• Chemistry Department has an open position for green chemistry related senior faculty [Click here for details]

  • Prof. Berkeley W. Cue published an article about ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmacutical Roundtables in C&EN News (volume 89, issue 48, November 28, 2011, p. 42).

  • UMass Boston and Nanjing University of Science and Technology signed an agreement on collabraltion of green chemistry research and education (Nov. 21, 2011).

  • During a recent trip in China and Hong Kong, Prof. Wei Zhang delivered green chemistry talks at Suzhou University, Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Nov. 28 to Dec. 2).

  • Prof. Jonathan Rochford and Helen Zhao attend by invitation an NSF funded workshop organized by the International Materials Institute for Solar Energy and the Environment (IMI-SEE) on dye-sensitized solar cells co-sponsored and hosted by Xiamen University, China. (Oct. 24 to 28, 2011).

  • The Rochford Research Group run a very successful solar cell workshop for high school teachers titled "Artificial Photosynthesis - A Workshop in Solar Cell Design" as part of the NESACS Connections In Chemistry 2011 event at Burlington High School, Burlington MA (Oct. 24, 2011).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang was recently appointed as an editor of a new journal "Green Processing and Synthesis". This journal will be launched in 2012 by De Gruyter (Germany).

  • UMass Boston chemistry department alumni Dr. Berkeley W. Cue and Dr. John Warner were recently named the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fellows for their distinguished contributions to green chemistry.

  • Prof. Wei Zhang joined faculty advisory board of Green Chemistry Commitment, an organization to implement green chemistry throughout educational institutions.

  • Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to give a talk at 2011 Fall ACS meeting entitled "Green chemistry programs at University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB)".

  • Dr. Berkeley W. Cue, a UMass Boston chemistry department alumnus,received the 2011 GC3 Champions Award for his service to the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council. This award was established in 2011 to recognize outstanding contributions to advancing green chemistry through the GC3. Dr. Cue is a founding member of and advisor to this organization.

  • Profs. Rochford and Qu are invited to host a panel discussion "Towards a Sustainable Energy Future" at education night for the 915th meeting of the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (May 12, 2011).

  • Undergraduate students Hara Chowdhury, Cuiyun Zhao (Rochford group), Weihong Zhou, Ryan Gianatassio, Richard Madden (B. Torok group), Trinh Dinh, Stephanie Bellinger, Weiyi Li, Sargis Ohanyan, Yu Wang, Tao Xu, Hong Zeng (Zhang group) presented 11 posters at the 17th Annual Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference at UMass Amherst (Apr. 22, 2011).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang received 2011 ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable grant on Grignard Reaction Research (Apr. 19, 2011).

  • Asha Kadam recived a travel grant from ACS Green Chemistry Institute to attend the 15th Annual Green Chemistry Conference in Washington DC (Apr. 19, 2011).

  • Dr. Paul Anastas, a UMass Boston chemistry department alumnus and professor at Yale University, receives the Rachel Carson Environmental Award. [Click here for details]

  • Dr. Berkeley W. Cue, a UMass Boston chemistry department alumnus, has been appointed chair of the American Chemical Society's Green Chemistry Institute governing board. He also became an Adjunct Professor in our department.

  • Chemistry Department has an open position for green chemistry related senior faculty [Click here for details]

  • Dmitry Borkin has defended his PhD thesis "Synthesis and Biological Applications of Heterocyclic and Organofluorine Compounds". He will continue his career as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan (Apr. 12, 2011).

  • Shan (Jackie) Ding has defended her MS thesis "Microwave-Assisted and Fluorous Benzaldehyde-Based Synthesis of Heterocycles" (Apr. 8, 2011).

  • Justin Whitfield has defended his Ph.D. thesis “Non-covalent Manipulations of Cyclic Pi Systems for Green Chemistry Transformations” (Apr. 4, 2011).

  • Aditya Kulkarni has defended his Ph.D. thesis "Heterogeneous Catalytic Processes for the Synthesis and Functionalization of N-Heterocycles and Fine Chemicals". He will continue his career as a postdoctoral fellow at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California (Apr. 1, 2011).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave a seminar "Fluorous Technologies for Organic and Green Chemistry Applications" at The University of Rode Island (Feb. 28, 2011).

  • Prof. Bela Torok guest edited a Special Issue for Current Organic Synthesis on "Green and Sustainable Organic Synthesis".

  • Prof. Wei Zhang has been appointed Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Combinatorial Science (Jan. 1, 2011).

  • Prof. Bela Torok was appointed as a Regional Editor for the Letters of Organic Chemistry, published by Bentham Scince (Dec. 20, 2010).

  • Prof. Jonathan Rochford participated the New England Green Chemistry Networking Forum and presented a poster "Green Chemistry at UMass Boston" (Dec. 16, 2010).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave an invited talk "Fluorous-based green organic synthesis" at PacifiChem in Hawaii (Dec. 15-21, 2010).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang was invited to parcitipate a Green Chemistry Tour in Germany. This event was sponsored by German Academic Exchange Service (DDAD) (Dec. 5 to 11, 2010).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang received a Visiting Lecture Award and presented three lectures at National Tsing Hua University, National Chiao Tung University, and National Taiwan University on fluorous chemistry and green chemistry (Nov. 24 to 26, 2010)

  • UMass Boston hosted the 3rd International Symposium on Green Processing in the Pharmaceutical & Fine Chemical Industries (Sept. 30 to Oct. 1, 2010). [Click here for a summary] [Click here for Photos]


  • Prof. Wei Zhang received a conference grant form NIH to support the Green Chemistry Symposium that will be held at UMass Boston (Sep. 2010).

  • Prof. Timothy Dransfield gave a seminar "The Chemistry of Air Pollution: The Fate of Volatile Organic Compounds" at Boston University (Sept. 15, 2010).

  • Chemistry department offered a green chemistry summer course to 40 undergraduate students from Kyung Hee University, South Korea (June 25 to July 19). [Click here for a video]

  • Ms. Sarah Ruthven, Editor of Green Chemistry (RSC) visited the chemistry department and Center for Green Chemistry (June 18, 2010).

  • In a C&EN article, Prof. Wei Zhang commented on a recent Science paper which reported a novel and green organocatalyst for asymmetric oxidation (June 14, 2010).

  • Professors Bela Torok and Wei Zhang presented green chemistry lectures at the 16th Annual Meeting and Short Course of the North Atlantic Chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (June 2, 2010).

  • Senior undergraduate student Ryan Fitzgerald presented a poster “Green techniques for regioselective synthesis of drug-like molecules” at Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference (April 23, 2010).

  • Prof. Oliver Kappe from University of Graz (Austria) has presented an invited seminar “Recent Advances in Microwave-Assisted Organic Synthesis” (April 12, 2010).

  • A paper titled “Enantioselective alpha-Chlorination of Aldehydes with Recyclable Fluorous (S)-Pyrrolidine-Thiourea Bifunctional Organocatalyst” was published in Synlett (2010, 433-436). This paper talks about metal-free and recyclable green catalysis. It is a joint work of Nanjing University of Science and Technologies, University of Pittsburgh and Prof. Wei Zhang’s group.

  • UMB hosted the 16th Annual Northeastern Section Undergraduate Day. Dr. Berkeley Cue gave a keynote speech and Prof. Wei Zhang gave a talk “Research with Green Chemistry Tools” (Feb. 27, 2010).

  • Starting from 2010, Prof. Zhang is serving on the Editorial Advisory Board of Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry published by ACS.

  • Prof. Bela Torok has recently been appointed to the editorial board of Current Organic Synthesis.

  • Prof. Bela Torok is currently organizing/guest editing a Special Issue for Current Organic Synthesis on "Contemporary Sustainable Methods in Organic Synthesis"

  • Prof. Sivappa Rasapalli from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth was invited to give a seminar entitled “Synthesis and Methodology Inspired by Marine Natural Products” (Dec. 9, 2009).

  • Prof. Oliver Reiser from Universität Regensburg was invited to give a seminar entitled "Crossing boundaries between Organic, Inorganic and Material Chemistry: Catalysis as the core technology towards the development of sustainable chemical processes” (Oct. 15, 2009).

  • Visiting Ph.D. student Liang Wang from Nanjing University of Science and Technology finished his 6 month training in Prof. Zhang’s lab. A green chemistry paper based on his work has been accepted for publication in Synlett (Oct. 2009).

  • Prof. Roman Dembinski from Oakland University was invited to give a seminar entitled “Electropilic cyclizations as a tool in the synthesis of heterocycles and modified nucleosides” (Oct. 8, 2009).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave an invited talk “Combinatorial Fluorous Technologies for Green Chemistry Applications” at the 2nd International Symposium on Combinatorial Sciences in Biology, Chemistry, Catalysts and Materials, Beijing, China (Sept. 19-22, 2009).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave an invited talk “Fluorous Green Chemistry” at the 3rd International Symposium on Fluorous Technologies, Jackson Hole, WY. (Aug. 23-28, 2009).

  • As of Aug. 16, 2009, Prof. Hannah Sevian is on a leave of absence from the University of Massachusetts Boston to serve a rotation as a Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA.

  • Professor Wei Zhang’s critical review article "Green Chemistry Aspects of Fluorous Techniques – Opportunities and Challenges for Small-Scale Organic Synthesis" was featured on the cover of the journal Green Chemistry (2009, 11, 911-920).

  • Omar De Paolis from Prof. B. Torok's group defended his M.Sc. thesis entitled "Synthesis of N-heterocycles via heterogeneous catalytic domino approaches" (July 8, 2009).

  • US President Obama nominated Paul Anastas, a UMB alumnus and professor at Yale University, as an Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development at the EPA (June 2009).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave an invited talk “Green Chemistry Techniques for Small-Scale Organic Synthesis” at the 13th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, College Park, MD (June 23-25, 2009).

  • Mr. Wei Shi from Prof. Qu's group defended his green chemistry Ph.D. thesis entitled "Fitting Impedance Spectra and Calculations of Penetration Depth" (May 7, 2009).

  • Prof. Michael Pollastri from Boston University was invited to give a seminar entitled “Technology-enabled medicinal chemistry for biological target validation: What can chemistry do for you?” (April 15, 2009).

  • UMB alumni and former Pfizer VP, Dr. Berkeley Cue visited UMB and gave a seminar “Green Chemistry in the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Model for Sustainability” (Feb. 18, 2009).

  • Prof. Dransfield gave a seminar “Gas-Phase Chemistry: Still Hiding Some Surprises” at Colby College’s Chemistry Department (Feb. 13, 2009).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave a seminar “Green Chemistry Aspects of Fluorous Technologies” at Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry (Dec. 3, 2008).

  • Ms. Shainaz Landge from Prof. B. Torok’s group defended her green chemistry Ph.D. thesis entitled “Synthesis of N-Heterocycles, Schiff’s-Bases and Organofluorine Compounds by Microwave-Assisted Approaches” (Nov. 21. 2008).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang participated 10th Green Chemistry Gordon Conference and presented a poster “Green Chemistry Aspects of Fluorous Technologies” (Aug. 3-8, 2008).

  • Prof. Wei Zhang gave a talk “Fluorous Separation and Recycling Technologies for Green Organic Synthesis” at ACS 12th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, Washington, DC (June 24-26, 2008).

news
Contact webmaster © 2009
100 Morrissey Blvd. - Boston, MA 02125-3393 - 617-287-5000 - Contact UMass Boston