{"id":37523,"date":"2016-02-03T16:58:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T20:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=37523"},"modified":"2016-02-03T17:01:44","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T21:01:44","slug":"grad-students-prominent-in-brock-research-appearing-on-chemistry-journal-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2016\/02\/grad-students-prominent-in-brock-research-appearing-on-chemistry-journal-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"Grad students prominent in Brock research appearing on chemistry journal cover"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Brock University research team started off the year with a bang, snagging the cover illustration and featured article<\/a>\u00a0in the Journal of Organic Chemistry<\/em>\u2019s first issue of 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

The victory is particularly sweet given the first two authors listed are graduate students and they\u00a0designed the cover illustration.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting a feature article and a cover was so unexpected and remarkable,\u201d says first author Lee Belding,\u00a0who is in his fourth year of a PhD program in chemistry. \u201cIt just makes me feel really good about my work, that people appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is monumental for me,\u201d says Peter Stoyanov, who is in his second year of a Master\u2019s of Science program and the second author listed on the paper. \u201cIt\u2019s a gem in my CV. As a team, the paper promotes our lab group and the work that we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belding and Stoyanov worked under chemistry professor Travis Dudding to produce a new type of molecule<\/a> that glows and also strengthens a property commonly used in chemical processes.<\/p>\n

Dubbed \u2018Janus,\u2019 the molecule builds on a class of molecules called the proton sponge, first discovered by UK researcher Roger Alder in 1968.<\/p>\n

Proton sponges typically only pick up a single proton, but the molecule developed by the Brock research team is so strong that it can pick up two protons at the same time. Dudding says this new molecule is \u201ctruly a superbase,\u201d which is fundamental to physical organic chemistry and is valuable in organic synthesis.<\/p>\n

But the researchers made an even more interesting discovery: the new molecule is highly fluorescent.<\/p>\n

Belding says the team\u2019s paper was groundbreaking in that what emerged from the research was never created before.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the molecular units that we\u2019re focusing on is very fresh; it\u2019s a hot topic. We\u2019re doing very unique things with it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeatured articles are selected by the editors for their quality, interest, and importance, and have also received especially strong positive comments\/ratings from the reviewers,\u201d says Katie Turner, coordinating editor with the Utah-based Journal of Organic Chemistry<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I’m in need of cover art, I will do a search within our database for any featured articles that have recently been accepted for publication,\u201d explains Turner. \u201cFrom there, I will take a look at the reviews, and based off of their ratings, will determine whether they could be selected for cover art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful for Lee and Peter to earn the honour of being \u2018research headliners\u2019 in a prestigious journal within their field,\u201d says Dean of Graduate studies Mike Plyley.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe journal\u2019s editorial team employed an extensive review process to carefully select its cover stories, and in so doing, determined that their article deserved to be placed on the journal\u2019s \u2018prime real estate\u2019 \u2013 the cover. The nature of the research \u2014 the concept through to lab execution and techniques used \u2014 is innovative, and the quality of writing is excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plyley calls the students\u2019 publishing success \u201ca product of a model graduate student experience at Brock, a relationship built on strong mentorship and the value of students working alongside faculty as partners in research excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key to student researchers\u2019 success is having consistent and frequent access to their supervisors, says Stoyanov, something made possible \u201cbecause we have a small and tight knit group<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a supervisor has a large number of students, he or she does not have the time to take care for students\u2019 development, to really help them progress and learn; the supervisor is just demanding results,\u201d says Stoyanov. If you are a student at a large university, says Belding, \u201cif you\u2019re just starting out, you will talk to a PhD student almost exclusively.\u201d<\/p>\n

As supervisor,\u00a0Dudding stresses the importance of creating a positive, open environment where team members are valued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want my students to be excited about chemistry,\u201d says Dudding. \u201cThey see my enthusiasm, my excitement for chemistry, and that wears off on them. They suddenly can see, wow!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne policy is that everyone has to get along,\u201d Dudding explains. \u201cWe\u2019ll communicate \u2013 even when we\u2019re not in the office \u2013 about what\u2019s going on in the rest of the world in chemistry, what we\u2019re doing, and just how fun the stuff we\u2019re doing is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to teach people to be responsible and also be a good human being. If you have knowledge, and self reflection, and you feel good about what you\u2019re doing, you\u2019re more prone to be a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Brock University research team started off the year with a bang, snagging the cover illustration and featured article in the Journal of Organic Chemistry\u2019s first issue of 2016. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":37527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,55,5],"tags":[3793,3790,3792,3791,3580],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37529,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37523\/revisions\/37529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}