homenews | College of Science

The surprising role of CO₂ in cellular health

December 2, 2024

Normally, this works fine, but under stress, such as inflammation or a burst of energy use, oxidative stress damages cells at the genetic level.

This is because iron and H₂O₂ react in what’s known as the Fenton reaction, producing hydroxyl radicals, destructive molecules that attack DNA and RNA indiscriminately. But there’s a catch. In the presence of carbon dioxide — that pesky gas disrupting global climate systems — our cells gain a secret weapon in the form of bicarbonate which helps keep pH levels balanced.

A team of University of Utah chemists has discovered that bicarbonate doesn’t just act as a pH buffer but also alters the Fenton reaction itself in cells. Instead of producing chaotic hydroxyl radicals, the reaction instead makes carbonate radicals, which affect DNA in a far less harmful way, according to Cynthia Burrows, a distinguished professor of chemistry and senior author of a study published this week in PNAS.

“So many diseases, so many conditions have oxidative stress as a component of disease. That would include many cancers, effectively all age-related diseases, a lot of neurological diseases,” Burrows said. “We’re trying to understand cells’ fundamental chemistry under oxidative stress. We have learned something about the protective effect of CO₂ that I think is really profound.”

Co-authors include Aaron Fleming, a research associate professor, and doctoral candidate Justin Dingman, both members of the Burrows Laboratory.

“Just like opening up a can of beer. You release the CO₂ when you take your cells out of the incubator. It’s like doing experiments with a day-old glass of beer. It’s pretty flat. It has lost the CO₂, its bicarbonate buffer,” Burrows said. “You no longer have the protection of CO₂ to modulate the iron-hydrogen peroxide reaction.”

She believes bicarbonate needs to be added to ensure reliable results from such experiments.

Exploring the Vulnerabilities of Endangered Birds

December 2, 2024

Species most likely to go extinct sooner were endemic to islands, lacked the ability to fly, had larger bodies and sharply angled wings, and occupied ecologically specific niches, according to research published this month.

While some of these findings mirror previous research on extinct birds, they are the first to correlate bird traits with the timing of extinctions, said lead author Kyle Kittelberger, a graduate student in the School of Biological Sciences.

“I’ve been very interested in extinctions and understanding the species that we’ve lost and trying to get a sense of how we can use the past to better inform the present and future,” said Kittelberger, who is completing his dissertation on how the bodies and wings of certain species of migratory songbirds have changed in response to climate change.

Connecting bird traits with species extinction

His team’s analysis tapped into BirdBase, a dataset of ecological traits for the world’s 11,600+ bird species compiled by U biology professor Çağan Şekercioğlu and the Biodiversity and Conservation Ecology Lab at the U. The team simultaneously analyzed a broad range of biogeographical, ecological and life history traits previously associated with extinction and extinction risk for bird species that have gone extinct as well as those that lack recent confirmed sightings and have therefore disappeared.

One in eight species is in peril

This timing coincides with the rise of scientific observation, resulting in a systematic documentation of plant and animal life. It is also the time when European exploration took off, leading to the disruption of ecosystems around the globe as a result of colonization and introduced species.

Today, 1,314 bird species are at risk of extinction, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, or about 12% of the total.

Many species, such as the ‘Akikiki (Oreomystis bairdi), endemic to the Hawaiian island of Kauai, are so rare that they are functionally extinct. Kittelberger photographed the pictured ‘Akikiki, also called Kauai’s creeper, in the Alaka‘i Wilderness Preserve in 2022, when it was believed around 70 or so remained in the wild; today, only one individual remains.

As with many other Hawaiian bird species, the main threat to the ’Akikiki comes in the form of introduced species, principally malaria-carrying mosquitoes and habitat-wrecking livestock, according to Hawaii’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

Teaching Thousands

November 26, 2024

At the Department of Chemistry, excellence and innovation converge in an extraordinary educational endeavor: moving over 2,000 students each semester through foundational chemistry classes.

This remarkable feat is achieved through a cutting-edge curriculum delivered by six passionate educators known as the "teachers of thousands": Jeff Statler, Elizabeth Greenhalgh, Ryan DeLuca, Kaci Kuntz, Holly Sebahar, and Greg Owens. These instructors, all six of whom are featured here, possess a rare skill set that allows them to present fundamental chemistry with competence, patience, and an uncanny ability to inspire. In their classrooms and labs, aspiring chemists and future medical professionals alike find themselves immersed in an unparalleled learning environment. These six are supported by other faculty dedicated to curriculum development and fostering a robust space for scientific curiosity.

Greg Owens

Greg Owens

When Greg Owens walks into the classroom, he’s in paying-it-forward mode. He attended college in rural Georgia where two of his chemistry professors had just arrived from the U and inspired him to transfer there. They facilitated a spot for Owens in the REU program where he spent his summer after his junior year working in Tom Richmod’s lab, learning valuable skills and techniques. “That experience solidified my interest in academics and in going to graduate school,” he says.

Owens attended UCLA for graduate school where he focused on teaching and used his Utah connection to sneak a toe back in the door after finishing his dissertation. Since 2002, he has instructed classes ranging from 115 to 230 students, totaling over 19,000 students taught throughout his career so far. Owens' graduate work in inorganic chemistry provided him with comprehensive knowledge of the field, making general chemistry a natural choice for his teaching career. Even as a TA in graduate school, he enjoyed opening students’ eyes not only to the world of atoms and molecules but also to the satisfaction of problem-solving.

General chemistry represents for many students their first opportunity to apply mathematics and fundamental principles to understand how things work and how seemingly unrelated phenomena are connected. The course allows them to move beyond memorization and learn to navigate through a series of logical steps to solve complex problems.

In recent years, Owens’s teaching style has evolved from traditional lecturing of hundreds of students in a classroom setting to asynchronous instruction. In these “online courses,” students engage with course materials independently through Canvas, which includes textbooks, instructional videos, problem sets, practice quizzes, and discussion boards. There are no set class meetings, allowing students to study at their own pace and convenience. This approach offers flexibility and freedom while also placing significant responsibility on the student.

One of his favorite classes to teach is the first semester of chemistry for students aiming to enter nursing school. He often finds that many students in these classes initially believe they lack aptitude for math and science, leading to a lack of confidence at the start of the course. However, their strong motivation to succeed in nursing school drives them forward. “It’s rewarding to witness these students’ growing confidence as they recognize the subject’s relevance to their career path and discover their capability in science and math, far exceeding what they had previously believed possible.”

Reflecting on fond memories from these types of classes, he recalls a humorous incident involving Halloween and students’ cell-phones to which, in the early days, he had a particular aversion to especially when they rang ringing loudly during class, including during exams. One Halloween, a student surprised everyone by running down the lecture hall dressed in a homemade cell-phone costume, distributing candy to the audience amidst laughter.

Throughout Owens’s teaching career, he has managed to help his students see their world in very different ways and comprehend complex ideas they initially thought were beyond their abilities. “Every semester,” he says, “I’m in awe of the students who refuse to give up, overcoming enormous hardship and personal tragedy to excel in their studies. He believes in giving students space as wide as rural Georgia and opportunity to learn how to learn and make mistakes, advising incoming students interested in chemistry to get involved with a research lab as soon as possible. This is where students’ knowledge, skills, and interests can grow exponentially.

Jeff Statler

Jeff Statler

Originally from Iowa, Jeff Statler taught physics and chemistry in public high schools for about 22 years and worked with professors Ron Ragsdale, Jerry Driscoll, and Tom Bebee for many of those years. He has always had an innate drive to live around the mountains and the desert and moved to Utah about 35 years ago. In 2010, professors Ragsdale, along with Henry White and Greg Owens, recruited Statler to transition into the Department of Chemistry full-time where he’s been since 2011. Even with an early and abiding passion for the physical sciences and mathematics, chemistry was not his first choice, but he saw the need for chemistry teachers. It helps that he gets to do really cool demonstrations.

Statler has also taught analytical chemistry, physics, and mathematics, but general chemistry may be his favorite. On a Wednesday before Labor Day weekend, he opens a classroom jam-packed with about 350 students with careful, deliberative class procedurals. He is quick to reiterate what the learning objectives are of chapters, distinguishing between what students will be tested on and what content is strictly for their enrichment. He is aware of how big his subject is and how distracting some lines of inquiry can become. “Don’t worry about chapter two until this weekend,” he says. “There’s a lot physics and a lot of quantum mechanics, mostly enrichment stuff, not part of the learning objectives.” He talks strategy, as if he’s enrolled himself. “I won’t test you on that,” he says answering a question about prioritizing.”Pretty much all the rest of this it’s all chapter one and essentials.” The rest of it? “Be mesmerized, bewildered, by it, but, no you don’t have to memorize anything. I’ll give you all the equations you will need. I’ll emphasize the equations you’ll need and we’ll practice them.” The way he scans the bank of students above him in class is intimate, improbably giving eye contact, it seems, to everyone.

Clearly, he’s skilled at reassuring students that there’s a sequence of things. “I’m big not on memorization but on patterns… We’re almost anti-memorization,” around here.

As he introduces the subject matter for the class—why white light is made of the colors of the rainbow and electromagnetic fields–prisms and spectrums—he projects five statements on the multiple screens throughout the lecture hall: some of the statements are true, others are false and others are just made up. “Mingle, chat, ask your neighbor what they think,” he says and suddenly, his TAs are trailing up the stairs, scanning the clusters of chatting students, listening in on the conversations, making themselves available for questions, making comments . . . being present.

This interactive, “inverted classroom” approach meets students where they are. In these large classes of between 250 to 350 students, getting students to interact with each other is crucial. His favorite aspect about teaching students who are not necessarily studying chemistry is simply sharing his fascination with science and nature with all STEM students. “Teaching and learning are always so individual in many ways,” he admits, and he can only hope that whatever impact he might have is overall positive and motivating. How he has been impacted is not so variable. “Students always inspire and motivate me and keep me ‘thinking young’ with their fresh questions, perspectives, and unique needs and backgrounds.”

Just the herculean endeavor of teaching 12,000 students over his 35-year career to thrive and flourish in chemistry brings Jeff Statler all the rewards he could ever hope for. And his embodied wonder as he conducts the light experiments his face down close and itself awash in light, the detail of it, in turn, projected above, is chemistry in action, pedagogy in the flesh.

HOLLY L SEBAHAR

Holly Sebahar

It all started with frogs. “I had a strong interest in frog ecology so I had declared a biology major which meant I was required to take organic chemistry,” says Holly Sebahar, a first-generation college student from Minnesota. “I fell in love with the subject and could not get enough of it.” In particular, she says, it was the mechanistic side of organic chemistry. “The fact that a small set of rules can be used to predict and explain a wide range of reactions was fascinating to me. I also love applying our knowledge of organic chemistry to understand biochemical pathways and how drugs work.”

After earning her PhD, she interviewed for both industrial and academic jobs. “Eventually it was my love of interacting with students that helped me to decide to become a professor.”

At the U, with class sizes that range from 200 to 340, Sebahar aspires to challenge her students and to provide a supportive and encouraging environment with lots of resources to help them find success. “I believe that having a large team of teaching and learning assistants and supplemental instructors is the key to supporting so many unique students,” she says. “We try offer a wide variety of office hours and review sessions, a diverse set of communication styles, lots of chances to talk about the chemistry and ask questions . . . and learn from their mistakes.”

Learning from mistakes is embedded in Sebahar’s course culture, “where mistakes are embraced and utilized instead of feared.” Tapping not only TAs but learning assistants through the College of Science’s Center for Science and Mathematics Education, she claims that because these leaders have recently taken the class “they remember how challenging it was and are able to provide excellent advice about how to study and how to approach each of the challenging topics.” Instructional staff also serve as mentors and provide important major/career advice.

The diversity in Sebahar’s large lectures is staggering: older students with different levels of family and job responsibilities; those with little or no preparation in chemistry and few if any established study skills and test-taking abilities; gender; preferences for working independently and those who prefer group work; race, gender . . . differing goals. It requires that the instructor be nimble, flexible and innovative.

As an HHMI UPSTEM Faculty Fellow, an instructor in Being Human in STEM, a member of the Chemistry Articulation Team and an inaugural member of the Department of Chemistry’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, all inform her attempt to create an inclusive classroom setting. “I try to constantly ask myself ‘who will be left out if I design my course this way?’ she writes in her teaching philosophy statement, an ambitious, comprehensive and detailed plan for reaching and succeeding with students across multiple spectra. “I strive to create a highly structured class with clear expectations, several lines of communication, and as much flexibility as possible to try to reach the many learning styles and accommodate the busy schedules inherent in a class of 300 students.”

An example of this penchant for innovation, Sehabar held Zoom lectures for students that thrive having a set schedule and who wish to interact with the instructor, other students, and the TAs during lecture. The recorded lectures are also posted for those students that work the night shift prior to the lecture or wish to watch the lecture at their own pace with the ability to pause and rewind as desired.

Sebahar maintains a 6:1 ratio between students and TAs who are aware when a student is going through a difficult time. “This has become increasingly important to me as I have witnessed more and more students struggling with mental health issues each year,” she says. “Adding the pandemic, recession, and protests on top of the normal stressors has been extremely difficult this year. [2023-24]... By identifying issues early, we have been able to refer several students to the counseling center, the student emergency fund and the Dean of Students.”

To countervail attrition in student enrollment and graduation, attention must be paid not only to securing resources but recognizing varied signals of student distress. It’s a high-touch approach to student success that over the past 22 years—700 students per year—has grandly totaled over 15,000 students. Her mantras? “Don’t focus on the negatives. Take time to get to know your students and enjoy their energy, enthusiasm and unique gifts and talents. Keep learning so your passion for the subject doesn’t fizzle.”

With that navigation set, it’s little wonder that Holly Sebahar found her bliss in teaching not in spite of a frog pond but because of it.

Kaci Kuntz

Kaci Kuntz

For Kaci Kuntz, the louder the groan, the happier she is. This may take some explaining.

Known for her expressive personality and love of glitter, this associate professor (lecturer) decorates her office and coordinates her wardrobe with sequins and bright colors. Students appreciate her exuberant teaching style, and her tradition of sharing daily jokes helps engage them in the learning process.

And so it goes that when her “joke of the day” elicits a massive groan from over 300 students Kuntz knows that though they disdain her jokes, they comprehend the chemistry behind them. Mission accomplished.

As with her Teaching Thousands colleagues, whose teaching style is interactive and inclusive, Kuntz is also keen on historical context. In General Chem 1, state -the-art science starts at 460 BCE when philosophers hypothesized that matter was made of fire, water, air, and earth. Over the course, she advances all the way to the current “state-of-the-art” science. It is truly unique to cover 680+ years of science and its advancement in a single course.

Then, in General Chemistry II, she dives more deeply and applies chemical concepts to experimental conditions with all of the complexities encountered. In Kuntz’s opinion, General Chemistry II is the most useful course in chemistry because it teaches how to design a proof-of-concept experiment for investigating a hypothesis. She loves teaching this course knowing that students can walk out of it with the skills needed to become scientists. Since starting at the U she has taught lectures with as few as 30 students and as many as 360 for a career total of around 4,000 students so far.

“The student mind is compassionate and has much to learn,” she states. “I cannot speak on behalf of the students, but I hope I’ve empowered them to be confident in their knowledge and their ability to succeed in chemistry, their education, and their career pursuits.”

In class, Kuntz follows brief lectures with interactive problem-solving sessions, allowing students to apply concepts and address common misconceptions. When students hesitate, she sits beside them to offer guidance—a practice she acknowledges with a glittering laugh that might seem 'annoyingly' interactive, though students appreciate her approach and authenticity. Her commitment to student advocacy includes revamping General Chemistry labs to reduce fees and enhancing laboratory safety procedures.

Ryan DeLuca

Ryan DeLuca

If the classroom is a molecule writ large, Ryan Deluca is the bonding agent of its constituent atoms, his students. Standing at the front of a class of 250-plus he is the glue that, in chemistry, defines the smallest identifiable unit into which a pure substance can be divided and still retain the composition and chemical properties of that substance.

A Utah native and U alumnus who returned to the U to teach after a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, DeLuca is captivated by the intricacies of molecular mechanisms, the art of synthesizing compounds, and the analytical challenge of elucidating reaction pathways. But this hydrogen bond-of-a teacher of thousands is also captivating to his acolytes who the first week of class may find such subjects baffling.

DeLuca loves introducing students from various disciplines to the marvels of organic chemistry or “o-chem.” “It’s incredibly rewarding for me to see students, who may not have a primary interest in chemistry, develop an appreciation for the subject,” he says.

O-chem is relevant to many fields, and DeLuca enjoys helping students understand its applications and significance in their respective areas of study. He facilitates this by by employing a problem-based teaching approach, believing that students learn best through active engagement and practical application of concepts. While o-chem, a requirement for pre-med/pre-nursing students and other majors, can be daunting, DeLuca finds that tackling challenging problems helps students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. He emphasizes the importance of perseverance and provides ample resources to support students’ learning journeys.

To ensure effective learning in diverse class settings (from 25 students to 350), DeLuca utilizes peer-directed learning and provides strong support from teaching assistants. Overall, DeLuca has recorded 29 chemistry courses over the past seven years, reaching a total of approximately 3,600 students best served, he believes, by doing problem-solving in real time. In this way he believes students can better understand the thought process behind tackling difficult questions. “I emphasize the importance of engaging actively with the material and understanding that chemistry is a cumulative subject,” he says, “where each concept builds on the previous one.”

These active learning strategies for students take place not only in lectures but in those micro- even atomic-sized interactions with DeLuca out of class, with TAs, and, critically, with one another. Ever the chemical bonder, DeLuca engineers each semester, and in each course, a dynamic, intricate-as-a-clock (or a galaxy) molecular structure where student atoms move, interact, vibrate, rotate and translate with success within differing materials and environments.

Elizabeth Greenhalgh

Elizabeth Greenhalgh

Unlike her Teaching Thousands compatriots, Elizabeth Greenhalgh is emerging on the scene, but she plays to the strengths of being the new kid on the quad. What she’s brought to her gig in the Department of Chemistry is solid and broad-thinking: connecting general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biology in a way that highlights the significance and relevance of these subjects.

This integrated approach allows students to explore the “why we care” aspect that often unappreciated until the subjects are brought together. From this foundation, she is currently in the process of discovering what teaching methods work best for her.

A strong advocate for a mixed approach that combines traditional lecturing with sample problems and an active learning discussion session, Greenhalgh believes her methods might evolve over time, noting, “ask me again in five years and we’ll see how this has changed!” Right now a traditional lecture component, she believes, is crucial for demonstrating the thinking, logic, and problem-solving behind the science.

At present, she teaches a fall lecture course with just over 300 students and a spring biochemistry lab with nearly 100 students, with plans to increase lab capacity in the coming years. In addition to her general chemistry lab in the spring and biochemistry courses in the summer, she interacts with nearly 1,000 students each year and has taught over 2,500 students during her career.

One of Greenhalgh’s favorite aspects of teaching biochemistry is working with students who are not necessarily studying chemistry as a major. She finds it particularly rewarding that, of the approximately 300 students in this class, only about a third are chemistry or biochemistry majors. The diversity of perspectives in the classroom leads to engaging connections and conversations that she might not otherwise experience.

How does she manage that diversity? First, she encourages new students to use the initial classes to explore what genuinely interests them. General chemistry and organic chemistry lay the groundwork for many exciting topics that students won’t encounter until later. Second, she encourages students to actively engage with all available resources beyond instructors and TAs. This includes attending office hours, participating in supplemental instruction (SI) sessions, tackling bonus practice problems from textbooks, and studying with classmates.

Being new on the scene is an asset for Greenhalgh in that the student diversity she’s experiencing in class is an opportunity for rich feedback. So far, her approach has, she’s been told by students, significantly influenced how they tackle topics outside of her class. She finds this kind of feedback incredibly gratifying, again, underscoring her belief that she’s here not just to teach chemistry, but how to learn and how to figure out the “why I care” which is a student’s motivation to succeed in higher education and in life more generally. This belief gives real oxygen to the mantra of “meeting the student where they are.”

Elizabeth Greenhalgh’s teaching journey has already been marked by a deep appreciation for the interconnectedness of scientific disciplines and the vibrant community of students.

By Julia McNulty and David Pace

Taking it to the Startup Slopes

November 25, 2024

“I am proud to be an Olympian,” says Tang. “Elite competition pushes the limits of humanity, our physical and mental capacity, our emotions and compassion for each other.” For Tang, pushing those limits has extended from the slopes to business, to family and, finally, to something else that makes this U alumnus extraordinary, his capacity to pay it forward.

Tang is the founder and president of Apantac LLC, a global leader in design and development of high-quality, cost-effective image signal processing equipment. The company will be celebrating its 17th anniversary in 2025.

“The Apantac product line, which now includes more than 200 items, has been designed to provide the broadcast and professional audio-video industry with flexible and innovative technology solutions for video processing and signal extensions and switching,” says Tang.

Apantac clients include TV stations, news studios and sports broadcasters like ESPN and Fox Sports. “The KSL-TV broadcast house in downtown Salt Lake is a wonderful local customer, they used our equipment to broadcast the 2024 Paris Olympics,” says Tang. “Also, large social media companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon use our products for their worldwide global event centers.”

Prior to founding Apantac, Tang was the director of marketing for Philips Broadcast in West Valley City. After Philips divested, he decided to help a small startup company in Redmond, Washington and oversaw sales and marketing as well as strategic planning and product development. While there, from 2004 to 2008, Tang grew the business more than eightfold.

"At this small startup with very limited resources, I was working so hard, one day my wife said to me, ‘If you’re going to work this hard, you should work for yourself!’ This put the idea in my head that I should start my own company. I knew that I wanted to make products for the video industry, so I quit my job in early 2008 and started working on how to realize these ideas,” says Tang.

“During the first three years, times were tough,” says Tang. “And when things were not going well, I dug into being an Olympian. When you train, you know the pain is transitory, and you know you’re getting stronger and something better is coming! Athletes understand they’re not always going to have a good day, but hard work and persistence pay off.”

By the end of 2008, he had begun developing products in his basement. In April 2009, the company’s first product, a Multiviewer, was launched. The device allowed one user to view multiple video sources on a single screen or across multiple screens. It received the prestigious Pick Hit Award at the National Association of Broadcasters conference. The award is given to products that demonstrate outstanding technology and innovation not previously showcased at the event.

Since then, Apantac has grown significantly, offering more than 200 products and shipping to more than 40 countries. Tang and his team had been involved in numerous broadcast and professional audio-visual projects worldwide. Apantac’s customers include national broadcasters, Soccer World Cups, Olympic games and more. “We now ship from pole to pole, from Greenland to New Zealand,” says Tang. Apantac has offices in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia.

From Taipai to Salt Lake

Tang’s story of determination and persistence started in Taipei, Taiwan, where he was born in 1964. “I was the youngest, and the only son in a Taiwanese family, so the pressure for me to succeed was extremely high,” he says.

Tang attended a strict private school, Tsai Hsin, that started in kindergarten. He always loved sports, but he struggled academically. “My grades were always below average,” says Tang. “I did not perform well in the traditional Taiwanese academic system. I was not really allowed to play sports, because the teachers in my school would punish me for not doing well academically. I was stuck in a rut and my parents realized that and decided it was best to move to the United States for a change of environment.”

Tang’s father, Mei-Chun Tang, was educated in the U.S. at Berkeley and at Columbia. At the time, he was a professor of anthropology at National Taiwan University and there was an exchange professorship program between the University of Utah and National Taiwan University.

As part of the exchange program, the family moved from Taipai to Salt Lake City in September 1977, when Tang was 13 years old. He attended 8^th grade at Bryant Junior High School and began learning English as a second language.

“In 1977, Salt Lake was a very safe and small town, there was nothing past 7200 South. I used to hitchhike to get around town,” remembers Tang. “The transition was difficult. New people, new school, new language. But being a good athlete, I was accepted very quickly into the American culture,” says Tang.

He later attended East High School. “At that time, I really wanted to go to medical school but biology was difficult for me because English was my second language. However, I was always good at math, so physics was a natural fit when I started at the University of Utah,” says Tang.

Tang remembers many faculty members in physics, especially Own Johnson, George Williams, Fritz Luty, Dave Ailion and Eugene Loh.

While attending the U, he worked in the Marriott library shelving books and eventually landed an internship in the chemistry department for faculty members Jim Wang and Chuck Wight. “Chuck was a young professor in his 30s,” says Tang. “He was a great mentor and had the most impact on me. We even published a paper together, ‘Low Temperature Photochemistry in Amorphous Films,’ Proc. SPIE 1056.”

By 1989, Tang had essentially finished his bachelor’s degree in physics. When the chance presented itself, he accepted a role at Evans & Sutherland in the computer graphics division. “I remember Microsoft came to campus to recruit me, but working at Evans & Sutherland was the ultimate honor for a U of U student, so I accepted the job.”

“In fact, Evans & Sutherland was one of the largest tech companies in the valley, employing around 1,500 people. The management encouraged us to transfer between different departments to expand our technical horizon. My first job was porting applications between UNIX workstations, Linux kernels, PC graphics card drivers and graphical user interfaces. I later worked on several exciting projects, including the world’s first F-14, F-16, and other flight simulators. That’s where I learned about the technology of video processing.” He stayed at Evans & Sutherland until 1997.

A sports family

Tang and his wife, Penny, met on campus in the Olpin Union building. In the 1990s, their student organization reserved a gym in the HPER Complex. “She was playing badminton, and I was playing basketball. After 10 o’clock, when the HPER building closed, a few of us decided to go to the Union to play pool. We shared a table, and the rest is history,” says Tang.

They were married in 1994 and now have three children: Emma, 23, is a recent graduate of NYU, getting ready to go to law school; Calcy, 20, is studying Kinesiology at the U; and Winston, 18, is ski racing in Europe. “All three of our kids are active in sports,” says Tang who explains that Emma was a professional figure skater who has competed internationally, and Calcy qualified for the Olympics and skied in the 2021 World Championship.

When Tang turns to his wife, his sentiment is one of respect and gratitude. “I’m extremely grateful for my wife, Penny. She encouraged me in those early years when things were tough. She came from an affluent family in Taiwan, and during our early years, she would joke about having never been ‘poor and lonely at the same time,’” remembers Tang. “Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Bringing it full circle

While a proven competitor in sports, Tang’s more collaborative side comes to the fore with his siblings, Grace Hui Tang and Bonnie Y. Tang. The three of them have invested in a permanent named space in the main atrium of the Stewart Building, still under construction, in honor and memory of their parents, Dr. Mei-Chun Tang and Pi-Yung Chen.

A historic building, the Stewart, when its renovation is complete, will be physically joined with the new Applied Science Building and together will complete the Crocker Science Complex on Presidents Circle. A building dedication and opening ceremony is planned for July 2025.

Purity at a Premium in Critical Metals

November 22, 2024

Think about the device you're reading this on. Whether it's a smartphone, tablet, or laptop, it contains dozens of rare earth elements and critical metals that make its operation possible. Yet the United States currently relies on foreign sources for approximately 90% of some of these essential materials, creating vulnerabilities in our supply chain for everything from consumer electronics to clean energy technology

The Free lab (from left): Easton Sadler, Prashant Sarswat, Mike Free, Benjamin Schroeder. Credit: Todd Anderson

The University of Utah is taking bold steps to address this challenge. Mike Free and Prashant Sarswat, metallurgical engineers from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering,have secured two significant funding awards to advance innovative technologies for rare earth elements (REE) and critical metals (CM) processing.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded $220,446 for developing refined REE and CM products at 90% purity. Additionally, the Department of Energy (DOE) has committed $5 million to support a comprehensive project focused on upgrading mineral resources and optimizing extraction and separation processes to achieve an exceptional 99% purity level for some individual REE and CM products.

"We're starting with unconventional resources to build a larger supply chain here in the US," explains Free, principal investigator on the projects and department chair. "We are exploring new approaches that are more environmentally friendly. Some of the technologies we're developing, like our magnetic separation process, use no additional chemicals, which are very different from conventional processing that can require hundreds of steps and typically involves substantial amounts of acid."

The research team, which includes graduate students Easton Sadler and Benjamin Schroeder, is developing innovative separation techniques, including a unique device that uses strong magnets to separate rare earth elements based on their magnetic properties. They are also exploring new environmentally friendly extraction methods using specialized materials that can selectively absorb specific elements.

Handling the challenge

Sarswat emphasizes the challenging nature of their work: "The properties of rare earth elements are so similar that existing methods and technologies are not very effective at separating them. With our methods, whether it's magnetic or physical separation or adsorption, we can handle that challenge."

The U is one of only two institutions selected in this competitive second DOE funding round, alongside Caltech. The project team includes collaborators from Virginia Tech and has secured crucial industrial partnerships for commercialization.

Ben Shroeder demonstrating device that uses strong magnets to separate rare earth elements based on their magnetic properties. Credit: Todd Anderson

The research aims to produce:

Five individually separated, high-purity rare earth oxides/salts at ~90-99.99% purity
Five individual or binary rare earth metals at ~99.5-99.8% purity
Five additional ~90-99% pure individual critical metals as oxides, salts or metals from coal byproducts

Graduate students Ben Schroeder and Easton Sadler’s application and improvement of groundbreaking techniques for separating rare earth elements — essential materials for advanced technologies like high-performance magnets and precision lasers — are complementary. Schroeder's approach harnesses the magnetic properties of rare earth elements, using powerful magnets to create a sophisticated separation process. "We have a solution with multiple metals, and we want them to not be mixed together," Shroeder explains. By flowing the solution over strategically positioned magnets, he creates concentration gradients that physically separate elements based on their magnetic susceptibility. Rare earth elements, which are more magnetically responsive, get pulled into specific channels, while elements that are not magnetically responsive continue flowing, resulting in increasingly pure elemental fractions.

In contrast, Shroeder’s colleague Sadler takes a chemical approach in the lab, focusing on developing more environmentally friendly extraction methods. "The state of the art now uses organic solutions and acid, which are expensive, corrosive, and toxic," Sadler notes. He's designing innovative solid materials coated with specialized extractants like graphene and trimesic acid that can selectively capture specific rare earth elements. Through iterative experimentation, Sadler is working to create materials that can withstand acidic environments while efficiently separating elements.

Further purification and conversion

From the Utah lab, the operational sequence of the purification process extends to collaborators Aaron Noble and Distinguished Professor Roe-HoanYoon at Virginia Tech, working with physical separations of REE and CM from unwanted minerals. Once those minerals are enriched in the elements desired, they are then dissolved to form ions which go through the magnetic or specialized absorbance processes that will further separate out remaining impurities.

Following that along with additional processing some pure product will be made and other precipitated oxide material will move through a conversion process that turns the precipitated material into metal. This last step will take place in the lab of metallurgical engineering colleagues in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zak Fang and Pei Sun.

focus on purity

Easton Sadler with samples of solid materials coated with specialized extractants. Credit: Todd Anderson

"Right now, China is supplying 90% of some of these markets,” explains Free, “which puts us in a vulnerable position domestically." Beyond science, this work is part of a strategic initiative to enhance national technological independence and security.

Applications of innovative separation techniques for rare earth elements cannot be overstated. Critical metals are fundamental to modern technologies like electric vehicles, semiconductors and electronic devices. By developing more environmentally friendly extraction methods, the team aims to increase the domestic supply chain for CM. "We're starting with unconventional resources, trying to build a larger supply chain here in the U.S.," Free explains. "We want to see the U.S. have more production of these critical things."

Why the focus on purity? As Sarswat notes, "For semiconductor integrated circuits or lasers, we need hyper-high purity levels. The whole device physics will be different if we're doping with impure materials."

“All along the way,” concludes Free, “We’re achieving higher and higher concentrations so that at end, we will be producing some of these materials at higher than 99% purity.”

Other than the how, how much and its expanding applications, the personal why for this bold enterprise is perhaps best articulated by graduate student Easton Sadler: "I think I speak for Ben as well, but it's really cool to be at the cutting edge of this industry, sponsored by DARPA and the Department of Energy, working on something crucial to our economy and the country's welfare… . That makes me feel good; keeps me going in the lab.”

by David Pace

New partnership with Sandia to drive research and development

November 20, 2024

Headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sandia is a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and supports several federal, state, and local government agencies, companies, and organizations. Through partnerships with academic, governmental, and commercial institutions, Sandia conducts research and development that supports national security.

Sandia operates laboratories, testing facilities, and offices in multiple sites around the United States. According to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) document signed by both parties, the partnership will allow Sandia and U researchers and students to have presence on each other’s campuses. Students and faculty will have the chance to work for designated periods on projects in Sandia facilities. Graduate students will have opportunities to develop new skills and research paths via joint research collaborations.

Sandia says partnerships with universities and other labs bring new technologies to the marketplace and contribute to the economic wellbeing of the nation.

With the strategic partnership in place, the U and Sandia will look to develop collaborations in various technical areas which could lead to the development of funded programs.

“Research has always been and will continue to be the foundation of our university,” said Dr. Rothwell.

ACCESS Scholar: Ella Bleak

November 18, 2024

Her inner nerd was fostered by high school chemistry and biology teachers, and having a professor in developmental biology with a PhD from the U as a neighbor didn’t hurt, either. That led her to discover ACCESS Scholars, a College of Science first-year community, research and scholarship program for students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

“I didn’t really have many expectations,” explained Ella. “I didn’t know very much about the program when I got into it, other than the research aspect. It ultimately was one of the main reasons I decided to come to the U because I was looking for early research opportunities. What I was not expecting was the lasting effects it had on my experience at the U.”

Through ACCESS, Ella was placed in the Karasov lab. Led by School of Biological Sciences Assistant Professor Talia Karasov, they work to study tailocins, phage-tail-like bacteriocins used by bacteria to compete with other bacteria for resources and space—essentially weapons used in a bacteria warfare. More specifically, they’re characterizing the interactions between tailocins and their target bacteria’s lipopolysaccharide (structures on the bacterial membrane which tailocins can bind) to understand how tailocins differentiate between closely related strains.

Despite an initial hesitancy due to its lack of chemistry, Ella says it’s the best lab she could have ended up in. Publishing in the Karasov lab opened up the opportunity for Ella to become a Beckman Scholar, an institutional award funding research for scholar-faculty mentor pairs, allowing her to combine her two science loves and expand her research into a biochemistry focus.

“My lab has been one of the most amazing and supportive resources I have at the U, and I am so lucky to be in that lab because of ACCESS,” says Ella. “Beyond lab work, ACCESS helped me get involved in the campus early. I was more confident in applying to jobs, talking to professors, and getting involved with clubs. ACCESS really was the thing that catalyzed all of my college experiences.”

Some of those opportunities ACCESS Scholars opened up include becoming a UROP Scholar, Teaching Assistant, and Science Ambassador for the College of Science.

“The major benefit to ACCESS compared to other research options is the community and network that becomes available to you. If you are looking for ways to find friends or mentors in college then ACCESS is the way to do it.”

Upon graduating, she plans to get a PhD in chemical biology and end up in research.

“I don’t yet know if that means academia, industry, or some other area, but I have found a love for research and know that I want to be doing it for the rest of my career.”

Climate change fueling more severe wildfires in California

November 18, 2024

A new Environmental Research Letters study reveals that the severity of the state’s wildfires has rapidly increased over the last several decades, contributing to greater forest loss than would have been expected from past increases in burned areas.

“Fire severity increased by 30% between the 1980s and 2010s,” said Jon Wang, an assistant professor at the University of Utah School of Biological Sciences and former postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Irvine Department of Earth System Science. This means that for every acre of forest scorched by fire, the damages to mature trees are considerably higher than what occurred in the average fire several decades ago.

Jon Wang conducting field research in Norway. Photo credit: Acacia England, U.S. Forest Service

“When fire moves through an area on the forest floor, often mature trees survive and, in some situations, they may thrive from fire effects on nutrient cycling,” said study co-author James Randerson, professor in the UC Irvine Department of Earth System Science. “The new research suggests more fire is jumping into the tree crowns, causing more damage and tree mortality.”

Randerson added that wildfires also have moved into new areas with denser and more vulnerable forests. Those areas include northern mountain and coastal regions that may have been protected in the past by cooler summers and higher levels of surface moisture.

“Forest exposure has increased 41% over the past four decades, suggesting denser forests are now more vulnerable to wildfire,” said Wang, who joined the U last year and is the principal investigator for the Dynamic Carbon and Ecosystems lab.

The question Wang and his team wanted to answer was how much-rising tree cover loss in California is due to increases in total area burned, how much of the loss is due to increasing wildfire severity, and how much is due to fire moving into new areas with denser forests.

“There’s a pretty shocking map of just how much these fires have expanded into northern California forests,” Wang said. “There’s just a lot more fire in these northern forests than there used to be. Climate change allows severe fires to affect forests that once tolerated milder fires.”

A microscopic view of global challenges in chemical separations

November 18, 2024

An illustration from Aurora Clark's Science at Breakfast lecture on the microscopic view of global challenges in chemical separations.

Our environment is filled with mixtures, whether it is the air we breathe, the water we drink, or the earth we walk on. Often, separating mixtures is key to human health - for example, creating clean water supplies or recycling materials. Understanding how mixtures are separated, and optimizing this process, is a challenging task - and this is exactly what University of Utah Chemistry Professor Aurora Clark is doing.

Clark was the featured presenter November 7th at the College of Science’s Science at Breakfast event staged at the Natural History Museum of Utah.

“A major issue is that separating materials currently consumes a massive amount of energy,“ Clark explains, citing distillation as an easy example. “As such, chemists try to develop low-energy separation methods to create an environment where such isolation will happen spontaneously.” Achieving spontaneity means that chemists have to leverage the laws of thermodynamics, which include the energy stored in matter (called enthalpy) and entropy (which represents how energy is distributed in matter). Likening the reaction to a rock atop a hill, spontaneity means that that rock will begin rolling without the need of an extra push.

Such a breakthrough would have monumental effects on the recycling of rare materials. For example, the palladium in mobile phone capacitors is sourced to just a handful of areas, with Russia producing roughly 40% of the world's supply. As geopolitical tensions rise, the incentive to recycle this palladium grows in turn, but such isolation is tricky. It is difficult to develop a separation system that selectively grabs palladium in the complex mixture found in cell phones while ignoring other metals. The question of how to remedy this, by using changes in entropy, is the focus of Clark’s research, which uses the power of the U’s supercomputer to simulate the separations process. Computational geometry and data science play a key role in this pursuit.

By studying the patterns of interactions in complex mixtures, Clark seeks to control the amount of entropy change, which in turn makes it favorable for molecules and metals to selectively move across a separating barrier. Although in its early stages, the idea of using entropy to improve the efficiency of separating mixtures is moving at a rapid pace because of the technological advances of supercomputers and data science. If mastered, the recycling of critical materials like palladium would be significantly simplified, massively reducing energy consumption and optimizing our own self-sufficiency.

Aurora Clark is a relatively new addition to the U’s faculty, having joined in 2022. She completed a PhD at Indiana University, postdoctoral work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and spent almost two decades as a professor of Washington State University’s Department of Chemistry.

By Michael Jacobsen

Science @ Breakfast is a lecture series that features U faculty sharing their latest, cutting-edge research — while enjoying a meal. If you would like to be invited to our next Science @ Breakfast, please consider a donation to the College of Science at https://science.utah.edu/giving.

2023 Distinguished Alumni, Chemistry

November 15, 2024

Zlatko Bačić: Tectonic Science

“When two people limited to different ways of thinking come together, you have a synergy that couldn’t exist otherwise,” says Zlatko Bačić PhD’81, speaking on the vital importance of collaborating across the divisions of science. First-hand experience with this synergy is deeply embedded in his history, from serving as the inaugural director of the Simon Center for Computational Physical Chemistry to studying the quantum dynamics of molecules in Los Alamos

He compares the sciences to tectonic plates, constantly moving in varying directions, uncovering the most exciting discoveries where they collide at the edges. “It’s at those interfaces that the most interesting things happen!” he explains. And just as the Earth’s plates change the landscape, so too can the scientific landscape be terraformed in turn.

Bačić’s journey has not only taken him across the field of theoretical chemistry but across the world, studying everywhere from Croatia to Chicago to Jerusalem to Utah. He found a deep love of the culture and cuisine of New York and Philadelphia, while also delighting in the environment and people in the Four Corners area. He loves the town of Telluride,Colorado but also enjoys visiting his daughter in Seattle, creating a bewildering decision when considering a destination for a far-out retirement. He takes every opportunity he can to travel and experience every area to its fullest potential.

Bačić carries this attitude into his teaching as well. As a current professor at New York University, he has uplifted the lives of countless students and overseen the publication of over 150 papers. “Basic research is at the heart of everything,” he tells his students. “If you think you can guide it somehow, you’re missing the point. It is only unguided research that will illuminate the mysteries you know nothing about.” Championing the value of “unguided research,” he delights in providing opportunities for postdocs, creating an environment for them to prove their worth, opening every door for collaboration to let them show what they can do under optimal circumstances. ~ Michael Jacobsen

Amy Barrios: A world-class education

A Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the College of Pharmacy, Amy Barrios’ passion for inorganic chemistry began at the University of Utah as a high schooler during a summer chemistry program and propelled her through a career in academia to Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the U College of Pharmacy.

Barrios BS'95 grew up in Salt Lake City. During her time as an undergrad, she engaged in radiobiology research about Chernobyl victims with radiobiologist Scott Miller, now research professor emeritus at the U's School of Medicine.

Barrios ventured from Salt Lake to the East coast to earn her PhD in chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000. There, she dove deeper into bio-inorganic chemistry with Steve Leopard. “My focus was on making molecules that would mimic the activity of metalloenzymes. And I specifically looked at urease, which was actually the first enzyme ever discovered,” says Barrios. “I was making dinuclear nickel complexes that hydrolyzed urea.”

After graduate school, Barrios returned to the west coast and spent some time in California, first in a postdoctoral position at University of California, San Francisco, and later as a professor at University of Southern California.

Finally, Barrios returned home to the U in 2007, this time as a professor. Throughout her education and career, Barrios has visited many institutions and says she’s “...continually impressed by the quality of education that I got here at the U.”

“Our chemistry department, particularly, does an amazing job of educating undergraduates and graduate students, helping us understand all the things we need to know, all the tools we need to go on to be successful in whatever career we go into. So that's something I think is important for our students to recognize: they really get a world class education here.”

Barrios is keen to deliver a message of belonging as she continues in academia. “It's so important, I think, for students to be able to feel like they belong here,” she says. “We need scientists from all backgrounds and with all kinds of different interests and all kinds of different skills. So, I think that's really important also for young people to recognize and for us as faculty and instructors to help them feel that this is a place for them, that we need their talents, and their talents are valued. I hope that they get that message here.”
~ Lauren Wigod

Roger Leach: lifelong learning and agility

Originally from Chicago, Roger Leach Phd'84 first journeyed to the University of Utah for a summer REU program while pursuing his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Augustana College in Illinois. The program allowed him to explore hands-on scientific research for the first time and, captivated by the unique outdoor access and balanced lifestyle he enjoyed in Salt Lake, City Leach returned to the U for graduate school.

Reflecting on his time here, Leach fondly remembers Joel Harris, a distinguished professor whose openly enthusiastic teaching style and love for science still inspire Leach today. “Everything about it was like, the door’s open, walk in, and let’s talk,’ he recalls. “My whole career after Utah, that was sort of my motto you know, ‘What would Joel do?’”

After finishing his graduate degree at the U, Leach began his career working as an analytical chemist in the textile fibers department at DuPont. Though he recalls the initial nerves he felt upon joining the company, Leach acknowledges the U for preparing him well: “[At Dupont], you could meet people who had really moved the bar in terms of technology development that made people’s lives better. So I felt intimidated a little bit, but there was never a time when I felt inferior in terms of my education and preparation.”

Since his days at DuPont, Leach’s career has led him to Viridos, a biotech company focused on algae-based biofuel. For the last few years, Leach has been helping to push the boundaries of renewable energy technology, hoping to create a more sustainable future. Currently a resident of Solana Beach, California, Leach emphasizes the importance of continuing to foster curiosity throughout his career: “The thing that strikes me is how many things we understand today and use today in our daily lives that didn't exist when I was at the University of Utah,” he remarks.

“And the process of keeping yourself relevant as a STEM contributor to society is an exercise in lifelong learning and agility.”
~Julia St. Andre

Mitch Johnson: reinventing and modernizing formulations

Mitch Johnson first joined the University of Utah as a graduate student in 1994 after finishing his undergraduate degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. He knew he was interested in doing research and was drawn by the U’s outstanding research facilities and small university feel. During graduate school, Johnson worked in Joel Miller’s lab where he gained valuable skills in problem-solving and perseverance. “If I had like four or five ideas, Dr. Miller was very patient and listened to all of them,” Johnson recalls. “I learned that you have to put the work in. You really do have to spend the time and invest yourself completely into solving the problem.”

For Johnson, chemistry truly runs in the family. His father, a chemical engineer, sparked his interest in the subject at a young age. Later, at the U, he met his wife, who was also pursuing a degree in chemistry. Their shared passion for the field often sparks discussion over dinner, and they even keep a whiteboard nearby for spontaneous problem-solving. Fascinated with creating things and solving problems, synthetic chemistry was the ideal path for Johnson. His career took him to General Plastics, developing specialized thermoplastic materials for use in aerospace engineering and satellite work. He started at the company in 2008 as a product development chemist, with the mission of reinventing and modernizing their formulations. Since then, the company has expanded significantly, and Johnson made his way through the ranks, eventually taking over the company as President and CEO in 2017.

Looking back on his education, Johnson emphasizes the lasting impact of his time at the U: “The staff and faculty here are fantastic. They really do cultivate very good students and very well-trained professionals.” he says. “A lot of the success I’ve had over my career, it all started here at the U.”
~ Julia St. Andre

The surprising role of CO₂ in cellular health

The cells in our bodies are like bustling cities, running on an iron-powered system that uses hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) not just for cleaning up messes but also for sending critical signals.

Exploring the Vulnerabilities of Endangered Birds

Looking to inform the conservation of critically endangered bird species, University of Utah biologists completed an analysis identifying traits that correlate with all 216 bird extinctions since 1500.

Connecting bird traits with species extinction

One in eight species is in peril

Teaching Thousands

At the University of Utah, six chemistry professors are the face of their discipline to thousands of students.

Taking it to the startup slopes

Thomas Wei-Tsu Tang, BS’94 in physics, is an extraordinary competitor. A two-time Olympian in alpine skiing (Calgary, 1988 and Albertville, 1992), he has also competed in a World Cup and a World Championship in skiing.

From Taipai to Salt Lake

A sports family

Bringing it full circle

PURITY AT A PREMIUM in critical metals

U Researchers Secure Major Funding to Advance Critical Metals Production

Handling the challenge

Further purification and conversion

focus on purity

New partnership with Sandia to drive research and development

ACCESS Scholar, Ella Bleak

Ella Bleak’s journey as a self-proclaimed science nerd started at a young age.

Climate change fueling more severe wildfires in California

Wildfires continue to damage California’s forests as human-driven climate change amplifies their impacts.

Separation Issues

In 'People vs. the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics' chemist Aurora Clark addresses a microscopic view of global challenges in chemical separations.

2023 Distinguished Alumni, Chemistry

Four alumni have been honored as distinguished alumni for 2023 in the Department of Chemistry.

Zlatko Bačić: Tectonic Science

Amy Barrios: A world-class education

Roger Leach: lifelong learning and agility

Mitch Johnson: reinventing and modernizing formulations

Climate change fueling more
severe wildfires in California