Graduate Student Wins Scholarship from American Chemical Society

Chemistry PhD student Xin Su was recently chosen as a Chemical Abstract Services (CAS) Student Information Exchange Program scholar. CAS is a division of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

The program, held at the CAS headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, united 11 chemistry graduate students from institutions including the University of Notre Dame, Kyoto University, and the University of Glasgow. The students took part in professional development training including how to retrieve, classify, evaluate, and use the chemical information CAS publishes. They also strengthened their communications skills by making presentations on assigned chemical information and chemistry research.

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Xin Su received the Chemical Abstract Services scholarship, which provides training in discipline-specific research and communication skills to a select group of chemistry graduate students. (photo by Joseph Mehling '69)

Su says he was especially pleased to be invited so early in his graduate studies. “All my peers in this program are in their fourth or final years of their PhD work. I was the only first-year PhD student,” he notes.

Following the CAS program, Su attended the 240th ACS national meeting in Boston, Mass., where he gave a presentation titled, “A Zinc (II)-Controlled Configurational Rotary Switch Based on a Hydrazone Backbone.”

Su, whose research focuses on hydrazone-based molecular switches and machines, is a member of the Aprahamian Research Group, which recently developed a molecular switch that changes its configuration as a function of the pH of the environment. The group is directed by his advisor Ivan Aprahamian, assistant professor of chemistry.

Su is also a member of the “DNA Misbehaving” team, which will lead exhibits at the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C., on October 24 and 25.