Dear VIPEr Colleagues,

I hope all is well. I am working on a proposal to submit to The Ohio Super Computer focused on using DFT and TDDFT calculations for various transition metal complexes containing  Re, Tc, and Pt. I am using the SDD basis set for the heavy metal atoms. The more common basis set is LanL2DZ, but the SDD basis set gives good results too. The proposal is brief (5-7 pages of text) and I would like to have a couple of VIPEr colleagues read over the draft if you have time. Let me know.

Sibrina

Dear Colleagues,

I hope all is well. I have completed DFT calculations on dioxotechnetium and dioxorhenium complexes. However, I need some advice from experts in the field. Anyone have any expertise on this area?

Sibrina

During a recent department meeting the idea was brought forth to consider instituting a lab fee for students who are registered for research for credit.  Being a state funded school, we rely on lab fees from students heavily due to the abysmmal funds we get from the state.  However, the students are getting "fee'd" left and right and this would be yet another fee that would not make a significant contribution with approximately 20 students signed up for research vs.

Colleagues,

I just read the following article about how the University of Maryland was now going to count patents and commercialization as part of the tenure process. I thought all academic institutions already did this. Comments?

http://chronicle.com/article/U-of-Maryland-to-Count/132261/?sid=pm&utm_…

Sibrina

I just finished my first year of teaching at Gettysburg College and before summer research gets started I am taking some time to think about ways to improve my courses for next year.  I developed and taught a materials chemistry course this spring that had 12 seniors and 1 junior in it.  One aspect of the course that I tried to stress is for the students to be critical of the literature that they were reading and approach each article with a healthy dose of skepticism. For many of them I feel like this was the first time that they had thought of journal articles as being fallible.

I know that this may not apply to everyone on this forum but it is something that is coming to a head at our institution.  I was wondering what peoples opinions were on the availability of student evaluations.  Since we are a public university the students have made a push for all faculty student evaluations to be published online for students to access. 

Colleagues,

A student walked in to my office this afternoon. She pulled out something she had printed from the internet and asked if it would be a good study aid for her Gen Chem 1 final. I noticed the ACS logo in the upper corner and was immediately concerned. I made a mental note of the fact that it was the 2009 local chemistry olympiad exam and when she left I did a quick google search. First hit...