Periodic Review of Centers
The Shafizadeh Rocky
A.
Written Report Summary:
Center’s
Purpose - The
Center, as a unit within the Chemistry Department of The University of
Center’s
Objectives - The
Center’s Objectives are best stated in its mission statement:
Center
.
Center’s
activities current and anticipated - The Center is a basic research facility dedicated to the
advancement of the chemistry of carbohydrates in directions that can lead to
generation of new environmentally safe and useful products for consumer and
commercial applications. The efforts in
the Center in recent years have been focused around devising practical chemical
routes to carbohydrate “chemical” building blocks called aldaric
acids for direct applications and as starting materials for development of
biodegradable, environmentally safe and structurally diverse polymers with a
broad range of potential uses. Because
of the increasing price and the decreasing availability of oil as the energy
and chemical backbone of the energy and chemical industries, naturally occurring
carbohydrate from grains, potatoes, woody materials, etc. have gained
considerable international attention of late as renewable starting materials
for the energy and chemical industries.
This worldwide need is in concert with the scientific theme of this
Center and underscores the highly relevant and timely nature of the Center’s research. That research is carried on by full-time
research staff, postdoctoral associates, graduate students and undergraduate
students, all of whom are supported by government grants. The products of the efforts of our scientific
staff are published papers, presentations at scientific meetings, theses,
patents, and learned skills that will help these young scientists to advance
their careers. The Center has a number
of collaborative projects that include those with faculty abroad (The
University of Waikato, New Zealand), with a scientist at the USDA Southern
Region Research Laboratory,
Agencies,
organizations, and institutions involved - The Center is a self sufficient extramurally funded
research unit that interacts with agencies, organizations, other institutions
and companies, but is financially and administratively independent of them.
Center’s
Reporting Line -
Dr. Donald E. Kiely, Director and Professor of Chemistry reports to the
Chairman of the Department of Chemistry, Dr. Mark Cracolice, who reports to the Dean of the
Relationship
to the Institutional mission, including the departments on campus and how the
Center contributes to the academic programs of the University - The activities of the Shafizadeh Center include carrying out basic research on a
theme that is important to the University and the state of Montana, providing
undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to carry out basic research
in chemistry as part of their intellectual and professional development,
developing a level of scientific expertise that is of value to others in the
university and the Montana community at large, and maintaining a unique
scientific facility in the State of Montana. The mission and activities of the
Center are in concert with the academic programs at the University.
Describe
other programs in
Budget:
a. Identify the faculty and staff
requirements, including:
1. Current faculty - Dr. Kiely is the only faculty
member officially connected to the Center.
However, the Center has active collaborative research projects underway
with Dr. Chris Palmer, Assoc. Prof., Department of Chemistry, The
University of Montana, and Dr. Merilyn Manley Harris,
Associate Professor of Chemistry, The University of Waikato,
2. New faculty - New faculty are not anticipated at
this time. That could change if there is
sudden and unexpected growth in some research project but that would also
require a commitment on the part of the University to provide additional space
for the Center as it can not accommodate more then 11 research people
(including the Director) who worked in this lab during June - August of this
year. Fortunately, the Center currently
has a healthy funding base to support all of these research workers. Although the Director is the only faculty
member officially associated with the Center, the experienced non-student
members of the group play vital roles as lab mentors and research
instructors.
3. Support personnel - The Center currently has three
support personnel, a half-time administration assistant, a full-time lab
manager / research associate, and a second full-time research associate. A full-time postdoctoral associate, four
graduate students and a variable number of part-time undergraduate students
constitute our staff. With the exception
of the administrative assistant, all other personnel are paid from extramural
funds. The extramurally funded operation
budget (salaries, scientific supplies, equipment, travel, office supplies,
etc.) is currently more than $300,000 / year and will continue to minimally
increase over the coming years with normal inflation.
b. Center’s library and other needs - The Center’s Library,
telecommunication, and computational needs are currently being met and it is
anticipated that will continue.
Fortunately, the advanced level computational needs of the Center have been accommodated
through the good will of Dr. John Gerdes and the NIH
funded COBRE Molecular Computational Facility.
Should those computation facilities not be available there is no
facility on campus that could meet our computational needs. The current space occupied by the Center is
all being used efficiently, often to maximum capacity. Based upon the recent and current level of
research activity in the Center it is anticipated that within the next five
years the Center will outgrow its present space and require additional
space. However, any plans for such an
expansion should include meaningful discussions with University administration
on how such an expansion fits in with the resources and programs of the
University.
c.
Funding sources -
The funding sources for the Center are as follows: The Director is paid a nine month salary as a Professor of
Chemistry; the half-time administrative
assistant is on a separate state account to the Center; a small
endowment to the Center which amounts to about $3,500 / year, is usually
allocated to scholarships; research grants
cover all the laboratory expenses and the salaries of the lab research
personnel. During the past five years
extramural funding has been from one DOE Epscor grant
and five USDA grants. Current funding
should take care of funding needs for at least two years, but closer to three
years. An additional grant award is
anticipated that would extent the projected available funding for close to 4
more years. The direct grant support
ranges from about $330,000 - $370,000 per year.
B. Review and Approval Process
2. The Faculty Senate through its Chair,
Review
in terms of Scope as stated in academic policy 100.0
To provide instruction, scholarship, or service to the
University, state or world by: (1)
focusing attention on an area of strength and/or addressing a critical issue,
or (2) facilitating collaborative, multi-disciplinary endeavors to combine
resources from several programs or institutions to address issues of common
interest.
Review
in terms of the University’s mission.
§
Comments:
§
Does
The center is clearly not controversial.
§
Is
the relationship with academic units beneficial?
The center is located and operates within the confines of
the Chemistry Department and houses a variety of equipment that is readily
available to other faculty in chemistry and outside of chemistry. In addition, the center collaborates with a several
“in-house” faculty and two faculty at other
institutions. As such there is benefit
to academic units.
§
Is
the program revenue neutral or does it consume more resources than it
generates?
The funding
situation for the program has been sound and the Center recently has been
generating more resources than it consumes.
State funds to support the
§
If
so, is the use of University resources justified?
The center director has a faculty appointment in the
Department of Chemistry. In additional
to departmental duties, he also trains graduate and undergraduate students;
hence the modest university resources used seems justifiable.
§
Is
the entity making progress toward objectives?
The stated products of the center are published papers,
presentations at scientific meetings, theses, and patents. The center has
managed to obtain funds (congressional earmarks thru USDA) to support its
research and administrative costs. This
is commendable.
Commercially, the recent Center’s efforts have focused developing
chemical routes to carbohydrate building blocks called aldaric
acids as starting materials for development of biodegradable polymers. While the center report did not discuss the
progress made or patents filed etc., the center director has amended the report
to included other stated outputs (papers, theses) as follows from 2002-2006:
Funded Proposals
“Commercially Important Carbohydrate Diacids - Chemical Building Blocks from Renewable
Carbohydrates”, Department of Energy Experimental Program to Stimulate
Competitive Research (DOE/EPSCoR), 2001 - 2003,
$224,321.
“Value-Added Product Development from Agricultural
Resources”, USDA
- CRESS, $309,873 (direct costs), June 1, 2002 for 24 months.
“Purchase of a Modern and Versatile HPLC System for The Shafizadeh Center for Wood and Carbohydrate Chemistry /
“Value-Added Product Development from Agricultural
Resources”, USDA
- CRESS, $382,632 (direct costs), May
15, 2003 for 24 months.
“Value-Added Product Development from Agricultural
Resources”, USDA
- CRESS, $341,737 (direct costs), June 1, 2004 for 24 months.
“Value-Added Product Development from Agricultural
Resources”, USDA
- CRESS,$377,803 (direct costs),, June 1, 2005 for 24 months.
“Value-Added Product Development from Agricultural
Resources”, USDA
- CRESS,$374,309 (direct costs),, June 1, 2006 for 24 months.
Relevant Publications and Patents: [2002 - 2006]
J. Zhang, D.E. Kiely and K. I. Hardcastle,”MM3
Conformational Analysis and X-Ray Crystal Structure of 2,3,4,5-tetra-O-acetyl-N,N’-dimethyl-D-glucaramide
as a Conformational Model for the D-Glucaryl unit of
Poly(alkylene-2,3,4,5-O-acetyl-D-glucaramides”, J. Carbohydr. Chem.,25, 633-659 (2006).
J. Zhang and D. E. Kiely, “Application of a Model Building
Approach to Molecular Mechanics (MM3) for Calculating Low Energy Conformations
of Tetra-O-N,N’-dialkyl-D-glucaramides
to Predict Corresponding Polyamide Secondary Structure”, J. Carbohydr. Chem.,25, 697-711, 2006.
Lee-Davey,
C., Manley-Harris, M. and Kiely, D.E., “Esterification
of select polyols with D-glucaric
acid as model reactions for esterification of
starch”, Carbohydr. Res., 341, 2688-2693, 2006.
Thomas Jahns and Donald E. Kiely,
“Abiotic Hydrolysis of Some Poly-D-Glucaramides and Subsequent Microbial Utilization /
Degradation”, Journal of Polymers and the Environment ,
14, 165-169 (2006).
U.S. Patent Application, AHigh
Molecular Weight Stereoregular Head, Tail- Poly(Glucaramides)@, Donald
E. Kiely and Kylie Kramer,
Serial No.10/734,417; Filed December 10, 2003, pending.
U. S. Patent Application, A@Method
for Preparing High Molecular Weight Random Polyhydroxypolyamides@,
Donald E. Kiely, Kylie Kramer, and Jinsong
Zhang, Filed December 10, 2003, Serial Nol
10/734,418;US 6,894,135 B2, issued May 17, 2005
A. Viswanathan
and D. E. Kiely, Mechanisms for the Formation of Diamides
and Polyamides by Aminolysis of D-Glucaric
Acid Esters, J. Carbohydr. Chem., 22,
903-918 (2003).
S. B. Styron, D. E. Kiely and Glenn Ponder, “Alternating Stereoregular Head, Tail - Tail, Head - Poly(alkylene D-Glucaramides) Derived
From a Homologous Series of Symmetrical Diamido-Di-D-Glucaric
Acid Monomers”, J. Carbohydr. Chem., 22,
123-142 (2003).
S. B. Styron, A. D. French, J. D. Friedrich, C. Lake and D.
E. Kiely,”MM3(96) Conformational Analysis of d-Glucaramide and X-ray Crystal Structures of Three d-Glucaric
Acid Derivatives - Models for Synthetic Poly(alkylene
d-glucaramides),
J. Carbohydr. Chem., 21,
27-51 (2002).
Presentations at professional meetings: After I
returned from a one semester sabbatical in January 2004, there were no graduate
students or post docs in the lab.
However, three new Ph.D. level students joined the group that spring as
did a postdoc in Nov. 2004. In 2004 the first of three one year M.S.
graduate students started coming to the lab from the
CARB 54 -
“Process for higher molecular weight stereo-random polyhydroxamides
from D-glucaric acid”, Tyler N. Smith and Donald E. Kiely
CARB 56 -
“Synthesis and analysis of head, tail-stereoregular polyhydroxypolyamides derived from D-glucaric
acid”, Kylie Kramer and Donald E. Kiely
CARB 57 - “Synthesis
and evaluation of tetrasodium 2,3,4,5-O-sulfanato-poly(4-alkyl-4-azaheptamethylene-D-glucaramides)
as pseudostationary phases for the electrokinetic separation of aromatic-aliphatic ketones and peptides”, Travis T. Denton, Erika Rauk, Christopher P. Palmer and Donald E. Kiely
Anyl 357 - “Characterization of the selectivity
and performance of novel pseudo-stationary phases for electrokinetic
chromatography”, Christopher P. Palmer, Travis T. Denton, Erika Rauk, V. Schnee, Gary A. Baker,
Donald E. Kiely and Brian M. Steele
These
presentations represent the tip of the iceberg as far as our recent research
productivity is concerned. We currently have one manuscript accepted for
publication, another 8 manuscripts in the planning stage, all of which will be
submitted for publication by the end of September 2007. In short, the lag period between training of
new people and submission of original research for publication in peer reviewed
journals is over. I anticipate that the
fruits of our labors will become even more evident over the next 12 months and
I will be glad to provide ECOS with an update in a year’s time if
requested.
Recommendation: ECOS recommends that the center be continued.
Justification: The center appears to
function mostly from funds generated from external sources. The Center Director has made significant
improvements in the Center’s infrastructure (equipment upgrades) and the
activities of the Center involve other faculty and students and therefore
benefit the university. Finally, the
center has shown a high level of productivity and value to the university and
scientific community