Departmental News
Chemistry Professor David Wu has co-authored a paper &mdash“Microsecond Simulations of Spontaneous Methane Hydrate Nucleation and Growth”&mdash that will appear in an upcoming Issue of Science magazine. Professor Wu's co-athors are Colorado School of Mines doctoral graduate student Matthew Walsh, and faculty and researchers from the Center for Hydrate Research (CHR), Carolyn Koh, E. Dendy Sloan, and Amadeu Sum.
Hydrates are present as vast untapped energy reserves found in the ocean and the permafrost. Unfortunately, they also pose a challenge to the delivery of oil and gas as their growth can plug pipelines. The Mines' research reported in Science helps explain how hydrates form, and could eventually lead to ways to control their growth.
The Colorado School of Mines Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry hosted the American Chemical Society’s 2009 Summer School on Green Chemistry and Sustainable Energy. For a full week at the end of July, graduate and post-doctoral students from the Americas explored scientific solutions to global challenges. The attendees heard presentations by leading researchers, collaborated on problem-solving projects and participated in laboratory experiments. Speakers discussed topics such as Greening the Supply Chain, Greener Solvents, and Green Nanoscience and included John Warner, a founder of the green chemistryfield.
Dr. Arnold Tamayo has joined the Department as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Tamayo's research interests involve the design, synthesis and characterization of organic electronic materials including conjugated organic, metallo-organic and polymeric materials.
About the banner art
The banner art, "NOx Rising," was created by Evan McThain. Recent studies have shown lightning over the U.S. significantly increases regional ozone and other gases that affect atmospheric chemistry 3 to 8 miles above Earth's surface. The amounts of ozone and nitrogen oxides created by lightning surpass those generated by human activities in that level of the atmosphere.
Do you have original artwork or photographs that you think would be appropriate for the CHGC banner? If so, let us know.