Grant to aid chemistry research

Reed has been awarded a grant of $109,865 in support of associate professor of chemistry Margret J. Geselbracht's project "A CAREER Plan: New Mixed-Valent Layered Perovskites to Elucidate Structure-Property Relationships" from the faculty early career development (CAREER) Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant is renewable for the next three years.

In addition to supporting senior thesis projects in this area, several Reed students will be given the opportunity to work with Geselbracht on this research during the summer. Geselbracht also plans to develop a new layered perovskite laboratory project for the introductory inorganic chemistry course, a student-based outreach program aimed at local high school chemistry classrooms, and a web site with instructional tools for teaching the relationships of structure, bonding, and properties in extended solids.

A professor at Reed since 1993, Geselbracht has been the recipient of many awards and grants, including a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Faculty Start-up grant, an NSF laboratory improvement grant, and the prestigious Cottrell College Science award. She is the author of numerous journal articles and is co-author of A Materials Chemistry Companion to General Chemistry.

Margret Geselbracht, associate professor of chemistry with Dale Ingram, chemistry teacher at Gladstone High School.

Russell's research gains support

Reed College has been awarded a Medical Research Foundation seed grant of $23,990 from the Oregon Health Sciences Foundation in support of professor of biology Peter J. Russell's project "Genetic Control of Replication of Yeast RNA Viruses."

Russell's research goal is to understand the genetics and molecular biology of the life cycle of RNA viruses found within protein coats in the yeast cell. Russell will work with DNA clones of the virus genomes and use them to initiate the virus life cycle. He will be able to make specific mutations in the DNA clones and then see the mutation's effects on the life cycle of the virus.

Russell, a professor at Reed since 1972, has supported his research with sizable grants from the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon, and the American Cancer Society. Russell's students often collaborate with him on his work. He is the author of numerous journal articles and Genetics(Benjamin/ Cummings), a college-level textbook now in its fifth edition. He also has made a number of contributions to the Biology Place, a web site that provides high school and college biology classroom activities and information on current genetics research papers.