Dr Tad Whiteside (SRNL) and Dr Clifford Padgett (chemistry) chaired one poster and two oral sessions at the 2009 Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS 2009); these focused on research in traditional and biological physical chemistry. Each symposium (experimental and theoretical) was split between the traditional areas of physical chemistry and biophysical chemistry and these symposia included both invited and contributed talks and focused on cutting-edge research being conducted in each of these four areas. Four young-investigators were invited to discuss their work, the four plenary speakers were: Jon Camden at the University of Tennessee, Linda Columbus at the University of Virginia, So Hirata at the University of Florida and Garyk Papoian at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. Sponsorship money from Gaussian, Inc. and the ACS-Physical Chemistry division assisted with the session expenses. SERMACS 2009 is traditionally the largest of the American Chemical Society Regional Meetings and this year had 767 papers presented and over 1000 international attendees.

A number of faculty, staff and students from the Department of Chemistry and Physics attended the 61st Annual Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society. The meeting was held October 21-24, 2009 in San Juan Puerto Rico. The meeting had 767 papers presented and over 1000 international attendees. The following papers, involving faculty, staff and students (underlined) from the Department of Chemistry and Physics), were presented at the meeting.

In the symposium Nanotechnology: From Energy to Medicine II, Will E. Lynch (chemistry) and Delana Nivens (chemistry) presented "Ceria Based Nanoparticles, Examining the Effect On Chemical Properties and Reactivity of Doping Agents."

In the symposium Chemical Scholarship Via Education, Katie Verges, Brent Feske, Will E. Lynch, Cliff Padgett, Delana Nivens (all chemistry) presented "Instrumental Analysis: A Research Experiment Designing an Instrumental Analysis Course around Student Research Projects."

In the Chemical Education session, Lea Padgett and Cathy MacGowan (both chemistry) presented two papers "Thermometry as a Teaching Tool for Graphing" and "Going Green in General Chemistry Laboratory: First Steps."

In the Physical Chemistry session, Marie Priest (chemistry), Kristina Gutt (chemistry), Tad Whiteside (U.S. Dept. of Energy, Savannah River Site) and Cliff Padgett (chemistry) presented "Simulating the Mechanical Properties of Diamond Nanotori."

In the Physical Chemistry session, Jeff Chase (chemistry), Delana Nivens (chemistry), William Baird (physics), Cliff Padgett (chemistry) presented "Chemical Environment Effects on K_α / K_β ratio: An X-Ray Fluorescence Experiment on Periodic Trends and Oxidation States."

In the Physical Chemistry session, John Walker (chemistry), John Knudsen (biology), Steve Savioli (chemistry), Brent Feske (chemistry), Scott Mateer (biology), Cliff Padgett (chemistry) presented "Stereochemical Predictions of Aldo-Keto Reductase Products through Molecular Modeling."

In the symposium on Physical Chemistry, Marie Priest (chemistry), David Brenner (North Carolina State University), Tad Whiteside (U.S. Dept. of Energy, Savannah River Site), Cliff Padgett (chemistry) presented "Simulating the thermal properties of carbon nanocomposites: working towards better thermo-management materials."

In the Process Technologies in Bio-Pharmaceutical Industry in Honor of Carlos Lopez Symposium, Brent Feske, David Beasley, Jose Alvarez, Randall Nowill and Trisha Patel (all chemistry) presented "Biocatalysis: Utilizing Engineered E. Coli as An Asymmetric Biocatalyst towards Pharmaceutical Precursors."

In the Symposium on Biochemistry, Beth Budden (biology) Michael Page (biology), Andrea Orrego (biology), Mande Beers (biology), Elizabeth Reece (biology), Erik Gaskill (biology), Eric Davis (chemistry), Brent Feske (chemistry) Timothy Simpson (biology), Scott Mateer (biology) presented "Mutagenic Analysis of Reductase Stereoselectivity."

In the Symposium on Biochemistry, Beth Budden (biology), Michael Page (biology), Andrea Orrego (biology), Mande Beers (biology), Elizabeth Reece (biology), Erik Gaskill (biology), Eric Davis (chemistry), Timothy Simpson (biology), Brent Feske (chemsitry), and Scott Mateer (biology) presented "Mutagenesis of the Yeast Reductase Gene, Ydl124w."

Felix Hamza-Lup (Information, Computing, and Engineering) has published "3D Virtual Spaces Supporting Engineering Learning Activities" in the International Journal for Computer Communication and Control, Vol.4, No.4.

Felix Hamza-Lup served as the Networking Chair for ISMAR 2009. The International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) is the premiere international research conference for the advancement of the Art and Science of Mixed and Augmented Reality. Several undergraduate students from AASU participated.

On September 14, Todd Hizer, Chemistry, made a presentation to the 2009-2010 edition of the Savannah Science Seminar. The mission of the Savannah Science Seminar is to promote an understanding and appreciation for science through informative, participatory presentations and hands on workshops in the fields of engineering, technology, mathematics, and the medical practices, to our motivated and highly qualified secondary school students in Savannah, Chatham and Effingham County. Dr. Hizer's program consisted of a series of demonstrations at the opening night "gala" of the seminar, held at the Center for Continuing Education with 32 of the top high school science students in the tri-county area present as well as 50 of their parents and teachers. The general theme was about the way the interaction of molecules affects the bulk properties and behavior of substances and included a series of demonstrations. Dr. Hizer has worked with the Seminar for the past 20 years and has served on the Board for the annual series for the past decade.