Submitted by Dr. Robert H. Beer, Department of Chemistry, Fordham University
Bronx, NY 10458.  Phone: 914-747-5661.  Email: beer@fordham.edu
 

General Statement

       The Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Topical Group promotes the interaction and scholarship of chemists in the New York region interested in inorganic chemistry research and education and related topics. The primary activity of the Group is to organize mini-symposia and social events. Mini-symposia are held biannually and co-sponsored with The New York Academy of Sciences. These meetings are comprised of three to four speakers and student and post-doctoral associate presentations on a broad range of topics of interest to inorganic chemists. The Chair of the Discussion Group, in consultation with the advisory members, selected the speakers and planned the events.

       A post-symposium reception and speaker dinner provides a social setting for interaction. Meetings are open to the public and typically attended by local inorganic chemists consisting of faculty, students and industrial scientists from the area. The mini-symposia are publicized in The Indicator, the New York Academy of Sciences Newsletter and by email.  Generous financial support comes from our local ACS section and the New York Academy of Sciences, corporate sponsorship provided some funds for our activities.
 

Objectives

 (1) Continuing our effort to present diverse topics from local and nationally renowned scientists that includes the participation of local students, post-docs and faculty.

(2) Developing specialized workshops in inorganic chemistry, e.g. a Bioinorganic Chemistry Workshop.

(3) Planning evening social activities like Group dinners.

(4) Increasing educational and career opportunities for our participants.

(5) Increasing advisory board and other attendee participation in developing, planning and executing events.

(6) Maintaining corporate fund raising as part of our effort to help support the activities of the group.

(7) Increasing attendance at meetings by increasing the efficiency of announcements sent electronically to a target audience and widening the participation of attendees, especially from industrial laboratories.

(8) Documenting events for archiving.
 

2005-6 Officers

Co-Chairs                                                                                                   Advisory Committee                                              Advisory Committee(cont)
 

Dr. Robert H. Beer(Acting chair)                                                         Dr. G. Parkin                                                             Dr. B. Gibney
Department of Chemistry                                                                     Dept. of Chemistry                                                  Dept. of Chemistry
Fordham University                                                                               Columbia University                                               Columbia University
Bronx, NY 10458                                                                                    3000 Broadway MC3167                                       3000 Broadway MC316
(718)817-4451                                                                                        New York, NY 10027                                               New York, NY 10027
fax(718)817-4432                                                                                   (212)854-2202                                                        (212)854-6346
beer@fordham.edu                                                                               fax (212)932-1289                                                   fax (212)932-1289
                                                                                                                   parkin@chem.columbia.edu                                 brg@chem.columbia.edu

Dr. Lynn Francesconi                                                                            Dr. M. Walters                                                            Dr. M. Millar
Department of Chemistry                                                                    Dept.of Chemistry                                                     Dept. of Chemistry
CUNY, Hunter College                                                                           New York University                                                  SUNY
695 Park Avenue                                                                                   100 Washington Square East                                Stony Brook, NY 11794
New York,NY 10021                                                                              New York, NY 10003                                                 (516)632-7909
212-772-5353                                                                                        (212)998-8400                                                             fax(516)632-7960
fax(212)772-5332                                                                                  fax(212)260-7905                                                      michelle.millar@sunysb.edu
francesconi@hunter.cuny.edu                                                         marc.walters@nyu.edu
 
 

       The Inorganic Chemistry Topical Group held two major seminar events this year at the New York Academy of Sciences.  Each event was followed by a speaker reception with refreshments and the speakers and faculty attendees went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant after the meeting.  Prospective attendees were notified of events by email as well as in the section newsletter (the Indicator), the NYAS web page and electronic announcements, and was posted in on the local section web site.

       A Spring event was held on June 3 2005 and featured a seminar by Dr. Catherine Drennan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on Metalloprotein Crystallography.  The seminar was followed by a poster session with over 20 graduate student presenters.  A web page was used to publicize and register poster presenters and their abstracts.  A program and abstract booklet was printed and provided at the meeting to participants.  Approximately sixty people attended the event.

       A minisymposium was held on November 11th, 2005 featuring graduate student and post-doctoral speakers from the metropolitan area giving short 10 ?minute talks that ranged from materials science to synthetic inorganic chemistry.    The audience of over forty inorganic chemists from the metropolitan area were provided by abstracts of the presentations written by the students in the form of a booklet.  A wine and cheese reception for the students and attendees followed the minisymposium.

FLYERS BELOW:

        Nickel uptake in Escherichia coli occurs via an ABC transporter that is transcriptionally controlled by a metal-responsive repressor called NikR.  To understand how Ni activates NikR for transcriptional repression, we have determined several structures of NikR in different states.  NikR is the only known metal-responsive member of the ribbon-helix-helix (RHH) family of transcription factors, and its structure displays an interesting quaternary arrangement: two dimeric RHH DNA binding domains separated by a regulatory domain responsible for nickel binding and tetramerization.  The presence of this regulatory domain between the DNA binding domains explains the observation that the NikR operator has a relatively large binding site spacing compared to other RHH-responsive operators.  The regulatory domain of NikR contains a nickel binding site with a novel square-planar arrangement of three histidines and one cysteine.  Differences between the apo-NikR and nickel-bound structures suggest mechanisms of DNA-binding activation upon nickel binding, and contribute to our understanding of intracellular metalloregulation.

CALL FOR POSTERS HIGHLIGHTING INORGANIC CHEMISTRY IN THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN AREA:
Dr. Drennan’s seminar will be followed by a poster session and a reception.  All faculty, students and postdoctoral researchers are invited to submit poster presentation abstracts by Friday, May 27th, 2005 to the web site http://gibney9.chem.columbia.edu:8080/NYAS/form.php

Date:       Both Events on Friday, June 3, 2005
Time:      3:00-5:30 P.M. with reception to follow.
Place:    New York Academy of Sciences, 2 East 63rd Street, New York, NY

For more information and registration, contact the New York Academy of Sciences at (212)838-0230 or conference@nyas.org or on the web at www.nyas.org.
 
 

A New Class of Lanthanide Oxoselenido Clusters: Intense Near-IR Emission from Nd (III) Ion
Santanu Banerjee, Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Piscataway

Luminescent Organoboron Quinolate Polymers
Yang Qin, Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Newark

Ferrocene Based 1,2-Disubstituted Lewis Acids
Krishnan Venkatasubbaiah, Rutgers University, Newark

Dynamic Kinetic Resolution of Zirconaaziridines
Sarah A. Cummings, Columbia University

Solid-State NMR Studies of Silver Vanadium Oxide Battery Cathodes
Nicole Leifer, CUNY, Hunter College and State University of New York, Stony Brook

Synthesis and Reactivity of Mononuclear Tris(2-mercapto-1-t?Butylimidazolyl)-
Hydroborato Iron Complexes [TmBut]FeX and Related Compounds
Joshua S. Figueroa, Columbia University

Mimics [(PS2)'Fe(CN)x(CO)y] for [NiFe], [FeFe] Hydrogenase Enzymes
A Mixed Valence Fe Thiolate Dimer with CO and CN- Ligation
Doris Y. Melgarejo, State University of New York, Stony Brook

Synthesis and Characterization of New  [FeII,III(CN)4L2]n-  Compounds
Gina M. Chiarella, State University of New York, Stony Brook

C?H versus O?H Bond Cleavage Reactions of Diphenolphenylamine with W(PMe3)4(h2-CH2PMe2)H
Bryte V. Kelly, Columbia University
 

Date:   Friday, November 11, 2005
Time:  3:00-5:30 P.M. with a reception to follow.
Place: New York Academy of Sciences, 2 East 63rd Street, New York, NY

For more information and registration, contact the New York Academy of Sciences at (212)838-0230, conference@nyas.org or on the web at www.nyas.org.