Chemistry News

A full-page conversation with Arlene was featured in the Dec 8, 2008 issue of C&E News, p. 35. Two excerpts:

“Blum is taking action to limit the amount of potentially toxic chemicals used in consumer products by bringing together independent scientists and industry and government decisionmakers … She is particularly concerned about hazardous halogenated chemicals. Brominated and chlorinated flame retardants are pressing concerns, she says.”

“Blum fell in love with molecules and mountain climbing when she attended Reed College, in Oregon. She wrote her senior thesis about volcanic gases, collecting samples on nearby Mount Hood in the process.”

Anyone who can work their senior thesis into a conversation with a reporter from a national news magazine is a true Reedie. Out of curiousity, I looked up the title of Arlene’s thesis: “Fumarole emanations from Mount Hood, Oregon”. The Reed library also contains two other books by Arlene: “Annapurna: A Woman’s Place” (Sierra Club, 1980) and “Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life” (Scribner’s, 2005). Arlene spoke at Reed on Nov 18, 2008 as a guest of the Reed Outdoor Club.

As Friday afternoon ran down and the halls grew quiet, a real “alumni surprise” walked through Arthur Glasfeld‘s door: Phil Wilk. I went across the hall to listen in and heard about Phil’s academic exploits. After graduating from Reed, he went to Berkeley to work with Glenn Seaborg (Nobel ’51) and Darlene Hoffman (Priestley ’00). Sadly, Seaborg passed away in 1999, but Phil continued his work at synthesizing ultra-heavy elements and eventually earned his Ph.D.. In the last few years, he has set up shop at the Lawrence Livermore labs, a short trip from Berkeley down the freeway and through the Altamont Pass.

Who else but Katie would send an email saying, “Hello again, it’s your favorite wayward alumna back to haunt you again … I’m coming into town Friday”? So Friday afternoon rolled around and who should walk into my office but Katie herself. I had been warned.

Katie is still working at the U. Washington Medical Center in Seattle (she tells me that the chemistry building is just across the street and she occasionally sees Reedies on campus), but she is gearing up to attend graduate school in engineering. She also showed off some impressive manual dexterity – pain-free at last! – and is eager to move on with her life. Good luck, Katie!

Jordan returned to Reed yesterday, visited with students and faculty, and presented a seminar based on his doctoral research at Caltech: “Supplying Global Energy Carbon-Free:  A Combinatorial Approach to Finding Solutions”. Jordan’s hair is much shorter than we all remember, but the smile and chemistry were vintage Jordan. He told us, that according to best estimates, controlling CO2 levels in the atmosphere to any significant extent requires producing 10-20 TW (that’s terawatts) of energy worldwide from sources that won’t release greenhouse gases. The only realistic source of energy on that scale is solar energy and Jordan described his recent efforts to find metal oxide semiconductors that can split water to H2 (fuel) + O2 in a solar-powered photochemical reaction.

Jordan Katz (Reed ’99, PhD Caltech ’08) has been keeping busy. A few months ago, Caltech News, 42(1), 2008, ran an article called “The Sun Also Catalyzes” that described how Jordan and his thesis advisor, Prof. Nathan Lewis, were using inkjet printers to screen large numbers of metal oxide compounds as potential photocatalysts for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. The project, which is co-sponsored by Prof. Bruce Parkinson (Colorado State U.), also involves collaborators at undergraduate colleges. Maggie Geselbracht and two Reed students, Megan Baker ’10 and Alex Perez ’09, joined the party this past summer by setting up their very own inkjet printer.

Jordan is now a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley. He will be delivering a research seminar at Reed on September 25 and a few days ago passed along this happy news,

“Dearest Friends and Family, It is with tremendous pleasure that
we announce the birth of Elina, who was born on August 15th at 8:54 PM
in Berkeley. She weighs 7 lbs 7 oz, and is 20.5 inches from head to
toe!  Mom and baby Elina are both very healthy. We’ve posted a few photos (with more on the way!) here: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~jordank/Baby/index.html. With love, Jordan and Cecile”
URL correction 9/26: Jordan has closed down the URL listed above. Check http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~jordank/Jordan_Katz/Photos.html to see baby pictures.