Message from the Chair

Greetings, Cougar Chemists and Friends!

As we wrap up this year’s newsletter at the close of summer, fall 2024 is in full swing. We are proud of all our students who have completed their degree programs in the past year. They have worked hard for their accomplishments, and we wish them well in the next stage of their careers. It is said, “the journey is what brings us happiness, not the destination.” We are thankful to our students for sharing some of the happiness and letting us be a part of their journey. 

Over this past year, our department experienced several noteworthy hellos as well as a few memorable goodbyes. Last summer, we lost two long-time faculty members, Dr. Louis Scudiero and Dr. Pete Reilly. Louis was a key member of the physical chemistry instructional team and retired early. Pete passed away unexpectedly and collectively we lost a friend, colleague, and mentor—I for one will miss his wit, collaborations, and tales of herding flying elephants with mass spectrometry.

While there is no way to replace colleagues, we do welcome a few new faculty hires who begin this fall. Mary Fennimore joins us as an assistant career-track faculty, contributing to our lower-division curriculum in general and organic chemistry. Raina Kittilstved also joins us as a career-track assistant professor and will develop a course in forensic chemistry. Her husband, Kevin Kittilstved joins us from an established career as a professor at UMass Amherst, bringing with him a research program in Multifunctional Inorganic Materials Chemistry. In addition, Ivan Popov joins us as a tenure track assistant professor from University of Akron, establishing his computational chemistry program here to solve challenges in nuclear chemistry and energy storage. His wife, Marina Popova joins us as a career-track assistant professor to assist with the delivery of our general chemistry curriculum. You can learn more about them on our website.

We also celebrated a few promotions this year. Krista Nishida, a career-track faculty was promoted to associate professor, and Qiang (Jack) Zhang (tenure track) was promoted to associate professor. Along with these, we also celebrated service milestones for several faculty and staff, as well as the achievements of our graduating seniors and graduate students, which have been captured in photos elsewhere in this newsletter.

After a few lean post-pandemic years, we have a robust academic program in chemistry with approximately 59 graduate students and 72 BS and 63 BA majors. Our weekly Departmental Seminar series remains in full swing during the academic year through which we regularly host renowned scientists in chemistry or related fields—you can find a schedule of these events on our website, and if interested, we can send you a viewing link. To receive viewing links, email chem.grad@wsu.edu.

For those alumni reading this, we always welcome you to visit the Department and meet with our students. For those of you who have done so, our students have enjoyed hearing about your career arcs as well as your experiences and perspectives on traditional and non-traditional career paths for graduates with degrees in chemistry. Also, I thank you on behalf of our students for your generous and thoughtful donations this year.

While you may have heard of recent university leadership changes and budgetary challenges, our department’s highly-dedicated staff, students, and faculty have continued their commitment to excellence throughout our teaching and research programs. Indeed, we’ve experienced continued enrollment rebuilding post-COVID and we have begun to rebound as the leading research engine in the College of Arts & Sciences. We are excited by the new opportunities for growth that such changes afford, and we truly look forward to the scholarly success and achievements of our faculty and students in the coming years. We are also very thankful for the continued encouragement, interest, and support from you, our Cougar Chemistry community.

Go Cougs!

Cliff Berkman, Professor and Chair

P.S. To learn about making a gift to support our students in their chemistry education and research, please visit WSU Foundation. Gifts of any size help to enhance the student experience and support top-quality research.