2024 Events: October 23-24
Tehshik Yoon, PhD, Professor of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Schedule:
- Wednesday, October 23
- 4 PM: Faculty Workshop
- Implicit Bias – Ruth W. Williams Hall of Life Science, Room 140
- 4 PM: Faculty Workshop
- Thursday, October 24
- 11 AM: Technical Lecture
- Stereocontrol in Photochemical Reactions
- Wishart Hall, Lean Lecture
- Stereocontrol in Photochemical Reactions
- 12 PM: Lunch: Professional Development
- How to Navigate & Apply to PhD Programs
- All students invited to attend – RSVP encouraged but not required by Tuesday, October 22, 4:30 PM
- Severance Hall, Room 105 (STEM Zone)
- All students invited to attend – RSVP encouraged but not required by Tuesday, October 22, 4:30 PM
- How to Navigate & Apply to PhD Programs
- 7:30 PM: Public Lecture
- Radical Chemistry: A Case for LGBTQ+ Visibility in STEM
- Ruth W. Williams Hall of Life Science, Room 060.
- Reception immediate follows sponsored by the Wooster Section of the American Chemical Society
- Ruth W. Williams Hall of Life Science, Room 060.
- Radical Chemistry: A Case for LGBTQ+ Visibility in STEM
- 11 AM: Technical Lecture
Details:
Technical Lecture: Stereocontrol in Photochemical Reactions
Professional Development Lunch & Learn
Public Lecture: Radical Chemistry: A Case for LGBTQ+ Visibility in STEM
Biography:
Tehshik was born in Montreal, Quebec, and raised in Blacksburg, VA, where his father is a professor of mining engineering at Virginia Tech. Tehshik became intrigued by organic chemistry as an undergraduate, and he had the great fortune to receive his education at every stage of his career in the laboratories of some of the leading figures in contemporary asymmetric synthesis. At Harvard, Tehshik’s first learned about research by studying stereocontrolled aldol reactions in Dave Evans’ lab. His master’s degree with Erick Carreira exposed him to the concept of applying photochemistry to the synthesis of complex natural products. Tehshik then became Dave MacMillan’s first graduate student, first at Berkeley and then at Caltech, with whom he studied methods to control the stereochemistry of pericyclic reactions. As a postdoc, Tehshik returned to Harvard and investigated the use of hydrogen bonding urea catalysts in asymmetric synthesis.
Tehshik has been on the faculty at UW-Madison since 2005, where he is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry. He remains intrigued by the unique ability of chemical synthesis to control molecular shape and function with an atomic level of control. His research group is particularly interested in the application of open-shelled reactive intermediates such as heteroatom-centered radicals, alkene radical cations, and electronically excited organic triplets to complex molecule synthesis. His contributions to pedagogy and research have been recognized with a variety of awards, including the following:
Selected Awards:
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award (2015)
William H. Kiekhofer Distinguished Teaching Award (2013)
Eli Lilly Grantee Award (2010)
Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2010)
Amgen Young Investigator Award (2009)
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2009)
Cottrell Scholar Award (2008)
Beckman Young Investigator Award (2008)
NSF CAREER Award (2007)
Helen Murray Free
Helen Murray Free, a 1945 College of Wooster graduate and a pioneering scientist who was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 2000, was honored with the inaugural Helen Murray Free Endowed Lecture, featuring Dr. Mary Lowe Good.
The lecture series was established by Helen’s children and endowed through the Al and Helen Free Foundation. Each year, this endowed fund brings a renowned chemical scientist to campus to interact with chemistry students at a technical level and present an all-college convocation on the contributions of science to the quality of life.
Free, whose research in clinical chemistry not only revolutionized diagnostic testing in the laboratory, but also in the home, developed the “dip-and-read” glucose tests for diabetics. She was awarded seven patents for her clinical diagnostic test inventions, and also helped to develop a product for diagnosing Hepatitis ‘A’ while working for Miles Laboratories. In addition, she provided invaluable leadership in the testing of newborn infants for genetic or metabolic disorders that might lead to mental retardation.
Throughout her career, Free has been an active advocate of science education. From 1987 to 1992, she chaired the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) National Chemistry Week Task Force. In 1980, she was chosen as one of Wooster’s Distinguished Alumni Award winners; in 1992 she received an honorary degree from Wooster; and in 1993 she was elected president of the American Chemical Society.
Free has authored more than 150 professional articles, and co-authored two widely used textbooks in the field. Her accomplishments have been recognized in a number of ways, including the awarding of the ACS Garvan Medal and the Professional Achievement Award in Nuclear Medicine from the American Society for Medical Technology, as well as the establishment of the ACS Helen M. Free Public Outreach Award.