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Student Recitals

Hana Schiff ‘18, piano, performed Lehár’s “Vilia” from The Merry
Widow and Harrison’s Tandy’s Tango. Daphne Guo ‘19, violin,
performed Holst’ Terzetto I. Allegretto with classmates.

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Faculty and Staff

Robert J. Cave
B.S., Michigan State University
PhD, California Institute of Technology

Physical Chemistry

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While there is hardly a “chill in the air”, fall ar-
rived this week with temperatures in the 60s
and 70s. It must be time for yet another
Chemistry Annual Report!

The 2017-2018 academic year found me teach-
ing one of my favorite sequences, Organic
Chemistry (Chem 105) and Organic Lab
(Chem 111). For those of you who are a bit old-
er this last course would be Chem 107 – Junior
Lab. The experiments have changed quite a bit
since the days of yore, but the experiments are
still quite interesting and they make the
students think a bit before answering. My
research efforts continue as a collaborative
effort with Bob Cave into computational
chemistry on Claisen rearrangement transition
states for reactions my group has been study-
ing for many years. Density Functional Theory
techniques allow us to make a stab at
calculating the free energy of the actual chair
and boat transition states in various types of
acid catalyzed Claisen rearrangements, and we
have had some significant success in modeling
our experimental results from past years. We
are learning a lot, and Professor Cave and I try
to keep each other honest about our lack of
knowledge in organic and computational
chemistry respectively!

On a more personal side, our first grandchild G. William Daub
(Matthew) was born last February to our third
son (Michael and his wife,Taryn) and Matthew B.S., Pomona College
is doing great. We have traveled enough to PhD, Stanford University
watch him grow and develop, and Skype fills in
the blanks in the “in-between times”. When I Organic Chemistry
arrived on campus oh so many years ago, who
would have ever thought that video phone calls
would be easy and high in quality? We also
traveled to Europe twice this summer
(Germany and France) to visit with our eldest
son and his wife as they pursued research in
geophysics and art history. We had an excel-
lent time. Our second son (Brian) continues his
work at Lawrence Labs and our daughter (Mary
Beth) is deep into her postdoc at Wisconsin
and just accepted a tenure-track organic job at
Furman University. Changes, changes,
changes ……

I still ride my bike, play golf, and cook. And to
repeat a line from this missive a year ago,
“retirement keeps creeping away from me as
fast as I move toward it.” Stay tuned!

Here’s hoping you have a great finish to 2017 53
and a happy and healthy 2018!

Daniel A. Guerra
B.A., California State Polytechnic University
M.S., California State Polytechnic University

Laboratory & Stockroom Manager

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I have been enjoying a year of sabbatical
research at the City of Hope National
Medical Center. My host lab at City of
Hope studies homologous recombination
DNA repair in the model organism
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as
budding yeast. I am learning how to do
genetics research with budding yeast with
the plans of bringing this experimental
system back to Mudd and training my
future research students. This platform will
serve as a way to extend our in vitro bio-
chemistry experiments on the mecha-
nisms of DNA repair into a living system.
Other side projects during my sabbatical
include learning the statistical program-
ming language R and building bridges to
medical schools to facilitate applications
by Mudd’s premedical students.
I am traveling and enjoying spending time
with my family. Jenny is teaching a 4th-
5th-6th grade multi-age class at Sycamore
Elementary in Claremont and Laura is a
first-year student in high school at the
Vivian Webb School. I miss all my
students and colleagues at Harvey Mudd
and look forward to returning in 2018.

Karl Haushalter

B.A., Rice University
PhD, Harvard University

Chemical Biology

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2017 was a big year for me. In May I was Lelia N. Hawkins
awarded tenure and promotion to
Associate Professor and in July I began a B.S., UC, San Diego
much anticipated sabbatical. I am so very PhD, Scripps Institute
fortunate to spend the rest of my career
working at HMC with excellent students of Oceanography
and inspiring instructors. Environmental Chemistry
In spring I taught my third offering of
Advanced Analytical Chemistry, a course
that always reminds our students why the
core is so important. This year we added
e-cigarette smoke analysis to the list of
choice experiments.
Since beginning my sabbatical I have had
time to dig deeply into research questions
that were on hold, in a sense, and I have
found that experience to be rewarding
and refreshing. Having a spouse with a
local career means that I am spending
the sabbatical at HMC, which I very much
enjoy. This year has also been a year for
travel. I’ve gone to Hawaii, Raleigh, and
New Orleans in addition to several trips to
San Diego and northern California. I am
also making time for course development.
In the spring, I and Pomona’s Professor
Adam Pearson were awarded a Mellon
grant to create a course blending the
science of climate change with psycholo-
gy, to help students understand how to
talk about climate change.
Our son, Taj, is now turning 4 and is a
constant source of affection and amuse-
ment. Our new puppy, Opal, is also quite
endearing, and the combination of small
child and puppy is sometimes too cute to
bear. Taj refers to the other faculty in our
department as “science officers” and has
his own pair of chemistry goggles. His
favorite element is neodymium.

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In Spring 2017 I taught inorganic and Adam R. Johnson

inorganic lab. Not content to ever do any- B.A., Oberlin College
thing the same 2 years in a row, I switched PhD, Massachusetts Institute
textbooks, and significantly reordered the
lecture content to better support the of Technology
laboratory data analysis. It ended up being Inorganic Chemistry
a good change and I intend to keep it the
same for a few years now. I also super-
vised several rotations of Chem 40
students, which ended up working well as a
recruiting tool for summer research. Along
with my thesis student, we developed the
synthesis of several new salen-type
ligands, and this work continued during the
summer months. In the fall of 2017, I was
involved in teaching frosh Chem with both
Profs Vosburg and Van Heuvelen, as well
as a section of first year laboratory.

My collaborative inorganic teaching project
(www.ionicviper.org) wrote a proposal to
fund 5 more years of faculty development
workshops, including a research project to
demonstrate the efficacy of active learning
and literature-based curricula in the
inorganic course. The proposal was funded
at a total of $1.1 million across three
institutions.

We had several backpacking trips planned
for summer 2017, but one of them was
canceled due to a broken foot (not mine,
fortunately). I am in the midst of training for
the Antelope Canyon 50 mile race in
February 2018. Over the semester break,
we spent 2 wonderful weeks in New
Zealand, where we did a lot of hiking, sight-
seeing, and I learned to drive on the left
side of the road.

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It’s fair to say that my focus during 2017 Kerry K. Karukstis
was the Chemistry instructional laboratory
renovations. Every stage of the process B.S., Duke University
was an extraordinary undertaking. Design- PhD, Duke University
ing the spaces to fit both aspirations and Physical Chemistry
budget; experiencing the incredible
generosity of alumni and friends to support
this initiative; selecting everything from
fume hoods to donor signage; packing up
everything in the PChem laboratory and
squeezing all of our instructional laboratory
equipment and instrumentation into every
imaginable space in Jacobs; observing the
renovations during the summer months
(yes, we peeked into the spaces at the end
of the day to see the progress); conferring
with the construction crew almost daily to
address a multitude of issues and make
final decisions; moving everything back
during the week of Orientation to be ready
for the start of the fall semester; and then
stepping back and experiencing the over-
whelming transformation of the laboratories
into modern, inspiring spaces in which to
teach and learn.

Our campus-wide celebration in late
September with students, alumni, faculty,
staff, trustees, and friends was one of the
most joyful days of my time at HMC.

Thank you to everyone who made these
renovations possible. This department is
so incredibly blessed to be the recipient of
so much loyalty and kindness.

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This year has brought a unique opportunity Penny Manisco
to be involved in the renovation of our B.S., University of Southern California
teaching labs. The planning sessions with
our design team was kind of like HGTV for Laboratory Technician
laboratories! I appreciated the opportunity & Chemical Hygiene Officer
to offer input for safety features. Our
Major’s lab now has much improved site
lines and new variable air volume hoods.
Freshman lab also has improved site lines
with bench snorkels that are easy to move
in to desired position or out of the way
when not needed. The new overhead
electrical system in PChem lab eliminates
the need for the many extension cords
once needed for instructional set ups
requiring a lot of electrical equipment.
Amazingly, the renovations were complete,
equipment was moved back in to place,
and we were able to have labs set up and
running in time for the new school year.
The spring semester will bring the
challenge of a double lab set up for our
Freshman students. Increased enrollment
demands that two laboratory sections be
run simultaneously, in two different spaces.
Be sure and wave as I run from one lab to
another!
This year my husband and I had the
opportunity to visit Iceland in March to view
the Northern Lights. In August we enjoyed
a fabulous trip to South Africa, along with
our daughter and niece. We visited
beautiful Cape Town then went on safari in
Pilanesburg National Park. The dawn and
dusk safari drives gave us opportunities to
see lions, cheetahs, elephants, rhinos,
giraffes, zebras, and more! We look
forward to more travel and spending time
with our family.

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Peter Sanchez
Scientific Instrumentation Technician

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2016-2017 was an eventful year.
My research group is working to
develop bio-inspired transition met-
al catalysts to remediate carcino-
genic pollutants. Ellie Gund ’17,
Rilke Griffin ’18, Christopher Ye ’19,
and Brandon Wada ’20 synthesized
bio-inspired nickel complexes that
successfully dechlorinate
carcinogenic pollutants. Our work
led to three publications with five
HMC student coauthors. This year,
Rachael Kretsch ’18 is taking the
lead on the computational aspect
of this project. I am grateful to work
with the wonderful students at
Harvey Mudd College.

Katherine Van Heuvelen
B.A., St. Olaf College

PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Inorganic Chemistry

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After a year of sabbatical, it’s good to get back Hal Van Ryswyk
into the classroom. This fall marked the fifth
offering of Materials Science of Energy B.A., Carlton College
Conversion and Storage (or MSECS for short). PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison
This research literature seminar, cross-listed in
Engineering, Physics, and Chemistry, Analytical & Materials Chemistry
introduces HMC students to cutting-edge
advances in photovoltaics, batteries, and fuel
cells made possible by new materials. The
teaching team included Profs. Haskell and
Saeta (physics), as well as Dato (engineering).
In yet another measure of the “new” HMC,
14 of the 18 students were women.
During spring semester I offered a Core Labor-
atory in Environmental Analysis that examined
the new Pomona College bioswale (an element
of landscape architecture that filters storm
run-off and recharges the local aquifer).
Students also examined whether recent forest
fires (including the Bernard Field Station burn
of September 2013) released anthropogenic
metals into the environment.
Another joy of returning from sabbatical is
incorporating new lines of research inquiry. A
talented team of undergraduate coworkers from
HMC and Pomona in my lab built and tested a
quantum dot sprayer, allowing us to create
large-area solid-state solar cells with tunable
band-gaps.
The analytical chemist in me rejoices at the
instrumentation we have been able to attract to
Claremont in support of research projects such
as these. The bioswale project could not have
been completed without the Keck Science
Department’s new inductively-coupled plasma
optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES, the
closest thing you will ever find in a research lab
to the sounds of Darth Vader), while we are
heavy users of the joint HMC/Pomona scan-
ning electron microscope (SEM) in support of
our solar energy research.
My family is well. Both daughters have
launched careers, acquired a house, a cat, and
a significant other (not necessarily in that
order). Charlotte continues to teach elementary
music, beginning strings, and plays in the
Claremont Concert Orchestra of the Joint
Music Program.
I love hearing what you are up to – keep in
contact!

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Calendar 2017 had its ups and downs. In the Gerald R. Van Hecke ‘61
spring I taught Classical and Statistical
Thermodynamics, G,Q&S, first year chemistry B.S., Harvey Mudd College
lab, and 3 rotations of Chem 40, the PhD, Princeton University
introductory research experience for first year
students. No seniors to mentor through their Physical Chemistry
thesis this year. The fall was more varied. Of
course PChem lab was offered but also was
Industrial Chemistry that enticed 3 Pomona
students to join the class. A second time
through was the Chemistry of Modern Materials
that is a fun survey of modern materials from
conducting polymers to self-healing concrete.
One senior thesis student is Paul Sonner `18
who has developed his own project to study the
chemistry of printer inks.
A piece of good news, one of the ups, was the
successful NSF Major Research Instrument
proposal for funding to purchase a new DSC.
The new instrument, a TA DSC250, is now in
the lab and we are learning how to use it.
Travel was not extensive. Attended the spring
SF ACS meeting where 2 students, Hannah
Slocumb and Leah Stevenson, presented post-
ers based on 2016 summer work. In July went
fishing in Montana and ran into some
aggressive fish in the Gallatin River the result
of which was a broken wrist, one of downs for
the year. All healed now.
Two students signed on for 2017 summer
research:
Hannah Slocumb. Hannah continued her
project from 2016 using the new viscometer
and new refractometer through to study binary
liquid mixtures of alcohols and hydrocarbons.
Daphne Guo. Daphne was named a Kubota
Fellow and picked up Colin Adams’ project
seeking to establish the binary phase diagrams
of long chain carboxylic acids, long here being
10 to 18 carbons with a view potentially using
such mixtures as thermal energy storage
systems.
As usual keep those cards, emails, personal
visits coming to tell us of your latest
adventures. We really do enjoy catching up
with you. Please keep your address on file with
the department current so we can reach you.

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Mary Van Vleet
B.S., Harvey Mudd College
PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Physical Chemistry

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Two big highlights in 2017 were being promot- David A. Vosburg
ed to full professor and receiving an NSF grant B.A., Williams College
to enhance our 400 MHz NMR. The instrument PhD, The Scripps Research Institute
will keep the same Bruker magnet and dewar
(a nice sustainability decision), but everything Organic Chemistry
else will be replaced and we'll get an
autosampler! Installation is anticipated in 65
February 2018. Adam Johnson and Kathy
Van Heuvelen greatly assisted in our success-
ful grant application.
Another noteworthy achievement this year was
publishing a book, Jesus, Beginnings, and Sci-
ence, which I co-authored with my wife Kate.
We hope it is very accessible and helpful to
many. The book likely contributed to my recent
invitation to join the editorial board of the jour-
nal Perspectives on Science and Christian
Faith. Kate and I also joined a team that
launched the inaugural Veritas Academy last
summer in Claremont, and now a similar model
will be developed for other colleges and
universities around the country.
I have applied for a Fulbright award to support
my family's 2018-19 sabbatical at
the University of Guanajuato in Mexico, and I
hope it gets funded! (It did!!)The Skype inter-
view, completely in Spanish with five Mexican
chemists, was very challenging and covered
lots of technical topics! Definitely one of the
hardest things I've done, despite having
improved my high school Spanish by auditing
two classes (Spanish 2 and 33) at Pomona
College. I'll audit Spanish 44 in spring 2018.
My group's research continues on cryptobeilic
acid D, the probable natural product
isocryptobeilic acid D, and the inherent
preferences of biosynthetic Diels-Alder reac-
tions that can generate either fused or bridged
tetracycles. The computational work is in
collaboration with Bob Cave. We also are work-
ing on scale-up and optimization of our iron
cage preparation as well as the synthesis of a
grandifloracin precursor for carbons lab and/or
organic lab.
Nate is now in 7th grade and joined Boy Scouts
while Isabella and Diego are in 3rd grade and
now reading more substantial books. The kids
will be learning a lot of Spanish in their
Mexican school next year! Kate broke her
ankle hiking this summer on our anniversary
trip, but she's healing well (if slowly) and
physical therapy has done wonders. We're
hoping she's at 100 percent before we head to
Mexico in the summer!

After another busy summer of construction, the Kimberly Young
labs are finished and the transformation is Academic Coordinator
simply amazing. We even managed to have a
very successful summer research program
during all the dust and noise. The entire
campus is moving over to the WorkDay
financial system and Kronos timekeeping, and
this has proven to be an exciting and new way
to do business. I’m truly enjoying learning both
new systems and am very grateful for all the
support that is available to get us all up to
speed.

My family has had a very exciting December
and January. My oldest daughter, Cynthia, got
engaged and is getting married in 2019. She
actually said “YES to the dress” quickly. Check
that one off the list! My youngest daughter,
Jessica, graduated Magna Cum Laude from
the University of La Verne. She is already
back in school, following her commencement,
as she has decided that nutrition is her passion
and she will become a RDN. I’m still
continuing with my studies and was commuting
to work via my bicycle. However, I found that
riding with textbooks, trying to balance a school
schedule with a work schedule was a bit over-
whelming, so I have retired my bike for now
and have renewed my interest in the gym.
Can’t go wrong when the gym has a pool and a
Jacuzzi.

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Annual collage created by Professor Van Hecke. Photography by Professor Daub and Professor Van Hecke.
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