge Center for Structural Molecular Biology.

Priddy TS, Macdonald BA, Heller WT, Nadeau OW, Trewhella J, Carlson GM.Ca2+-induced structural changes in phosphorylase kinase detected by small-angle X-ray scattering. Protein Sci., 2005, v14: 1039-1048.

2005 CSD Mentoring Award

For unique contributions to ORNL's education mission: Lætitia Delmau and Jun Xu

2005 Angewandte Chemie International Issue April 2005

Research performed in the Chemical Separations Group of the Chemical Sciences Division was featured on the cover of Angewandte Chemie International Issue in April. Vol. 44, Issue 17, pp 2462 – 2471. Published Online 21 Apr 2005. Structures featured are from ORNL and Univ. of Southampton together in one graphic.

The article involves a collaboration of members of ORNL's Chemical Separations Group (Radu Custelcean, Lætitia Delmau, and Bruce Moyer) with Univ. of Texas, Austin (Prof. Jonathan Sessler) and the Univ. of Southampton (Dr. Phil Gale). The focus is on chemistry involving the macrocycle calix[4]pyrrole, a tetrapyrrole that binds halide anions by hydrogen bonding, thereby creating an electronrich bowl that can bind cesium cation. The result is cooperative binding of an ion-pair, which has been the object of much research in the macrocycle/supramolecular field these days. That such a phenomenon of self-assembly can be accomplished in such an elegant manner is an important discovery, with implications for crystal engineering and separation chemistry.

Research at ORNL was sponsored by the Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed and operated by UT-Battelle, LLC.