Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
School of Green Chemistry and Engineering
University of Toledo
GROUP NEWS
2016 - 2019
November 2019: Mollie Enright Awarded Ciba Travel Award
Mollie Enright was selected to receive a 2019-2020 Ciba Travel Award in Green Chemistry. The award will cover travel and registration costs up to $2,000 for Mollie to attend the 24th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Seattle, WA on June 16-18, 2020. Congratulations to Mollie on receipt of this award!
November 2019: Morteza Jandaghi Successfully Defends Doctoral Dissertation
Morteza Jandaghi successfully defended his Ph.D. Dissertation on November 19, 2020 and will officially graduate in May of 2020. Morteza and Professor Mason thank the other committee members, Professors Peter Andreana, Dragan Isailovic, Connie Schall, and Joe Schmidt.
November 2019: Morteza Jandaghi and Professor Mason Submit Provisional Patent Application
Morteza Jandaghi and Professor Mason submitted a provisional patent application on a new catalyst system for the ring-opening polymerization of lactones, lactams, and lactides. Details on the ring-opening homo-polymerization and co-polymerization of caprolactone, caprolactam, lactide and glycolide will be submitted for publication in mid-2020.
October 2019: Morteza Jandaghi Starts New Job at Procter & Gamble
Congratulations to Morteza Jandaghi on his new job at Procter & Gamble in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Morteza is the Process Engineering Manager - Site Equipment Area Owner at the facility, which makes surfactants. Congrats to Morteza and his wife Mahsa who also works at P&G.
October 2019: Professor Mason Selected to 2020 Advisory Committee for ACS GCANDE Conference
Professor Mason was invited to serve on the 2020 Advisory Committee for the 24th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference to be held on June 16 - 18, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. See the link at https://www.gcande.org/our-2020-advisory-committee/
September 2019: ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable Ignition Grant Awarded
The Mason group is thankful for receipt of an ACS Green Chemistry Institute's Pharmaceutical Roundtable Ignition Grant of $25,000 in support of research on Iron-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling of Heterocycles. This is a new project for the Mason Group. The lab effort is led by graduate students Mollie Enright and Christine Jette with advice and guidance provided by members of the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable.
June 2019: Dr. Ryan Rondo Promoted to Research & Development Group Leader
Congratulations to Ryan Rondo on his promotion from Research Scientist II to R&D Group Leader at Boulder Scientific. In addition to his own research, Dr. Rondo manages a group of five researchers. Boulder Scientific does custom manufacturing for a wide variety of chemical markets, most notably polyolefins. BSC also sells a variety of ligands, organometallic catalyst precursors, metallocenes, Grignard reagents, and boron compounds. Further information on BSC can be found at their website.
November 2018: Mollie Enright Joins the Mason Group
Welcome to new group member Mollie Enright. Mollie is a first-year doctoral student with a passion for green chemistry. She worked at Beyond Benign prior to entering the graduate program in chemistry at the University of Toledo.
October 2018: Article on Indole-Based Complexes of Aluminum Published in Journal of Organometallic Chemisry
Former Mason Group members Dr. Bassam Fneich and Anirban Das had their article on Bidentate and Tridentate Coordination Modes of Bis(3-methylindolyl)-2-pyridylmethane in Complexes of Aluminum and Gallium: Structural Characterization of Bridging N-Indolide in a Dialuminum Complex published in Journal of Organometallic Chemistry (see Figure above). Dr. Kristin Kirschbaum collaborated on some crystallographic details. Congrats to Bassam and Das!
July 2018: Vince Kowalski Lands New Job at iGM Resins
Congratulations to Vince Kowalski on his new job as QC chemist at iGM Resins in North Carolina.
May 2018: Morteza Jandaghi Starts Job at Alterra Corporation
Congratulations to Morteza Jandaghi on his new job working with polymers at Alterra Corporation in Indiana. This opportunity arose from interviews conducted as part of our NSF I-Corps Customer Discovery Program. Morteza will complete his dissertation writing while starting his job in Indiana. Congrats!
November 2017: Christine Jette Joins the Mason Group
Welcome to new group member Christine Jette. Christine is a first-year master's student with an interest in green chemistry. She completed her B.S. degree in biochemistry at Stony Brook University prior to entering the graduate program in chemistry at the University of Toledo.
November 2017: NSF I-Corps Customer Discovery Project Completed
Congratulations to Morteza Jandaghi for successful completion of the NSF I-Corps Customer Discovery Program in support of the group patent on Trianionic Ligand Precursor Compounds and Uses Thereof in Constrained Geometry Catalysts. Morteza served as a entrepreneurial lead on NSF I-Corps Team 853 along with Professor Mason (PI) and Karl Scneider (I-Corps Business Mentor). Our team interviewed 244 people at over 200 organizations. We interviewed directors of business development, directors of research and development, research chemists, process engineers, and sales managers representing all points along the supply chains for polyolefins, with particular emphasis on automotive and packaging applications.
July 2017: UT Rocket Fuel Fund Grant Awarded
The Mason Group is thankful for receipt of a UT Rocket Fuel Fund Grant of $50,000 for Development of New Single-Site Catalysts for Propylene Polymerization. This project is in support of further catalyst development and commercialization opportunities identified during the NSF I-Corps Customer Discovery project. The UT Rocket Fuel Funds are available from a Department of Commerce Grant with a match provided by the University of Toledo.
June 2017: Fatemeh "Yasaman" Saleh Participates in ACS Summer School on Green Chemistry
Fatemeh "Yasaman" Saleh was selected by the American Chemical Society to participate in the ACS Summer School on Green Chemistry and Sustainable Energy, which was held at the Colorado School of Mines in June of 2017. Financial support was provided by the American Chemical Society.
May 2017: Vince Kowalski Graduates and Starts Job at Hampford Research
Congratulations to Vince Kowalski for completion of his M.S degree in Chemistry. His thesis topic was Synthesis and Characterization of Dipyrromethene Complexes of Antimony. Vince will be working at Hamford Research Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut.
September 2016: NSF I-Corps Grant Awarded
The Mason group is thankful for receipt of an NSF I-Corps grant of $50,000 in support of customer discovery and commercialization efforts for intellectual property on constrained geometry catalysts for olefin polymerization. The project is based on prior graduate research of former group member Dr. Ryan Rondo and the intellectual property covered by the patent issued to Professor Mason and the University of Toledo in 2013 (US Patent 8,524,846 B1, Trianionic Ligand Precursor Compounds and Uses Thereof in Constrained Geometry Catalysts). The NSF I-Corps team will be comprised of Morteza Jandaghi (entrepreneurial lead), Professor Mark Mason (PI), and Karl Schneider (business mentor).
August 2016: Article on Dipyrromethene Complexes of Aluminum Published in Dalton Transactions
Dr. Chris Gianopoulos had his article on Aluminum Alkoxide, Amide, and Halide Complexes Supported by a Bulky Dipyrromethene Ligand: Synthesis, Characterization, and Preliminary ε-Caprolactone Polymerization Activity published in Dalton Transactions (see Figure above). Professor Li Jia at the University of Akron, and his students Nishant Kumar and Yihong Zhao, collaborated on GPC measurements of polycaprolactone samples. Dr. Kristin Kirschbaum also collaborated on some crystallographic details. Congrats to Chris!
August 2016: Congratulations to Dr. Nick Kingsley on Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Congratulations to Dr. Nick Kingsley on his receipt of tenure and his promotion to Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan, Flint. Nick is a former member of the Mason Group, having received his Ph.D. from the University of Toledo in 2010. Congratulations Nick!