36 seniors graduated with degrees in Chemistry at the end of spring semester 2015.  The Chemistry Department honored these graduating seniors with a reception on graduation day last May in the Miller Learning Center Rotunda. Faculty, staff, seniors and their families attended.  Prof.

Five graduate students in the Department of Chemistry have been recognized for their outstanding contributions as teaching assistants. Melody Rhine and Ellen Broering were awarded the 2015 Outstanding Teaching Award. These awards are conferred annually by the UGA Center for Teaching and Learning, recognizing exemplary qualities as teaching assistants and contributions above and beyond normal expectations. Henry Niedermaier, Roshini Ramachandran and Nidhi Bhatt were awarded the 2015 Kenneth W. Whitten Award.

 In an effort that reaches back to the 19th-century laboratories of Europe, a discovery by University of Georgia chemistry researchers establishes new research possibilities for silicon chemistry and the semiconductor industry.

The study, published April 20 in the journal Nature Chemistry, gives details on the first time chemists have been able to trap molecular species of silicon oxides.

Francisco Sarabia, a graduate student in the UGA Chemistry Department, was named a 2015 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship recipient in the area of sustainable chemistry.  Francisco is currently a second year student under the direction of Professor Eric Ferreira, where he is investigating the design and application of light-activated catalysts based on earth-abundant metals.  He is one of only eight graduate students at the University of Georgia who received the award.

For the second year in a row, UGA's Graduate School has honored an outstanding doctoral student in the Department of Chemistry with a Beverly Hirsh Frank Graduate Fellowship for Women in Science. Darrah Johnson-McDaniel is the 2014 recipient of this award, which provides special recognition of her original research in an interdisciplinary and emerging field.

Michael K. Johnson, Distinguished Research Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Metalloenzymes Studies, has received a National Institutes of Health MERIT award ($3.3M over 10-years). The objective of NIH MERIT Awards is to provide long-term, stable support to investigators with “outstanding records of productivity, creativity and impact in biomedical research and outstanding records of service to the scientific community”. Dr.

Three graduate students in the Department of Chemistry recently earned distinction from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia as recipients of distinguished fellowships. Brian Sanders is the 2014 recipient of the prestigious Mary Laraine Young Hines Graduate Fellowship in Cancer Research. Sean Marrache and Anthony Prudden are the 2014 recipients of prestigious Grimes Family Distinguished Graduate Fellowships in Natural Sciences.

Robert J. Gilliard, Jr., a 2014 doctoral graduate in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of chemistry, has been awarded a UNCF/Merck Foundation Postdoctoral Science Research Fellowship. The award provides $98,000 and includes a stipend, research grant, and travel funds for up to two years of fellowship tenure.

Gregory H. Robinson, Foundation Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, has been named the University of Georgia's 2014 recipient of the Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award.

The award, which is administered by SEC provosts, recognizes one faculty member from each of the 14 SEC schools and includes a $5,000 honorarium. Robinson joined the UGA faculty in 1995 and was named Distinguished Research Professor in 2000, Franklin Professor in 2005 and Foundation Distinguished Professor in 2013.

“For advances in gas phase chemical physics, laser spectroscopy, and molecular quantum mechanics, especially for pioneering contributions to the development and application of helium nanodroplet isolation for the stabilization of transient intermediates in combustion chemistry, and for excellence in student mentoring.”