For the purpose of building stronger bonds among undergraduate Chemistry majors, and between them and the faculty, the Chemistry department has initiated a program this fall semester where CHEM 100 students are clustered together in interaction groups. Each cluster has approximately 8 students and one faculty member as leader. These groups will meet informally about once a month during the year to discuss things that are on the minds of the students. These may include how classes are going, important things that are happenings in the department, university, and the world of chemistry, undergraduate research opportunities, summer programs, life as a chemist, etc. Our goal is to support the students in their first semester at TAMU and help students feel like valued members of the chemistry community by giving the students an additional point of contact within the department. The program also enables the chemistry department to get feedback from the students about their thoughts and feelings as they progress through their undergraduate education. This information will be valuable for our efforts at improving our undergraduate education program and in recruiting and retaining undergraduate chemistry majors.

        Faculty members were asked to volunteer as cluster leaders with the stipulation that the cluster leaders would not be the undergraduate advisors or any faculty member with whom the students in a cluster are already taking a course. It was felt that this restriction would increase the number of faculty members the students got to know early on in their program of study. Faculty cluster leaders for the fall term are Drs. Bergbreiter, Marcetta Darensbourg, Macfarlane, Romo, Rowe, and Yennello.

        The freshman chemistry majors, the ACS student affiliate officers and several faculty were treated to a pizza and ice cream party on Thursday, September 2 immediately after the Horizons in Chemistry (Chemistry 100) class. Funds for the food were provided by the Chemistry Department and Dr. Hogg. Dr. Peck prepared some delicious ice cream using liquid nitrogen as a cooling agent. Dr. Schweikert, Head of Chemistry, and Dr. Kenneth Poenisch, Associate Dean for Student Affairs in the College of Science were also in attendance. As the saying goes, A A good time was had by all (we hope).@

        The faculty cluster leaders have also been invited by Dr. Tiner, Chemistry 100 instructor, to each make a presentation about their research area to the class. So far, Dr. Rowe has spoken about ARadiocarbon Dating of Ancient Rock Paintings@ and Dr. Macfarlane has spoken about AThe Chemistry of Heart Disease.@ Dr. Bergbreiter is scheduled to speak about polymers on September 30. The student cluster groups have also chosen topics on which to make a formal class presentation. Topics selected are: Artificial Oxygenators, Sunscreens, Chemicals from the Jungles and Oceans, Homeopathic Medicine, Dangerous Date-Rape Drugs, Chemical Warfare, and Antibiotic Resistance.

Dr. Tammy Tiner, senior lecturer and associate undergraduate advisor in chemistry, was honored with an Association of Former Students College-level Teaching Award on September 23. Dr. Tiner has taught organic chemistry off and on at Texas A&M since she received her Ph.D. here in 1981. She has been teaching essentially full time since 1989. Dr. Tiner is teaching Chemistry 100 (Horizons in Chemistry) in addition to two sections of Chemistry 227 this fall. Dr. Tiner has also served as chair of the Texas Interagency Council on Early Childhood Intervention and as a member of the Federal Interagency Coordinating Council. She also served as president of the Bryan-College Station Junior League last year. Her nomination for this award was supported by many letters from students in biomedical science, psychology, biology, medical school, vet school, and chemistry as well as former students who=ve now entered the professional world. Congratulations, Dr. Tiner.

Julie Orf, Kyle Plunkett, Courtney Sherman, and Melissa Supak have each been awarded $1000 Dow Aggies Scholarships for the 1999-2000 academic year. All are senior chemistry majors. These scholarships were announced by Dr. Kenneth Poenisch, Associate Dean for Student Affairs in the College of Science.

Amy Fowler, junior chemistry major, has been awarded an $1100 George C. Bauer Scholarship for the 1999-2000 academic year. This scholarship honors Professor Bauer, a former chemistry faculty member and outstanding teacher and recognizes Amy=s outstanding academic record and perseverance and hard work in pursuit of her degree.

BASF Corp: *Trevor Clayton, *Esther Garner, *Erin Guidry, Michael Gustavson, and Marti Sebesta

Dow Chemical: *Erin Docking, *Stephen Hansen, Laurel Hansen, *Melissa Laningham, and David Huddleston

Celanese Ltd.: Anna Allred, Walt Dannenberg, Travis Gilbreath, Sarah Holt, and *Ronald Wilson

Monsanto Company: Amelia Hessheimer, Amy McMahon, Lee O=Malley, *Hiral Shah and *Thomas Smith

Stuart Gregory (B.S. 1994) wrote to say that he is engaged to be married to an Indiana girl on October 23. His fiancee, Kristiana, is a graduate of Indiana University with a degree in criminal justice and works in the commercial insurance field. He said she likes A&M football. He has just purchased a home in Indianapolis. Stuart has been with Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals since graduation and works on designing drugs for Alzheimer=s disease. He reports that Lilly plans to hire several people at all levels over the next few years. Prospective employees should check out the web site at: www.lilly.com

Victoria (Vaughn) North (B.S. 1995) and Matthew North (B.S. 1994) are married and expecting their first child in February. They both received Master's degrees from Ohio University in 1998, Matt in organic chemistry and Vicki in analytical chemistry. Matt now works as a chemist for Astra-Zeneca Pharmaceuticals in Wilmington, DE in their combinatorial chemistry department and Vicki works as a chemist for Dupont at the Experimental Station in Wilmington in the inorganic catalysis department.

Dr. Abe Clearfield is seeking a junior or senior chemistry major to join his research group and assist one of his post-docs in synthesizing a family of supramolecular compounds. Please contact Dr. Clearfield in Room 329 Chemistry or phone him at 845-2936 or e-mail him at (clearfield@mail.chem.tamu.edu).

Graduate/Professional School Day will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7, in the Flag Room of the Memorial Student Center. Information about national, regional and local graduate and professional school opportunities will be available.