We are pleased to release the Spring 2023 edition of Sooner Elements, our department newsletter. As you will see, we have lots of great news to share with you and the larger community! Through communicating these and future news on a regular basis, we hope to build a more engaging and supportive community for our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends.
This newsletter was made possible through the efforts of two student editors (Carly Wickizer and Chance Lander) and one staff editor (Amelia Beste). Please let them know if you have any comments or suggestions for future editions.
Our department used to publish an annual newsletter, APEX (Alumni Program in Excellence), with the last edition released in 2002. We are proud to revive the tradition.
Go Sooner Elements!
The General Education Teaching Award recognizes contributions to the university's general education program. Since joining the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry faculty in 2005, she has been invested in improving the General Chemistry program through teaching the large general chemistry lecture courses, developing new course materials and coordinating with many undergraduate instructional units to ensure student success. She also developed an online course for non-science majors. Her lectures in General Chemistry 1315 and 1415 often begin with 'Chemistry of the Day,' a short link between the lecture content and the interesting chemistry in every day life, something students have cited in their evaluations as their favorite part of the course.
Congratulations to Dr. Laura Clifford who has been awarded the General Education Teaching Award!
Dr. Wu's research focuses on the rapid identification, characterization, and quantification of proteins in the understanding of protein functionality. This is critical to understanding cellular pathways and human disease. She is currently the editor of the Journal of Mass Spectrometry, and her recognitions include being featured in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences as Young Scientist of the Year and winning the US Human Proteome Organization's Robert J. Cotter New Investigator Award in 2020.
Congratulations to Dr. Si Wu who has been awarded the Neal Lane Award for Excellence in Research in the Natural Sciences!