2008 Award Winners

Congratulations to the six winners of the 2008 CNC-IUPAC Travel Awards:

Aicheng Chen – Aicheng Chen received his Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Guelph under the supervision of Prof. Jacek Lipkowski. He then spent two years working as a Research Scientist at Huron Tech Canada Inc. and two years as an Electrochemical Specialist at FINNCHEM Canada Inc., Kingston, Ontario. In 2002 he joined Lakehead University as an Assistant Professor where he was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 2005. His research interests span the areas of Electrochemistry, Green Chemistry, Materials Science and Nanotechnology, encompassing some major issues that are critical to the mining and pulp & paper industries and to the sustainable development of natural resources in Canada. He has been awarded an Ontario Premier’s Research Excellence Award in 2003; a Canada Research Chair Award in Material and Environmental Chemistry in 2005; and a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship in 2006. With grateful acknowledgment of a CNC/IUPAC Travel Award for 2008, he will attend the XXII IUPAC Symposium on Photochemistry in Göteborg, Sweden in July 2008.

Gonzalo Cosa - Gonzalo Cosa was born in Cordoba, Argentina. He received his Lic. Chemistry degree at the Universidad Nacional de Rio Cuarto in 1996. In 1997 he joined the group of Prof. J.C. (Tito) Scaiano at the University of Ottawa and was awarded his Ph.D. in 2002. He then moved to the University of Texas at Austin as a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Paul F. Barbara. In 2005 he joined the Department of Chemistry at McGill University as an Assistant Professor. His research program involves the development of novel fluorescence-based strategies for visualizing chemical interactions, specifically, the design of novel Single Molecule methodologies to be applied in protein/DNA interaction studies, the preparation and characterization of nanostructures based on lipid-light emitting polymer supramolecular aggregates for membrane biosensing, and the synthesis of novel fluorescent probes to monitor reactive oxygen species. With the support of the 2008 CNC/IUPAC Travel Award, Gonzalo Cosa will attend the XXII IUPAC Symposium in Photochemistry in Gothenburg, Sweden, in August 2008.

Dmitrii Perepichka - Dmitrii Perepichka received his PhD in 1999 from the Institute of Physical Organic Chemistry (Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences), for the work on electron acceptors with push-pull functionality. From 1999 he spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher with Prof. Martin Bryce at Durham University (UK), working on covalent linkage of strong electron acceptors and electron donors. In 2001 he joined the group of Prof. Fred Wudl at UCLA, where he was engaged in a number of projects, including synthesis of conjugated polymers and functionalization of carbon nanotubes. In 2003 Dr. Perepichka has jointed the faculty of Université du Québec (INRS-ÉMT), and subsequently moved to McGill University in 2005 where he is currently an assistant professor. His research interests include materials for thin-film and molecular electronics, novel architectures in conjugated polymers and molecular self-assembly on surfaces.

Yujun Shi - Yujun Shi, MCIC, is an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Calgary. She received her PhD in 2001 from the University of Western Ontario under the guidance of Rob Lipson, MCIC. She then moved to the Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences at the National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa with an NSERC visiting fellowship. In 2004, she receives the NSERC University Faculty Award for her position at Calgary. Her research focuses on investigation of structures, kinetics, and energetics of reactive intermediates in hot-wire chemical vapour deposition of silicon-containing semiconductor films using laser spectroscopic and laser ionization mass spectrometric techniques. With grateful receipt of a CNC/IUPAC Travel Award for 2008, she will attend the XXIInd IUPAC Symposium on Photochemistry to be held from 28 July to 1 August, 2008 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

André Simpson – André Simpson obtained his PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK) under the supervision of Michael H. B. Hayes (MRIA) in 2000. His PhD work focused on the reactivity and transformation of natural products in the terrestrial environment using NMR spectroscopy. He then moved to the U.S. completing two postdoctoral fellowships, the first under the supervision of Prof. William Kingery at Mississippi State and the second under Prof. Patrick Hatcher at Ohio State University. André is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. His research program centers on development of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy and its “hyphenation” with other analytical methods. His main research aims to understand the direct metabolic response of living systems to their environment and unravel the molecular processes that lead to the preservation and bioavailability of toxic chemicals in the environment. André is very grateful for the support of the CNC/IUPAC Travel Award, and will attend the 5th International Symposium of Interaction of Soil Minerals with Organic Components and Microorganisms in Chile, November 24-29th 2008.

William Skene – William Skene is Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Montreal. He obtained his PhD in 2000 at the University of Ottawa and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Université Louis Pasteur from 2000 to 2002. He is interested in the preparation and characterization of new functional materials derived from azomethines connections. By incorporating different aryl units using these easy connections, he is examining the effect of these groups upon the photophysical, electrochemical, and crystallographic properties by establishing structure-property relationships. He is concerned not only with the fundamental excited state deactivation processes of these highly conjugated materials, but also in tuning the properties, making these functional materials suitable for electrochromic and emitting devices. His recent work in understanding the photophysics of azomethines will be presented at the XXIInd IUPAC Symposium on Photochemistry in Gothenburg, Sweden.